Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization - Controversy

Controversy

The CAMPO 2030 Plan adoption of the CAMPO-designated "Phase 2" toll conversions of Austin-area freeways (U.S. 183, SH 71, U.S. 290 East and West, Loop 1, and Loop 360) generated substantial public controversy in July 2004 and afterward. Public feedback received by CAMPO at the time ran 90% against the Plan 2 toll conversions, but the final board vote was 16‑7 in favor of the toll conversions. The Austin American-Statesman, the regional newspaper, endorsed the toll plan. The anti-toll group Austin Toll Party formed in response to the July 2004 vote. The Austin Toll Party, led by Sal Costello, was vocal in their charges that the July 2004 vote for toll conversions of existing freeways amounted to "double taxation". Their efforts included sponsoring a recall election petition against the Austin mayor Will Wynn and other Austin city council members who voted for the toll conversions, but the petition drive ultimately failed to collect enough signatures.

Subsequent efforts by the Austin Toll Party played a role in unseating the Dwight Thompson, the mayor of West Lake Hills, and Karen Sonleitner, a Travis County commissioner, who both voted for the Phase 2 toll conversions.

In the aftermath of the vote, various allegations of conflicts-of-interest were made against CAMPO board members. In September 2004, the Austin American-Statesman editorial page wrote that State Representative Dawna Dukes "should have abstained on the controversial plan to toll seven Central Texas roads" after the paper reported Rep. Dukes' sister signed a consulting contract with the general engineering contractor for the region's toll authority days before the CAMPO vote. In March 2005, Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn issued a report titled Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority: A Need for a Higher Standard alleged conflicts-of-interest for board members of the toll authority (the CTRMA) charged with building and eventually running the Phase 2 toll roads. The CTRMA subsequently issued a response contesting the Comptroller's report. In June 2006 Johanna Zmud, one of the CTRMA board members who the Comptroller called to resign in the report, subsequently announced plans that she would resign in order to pursue consulting opportunities.

One project in the Phase 2 toll plan was to open the nearly-complete extension of Loop 1 South as a toll road. For an estimated $11 million construction cost to set up toll booths on the otherwise near-finished roadway, bonding the future toll revenue from the bridge over William Cannon Drive would immediately generate $27 million. This plan provoked a massive public outcry; planning and building a freeway but then opening it as a toll road was simply too much for the public to accept, especially as the freeway was built in the middle of existing frontage roads which would allow cars to easily circumvent the freeway.

Even though 16 CAMPO board members had voted for the Phase 2 toll roads with Loop 1 South slated for quick toll conversion just six months earlier, in January 2005 the CAMPO board voted unanimously to remove the already-constructed Loop 1 extension and bridge over William Cannon Drive from the toll conversion package. The Loop 1 South extension has since opened without tolls.

Austin City Council Member and CAMPO board member Brewster McCracken, under pressure from the anti-toll recall effort, began advocating an independent study to assess the Phase 2 toll plan. On March 3, 2005, the Austin City Council approved funding for "an independent review of the TxDOT/CTRMA Toll Plan". Other area municipalities joined the study and pooled over $300,000 to pay for the study. Brewster McCracken invited pro-tolling Rep. Mike Krusee and fellow CAMPO board member to co-chair the steering committee for the study. The study was named the Mobility Alternative Finance Study (MAFS). Due to the delays in organizing the study and concerns stemming from McCracken's inviting an ardent pro-toll voice to co‑chair the study's steering committee, Sal Costello alleged the study had become co-opted by pro-tolling advocates. The Boston-based CRA International consulting firm conducted the study. Despite plans for a citizens advisory board to provide input to the study, no such board was ever formed. CRA presented its final report to the MAFS Steering Committee and CAMPO in December 2006.

Subsequent CAMPO board meetings after the July 2004 vote were subject to substantial public protest. In response, the CAMPO board instituted new rules that substantially curtailed public comment by requiring persons wishing to address the board to register prior to the meeting and limiting the number of such speakers.