This is not about Texas but well could be in the future. I noticed the above headline about the Indiana Toll Road Major Moves road-construction plan in which road construction is underfunded.. due to inflation. What happened, basically is that Cintra gave InDOT a one time payment, $3.8 billion, so that they can charge Americans to drive on roads, and the money was supposed to go for other Toll Road debt, financial fees, grants to Toll Road counties and local road and street projects. So, now, what happens when you have allocated a certain amount of money for other road projects and it isn't there? The article doesn't quite say, but I'm guessing it means you go back to the TAXPAYER to pony up more money OR you just don't get all the roads built you said you would. Hello! Either crummy roads while the rich wave at us from the Lexus Lanes and Cintra or Macquarie operated toll roads, or we get double taxation. Which?

While I'm on the subject, the question came up during the Senate Transportation Committee meeting a few weeks ago about how much potentially toll roads would be charging people. Well, here's a smattering of articles from around the country where the same corporate interests are pushing toll roads, showing that they're all hunky-dory to raise the toll rates DESPITE WHAT THEY ORIGINALLY TOLD PEOPLE.

Chicago- New Highway to Greet Drivers with High Toll

Congratulations, new commuters to the Interstate 355 south extension, you will be forking over the biggest toll on the state's tollway system.

When the long-awaited, long-stalled toll road debuts in November, greeting motorists just north of New Lenox will be a $2 toll -- $1 for I-PASS subscribers.

The rates at the unnamed plaza near Bruce Road and Spring Creek (Bruce Springcreek Plaza, anyone?) are the highest on the tollway's 274 miles, eclipsing the $1.90 tolls charged at the Dixon and DeKalb plazas on the Reagan Memorial Tollway and the $1.50 toll at the Waukegan Plaza on the Tri-State Tollway. Vehicles with I-PASS pay half. ..

Longtime I-355 backer state Rep. Brent Hassert (R-Romeoville) said tollway officials considered levying tolls as high as $5, justifying the charge because of the soaring cost of road construction. At $738 million, the cost of the I-355 extension is especially high because it requires building a $125 million, 1.25-mile bridge over the Des Plaines River valley, Hassert said.

and in NJ, Gov Corzine, who used to be CEO of Goldman Sachs, IMAGINE THAT!!!!!, hints that toll increases could be coming... all the while he is pushing toll roads in Jersey.

And, a little off the subject, but not much, it isn't just Texas, Indiana, Illiniois and New Jersey that are pushing these private-public partnerships, it's also Nevada