There are approximately 17 current toll roads in the state of Texas with six additional roads proposed. Toll roads are more popular in Texas than in many other U.S. states, since the relatively low revenues from the state's gasoline tax limits highway planners' means to fund the construction and operation of highways.
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Most toll roads in Texas are operated by a regional tollway authority. According to the Texas Department of Transportation's (TxDOT) website, these semi-government agencies are as follows:
The HCTRA is responsible for operating toll roads primarily in the Houston area, the NTTA is responsible for operating toll roads in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, the CTRMA is responsible for operating toll roads in Cedar Park and Leander, and the FBCTRA is responsible for operating toll roads in Fort Bend County, which is southwest of Houston.
Beyond these agencies, in 2001 the State Legislature authorized the creation of the Regional Mobility Authorities (RMAs). These authorities are designed as a means for individual or multiple counties to build, operate, and maintain local toll roads. These authorities are authorized to issue bonds as well as designate local revenue sources to pay for the initial costs of the toll road. The primary purpose for creating the RMAs was to reduce the time and bureaucratic "red tape" in the toll road building process.
At present, only the CTRMA has an operational toll road.
Due to the enduring controversy over the future of Texas tollways, the state legislature overwhelmingly passed a moratorium on all new tollways in Texas in 2007. The moratorium effectively banned all new proposals for tollways for two years, until 2009. However, this moratorium was deemed the "Swiss cheese moratorium," as it had a multitude of exemptions placed in it.[1] Specifically, the exemptions allowed almost all the projects in the North Texas/Dallas regions to go forward. The primary concern leading to the moratorium was that the state was hurting taxpayers in the long run by deviating from its tollway authority model and contracting out roads entirely to private companies. Many legislators saw this as problematic, as the primary function of these tollways would not be to serve the public but to serve as an instrument of profit for private corporations. These companies could raise tolls to whatever the market could bear with little or virtually no public input and the tolls would continue long after the construction costs were paid for.
TxDot is in favor of the tollways, claiming that it simply does not have the funds to provide the anticipated service requirements of the Texas populace.[2] Phil Russell, director of TxDOT's Texas Turnpike Authority Division, said in a statement, “We simply can’t continue to rely on the gas tax as our sole source of highway funding. In fact, projections are that the state gas tax would need to be raised 600 percent to meet our transportation needs over the next 25 years. Texans tell us that they want relief from traffic congestion now, not later. Toll roads allow us to build roads sooner.” [3]