Politics loom in fight over toll road in Montgomery County
Mark Keough and Greg Parker were not in the room Tuesday when Montgomery County commissioners discussed a toll road project, but the two politicians — and the shifting political forces they represent — loomed large in the background.
Keough is a state representative from The Woodlands who soundly defeated County Judge Craig Doyal in the March 6 Republican primary. Parker is a private citizen who forced Commissioner Charlie Riley into a May 22 primary runoff.
Keough and Parker have the support of the hard-right tea party movement, which enjoys considerable influence in one of Texas’ most conservative counties. Both candidates campaigned against toll roads.
Doyal and Riley, along with Commissioner Mike Meador, make up a 3-2 Commissioners Court majority that supports expanding a 3.6-mile section of Texas 249 as a toll road — a small piece of the planned “Aggie Expressway” from Houston to College Station. Commissioners James Noack and Jim Clark — who also faces a runoff — want the road to be free, in keeping with growing distaste for tolls among conservative Republicans across the state.
Considering the possible outcomes of the runoffs and the November general election in this overwhelmingly Republican county, it’s likely that the 249 toll road will no longer have the support of a court majority next January. But the key votes are taking place now, and Noack is using every strategy in his playbook to block the project until like-minded colleagues join him on the court.
“I don’t know how an outgoing member of court could try to force through an initiative that is so overwhelmingly opposed” by county voters, Noack said in a phone interview Thursday, referring to Doyal. “I would love to see Judge Doyal work with me to get (the state) to build this road with no toll.”
On Monday, the day before a
scheduled vote on the 249 project, Noack announced he would start a petition drive to force a referendum on the issuance of the $56 million in revenue bonds the county’s toll road authority intends to issue to finance the project. He and others who oppose the toll road have cited overwhelming support, in the county and statewide, for a proposition on the Republican primary ballot calling for public votes on all toll roads.
If the organizers obtain enough valid petition signatures, financing for the project could not proceed until an election no sooner than November, said toll road authority attorney Rich Muller.
“In my opinion, that kind of delay would give TxDOT and Harris County the ability under our contracts to take over the project to complete it within the time frame that everybody has agreed upon,” Muller said. Harris County and the state are building their sections of the 249 project as toll roads.
Begging for relief
Noack, in fact, wants the state to take over the Montgomery County portion of the road — but not to toll it. Quincy Allen, TxDOT’s Houston district engineer, told the Conroe Courier this week that the state would review this request, which has also been made by state Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe.
In December, however, Texas Transportation Commissioner Victor Vandergriff told Montgomery County commissioners that without tolls, the 249 project probably would not be completed “in our lifetime.”
That’s unacceptable to the residents who begged commissioners Tuesday for relief from traffic congestion, saying they’d be happy to pay tolls.
“My husband leaves two hours early to go to work. Two hours!” said Crissi Grimm, a Magnolia area resident. “If I want to take my son and drop him off in Pinehurst and get to my job at 8 o’clock in Magnolia, I have to leave my house at 7 a.m. That is ridiculous.”
Ginger Russell, a precinct chair who opposes tolling the road, said her frequent requests for a public vote on the issue had “fallen on deaf ears.” She called on voters to “change the course of this dictatorship,” concluding her remarks with a plug for Parker.
‘Purely political’
The anti-toll fervor in Montgomery County is consistent with recent statements by top state leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Late last year, Abbott and Patrick urged the transportation commission to abandon plans to use voter-approved transportation funds for certain projects that included toll lanes.
Doyal, for his part, says he’s not a big fan of toll roads, but he’s convinced that continuing with the five-year-old plan to toll Texas 249 is the only responsible way forward. Muller said projections indicate that the revenue bonds could be repaid within 10 years, giving the county the option of removing the tolls or reducing them to a level that would cover maintenance.
“It’s purely political,” Doyal said of the opposition. “I don’t know where common sense has gone. Good business decisions get politicized to the point where we’re battling over something that really doesn’t need to be a battle.”