By Bryan Kirk
TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
KILLEEN - To toll, or not to toll.
That was the question raised during a Feb. 19 workshop between Killeen City Manager Connie Green and City Council members.
During that workshop, Green addressed the possibility of forming a Bell County Regional Mobility Authority (RMA) to help fund highway construction projects.
Though a non-taxing entity, an RMA has the power to finance, design, construct, operate and expand a wide range of transportation facilities and services for the communities served.
Those projects are financed through revenue bonds (meaning the debt would be paid back with funds generated by the roadway), private equity, public grants, government loans and revenue generated from existing transportation facilities.
Citing the merit of using the tools created by the Texas Legislature, Green told the council that endeavoring to organize an EMA would need their support if the Bell County Commissioners Court ever wants to create one.
Shannon Mattingly, metropolitan planning director for the Killeen-Temple Urban Transportation Study (K-TUTS), said while RMAs tend to work in some areas, not enough studies have been conducted in Bell County to determine if one would work here.
And, though she has sat through presentations from Central Texas RMA officials in Austin, she hasn’t been involved with any of the local discussions about the formation of an RMA.
“I’d heard through the grapevine that Killeen had some discussions, but I have not been invited, or involved in any of their RMA conversations,” she said.
As for the possibility of toll roads, “Do we have congestion problems? Yes. But is tolling the viable solution? I am not sure it is or it isn’t,” she said. “I think this is something that has to be researched further.”
Meanwhile, Pct. 2 Bell County Commissioner Tim Brown said the chances of an RMA coming to Bell County in the near future are pretty slim.
“They kind of kicked the tires to what, if any, merit there might be in exploring the idea, and that died about four years ago,” Brown said.
Officials from the Texas Department of Transportation met with K-TUTS members in 2003 and 2004 to discuss the option, Brown said.
But those discussions were never seriously considered because there are no projects in Bell County considered “toll viable.”
“Our feeling is that we don’t have anywhere near the critical mass in terms of population density or traffic counts here in Bell County to make a project toll viable,” Brown said.
Brown added that projects related to the Interstate 35 expansion were studied, and even TxDOT agreed that tolling was not in anyone’s best interest.
“Other than just the basic push from TxDOT to look at toll financing as an alternative ... that’s as far as it’s gone for the simple reason that we don’t have any projects here that would pay for themselves,” Brown said. “There is no push, at this point in time, to create an RMA and there hasn’t been for several years.”
