Maybe $1 billion in transportation projects was just too much to think about turning down.

But Tuesday, the El Paso City Council, which often divides over major spending issues, unanimously approved a the biggest package of proposed transportation projects the city has seen since the construction of Interstate-10 through the city.

The only critical comments about the plan came from Ray Gilbert, who is suing the city over the council’s decision to hand the stormwater utility over to the El Paso Water Utilities’ Public Service Board.

The local cost, from tolls that may largely be paid by commercial traffic and through the diversion of property taxes on future development along Loop 375, will be about $216 million.

The Texas Department of Transportation will finance the rest.

Clearing City Council was the highest hurdle and puts the projects on track for approval at Friday’s meeting of the Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Transportation Policy Board.

After that, it will be up to the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority to say yes to tolling new lanes on Avenue of the Americas from the Zaragosa Bridge to I-10, on Cesar Chavez Border Highway, and on West Paisano from Downtown to Sunland Park.

In the last week of August, the Texas Transportation Commission will consider and all but surely approve the projects.

Transportation Commissioner Ted Houghton Jr., El Paso’s first member on the commission, said it is an all-or-nothing plan that requires the local approvals to be in by the commission’s Aug. 26 meeting.

City Rep. Beto O’Rourke, a strong proponent of mass transit, questioned why, out of $1 billion in projects, only $27 million is going to help the city establish a bus rapid transit system.


“This is a statewide plan,” Houghton said. “In April, the edict went out to the rest of the state to communities that had not used up their mobility funds and have been behind, such as El Paso, Austin and Fort Worth, to bring your plans forward by the August meeting … to be included in the statewide plan and those communities would go first as to the funding.

“If communities walk over that, then we’ll redistribute the money back to the state. El Paso will be where they have been, just marching along. It all is so integrated that you can’t pull just one little thread out and say, ‘OK, we don’t like this piece.’ ”

Revenue from the state gasoline tax, he said, is dedicated to transportation and must be spent on concrete and steel projects, not buses or other transportation systems.

The plan would allot $25 million for changes along North Mesa to establish traffic lanes dedicated to rapid transit or express routes using new, specially designed buses that the city will purchase with federal transportation funds.

Gilbert said he thinks the city’s use of local funds should be put to voters in an election – an election that could not be conducted until two months after the state’s Sept. 1 deadline.

“It’s just another way of phonying up the city budget as far as I’m concerned,” Gilbert said. “Why can’t we go out here and have an election? I’ll work for it. And we’ll pass $210 million worth of bonds.”

City Rep. Eddie Holguin, who has not supported budgets, tax increases or major spending measures since taking office elected, addressed Gilbert, saying he has looked into the transportation plan and supports it, even though he is not in favor of road tolls.

He noted that many of the projects will be in his district, which he said is unusual.

“I just wanted to assure you that they’re not touching any of the existing roads, the way I’ve understood, only new roads,” Holguin told Gilbert. “That was my main concern a few years ago. The way it is now … is that you can't toll existing roads. And roads that are there are absolutely free.

“If that weren’t the case, rest assured, I wouldn’t support the project. I’ve asked tons of questions in the last few days, and I’m pretty content with the way things are now, which is the only reason I’m supporting the project.”

Of the $216 million for the plan that would come from El Paso, $151 million is expected to come from road tolls over a period of years, and the remaining $65 million will come from a transportation reinvestment zone that the city will have to establish this year.

It would operate like the Downtown Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone in that property tax revenue from the current value of properties along Loop 375 would go to the city as usual but taxes from future increases in value would go to pay for the transportation projects.

In both cases, Houghton said, the state will be putting up the money in advance with the expectation of being repaid.

“The state is taking all the risk,” he said.

City Manager Joyce Wilson said the transportation reinvestment zone ”is the safest way for us to do it simply because you’re pledging something in the future and it’s going on the tail end of the financing.”

“The second reason its safest is you’re limiting the impact of the local contribution solely to those areas that are mostly directly affected, and the rest of the community’s gaining the benefit,” she said. “The alternative is just to make a local pledge of $65 million through the issuance of certificates of obligation and the entire city will be obligated to repay it.”

Houghton reminded the council about the state’s significant contribution to Spur 601, the Inner Loop freeway that J.D. Abrams is constructing under a design-build contract.

“We have an asset being built in this town right now that links Loop 375 on Eastside of town to U.S. 54 that runs through the military base,” Houghton said. “That’s a $367 million cost.

“Let me put that into perspective for you. Our annual allocation … is about $25 million. We put 15 times our allocation into one project, and that was at the directive of Gov. Perry, myself and my former chairman, Rick Williamson, who said this is important to the state of Texas.

“So, if you add the $1 billion to the $367 million, we're at a $1.367 billion program that’s all being built now within a three year period.”

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To reach David Crowder, write to dcrowder@epmediagroup.com or call (915) 351-0605.