Here is the lease that TTC/Publicwerks asked the Texas AG to keep out of the public record.It took until last Friday to get the lease made public.
Please note-NETEX had no issue releasing this lease back in January.
AG Letter with Enclosures & copy of lease
The content of this lease was a major reason that there was a 6-5 vote by the NETEX board at the approval meeting in January. Specific changes to the lease discussed in previous meetings that were supposed to be included, were not included in the version that passed. The 5 nay votes do not see this lease as being a good business deal to meet the funding requirements that NETEX requires.
Also, the possibility of a non compete clause is not clarified in this lease and could be required by investors.
Another recent issue is the new bill that was sponsored and introduced by Rep. Dan Flynn that became SB 1110 that now allows local governments to use sales and property taxes to fund toll roads opens the door as a funding tool for public money to be used to fund this toll road. While this hasn’t been suggested yet, the enthusiasm that Judge Horn has shown for this Blacklands Corridor toll road, I could see him looking for a reason to seek approval to gain access to the tools of this new law to fund this toll road ( and no doubt other projects).
Look over this lease with as much detail as possible and bring up your questions here in the blog and at the NTCOG and RTC meetings and demand answers to your questions.
No toll road please