San Antonio Express-News publishes an op-ed by Patrick Rhode, Cintra’s US Vice President, Corporate Affairs, who takes on the newspaper’s recent editorial about SH 130, writing, “Texas 130 was built without any money from the state of Texas, and the state is not liable for any of the project’s debt. To date, Texas has received more than $140 million in payments from the SH 130 Concession Co. — money that has been used to fund other road projects in the state. And, unlike some public toll roads in Texas that have failed to perform as expected, the state has not provided any financial subsidies to make up for revenue shortfalls on this privately operated and maintained facility. Contrary to your recent editorial, SH 130 Concession Co. is not walking away from either the federal loan or the private bank loans used to finance construction of the facility. These debts will be restructured under a new financial plan, while the original private investors in the concession company have lost all equity.”
