Austin American-Statesman also reports (scroll down to “Is there really $2 billion . . . .”) that TxDOT officials have suggested diverting a portion of sales tax revenue expected to go for a “hugely expensive reworking and expansion of I-35″ to other high-priority projects. Now, Wear writes, accomplishing the entire I-35 plan “would require huge chunks of money. I’ve heard something like $1 billion of it could be borrowed and paid back by tolls.” And he notes that TxDOT might require even more supplementary funding now that some lawmakers “are talking about grabbing back some of TxDOT’s expected $2.5 billion a year in money from the 2015 constitutional amendment [apportioning more tax dollars to highway projects].”
