That firm, Dallas-based Locke Lord, has played a key role in enabling the agencies to tap vehicle registration fees and funds from higher property tax values for their projects.

They say that’s because the regional mobility authorities have gained power over the past 14 years, in large part because most of them use a politically connected law firm that doubles as their lobbyist.

With only a few weeks left in the regular session, legislators so far haven’t advanced their bills through the House or Senate to require detailed audits of the local transportation agencies.

“If the choice is no roads or tolls, my direction is, ‘Let’s see what we need to do to toll,’” said David Smith, executive director of the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority in Bexar County.

But with a Legislature bent on cutting taxes, the local transportation agencies counter that toll roads often are the only way to get roadways built to keep pace with growing traffic.

The pressure for closer scrutiny comes at a time when anti-toll road sentiment has arisen in parts of Texas, including North Texas.

Larson and other legislators are calling for increased oversight of the regional mobility authorities, either by the state auditor or a state commission assigned to eliminate “waste, duplication, and inefficiency.”

“There might be some that we need to look at abolishing,” said state Rep. Lyle Larson, a San Antonio Republican.

But critics assert that some of the local transportation agencies have become small fiefdoms, unaccountable to taxpayers.

“There’s a real place for RMAs in the rural areas as well as the big cities,” said Delbert Horton, chairman of the Sulphur River RMA, which covers four counties in northeast Texas.

Agency leaders defend their track records. They point to $1.5 billion of projects they say would not have been built without them.

Other projects were completed because the Obama administration poured federal dollars into Texas as part of the national effort to pump up the ailing economy. The total of federal funds spent, much of it “stimulus” dollars, is at least $604 million.

The local agencies have spent at least $260 million in state funds, according to audit reports. (Some RMAs did not provide The News with audits for all years.)

Several projects, including high-profile toll roads, moved forward because the Texas Department of Transportation bankrolled them, with the RMAs playing minor roles because some had challenges obtaining bond money to build them.

In some cases, RMAs have financed projects by siphoning off tax dollars from elsewhere, not by using tolls.

Some have completed no roadway projects at all. Others have spent millions on projects that critics have said are unnecessary, such as planning for a toll road through a residential neighborhood of Brownsville.

The RMAs have spent at least $220 million on overhead costs, and not all RMAs have been audited, according to The News’ analysis. They’ve spent about $864 million in state and federal funds, despite the Texas Legislature originally hoping the projects would be financed almost exclusively by tolls.

But nearly 15 years after the Texas Legislature changed state law so the agencies could be created, most of the nine RMAs have struggled to live up to their ambitions while burning through at least $1 billion in tax dollars, an investigation by The Dallas Morning News has found.

Counties, including Grayson and Smith, set up regional mobility authorities to use bonds to build transportation projects and pay them off with tolls. The theory is that the tolls stay home, boosting area economies.

That agency is a regional mobility authority, a locally based transportation agency that can’t levy taxes and isn’t run by elected officials.

The result 11 years later: zero miles completed. Flawed planning and bloated administrative costs led to a complete overhaul of the agency in charge.

In San Antonio, authorities pushed to build 50 miles of toll lanes stretching across the traffic-choked north side of Bexar County.

The result: Slightly more than half of the beltway is completed. But the state wrote off a $55 million loan that was supposed to be repaid with toll dollars.

In Tyler, local officials in 2004 vowed to build a $248 million outer loop to absorb traffic and rake in tolls from a county of about 220,000 people.

The result six years later: at least $2.2 million in state funds spent, but no toll road.

DENISON — Grayson County authorities wanted to extend the Dallas North Tollway to Oklahoma and keep the lucrative toll dollars in their own community.

RMA mission accomplished?

When legislators voted in 2001 to let local governments set up their own transportation agencies, two ideas stood behind the law.

If the state didn’t have enough money to build roads, then the new regional mobility authorities could tap local dollars and sell bonds to get them done faster. By anteing up, the locals could help the state stretch its dollars further.

The second idea was that if toll roads were going to be built, the counties wanted to keep the revenue. Otherwise, that cash would flow into the coffers of TxDOT and be scattered around the state.

The way to prevent that from happening was by creating authorities: governments with state powers that operate in smaller areas, such as a city or a county.

Regional mobility authorities are different animals from massive agencies like the North Texas Tollway Authority or county toll authorities, such as the one in Collin County.

Counties don’t need to be above a certain population to create a regional mobility authority.

When counties began to set up the new agencies last decade, they had clear goals.

In Grayson County, local authorities wanted to expand their road network to keep pace with economic growth from the Dallas metropolitan area. They formed the Grayson County Regional Mobility Authority in 2004 to pay for projects and complete them faster.

The Grayson County RMA said its first project would be extending SH 289 from Sherman to Pottsboro.

But the county, with more experience, decided to tackle the project itself, raising the question of why the RMA was created.

“They had no funding, and they really didn’t have a good grasp of what they were trying to do,” said Gene Short, a former Grayson County commissioner who was one of the original architects of the RMA. “It wasn’t their fault. They were new.”

The project moved forward, but without the local transportation agency.

And the roadway wasn’t financed by tolls as the Legislature had envisioned for projects like Highway 289.

The county cut a deal with TxDOT: The county sold bonds to pay for the project, and the state agreed to reimburse the county.

But commissioners didn’t entirely give up on the agency.

In 2008, they said the RMA would oversee extension of the Dallas North Tollway through Grayson County.

That way, the North Texas Tollway Authority wouldn’t be able to pocket the toll revenue from the extension as it does from the existing Dallas North Tollway.

A year later, the regional mobility authority announced that the state had approved its request for $10 million to develop the project. Then a route was chosen. Of the $10 million, $2.2 million has been spent.

But the project hasn’t moved forward. A study found that there wouldn’t be enough traffic to repay the bond money that would have to be borrowed to build it, said Mike Shahan, executive director of the local transportation agency.

Veston Derebery, 83, said he’s among the property owners who are left hanging.

The path chosen by the RMA would split the 10-acre tract where Derebery lives — land that has been in his family since the 1940s.

It may now be decades before the Dallas North Tollway is extended through Grayson County, RMA officials said.

“I am standing on pins and needles for 30 or 40 years,” said Derebery. He said the local agency should buy the land for the toll road now to remove the cloud over his property.

Veston Derebery walks around his property in Denison, Texas. The proposed route for the Grayson County Tollway would go right through the house he built himself. (Ashley Landis/Staff Photographer)

Eleven years after its creation, the Grayson County Regional Mobility Authority has not completed any roadway projects.

But it does have a job: County commissioners assigned the agency to operate the North Texas Regional Airport.

The track record of the regional mobility authority in the Austin area is vastly different.

The local agency is a bridge between two counties with opposite political loyalties — Democratic Travis and Republican-controlled Williamson.

And unlike Grayson County, where the Highway 289 extension was built in large part to spur development around the airport, the Austin area is choking on traffic.

The promise of a steady flow of toll money enabled the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority to complete five projects totaling $755 million since its creation in 2002.

Motorists in Austin heading to Houston who suffered for several years through stop-and-go traffic on U.S. Highway 290 East, for example, now have the option of using three express toll lanes in each direction.

Complaints of waste

The most serious accusation against the regional mobility authorities is that some have wasted public dollars.

In 2003, San Antonio-area officials rolled out an ambitious blueprint for its RMA: Plans called for 50 miles of toll lanes stretching across rapidly growing northern Bexar County at a cost of up to $2 billion.

What followed was a series of controversies and missteps that incensed many residents who want solutions for San Antonio’s traffic woes.

Residents fought the toll lane plans. They attacked the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority and its counterparts around the state as “non-elected groups” that want to “place a tax on us by asking us to pay a toll on a road already paid for.”

They also filed lawsuits that exposed TxDOT’s failure to fully study the environmental impact of highway construction, including the effect of runoff into San Antonio’s primary water source, the Edwards Aquifer.

That put a major toll road project on hold, but it didn’t stop the Alamo RMA from building a bigger staff with tax dollars.

In 2005, the authority hired a former San Antonio city manager, Terry Brechtel, as its executive director. That agency had two employees earning $299,702. Five years later, the payroll had mushroomed to nine employees earning $1.2 million.

The agency’s board agreed to pay Brechtel $186,000 a year  more than what the head of TxDOT earned. But Brechtel  who had resigned as city manager under pressure from the mayor  didn’t have transportation experience, anti-toll activists said.

Richard C. Gray was among residents of northern Bexar County who watched the meltdown of the local transportation agency with disgust.

“They took retired politicos and put them over at the regional mobility authority,” said Gray, referring to Brechtel and former San Antonio Mayor Bill Thornton, the agency’s first board chairman.

The Bexar County Commissioners Court — angered by the high overhead and lack of progress on projects — seized control of the RMA in 2013. The agency’s employees were replaced with county workers, who added the agency’s work to their regular duties.

As a result, the county cut the agency’s personnel costs from $1.2 million to $514,665.

Eleven years after the agency opened its doors, none of the 50 miles of toll lanes has been built.

The agency can point to only three completed projects: a badly needed interchange at U.S. 281 and Loop 1604, and two smaller projects to improve traffic flow on stretches of a highway.

Federal stimulus funds from the Obama administration paid for most of those projects.

One of three projects successfully completed in San Antonio was the badly needed interchange at U.S. 281 and Loop 1604. (Andy Jacobsohn/Staff Photographer)

Cameron County

In Cameron County, the local transportation agency wanted to build a toll road through Brownsville.

Residents who lived near the proposed route pulled together to stop the RMA from carving out a highway through their neighborhoods. They wanted a hike-and-bike trail and pointed out that the toll road would be parallel to a nearby highway.

The opponents also collected thousands of signatures on petitions to fight the toll road. Many of the signatures were collected outside of Catholic churches across the city.

Nonetheless, the RMA could not be swayed in its efforts to build the toll road, said Bill Berg, a West Brownsville resident who fought the project.

Under state law, the governor appoints the board chairman of each regional mobility authority. Other board members are appointed by local officials.

“Nothing could get them to see that this was not a good idea,” he said.

So West Brownsville residents took their case to elected county and city officials.

Residents won their battle in 2012. The toll road was scrapped.

The real toll: The RMA spent about $2.4 million on planning for a toll road that residents never wanted.

But the RMA has not given up.

The local agency still hopes to build the roadway but without tolls, said Pete Sepulveda, executive director of the Cameron County RMA.

Smith County

In East Texas, Smith County officials had dreamed since at least the 1980s of building a 50-mile loop around Tyler.

The state would not pay for a four-lane divided highway with frontage roads. The reason: Studies showed there wasn’t enough traffic to justify it, said Sharon Emmert, a former Smith County commissioner.

So backers of the big city-style beltway set up the North East Texas RMA that could use bonds and tolls to build it. Emmert said the agency spent at least $4 million in local tax dollars. The project was scaled back to two lanes.

Instead of selling bonds, however, the RMA used money from TxDOT, which acted like a bank.

In 2011, TxDOT agreed to lend $55 million to the local agency to build a 10-mile section of the toll road in Smith County.

But instead of repaying the loan, the North East Texas Regional Mobility Authority asked the commission that oversees TxDOT to turn the loan into a grant.

That would free up money to build more sections of the toll road, leaders of the local agency said.

The Texas Transportation Commission approved the request last year.

As a result, Texans who may never drive on Toll 49 in Smith County helped pay for a stretch.

Dr. Mark Atkinson, a former Tyler resident who lived near the road’s path, said the local agency’s campaign to get the state to write off the loan didn’t surprise him.

It was consistent with how Toll 49 was developed, he said.

“The people who were behind it were businessmen, road contractors and politicians,” said Atkinson, a leading opponent of the project. “They wanted to build it come what may.”

About 26 miles of Toll 49 have been completed. Studies showed that traffic would be too low on the eastern side of the planned loop, so that part has been put on hold.

But those who are scrutinizing the project say the local agency is an unneeded layer between the citizens and the government.

“These RMAs are not run by elected officials; these are appointed people and they’ve got a big bank account,” said Ernie Clark, a former Tyler city manager and president of a nonprofit conservative group, Grassroots America We the People.

Ernie Clark, a former Tyler city manager and president of Grassroots America We the People, stands along Toll 49 in Tyler. He opposes the building of a road by a regional mobility authority that isn’t run by elected officials. (Rose Baca/Staff Photographer)

Legislation and barriers

On April 22, the state House approved a bill sponsored by state Rep. Joe Pickett, D-El Paso, that would enable county commissioners to appoint themselves to serve on RMA boards. Currently, they appoint most of the board members.

By appointing themselves, commissioners could make RMAs more accountable to the citizens, said Pickett, who is chairman of the House Transportation Committee. The Senate has not taken any action yet on the measure.

But Larson, the Republican House member from San Antonio, is pushing a bill that would go well beyond what Pickett wants.

His legislation would require a state commission to review whether regional mobility authorities should continue to exist.

Larson acknowledged this week that his bill may be dead. With less than a month in the regular session, it remains bottled up in Pickett’s committee.

The reason is that the local transportation agencies are lobbying against it, Larson said.

The RMAs have paid about $2 million to firms employing registered lobbyists in recent years, according to public records obtained by The News.

But it’s difficult to get a full accounting of how much lobbying has been done. The agencies provided records for different time periods — most from 2009 through last year.

And agencies did not specify how much they paid for work that is defined as lobbying under state law.

That’s because they charge lobbying firms for “legislative work.” Some of that is lobbying, such as urging lawmakers to vote in a certain way. Other duties, such as answering a lawmaker’s question or testifying at a committee meeting, are not defined as lobbying under the state’s lobby law.

And the agencies say they don’t ask the firms to separate bills for legislative work from lobbying because it’s not required by state law.

As a result, the public can’t pinpoint how much the local transportation agencies are paying for lobbying.

Six of the seven RMAs that hire lobbyists use the same powerful Dallas-based law firm, Locke Lord. The firm also does legal work for those agencies.

The Cameron County RMA has spent the most, about $481,000.

In addition to paying Locke Lord, that local agency also has paid $217,500 since mid-2012 to a firm headed by Ray Sullivan. He is an ex-chief of staff to former Gov. Rick Perry.

The Hidalgo County RMA has spent about $452,000 on legislative work since 2008, nearly all of it to a lobbying firm, Pathfinder Public Affairs, and to the law firm of McGuireWoods.

Rene Ramirez, the president of Pathfinder, is a former chief of staff to state Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, a McAllen Democrat. On his firm’s website, Ramirez says he has secured $123.5 million for RMA projects.

Locke Lord is a major campaign contributor to state candidates through the firm, a political action committee and its employees.

The law firm has accomplished much for the regional mobility authorities.

A report compiled by the firm lists several major laws enacted since 2003 that benefit them.

“We probably had a hand in it one way or another,” said C. Brian Cassidy, managing partner of Locke Lord’s Austin office.

That includes being able to tap revenue from a $10 vehicle registration fee if the county approves it. That’s especially valuable for regional mobility authorities because they do not have taxing power.

The local transportation agencies also have the first right to build any toll roads in their regions, trumping TxDOT.

Locke Lord has helped organize the regional mobility authorities to oppose Larson’s bill.

The firm initially said it was neutral on a bill sponsored by state Sen. Don Huffines, R-Dallas. Huffines’ bill would require the state auditor to examine the agencies.

Locke Lord tried to work with Huffines to give counties the option of asking for audits of RMAs, but the effort failed. His bill has been approved by the Senate Transportation Committee.

RMA leaders have told legislators they already are held accountable to taxpayers. They said they don’t want to pay for the state reviews or audits.

But Larson, the GOP House member from San Antonio, said if the regional mobility authorities have nothing to worry about, they should welcome state audits.

“It’s basically to shine some sun and take them out of the dark,” he said.