Could Toll Roads Come to an End in Texas?

Texas lawmakers are taking a look at toll roads across Texas to find out if the pay-to-drive-on roads are really necessary.

Last year, TXDOT was ordered to find the cost of paying off existing toll roads. KVUE in Austin reports that it would cost state owned toll roads about $30 billion to pay off. Toll roads where TXDOT has a partial ownership would cost about $10 billion to pay off.

In East Texas, Wendell Piston of R&R Lawns told CBS 19 that his company uses Toll 49 every day and said that it's been "convenient for us and the company."

The cost to pay off the unfinished Loop 49 would be around $58.1 million according to the TXDOT report.

"Are we proposing a toll road because we're generating revenues? Are we proposing a toll road because it helps with congestion? Those questions haven't been asked at the same time before," State Representative Joe Pickett told KVUE. "I would like to see us actually remove some, especially if they make no sense monetarily, if they make no sense in safety and congestion. I can prove that today, right now, with some of them."

On the other end of this debate, where would the money come from that is made from tolls in Texas.