Texas’s tendency to privatize state services has led to contracting scandals erupting regularly. But a history of cost overruns or bad performance hardly bars a company from winning future jobs.
Transportation
Reporting on roads, transit, infrastructure, and policy shaping travel and mobility across the state, from The Texas Tribune.
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Transportation
TxDOT: Toll Billing Problems Being Addressed
Officials with the Texas Department of Transportation and Xerox, the company handling the state’s tolling operations, said Thursday that fixes to customer service and billing issues were in the works.
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Politics
Tesla Motors, Car Dealers Clash Over Franchise Law
Monopolies are bad for consumers, both sides fighting over whether Tesla Motors should be allowed to sell its cars directly to Texans agreed Wednesday. But monopoly is in the eye of the beholder.
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Politics
Video: A Conversation With Dan Patrick
Full video of my 1/27 conversation with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who talked about the change in Senate rules, vouchers, tax relief, transportation funding, open carry and more.
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Transportation
Texas Bikers Know How to Be Heard at Capitol
More than a thousand Texas bikers descended on the Capitol on Monday to present lawmakers with their legislative agenda for this session. Not surprisingly, they want looser traffic laws for motorcyclists.
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Transportation
Bill Targets Toll Road’s Power to Take Land
Only one private company in the state has the power to condemn and take land for a toll road. Following public backlash over its proposed road near Dallas, state Rep. Cindy Burkett, R-Sunnyvale, wants to take that power away.
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State Government
TxDOT Spends Millions in Tuition Reimbursements
The Texas Department of Transportation has spent about $10.6 million in education costs since 2002, nearly half what state agencies have spent in total on tuition reimbursements and other educational programs. Check out our breakdown.
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Economy
Musk: Texas a “Leading Candidate” to Host Hyperloop Test Track
Entrepreneur Elon Musk said Thursday that Texas is in the driver’s seat for a test track for a transportation system known as the Hyperloop. He also said that a SpaceX facility wouldn’t have been built in Texas without economic incentives.
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Transportation
Video: A Conversation With Elon Musk
Here’s video of Tribune CEO and Editor-in-Chief Evan Smith’s Thursday interview of SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk at the 10th annual Texas Transportation Forum.
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State Government
Texas Poised to Cut Some Specialty License Plates
If fans of Dr Pepper and the Fort Worth Zoo don’t get it in gear, their chance to buy specialty license plates might soon be gone. The Houston Rockets are hanging by a thread.
