Big Bend Gazette :: “Bonilla Bypass”/Lajitas Highway Funds Shifted to Repave Highway 90 in Alpine

Before a small gathering at Alpine’s Railroad park on August 13, Congressman Ciro Rodriguez announced plans to repave Highway 90 through Alpine. Rodriguez said he was proud that U.S. House of Representatives bill H.R. 1195 would “make changes” to highway funding authorizations and allow $1.2 million in federal funding be channeled for the repaving project.

A $295,000 federal Community Block Development Grant will augment the $1.2 million and the rest of the $4.8 million will come from federal Category 1 Rehabilitation program funds.

“U.S. 90 is the heart of the Big Bend region; people use it to go to school and work, and go to the movies,” Rodriguez told those in attendance.

What Rodriguez did not mention was the story behind the $1.2 million, and the complex bipartisan politics that untangled a congressional earmark that deridingly was called the "Bonilla Bypass"

In September 2005, the Gazette broke the story about former Republican Congressman Henry Bonilla’s insertion of a $1.2 million line item, entitled “Lajitas Relief Route,” on page 212 of the 402 page federal transportation spending bill formally called the “Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A legacy for Users” or (SAFETEA-LU). The funding inserted into the bill by Bonilla would have provided federal funds to reroute FM 170 around the privately-owned Lajitas Resort, owned at the time by Steve Smith of Austin.

After Bonilla’s hometown newspaper the San Antonio Express-News picked up on the story, it ran an editorial criticizing Bonilla and demanding he redirect the funds to more pressing projects. Bonilla went mum on the project. Bonilla later lost his reelection bid to Democrat Ciro Rodriguez.

Although authorized by the federal transportation bill, the $1.2 million for the Lajitas Relief Route remained unspent. After the transportation bill became law the funds could not be spent for anything else, period.

Both politics and economics can be painful. Henry Bonilla was voted out of office in 2006 and Steve Smith sold his resort in bankruptcy proceedings last year. While the two key players in the bypass were gone, the $1.2 million remained unspent somewhere in the U.S. Treasury. Barring the construction of the bypass or congressional intervention, the money, by law would remain unspent.

The year 2006 came and went with no construction and no funds spent. Shortly before the November 2007 elections, political operatives who pressed for a story about Bonilla and the earmark contacted this reporter. Although Bonilla was out of office, the operatives’ goal was to discredit Bonilla’s party. The story of the funds got legs after the Associated Press reported on the bypass and the unspent funds in November 2007.

When asked about the fate of the funds shortly after the AP report, former Rodriguez press secretary Angela Barranco told the Gazette that the unorthodox nature of an unspent authorization posed unique problems.

Unspent was unheard of and no one was sure of what to do.

After researching the issue, Barranco said protocol would dictate. Because the funds were earmarked by a Republican who was replaced by a Democrat, the two parties would need to work together and agree on a resolution in the form of new legislation.

In late November 2007, Ciro Rodriguez (D), Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R), and John Cornyn (R) extended that olive branch and penned a letter to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee requesting a “correction” to the SAFETEA-LU bill, by changing the relief route funding to read: “For Brewster County, TX, for projects of the highest priority.” Bipartisan politics ruled the day.

That change in language released the funds and allowed the Texas Department of Transportation to determine the best use for them in Brewster County. But first, the changed language would need to be part of a bill and passed into law to undo the existing legal status of the funds. HR 1195 was the bill that would accomplish that goal.

After passing in the House in March, HR 1195 went to the Senate where it passed 88-2. Of the ten Senators who did not vote, were Joe Biden (R), John McCain (R), and Barack Obama (D). In June, President Bush signed the legislation into law, so ending the saga of the Lajitas Relief Route.

In a presentation to the Alpine City Council on Aug. 19, TX Dept. of Transportation Engineer Chris Weber gave a brief introduction to the planned repaving of Highway 90 within Alpine city limits; the project also includes improving sidewalks and ramps along both streets that comprise Hwy 90 in town (Holland Avenue & Avenue E), to make them compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations. Weber emphasized that this presentation was “just to introduce the project, let you be thinking about concerns you might have.”$5 million in funds has already been committed to the improvements, including $1.2 million originally earmarked to re-route FM 170 around Lajitas Resort in South Brewster County. Weber said the project is scheduled to start in 2010. “We want to meet that obligation, but if we’re still working out other issues.... We want to make sure it gets done right the first time.” (Marlys Hersey, photo)