CAMPO vote spares Travis County from LSTAR drama

Less than 24 hours after the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization’s board voted Monday night to begin the scuttling of the Lone Star Rail District, the Travis County Commissioners Court was set to have another clash over the doomed passenger rail effort. On the court’s Tuesday voting session agenda was a vote on whether to cancel the county’s annual $49,500 membership dues to the district. However, in light of CAMPO’s fateful vote, LSTAR Executive Director Ross Milloy indicated that he had no plans to collect dues from the county for 2017. The five-figure sum, however, has already been included in the county’s preliminary budget for the next fiscal year. “Based on this information, we would plan to put this on a changes list to remove that funding and have it available for the Commissioners Court to do with what they will,” Budget Director Travis Gatlin explained during his short briefing. With no objection from the members of the court, County Judge Sarah Eckhardt closed discussion on the item without taking a vote.