An anti-toll road activist won a three-month continuance in her lawsuit against the Texas Department of Transportation.
Terri Hall of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF) now has some more time to develop her case against TxDOT, which claims that it uses public funding to promote toll roads.
TURF says TxDOT's $9 million ''Keep Texas Moving'' campaign amounts to illegal use of funds for political advertising.
"What TxDOT is doing goes way beyond anything than what the Texas Legislature intended. If the Legislature did intend that, then the legislation is unconstitutional," attorney David van Os said.
TxDOT claims the campaign is informational and legal. They asked Judge Orlinda Naranjo to dismiss the case.
TURF says it has uncovered internal memos showing otherwise. They cite an Aug. 13 memo that TxDOT intends to spend public money to influence upcoming public hearings for the Trans-Texas Corridor.
''We want to be able to ask the people who wrote those memos what exactly they're talking about when they say 'we're going to target this area to try to change people's minds. We're going to try to discredit the adversary.' That's political," TURF attorney Charles Riley said.
TURF also wants to block transportation officials from lobbying Congress to allow more tolling.
A court date is set for January.
