MCALLEN, Texas - Texas Transportation Commissioner Alejandro “Alex” Meade says his efforts to bring more highway project funding to the Rio Grande Valley is being made easier thanks to nearshoring.
Meade said that these days his fellow transportation commissioners are coming forward to ask what more they can do to help the region.
And, he said, this is happening in large part because of the phenomenon that is nearshoring.
“On the topic of nearshoring… now the coolest thing is starting to happen. I don't have to advocate for the Valley anymore because the other commissioners are learning about nearshoring and they're telling me, hey, what are we doing about nearshoring? What are we investing on the border now?”
Meade said TTC commissioners know that nearshoring in Mexico is benefitting the entire state of Texas.
“Now, all of a sudden, there's an I-27 that's going to connect… there’s all these other projects that we're working on. And it's not me telling them, it's just, with nearshoring we’re creating so much noise with the value that we can (provide) to rest of the country, that folks are coming to us and saying, how can we help the border?
“That, to me, is really cool because when you can show value, when you can be a resource, you don't have to spend your time on trying to sell anything.”
Meade said the economic growth of the border region is adding value to the rest of the state and the nation.
“I really do feel that these next (few) years… we have some really interesting times coming up along the border.”
By way of example, Meade pointed to 13 million square feet of industrial space coming to the El Paso region. He also cited a new international bridge being built at Eagle Pass.
“Nearshoring? It’s happening,” Meade said.
Meade made his comments in a presentation to Valley leaders at an event titled Vistas from Texas: An Economic Outlook. The event was co-sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, UTRGV’s Robert C. Vackar College of Business and Entrepreneurship, UTRGV’s Center for Border Economic Studies, and the university’s Department of Economics.
Meade started his remarks by pointing out that it was rare for the Valley to have direct representation on the five-member Texas Transportation Commission.
“The last time the Rio Grande Valley had a Texas transportation commissioner was in 1994 and so that was 30 years ago, and that person was there for nine months. The person before him was in 1958 and that person was there for about a year and a half. I just completed my year and a half mark. So, you can essentially say I'm the longest serving TxDOT commissioner the Rio Grande Valley has ever had,” Meade said.
He was quick to point out, however, that he represents the entire state of Texas on the board, not just the Valley. “I'm a statewide appointee,” he said.
One of the things Meade wanted to do in his first year as a TTC commissioner was to visit all 25 TxDOT districts in Texas.
“Each district is very unique, not like another and there's a lot of things that I learned from visiting all the districts,” Meade said. “But there are a lot of similarities, with the exception of the topography and, of course, the funding.”
Meade said that if TxDOT was a private engineering firm it would be the second largest in the world. “It's a huge organization,” Meade said, explaining that there are 80,000 miles of TxDOT roads. If each lane in those roads were counted separately, he said, there would be 680,000 miles of road.
“So, it's a lot of miles that we've got,” Meade said. “A lot of folks think that we have a ton of money, which we do, but when you break it down to the amount of work that's being done, it's not being enough.”
Meade said there are 14 articles in the state budget, pointing out that Article Six deals with water and rail, while Article Seven covers economic development. He said TxDOT falls within Article 7.
“Transportation could easily be under Article Six with the infrastructure, but it's not. Why? Because we are an economic development entity. A lot of people think that we are in the road business. We're not. We're in the economic development business. Because if you build a road, if you build a highway, expand the highway, you do get industry, you do get residential, you do get commercial, and so on.”
Meade said he is pleased about this because “economic development is something that I've always done.”
Meade said TTC recently approved a $148 billion transportation plan. “It's called a unified transportation plan, but it encompasses all modes of transportation. So, airports, seaports, land ports, hike and bike trails,” he said.
Meade said the Valley has done well in recent years but there is still a long way to go.
“If you look at the last five years, we were getting about $500 million a year, maybe a little bit less. We were just approved for $3.6 for the region.” Meade said that is a big jump but not when compared to the rest of the state.
He said $18 billion has just been approved for Dallas, and $15 billion is going to Houston. Meanwhile, the rural areas of Texas shot up from $2 billion to $19 billion.
“So, $3 billion is not a lot. But it is more than what we were getting in the past.”
Meade compared the increase in funding for the Valley - about $3 billion - with the increase for the rural areas - about $17 billion. “So, is that fair? No. But again, we haven't had somebody on the board. We've always had to reach out to our nearest commissioner, whether it was San Antonio, Houston or Dallas, and advocate for the things (the Valley needed).”
Meade had one major recommendation. He said border leaders that come to Austin to seek transportation funding should not be so apologetic.
“This is exclusive to the border communities. I started noticing that as the communities from along the border would come see me, they would always start off with, ‘commissioner, I don't mean to bother you,’ and ‘commissioner, I don't mean to sound ungrateful,’ and ‘commissioner, you know, I appreciate it.’
Meade said this is a cultural thing. “We don't want to be an inconvenience, right?”
He said Dallas and Houston officials are very different.
“Dallas and Houston will knock down the door. And I'm not kidding. They will knock down that door, and then I apologize for having the door in their way. And yet we gave them $18 billion. For me, that was very telling. Culturally, we have to stop apologizing, because we do deserve more. We do have value that we add to the state of Texas.”
Editor's Note: Here is an audio recording of Alex Meade's presentation at the Vistas From Texas event:
