By Andrew Wheat and Shelby Ligon
Austin Free Press
Originally published April 24, 2026
Public comments on plans to widen Austin’s MoPac Expressway should not be publicly released, according to the local highway entity promoting that road expansion.
The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority argues that, for now, the public comments are “confidential by law” and fall under protected, deliberative “interagency” communications — a stance that public information experts say pushes government secrecy to Orwellian extremes by keeping the public’s own input out of public view.
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Two Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas board members, John Bridges and Joe Larsen, were quoted in the article.
“I’ve never seen an argument like this… It’s absurd,” said Larsen. Withholding public comments “cuts against the very idea of public involvement,” he said.