Dear Editor, The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority and the Texas Department of Transportation have decided that they can imagine an appropriate valuation for the Highway 290 East toll project that makes the project financially feasible. Senate Bill 792, signed June 26, requires that a toll-road project financial valuation be prepared for any proposed toll road. SB 792 also has provisions for waiving that valuation requirement if the valuation results are negative. That is – if the project valuation shows the project to be financially infeasible, CTRMA and TxDOT can "negotiate" a different valuation. This is exactly what will happen for 290 East if the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization passes agenda Item 7 at this Monday's meeting. A preliminary market valuation has already been performed on 290 East, and this valuation has shown that the project is financially infeasible – that is, the valuation is negative. As per SB 792, CTRMA and TxDOT are going to ignore the findings that preliminary financial valuation is infeasible so that CTRMA and TxDOT can continue on with their plans for the construction of 290 East. CTRMA and TxDOT are doing the same thing to their toll roads that the mortgage industry has now shown in an extraordinary way is a very bad way to conduct business. They are making the financial valuation for the 290 East project better than it actually is so that the financial institutions, when they recover, will loan money on the project. These loans will be made on a phony, propped-up toll-road project, just like the home loans that precipitated our current financial crisis. Just because there is a law that says they can do this does not mean that it is largely legal, much less moral or ethical. It reminds me of what somebody's grandfather used to say: A good-sounding idea is not always a good, sound idea.