They could have found the money if people weren’t opposed to the route the money would have enabled. The university was very strongly opposed, NIMBY residents

They could have found the money if people weren’t opposed to the route the money would have enabled. The university was very strongly opposed, NIMBY residents in north Austin were opposed to having nearby transit, and lots of people who owned or rented commercial land along the route were opposed because businesses would lose a lot of business during construction. Many of the people who were opposed found cost to be a convenient grounds for opposition, and the cheaper alternative happened to conveniently coincide with making the least number of people upset.