Krusee cashes in on rail plan to woo private interests

Link to article here. Former State Legislator and House Transportation Committee Chair Mike Krusee demonstrates everything that's wrong with politics today. Legislators complain endlessly that they're not paid to be lawmakers, only to jump ship and make serious money AFTER they've left the statehouse in what's been dubbed the "revolving door" syndrome (at taxpayers' expense!). It's unconscionable that Texas ethics laws don't prevent this sort of exploitation from happening...

COG to pay Krusee, three others $1.3 million to find 'innovative' funding for Cotton belt line

By Michael Lindenbarger
Dallas Morning News
July 26, 2010
 
Map Link: http://transportationblog.dallasnews.com/assets_c/2010/07/Picture1%20cotton%20belt-87331.html (Sycamore School Road, Fort Worth to Plano & Richardson via DFW Airport)
 
The North Central Texas Council of Governments' executive board hired a four-person team that includes a retired lawmaker and a leading urban planner from North Texas to develop a plan to fund the Cotton Belt commuter rail line, a 62-mile corridor officials hope could be open to service by 2013.

The group, which includes former House transportation chairman Mike Krusee, will be paid up to $1.3 million for a plan, which is expected by year's end.

COG officials need a plan because DART has said it can't spare a single dime from the sales taxes it collects to pay for construction, which is estimated to cost $1 billion or more. (The western portion of the route is already planned for development by The T, but it can't move forward unless it gets a very large federal grant -- something it hopes to get but can't guarantee. The Star-Telegram has more about that.)

So instead, Michael Morris has won approval from DART and The T to have the Regional Transportation Council take responsibility for finding a way to pay for the line.

To do so Morris and the RTC leaders plan to borrow a page from the private toll road playbook and find a way for private investors to help pay for a major rail line. From the COG's press release:

As funding for transportation has become scarce, leaders from across the DFW area have begun looking to innovative partnerships and funding. There has been great success on roadway projects through partnerships with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA), such as the Sam Rayburn Tollway, SH 161, the North Tarrant Express, and IH 635 LBJ. The Regional Transportation Council is looking to repeat this success for a public transportation project. This will be the first time the private sector has been asked to develop an innovative financial plan for a passenger rail project and it could become a model of how to expedite rail corridors throughout the region.

It's ambitious, and nearly without precedent in this country. Financial advisers, senior government officials and toll road experts have all told me in conversations going back nearly three years that privatization and rail lines don't mix.

No one says it's impossible, but they consistently point out the basic problem: The math.

Toll roads make money, sometimes so much of it it's hard to count it all. As a result private companies are willing to put up big investments through a mix of equity and debt to win the right to collect the tolls there for long periods of time, usually 52 years in Texas.

Sometimes, the profits are expected to be so big, the private companies will pay all of the construction of the road upfront, and sometimes -- on the juiciest of big toll roads, like the Sam Rayburn Tollway for instance -- they even agree to pay those construction costs and much, much more. All up front, just for the right to collect all those billions of tolls for generations to come.

More frequently, however, the tolls don't promise enough future profits to justify the investors paying all the costs of the road, and therefore -- as on the LBJ Freeway reconstruction -- some kind of mix of tax dollars and private dollars are used for the road.

But rail is different. Rail lines lose money -- every single trip on a DART rail car costs the agency money. A lot of it, actually.

So with no future profits, no private firm is going to want to put up money now to help pay for the rail line. In fact, we could build the rail lines for a company like Cintra for free, and provide brand-new rail cars and exquisite stations -- and a private company would still walk away from a rail deal, since fares as we know them would not even cover operations.

Now, Morris knows this and so does RTC chairman Ron Natinsky, who has been involved in laying the foundation for success on the Cotton Belt nearly as long as he has been on the Dallas City Council.

So what's their plan?

What the COG has hired the new firm to do is develop a plan for funding a rail line that would involve all sorts of new public revenues to help pay for the line. Those new dollars -- let's just call them taxes -- would be put into a big bucket, along with money from fares.

Once there, that big bucket of money could either be used to support traditional debt taken out by DART or The T or some other entity to pay for the line's construction. The debt payments would be paid as the money fills the bucket over time.

More likely, though, the new bucket would be dangled before private firms who would be asked to pay for the construction in exchange for payments made out of the bucket over time.

As I said before, unlike tolls, fares by themselves would never fill the bucket fast enough to make the debt payments or the payments to the private firms. So what gives?

The new firm hired last week will be charged with finding new sources of money to dump into that bucket. Among the many options will be paid parking receipts from DART, new property taxes that cities would agree to let flow into the bucket, new hotel/motel taxes that come in as a result of that development.

(At right, you can see an image from Morris's presentation from last week that helps illustrate where the money could come from.)  Use this Link http://transportationblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/07/cog-to-pay-krusee-three-others.html to view the graphic.

In addition, fares could be priced according to the market -- under the same principles that has led the RTC to push the NTTA to raise its toll rates over the past few years. The idea there is that if riders are willing to pay more, DART should charge more.

This is especially true since the Cotton Belt would connect to the airport, Natinsky told me last month.

None of these ideas are set in stone. After all, that's what the new firm is being paid to develop. Morris and RTC chairman Ron Natinsky have said previously that they have lots of ideas, and are optimistic the the firm they select will help identify real solutions -- and a road map for how to build the rail line more than a decade faster than if everyone had to wait until DART can afford to do it with its sales taxes. (They also hope they can substantially lower the cost of the Cotton Belt line by using cheaper rail cars still being developed.)

That's why the COG is paying the firm $1.3 million. (About $900,000 payment, plus about $400,000 in "retainage." I haven't checked with Morris's staff, but it's likely that that means the latter amount won't be paid unless the firm delivers a workable plan.

So what is the Partnership for Livable Communities? I never heard of it before, but its made up of very connected folks. (It also will be working with a team of subcontractors charged with some of the numerical heavy lifting.) It also beat out some of the heaviest hitters in the infrastructure financing world, so I'll be eager to see its proposal once the COG signs the contracts and can release the proposals.

For now though, I can tell you that the COG says the partnership is made up of four individuals, including economic and public policy consultant Jon Hockenyos of Austin, and John Richardson, someone I don't know.

In addition, Scott Polikov, a principal at Fort Worth's Gateway Planning Group, will be on the team. Gateway is behind transit oriented development projects all over North Texas and beyond

Adding some political muscle is former Rep. Mike Krusee. He's a former transportation chairman and was a big supporter of Gov. Rick Perry's toll road push in previous legislatures.

The four guys just won a big pile of money, but have promised to solve a really big puzzle. I'm eager to see what they come up with.

LaHood: Tolls and PPPs, not affordable gas tax, to fund roads

Link to article here.

LaHood Says No Fuel Tax Increase Needed for Transport

John D. Boyd | Jul 23, 2010 4:01PM GMT

Highway funding to come from tolls, Obama’s proposed infrastructure fund
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said a combination of current-level gas tax receipts, road and bridge tolling and President Obama’s proposed infrastructure fund could offer a way to fund a long-term federal infrastructure program without new taxes.

Appearing before a heavily attended conference in Washington, D.C., of the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, LaHood vowed “raising the gas tax is not an option” to increase money available for federal transport spending.

LaHood said the Highway Trust Fund’s income stream is “insufficient” to meet all the needs, and said “tolling can raise a lot of money” to augment it. The Obama administration has also asked Congress for a new $4 billion ongoing infrastructure fund that DOT would administer much like discretionary stimulus program grants, and LaHood said more use of creative public-private partnerships could help as well.
Adding up all such efforts, he said, raises the possibility of “a path forward without raising taxes.”

LaHood’s statement rejecting a fuel tax hike was the latest reiteration of the administration’s standing policy -- to oppose raising federal gasoline and diesel fuel taxes while the economy is still recovering from recession and unemployment remains high.

But his July 23 comment also comes as the Department of Transportation prepares to issue guiding “principles” for how Congress develops its next multi-year surface transportation plan. Federal programs are due to expire at the end of this year unless lawmakers extend them again or pass a broad reauthorization that reshapes policy.

Many ARTBA members want the administration to back away from its fuel tax stance, and after his speech some were grumbling that a gas tax hike remains the simplest and least costly way to beef up transport infrastructure funding.

One ARTBA participant noted that LaHood early last year floated the idea of raising funds through a new tax on vehicle miles traveled, a concept that was soon rejected by the White House. Asked if a VMT plan could come back, LaHood quickly said, “No.”

Another participant asked him if a tax that helps transport programs could emerge from climate or energy legislation, but LaHood deflected the question by saying that is someone else’s portfolio. One bill offered by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., would have directed billions of dollars into the Highway Trust Fund from sale of carbon emission allowances, but that legislation has failed to gain broad support.

Express-News hit piece on anti-tollers

There is a HUGE double standard at play at the Express-News...why didn't it explore emails of MPO chairs when Richard Perez, Sheila McNeil, or Lyle Larson chaired the MPO? Why no stories on their "management styles"? Why is it so interested in what I have to say to Commissioner Adkisson, but have no interest in what Richard Perez (Greater Chamber of Commerce, former MPO Chair), Carri Baker-Wells (Greater Chamber of Commerce), the Dawsons (owners of Pape Dawson Engineering, Sam Dawson is President of the Greater Chamber of Commerce), and SAMCO (lobbies for toll roads with taxpayer money along with dues from over 70 private highway construction, finance, and engineering firms, chaired by a tolling authority board member, Jim Reed, who has the power to vote to give contracts to firms in SAMCO) have to say to public officials? These people actually profit from the public trough by their actions, versus us taxpayers who foot the bill for their feeding frenzy!

And why aren't Adkisson's communications with other officials and staffers also relevant to how he manages the MPO? Why are only his communications with me relevant to informing them of his "management style"? Enter the Express-News' vendetta against Adkisson and the grassroots.

In fact, there are some things in the emails the Express-News obtained that prove the toll plans for 281 violate the law. Yet there has not been ONE Express-News story informing the public of this monumental fact. Clearly, the Express-News isn't interested in reporting such newsworthy information, just emails between a citizen taxpayer advocate and an MPO Chair who actually represents the PEOPLE impacted by the toll regime...

For Terri's full response, go here. See the San Antonio Current's take below.

Adkisson sought toll road foe's advice

By Josh Baugh
Express-News
July 20, 2010

Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson, who was elected chairman of the Metropolitan Planning Organization last summer, has served as a fierce opponent to toll roads, and he's relied heavily on advice and direction from grass-roots toll opponent Terri Hall, public records show.

The founder of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, Hall and her group have taken aim at the Texas Department of Transportation, the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority and other groups that support toll roads.

To more clearly understand Hall's role in Adkisson's chairmanship, the San Antonio Express-News in February sought e-mails between the two back to June 2009. Bexar County released hundreds of pages of messages from Adkisson's county e-mail address.

Those e-mails show Hall has played an intimate and significant role in Adkisson's management of the MPO, which oversees federal transportation spending locally. A longtime outsider among transportation officials, Hall found a de facto seat at the table when Adkisson took control as MPO chairman.

To read the rest of the story, go here.



__________________________________________________________________________________

Link to blog here.


But is it news? Adkisson, Hall, and anti-toller intolerance

By Greg Harman, San Antonio Current, July 20, 2010
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The tug-of-war between the Express-News and Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson has been partly settled, with the County releasing hundreds of pages of emails to toll-road opponent and Mysa.com blogger Terri Hall from Adkisson’s official email account. Readers piled on in the comments section, though not to raise torches against Adkisson and Hall. Instead, the majority of comments were irritated by the daily’s apparent siege on Adkisson, a vociferous critic of efforts to turn U.S. 281 into a toll road.

There is nothing improper exposed by the records, but it’s understandable the writer and editors in this case would feel compelled to make something out of it as Adkisson has so resisted complying with the paper’s full request. And yet … that doesn’t make it a news story.

POLITICAN SEEKS REGULAR ADVICE FROM UNCOMPENSATED LOCAL CITIZEN

*cricket*cricket*

The article shrieks that Hall plays an “intimate and significant role” in Adkisson’s management of the Metropolitan Planning Organization. That through Adkisson, Hall has found “a de facto seat at the table.” For starters, we thought that was sort of the job of our elected leaders, to carry the concerns of residents to the table for us. For finishers, hasn’t Adkisson been loud and proud in his anti-toll posture from the start?

“I move around the community as any public official in Bexar County,” Adkisson told the Current this week. “I don’t get any comment from anybody saying, ‘Hey. Toll those roads.’ They’re all saying, ‘Hey. Be careful about those tolls.’”

Adkisson has refused to release emails to Hall from his private email accounts, ensuring the fracas will continue. “I just feel like it ought to be possible to think out loud without having every measure scrutinized for its stupidity or its brilliance,” he said. “In the process of arriving at public policy, you’re ‘What do you think about this?’ and the other person may say, ‘I think you’re a dumb ass if you say that.’ And I’d just rather not shower that on everyone and their brother.”

If there is a story at the MPO, it has long been about the intersection of private gain and the public good. From the cashing in of Perry cronies on the now-slumbering Trans-Texas Corridor to TXDOT and MPO skirmishes over tolling 281, pressing highway needs mean there is the scent of mad money in the air. Perhaps, the Express should listen to their readers when they suggest they should instead be shooting for MPO board members who may be overly influenced, I don’t know, by the monied interests at work and not gunning for two ideologues bridging a yawning political divide through their mutual distain for the notion of double-taxing residents for a functional roadway.

Hall frames her objection to the article by asking:

Why is [the Express] so interested in what I have to say to Commissioner Adkisson, but have no interest in what Richard Perez (Greater Chamber of Commerce, former MPO Chair), Carri Baker-Wells (Greater Chamber of Commerce), the Dawsons (owners of Pape Dawson Engineering, Sam Dawson is President of the Greater Chamber of Commerce), and SAMCO (lobbies for toll roads with taxpayer money along with dues from over 70 private highway construction, finance, and engineering firms, chaired by a tolling authority board member, Jim Reed, who has the power to vote to give contracts to firms in SAMCO) have to say to public officials? These people actually profit from the public trough by their actions, versus us taxpayers who foot the bill for their feeding frenzy!


Asked one reader mildly: “Why is this news?”

And, yet, still unresolved is the question of Adkisson’s emails.

“It shouldn’t be a crime to try to include more public comment and input, especially when it’s not driven by some big, powerful, wealthy corporation type or special interest,” Adkission says.

Of course, it’s not illegal. Unless, like our other politically well-grounded friend, Mr. Nico LaHood, treated in this tomorrow’s feature story, one’s good work is at risk of being polluted by questionable gropings after secrecy.

Undoubtedly, I also support strong open-records laws. However, I also support journalism functioning in the public’s interest. If the increasingly thin Express has the resources to run and publish investigative campaigns like this one, I can think of a few possibly worthier email accounts they could be hacking.

SHAKE-UP: Carona dumps Transportation Committee, Williams new Chair


UPDATE: July 19, 2010

Link to article here.

A new direction for transportation policy in the Texas Senate?

July 19, 2010
Austin American-Statesman - Ben Wear, Getting There

The news from the Capitol last week many Texas Senate committees got new chairmen, including the Transportation and Homeland Security Committee is the sort of classic inside-baseball political story that most real human beings take a pass on. Who cares which of 31 puffed-up potentates is handling which bills at the Capitol every two years?

Well, I can't necessarily promise to make you care. But in the case of the transportation committee, the replacement of state Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, with state Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, most certainly will make a difference.

Carona is that rare species in 2010 politics, a moderate Republican. During the past four years he has repeatedly called for an increase in the state gasoline tax, frozen at 20 cents a gallon since 1991. He failed in that effort. He also made something of a crusade in the 2009 session of a bill that would have allowed local governments to call elections asking voters to create a local gas tax, or other local fees, and spend the proceeds on roads or rail.

That legislation died in a bloody political conflagration in the session's final days.

But Carona, those quixotic attempts aside, has been highly effective during his two sessions as transportation chairman, alternately cuffing around Texas Department of Transportation officials and then making nice with them publicly after getting them to change direction. Carrying scores of transportation bills, passing many of them. Taking stands for what would work, even if it played badly in the blogosphere.

When the rest of the Legislature in 2007 and '09 was running headlong away from TxDOT's private toll road agreements, Carona was out there saying the state needed all the tools it could find to pay for transportation projects: higher taxes, both statewide and local; and tollways, both private and government-run.

Carona has been a transportation pragmatist.

Now, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst announced Wednesday, he'll have Carona chair the Business and Commerce Committee instead.

And Williams, who sat on the transportation committee for one term, in 2007, is its new chairman.

Williams made quite a stir in 2007, carrying and passing the main transportation bill, SB 792. That law did many things, including slap a moratorium on private toll road agreements. But mainly, from the point of view of Williams' friends on the Harris County Toll Road Authority, SB 792 told TxDOT to stop big-footing local toll road agencies.

Williams is more conservative than Carona, and it's a stretch to imagine him holding a news conference to call for raising the gas tax, or any tax, for that matter. So if Williams is not for more taxes, or private toll road payments, it's hard to see how TxDOT's increasingly dire funding situation will improve.

It's also hard to imagine Williams working anywhere near as well as Carona did with Austin's Democratic Sen. Kirk Watson, who has been vice chairman of the transportation committee the past two sessions and is close to Carona. But Watson said he has already reached out to Williams, and he plans to continue in the same role on the committee.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Link to article here.


Senate committee shakeup: An indication that transportation won't get more $$$?

By Peggy Fikac
Houston Chronicle blog
July 14, 2010

If you need a good indication that state leaders won't do much to raise money for transportation in the coming session -- especially in light of a huge looming budget shortfall -- new Senate committee assignments may provide one.

At least, that's one reason a key senator said he welcomed his move.

State Sen. John Carona, a Dallas Republican who has sounded the alarm about a coming transportation funding crisis, is moving from chairman of Transportation and Homeland Security to leading the Business and Commerce Committee.

He'll be replaced as Transportation and Homeland Security chairman by Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands.

It's part of a shakeup announced by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in the wake of the departure of former Sen. Kip Averitt, a Waco Republican who headed the Natural Resources Committee. Retired Lt. Col. Brian Birdwell won a special election to serve out Averitt's term.

In naming Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, to replace Averitt as Natural Resources chairman, Dewhurst made other changes, including sliding Carona over to the Business and Commerce chairmanship formerly held by Fraser.

Carona said he'll continue to speak out on the transportation issue, but that he has long wanted to head Business and Commerce. He said he initially expressed the interest in the committee to Dewhurst, and that the lieutenant governor didn't force the move -- even though Carona has accused top GOP figures of lacking leadership.

Carona said by phone that he stands by figures showing the state will run out of money for new construction by 2012, but added, "There has been no indication yet that the Legislature is in a position to make this a top priority, and there's been no movement yet from the governor's office that would signal that he is going to be supportive of additional revenue for transportation or for any other purpose as we go into an $18 billion shortfall."

The senator said that's simply the "political reality we're facing."

"As much as I will continue to advocate for funding, and as much as I would like to see and believe that funding is needed now rather than later, I do not envision the Legislature making the choice to take any bold steps regarding transportation funding in the next session," Carona said, "and candidly, that too is one of the reasons leading me to believe that I could better serve the body in the Business and Commerce Committee."

Carona said he expects a strong role for Business and Commerce, predicting it will "begin to reclaim some of the issues that in recent years have drifted off to other committees" and could encompass "everything from insurance and telecommunications to banking and business issues as they relate to the tort issues that come before the Legislature."

Transportation and Homeland Security also would be expected to handle the immigration issue, as some push for Texas to mimic Arizona's law.

I have a call in to Williams to get his take on transportation and immigration issues.

UPDATE: Williams said in a statement: "It's very important we continue to improve our infrastructure and protect our citizens. I am humbled by the confidence the Lt. Governor has placed in me. We have hard work ahead of us, and I am ready to begin."

Dewhurst said in a statement: "As the Texas Department of Transportation begins the process of solving significant organizational and fiscal challenges, the Texas Senate requires a leader who will continue to keep our transportation infrastructure on track and our state moving forward. Senator Williams is a strong advocate for reducing congestion on our roadways by ensuring dependable revenues to construct and expand new highways and build a world-class transportation system."

UPDATE: Dewhurst just said on a conference call, "There's no question that we're going to need additional funds to build the roads we need."

Other new committee chairmanships announced by Dewhurst:

Administration - Sen. Kevin Eltife, R-Tyler.
Economic Development - Sen. Mike Jackson, R-La Porte
Jurisprudence - Sen. Chris Harris, R-Arlington
Nominations - Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville.
Select Committee on Veterans Health - Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio.

________________________________________________________

Link to article here.

Transportation advocates surprised by change in committee chairman

Posted Thursday, Jul. 15, 2010

By GORDON DICKSON / Star Telegram

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

ARLINGTON -- Squeezing more dollars from the state budget for roads and rail lines in North Texas was already an iffy prospect, at best.

But the effort to raise those dollars may now be even tougher, after Metroplex leaders learned that state Sen. John Carona, the Dallas Republican who for four years championed their efforts in Austin, had asked to be removed as chairman of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security committee.

"We'll have to regroup," Denton County Transportation Authority Chairman Charles Emery of Lewisville, who closely follows legislative issues, said during a break Thursday at a Regional Transportation Council meeting in Arlington. "I don't have a real good feel for it."

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst this week announced several changes of Senate leadership positions in advance of the 2011 legislative session that begins in January.

Carona, the transportation chairman since 2006, will become chairman of the Senate Business and Commerce committee. Taking Carona's place as chairman of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security committee will be state Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands.

Several North Texas officials took Carona's departure as a sign that efforts to increase state funding for transportation would be dead during the 2011 session and that his business experience would be more effective in his new committee.

Local-option elections

Carona did not return a call seeking comment.

Carona worked fiercely in 2009 to pass a bill that would have allowed metro areas to hold local-option elections and raise taxes for transportation, but the effort failed. Lawmakers have been very critical of how transportation funds are spent in the state and so far have not reached consensus on what sorts of fees -- if any -- should be raised to address the state's growing congestion problems.

Michael Morris, transportation director for the North Central Texas Council of Governments, said he was stunned to learn that Carona had resigned as chairman of the transportation committee.

"He has been a full, 100 percent partner with us," Morris said. "We're going to have to think through how we're going to proceed."

Legislative agenda

Despite the loss of Carona's leadership, RTC members Thursday debated several transportation-related pieces of legislation that they will consider supporting during the session. Among them would be provisions to:

Stop the diversion of motor-fuel taxes to non-transportation needs. In Texas, motorists pay a state gas tax of 20 cents per gallon, but a fourth of that money goes toward education. And millions of other dollars in the state's highway fund get diverted to non-highway projects.

Index the gas and diesel taxes to gradually increase over time, comparable to the cost of living -- and increase the tax by 10 cents per gallon.

Allow local-option elections so voters can decide if they want to raise car registration fees -- or mobility fees -- or fuel taxes.

Establish a "buy America" law to increase domestic involvement in private development of roads, an industry currently dominated by foreign companies. The Legislature has slammed the brakes on private development of toll roads, but many North Texas leaders want to change that law and allow private investment.

Strengthen buy-back provisions and eliminate non-compete clauses so that when a private developer is hired to build a toll road or other transportation project, Texans don't feel like their infrastructure is being sold off.

Buy-back provisions allow public agencies to buy back roads that have been leased to developers.

Non-compete clauses, which are opposed by many state leaders, are contract clauses that protect private road developers by prohibiting the Texas Department of Transportation from building a nontoll road in an area that would take business away from a toll road.

Several RTC members also called for a better effort in educating the public about how their existing dollars are being spent, and why more money is needed.

"We were effective in communicating with our legislators, but we didn't communicate our needs to the public," said RTC member and McKinney Councilwoman Gerayln Kever. "I think it's the public that's going to apply the pressure more than any one of us."

GORDON DICKSON, 817-390-7796

Highway lobby wants EVERY kind of tax increase for roads

Link to article here.

Note that Transportation Advocates of Texas is code for highway lobby and the politicians who are beholden to them. They're "advocating" for every kind of new tax increase imaginable to pay for roads, including MORE toll roads (the most expensive way to fund roads), higher STATE gas tax, higher LOCAL gas tax (they're pushing the "local option" gas tax after taxpayers soundly defeated the measure last session), as well as more public private partnership (PPPs) toll roads which is the MOST expensive way to fund toll roads (private toll operators charge 75 cents PER MILE to access our PUBLIC roads). The RTC is a mega MPO, a governmental body, using YOUR tax dollars to LOBBY for higher taxes.

In the interest of full disclosure, AFTER lawmakers end ALL diversions from road taxes (from gas taxes and return the vehicle sales tax to roads instead of funding general government with it) and if its determined there are still road funding shortfalls, then we believe a 10 cent statewide gas tax increase is preferable to continued reliance on tolling and PPPs (a 10 cent gas tax increase would be less than one cent PER MILE on average, versus 25 cents to $1.50 mile for toll roads).

Transportation leaders mapping out legislative agenda for next year's session

BY Rodger Jones / Dallas Morning News / Monday, July 12, 2010

North Texas' Regional Transportation Council on Thursday will discuss its agenda for next year's legislative session. Items in the draft document look a lot like what the RTC and other local leaders were asking for in 2009, by looks of the draft agenda on the RTC's website.

Money issues on the tentative wish list:

• 10-cent increase in the motor fuels tax
• indexed fuel tax
• county-by-county elections on new transportation revenues
• phasing out diversions of transportation-related revenue to general state expenses These items strike me as very ambitious in a year that most lawmakers are approaching with dread. The state is going to be dealing with a potential deficit of $18 billion, and that means big cuts need to be made in programs. Higher taxes on gasoline will not be an easy fight.
 

Still, transportation funding is losing ground, and it's not like urban growth is going to stop anytime soon. If local leaders back off on their aggressive posture, seems to me they end up three spaces farther back. Losing the fight against gridlock is bad for business; the converse is also true, some researchers have concluded.

Turning now to the RTC draft's main non-revenue issues, mostly about public-private partnerships. Highlights of what leaders will be discussing:

reauthorizing TxDOT to enter in additional PPPs to build new toll roads
new safeguards for PPPs, such as buyback provisions and non-compete clauses that might barring the state from building its own tollways near private ones.
giving agencies like NTTA first call on toll roads and TxDOT first call on HOV/toll lanes on otherwise free highways

One item on the agenda surprises me. Here it is verbatim:

Establish "buy America" provisions to encourage domestic involvement [in PPPs] from the private sector.

Whoa! Does this mean the RTC thinks it's a bad idea to do business with foreigners, including consortia headed by the Spanish infrastructure giant Cintra? Cintra groups are now doing two huge local projects, the new LBJ and the North Tarrant Express. KBHutchison was campaigning on this issue, and it rubbed me wrong.

The whole discussion plays into nativist talk about "foreigners buying up our roads." The other way to look at it: The state put out bids, and foreigners made the superior proposals for long-term leases.

An overall legislative agenda has been shaped in a series of meetings by the statewide advocacy group Transportation Advocates of Texas. It's made up of elected and civic leaders from across the state.

Perry, Dewhurst crony chosen to "fix" TxDOT


Link to article here.

Does anyone honestly believe that a man tied this closely to Rick Perry and David Dewhurst, two of the architects of all that's wrong with TxDOT, is actually being hired to "reform" TxDOT? The appearance of an overhaul is underway, but genuine reform of this BROKEN agency CANNOT happen without new leadership from the Governor on down. Perry appoints the 5 member Transportation Commission that has implemented Perry's toll agenda, the one that includes selling Texas freeways to his foreign cronies who then charge Texans 75 cents a mile to use our PUBLIC roads!

Former Perry aide, corporate lawyer to head TxDOT overhaul

Jay Kimbrough, often tabbed when agencies are troubled, will get $360,000 in salary and benefits, while Howard Wolf will work as a volunteer


By Ben Wear

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Published: 8:57 p.m. Friday, July 2, 2010

The reconstruction of the Texas Department of Transportation took on two experienced architects Friday.

Jay Kimbrough , a former chief of staff for Gov. Rick Perry, will be paid almost $360,000 in salary and benefits over the next 14 months to run the day-to-day operations of a small team being assembled.

Howard Wolf , who retired from the Fulbright & Jaworski law firm in 2003 after 44 years and is acting chairman and general counsel of Falcon Seaboard Co., a corporation owned by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst , will assume more of a chief executive officer role, officials said.

Wolf, 75 , is serving as a volunteer and will not be paid a salary.
Their task: Take the voluminous

analysis and recommendations of a recent, 627-page management review of TxDOT, as well as earlier critiques by the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission and various auditors, and make genuine change at the agency in charge of Texas highways, airports, rural transit and ferries.

Given the $2 million cost of that management review released in late May, Kimbrough's compensation and what will be paid to other team members, managing an overhaul of TxDOT could cost something close to $3 million . Bill Meadows, who serves on the five-member Texas Transportation Commission, which brought on Kimbrough and Wolf, said it would be money well-spent. Meadows said although the agency's district offices do yeomanly work building and maintaining transportation facilities, he has been less satisfied with what's going on at the top.

"My frustrations have really been more management, vision, direction," Meadows said. With money drying up for TxDOT, Meadows said, "we better be creative, we better be innovative, we better be open. My experience is that we are not always there."

Kimbrough, 62 , has specialized over the past 15 years in parachuting into troubled Texas government bureaucracies and, through an aggressive management style appropriate to his early adulthood as a Marine, making things change. Aside from his most high profile jobs, serving as conservator briefly of the Texas Youth Commission in 2007 and as Perry's chief of staff in 2008 and 2009 , Kimbrough also intervened at the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, the Texas Commission on Private Security and, most recently, the biodefense program at Texas A&M University. Until this hiring Friday by TxDOT, he was a special adviser to the A&M board of regents.

Kimbrough has "a great track record," said state Rep. Joe Pickett, D-El Paso , chairman of the House Transportation Committee. "I know the guy. He's not going to take any (guff) from anyone, including me."

Wolf, aside from his long and varied service as a partner with Fulbright & Jaworski, has served on a number of corporate boards over the years, often as chairman. He has been in private law practice in Austin since 2004 . He served two terms on the Sunset Advisory Commission, starting in 2003 , as a Dewhurst appointee.

The massive review of TxDOT by Grant Thornton, one of the six largest accounting firms in the world, cited TxDOT's insular culture of engineers — overwhelmingly with degrees from the University of Texas and Texas A&M — as "a tremendous strength, but also can act as a tremendous inhibitor to internal change and to the ability to understand, accept and respond to an evolving external environment."

Truck tolls to DOUBLE in just two years

Link to article here.

Tolls, the new runaway tax...

Truck tolls to soar next two years in San Fran

Landline Magazine
June 18, 2010

One year from now, truckers will pay significantly more to cross certain bridges in the San Francisco area. The current toll of $11.25 for a five-axle vehicle will increase 60 percent to $18 in 2011 and another 39 percent to $25 in 2012.

The Bay Area Toll Authority set the new toll rates in January on all seven of its bridges: the eastbound lanes of the Antioch, Benicia-Martinez and Carquinez bridges and westbound lanes of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay, Dumbarton, Richmond-San Rafael and San Mateo-Hayward bridges.

The first increase for commercial trucks takes effect July 1, 2011, followed by the second increase on July 1, 2012. Heavier trucks on six or seven axles can expect significantly higher rates as well – up to $35 for seven axles in 2012.

For the time being starting July 1 of this year, the authority is implementing a $1 toll increase for passenger vehicles on all seven of the bridges. The authority is also implementing a congestion-pricing plan to charge higher tolls for cars during peak times on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

Toll dollars pay for operations, maintenance and administration for the authority as well as debt reduction and seismic retrofits to shore up the bridges against earthquakes.

– By David Tanner, associate editor
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Toll lanes to be slapped onto MoPac


Link to article here.

Remember "managed lanes" is code for toll lanes. Another KVUE reporter said the free lanes on MoPac will be reduced in width from 12 feet down to 10 feet wide. This was also proposed for Loop 1604 in San Antonio. The proven result of reducing lane width is to slow traffic. To see for yourself, go to any section of town with road construction and they routinely bring the lane width down to 10 feet. Imagine driving under those conditions on a permanent basis. This is the new trick to slow the free lanes and FORCE more drivers to pay the extra tax in order to get around. Eckhardt admits below that the sole purpose of adding the toll lanes is NOT congestion relief, but to CHANGE driver behavior. Big Daddy government and government control of your freedom to travel at work...more like YOUR tax dollars at work.

MoPac managed lanes coming soon


by Jim Bergamo / KVUE NEWS

Posted on July 6, 2010 at 10:00 PM

Tomorrow, city and state leaders will hold a news conference announcing the implementation of the first phase of a plan intended to help ease traffic congestion on MoPac.
If you want to get Austin drivers fired up, ask them if they're tired of dealing with the congestion on MoPac.

"Absolutely yes. Everyday, mornings and afternoons," said Isabel Hargrove.

"Anytime we have get on MoPac during rush hour we're going to do anything we can to not get on it," said Adam Cowart.

"It's ridiculous," said Michael Gonzales.

Those drivers will be glad to know that work will begin on MoPac soon.  From RM 2222 to Cesar Chavez, lanes will be re-striped to allow for one managed lane in each direction.  That means one lane will become a toll lane.  Similar to managed lanes used in other states, drivers here would pay anywhere from about half a dollar to a few dollars depending on just how much traffic is on the road.

"What it does, which is every exciting, is manage peak capacity so we can better utilize the infrastructure that we have," said Sarah Eckhardt, the Travis County Commissioner for Precinct 2.

The initial section of MoPac that will employ the managed lanes runs through Travis County Precinct 2, where Sarah Eckhardt is commissioner.  A long time opponent of toll roads, Eckhardt said the managed lane concept is a good use of toll roads because it changes driver behavior.

"Because as many have said in the biz, 'You simply can't pour enough concrete to move people exactly when they want to go'. You have to manage your capacity throughout the day," said Eckhardt.

Eckhardt said not only will those using the managed lanes enjoy a shorter commute, but she said numerous studies have shown that drivers in the free lanes will spend less time commuting as well.

"It's better than doing nothing. And with the limited amount of space that we have to do anything else with MoPac, I think it's a good option. It's probably our only option," said Gonzales.

Rapid bus transit, which Eckhardt said is not allowed on other toll roads, will be allowed to use the managed lanes.  She says another benefit -- the long promised sound walls along MoPac -- will be put in place.

Small businesses boycott toll roads

Link to article here.

Businesses slap bans on Brisbane toll roads

By Ursula Heger and Sarah Vogler / The Courier-Mail / July 02, 2010

CM streets ahead 316 x 237 story image
Our multimedia presentation shows you how Brisbane's future road network links up.
 

Read More

SMALL businesses are ordering staff to boycott toll roads and drive the long way around to avoid paying higher tolls after light commercials were this week slugged almost $6 to drive one way across the Gateway.

Their boycott comes as other motorists embraced the lower tolls on the Clem7 tunnel.

The Clem7 recorded a 12.8 per cent spike in the number of vehicles using the tunnel yesterday after the introduction of a lower $2 toll but figures show that Clem7 operators RiverCity Motorways made less from revenue than if tolls had remained at $2.95 with lower traffic.

If tolls had remained at $2.95, they would have made at least $74,316 instead of about $56,830.
The toll for private cars on the Gateway Motorway jumped by almost $1 on Thursday – increasing from $2.95 to $3.85 while a new classification for light commercial vehicles means some drivers are now paying $5.78 one way.

Light commercial vehicles, including utes, were previously classed as cars – paying only $2.95 to use the bridge.

West End plumber John Salmon described the State Government's decision to charge light commercial vehicles a higher toll as ludicrous.

"Why does the plumber in his ute get charged more than the barrister in his Rolls-Royce?" Mr Salmon asked.

"Give me a break."

Mr Salmon said his business faced a potential toll bill of about $17,000 a year for the 17 vehicles he has on the road.

"I ban my guys from using the toll roads. They have to take the long way," he said.

He said tolls were a factor in his decision to move his business away from the inner-city Brisbane suburb as he wanted to avoid the new Go Between Bridge which, when it opens on Monday, will also carry a toll.

Truck courier Steve McKenna said the changes to the classification system meant his five-tonne truck had been reclassified as a heavy commercial vehicle – with his tolls jumping from $2.90 to $10.20 one way on the Gateway Bridge.

"I can only carry five tonnes in my truck but I have been classified the same as a semi-trailer which can carry up to 50 tonnes," he said.

"I crossed the Gateway Bridge four times (yesterday) so I have already spent $40 in tolls – I live on the north side of Brisbane and if I travel to the southside of a morning I have to wear that cost personally."

He said he would not turn to the Clem7 tunnel, because it also classified his truck as a heavy vehicle – preferring to take a longer route through Brisbane's CBD.

Queensland Motorways chief financial officer Jeremy Turner said there had been no signs of any driver backlash on the first day of increased tolls .

Mr Turner said morning peak traffic numbers on the Gateway were consistent with the same period on Wednesday, when tolls were lower.

Toll cameras fail, result in lost revenue

Link to article here.

Electronic tolling, billed as the panacea to toll collection problems and costs associated with human collectors and bureaucracy, turn out to be just as flawed, if not more flawed, than the "old" way of toll collection. Bottom line: toll road bureaucracy is the most inefficient and most costly way to finance roads.

Camera system's flaws cost tollway authority millions in lost revenue

Saturday, July 3, 2010

By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER / The Dallas Morning News

Hundreds of thousands of drivers are getting a free ride on area toll roads even as tollway authorities hammer others with huge fines to recoup their losses.


The reason: The costly camera system that is fast replacing human toll-takers routinely fails to identify customers who use the roads without a TollTag. As a result, 28 percent of drivers without TollTags are never even billed.

That means North Texas Tollway Authority leaves a big pool of money on the table each year – a sum its officials have gone to great, and controversial, lengths to recoup.

How big? In 2010, the authority expects customers without TollTags to rack up 80 million tolls worth $64 million. With 28 percent never billed, mainly because of NTTA's inability to match images from the cameras to valid addresses for the vehicles' owners. NTTA will lose $17.9 million in uncollected – and unbilled – toll revenue.

That's more than offset, officials say, by reduced operating costs as the last of the toll booths are eliminated by the end of the year. And, they believe the TollTags that 80 percent of their customers now have will make using their roads easier and bring more revenue.

But for now, with more than $7 billion in debt and a recession that has depressed overall traffic, NTTA finds itself under pressure to recoup as much of that lost revenue as possible.

So far, it has found no way to make the cameras more successful. And its efforts to persuade customers to sign up for TollTags – which involves paying tolls before incurring them – have fallen short of expectations.
Some drivers who were never invoiced say they called and asked to pay – and still didn't get a bill.

"I have found the system without tollbooths very confusing as a visitor to the area," said Mary Ann Appling, who comes to Dallas often with two children in nearby colleges.

"The first time I realized I was accidentally on a toll road without paying, I panicked. Being unfamiliar with the system and expecting a tollbooth, I had no idea what to do next. I expected an officer to start following me, but it never happened.

"I called the toll authority and they told me I would get a bill," she said. "It never arrived."

'Positive transition'
NTTA spokeswoman Sherita Coffelt said despite the billing problems, the switch to electronic tolls has benefited drivers, making the roads safer, traffic faster, and the air cleaner – all due to the fact that drivers no longer have to stop every few miles to pay.

"Overall it has been a positive transition," she said. "We've seen a 13 percent reduction in accidents on the Bush Turnpike while usage has steadily increased. And travel time, too, has been reduced."

She said NTTA will save $10 million in annual operations and maintenance expenses as well.

NTTA's problems with the cameras aren't unique, but they do seem more severe than some other agencies. The Texas Department of Transportation uses cameras to identify about a fifth of its customers on three roads near Austin. Of those, 13 percent are never sent bills, said spokeswoman Karen Amacher.

NTTA knew the cameras wouldn't work all the time and expected them to occasionally fail. But in the two years since it began phasing in the new cameras, failures have been much worse than anticipated. That's partly because the state address database often proves unreliable.

But the collections problems associated with the new reliance on the cameras goes well beyond troubles with outdated addresses. In fact, the $17.9 million that NTTA misses because of the faulty camera system is only the beginning of the hassles brought on by NTTA's $92 million conversion to all-electronic toll collections.

Even among the customers the cameras do identify, only 39 percent pay on time. An additional 29 percent pay after late fees or higher administrative fees are assessed.

But fully one out of every three of the customers sent bills simply refuses to pay. They can quickly find themselves dealing with collection agencies and penalties that turn small toll debts into bills worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

They have plenty of company. This year, for instance, NTTA expects to sic collection agencies on more than 400,000 drivers.

And while NTTA leaders point out the obvious – if these drivers simply paid on time, they'd avoid the collections hassles – many drivers dispute the agency's claim that they received a bill.

Together these delinquent accounts represent $14.7 million in unpaid tolls. But once the collection firms add on stiff penalties, they have the right to collect debts worth a total of $277 million.

Collections policy
The NTTA's nine-member board has voted to keep its collections policies intact, though it has reduced the fees customers must pay if they settle within 75 days – the point at which debts go to collection firms.

One board member who has consistently disagreed is vice chairman Victor Vandergriff of Tarrant County.

"I think the concept of the electronic tolls is good," said Vandergriff, noting the convenience for TollTag users and the operational savings for NTTA.

"But I am still troubled by the rate of uncollected tolls, the reported rates of the camera failures, and the administrative fees program in generation. I am concerned that perhaps those who are paying are paying far more than they should to offset what we are not getting from those who don't pay [or aren't billed] at all."

As scary as the soaring fees can be for the drivers who refuse to pay, the news is equally depressing for NTTA.

NTTA says 4.1 percent of the total will be collected this year. Once the firms take their commissions, which average 19 percent, NTTA will recoup just $9.2 million.

Christian brushes aside toll tax/PPP concerns

Check out this YouTube video of Texas State Representative Wayne Christian who is more worried about Republicans being in power than changing the controversial toll tax and public private partnership (PPP) policies the Republicans have foisted onto Texans.




Much of what Christian is WRONG. They ARE tolling existing free lanes all over this state (281, 290, 183, MoPac, I-35, I-10 to name a few...the law he's referring to is rife with loopholes). They're taking our free lanes and downgrading them to FRONTAGE ROADS. That's HIGHWAY ROBBERY and a DOUBLE TAX! They are also selling Texas highways to FOREIGN companies; the majority are NOT American companies! Cintra of Spain (read more here) and ACS of Spain are the two who have secured all the PPPs so far in Texas. Not ONE American company has secured a PPP, and there is no guarantee they'll hire Texans to do the job either. Christian wants to make the battle about Republican control versus Democrat control, and shove these very crucial issues (that affect every mile we drive) aside for POLITICS!

They could have and should have passed the bill to KILL the Trans Texas Corridor EARLY in the session, but didn't. In fact, that bill had NO co-sponsors, including him, other than the author for the majority of the session and it NEVER even made it out of COMMITTEE! For him to blame Democrats for he and the Republicans' (who are the majority in the House) FAILURE to get the job done is totally a falsehood. Please read <a href="http://texasturf.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=836&Itemid=2">this article</a> on precisely how the TTC is still alive despite these repeated claims by politicians to the contrary.

He's also playing rural against urban. Guess what, we're all paying DEARLY for those toll roads in Houston and Dallas through public debt and subsidies. He and other lawmakers know the most affordable and simplest solution is to raise the gas tax (less than a cent per mile) NOT to sell our roads to foreign companies who then charge 75 cents a MILE to take our PUBLIC roads. The Republicans have also overseen the state budget since under Rick Perry, and they're responsible for continuing a host of diversions from the gas tax (starving our road money for non-road purposes) and for allocating BILLIONS in our vehicle sales taxes to non-road uses every year. That's why there's "no money" for roads so they can continue their excuse for EXTREMELY high toll taxes in place of affordable transportation.

Christian and the majority in the Texas Legislature continue to vote FOR all these anti-taxpayer initiatives, and he along with many rural reps are more than happy to tax the living daylights out of urban areas in exchange for getting all the remaining gas tax monies for their districts. Not a single one of the managed toll lane projects around the state is financially viable and is already being bailed out by ALL of us! But the reality is, these roads are debt bombs that are affecting ALL of us and raiding teacher pension and public pension funds along with it and who will have to bail them all out? You and I.

The video is very instructive of the mentality in Austin.

Economist warns against PPPs

Link to article here.

Published: 2010-06-27

Economist condemns P3 projects

Loxley sheds light on murky world of public/private partnerships

By PAUL W. BENNETT / Chronicle Herald

The acronym P3 has almost become a dirty word in some circles. It stands for public-private partnerships but many see this as code for "privatization" of our public services. Michael Moore’s 2007 hard-hitting feature film Sicko, the startling Nova Scotia auditor general revelations about shoddy P3 financing deals, and a spate of Canadian Union of Public Employees studies have all alerted us to the potential dangers such deals pose to our life, health and pocketbook.

The public debate around P3s is so politically radioactive that few have attempted a thorough, research-based analysis of the topic, until now. That is why John Loxley’s new book, Public Service, Private Profits, is such a welcome contribution. Written by one of Canada’s leading critical economists, assisted by Salim Loxley and a team of researchers, it delves deeply into P3s as a mode of delivering services through 11 different case studies. It’s a detailed, heavily documented book where few stones are left unturned.

Today, it’s hard to imagine that P3s were once all the rage, favoured by governments at every level across Canada. Beginning in the 1990s, governments jumped on the bandwagon looking to proceed with major capital projects at a time of severe budget restraint by entering into ingenious long-term financing schemes and buying into private sector promises of greater cost efficiencies. Promoters of P3s and a new breed of private developers seized upon the idea as a panacea and vocal critics denounced the schemes as essentially "deals with the devil."

Partnership deals popped up in Atlantic Canada virtually everywhere — from schools, bridges, and water treatment plants to social services and hospital catering. In the case of schools, social and hospital services, New Brunswick led the way with its first P3 project, the Evergreen Park School, Moncton, initiated in 1994 and opened in September 1996. While Nova Scotia was slower off the mark, the John Savage Liberal government embarked on P3 school projects with tremendous zeal, initiating or proposing the joint construction and management of some 38 otherwise publicly funded schools.

Most of the joint projects or service agreements initiated are now coming under much closer public scrutiny. Loxley and his research team succeed in amassing a mountain of evidence to prove their essential thesis that P3s are generally a bad deal — more costly to build, less accessible to the public, and of poorer quality than their traditional public sector counterparts.

Loxley provides a tremendously valuable, detailed analysis of the nature of public private partnerships and identified the seven most common types from service operations and maintenance contracts to various forms of design-build-operate schemes. The murky world of P3 economics and financing, as well as all of the potential risks, is rendered understandable. We are also treated to a comprehensive review of federal and provincial policies since the 1990s aimed at advancing such projects.

Those seeking a serious analysis of P3 contracts and schemes will not be disappointed. Loxley and company do provide a debatable comparative analysis of whether "value for money" was achieved, using public sector comparators. The book also offers fascinating detailed studies of 11 case studies drawn from a cross-section of areas: schools, social services, hospitals, hospital services, bridges, roads, water, and waste treatment. The book ends, predictably, with an overview of the case studies arguing that the risks far outweigh any advantages.

Loxley’s book identifies the Frank McKenna’s New Brunswick government as an early champion. The province’s largest P3, the Fredericton-Moncton Toll Highway, is recognized as the model P3, but Loxley blames the tolls for the successor government’s 1999 election defeat.

Nova Scotia’s foray into the construction of P3 schools comes in for scathing criticism. "Nova Scotia," the book states, "actively pursued P3 arrangements without developing a well-articulated policy toward them," and the "hasty approach" led to "a number of questionable deals." Prince Edward Island, the most cautious Maritime province about P3s, gets off lightly.

The senior author, a respected University of Winnipeg economist, has produced a book written from a politically engaged, explicitly left perspective. He and his researchers do not care for P3s in any way, shape or form, and that it is clear on every page.

Yet the author team avoids, for the most part, the overheated rhetoric found in the CUPE studies. Thankfully, we are spared, for once, a repeat of that overworked Greg Malone quotation lambasting P3s as "P12s" dedicated to "plundering our planet." On the other hand, one might have wished that Loxley had paid more attention to Finn Poschmann’s 2003 C.D. Howe Institute study, since it would have demonstrated more openness to conflicting research findings.

Setting aside those mild reservations, Loxley’s Public Service, Private Profits lives up to its publisher’s advance notice. It’s truly a "critical book for critical thinkers."

When it comes to such a hot button issue, it remains virtually impossible to find safe middle ground, especially here in the Maritimes. It is one book that will appeal to both critical readers and public service zealots alike, and that’s a rare accomplishment.

Paul W. Bennett is director of Schoolhouse Consulting, author of The Grammar School (Formac 2009), and operates EduBlog and Eduwatch at www.schoolhouseconsulting.ca

Texas pension funds invested in risky toll roads

Link to article here.

Texas teacher retirement funds invested in risky toll road schemes

By Terri Hall
Houston Examiner
June 29, 2010

We warned it was going to happen last year, and here we are. Rick Perry, who has the dominant role in selecting the Board of Trustees of the Teacher Retirement System (TRS) pension funds, has long been laying the groundwork to raid this massive source of public funds to invest in risky toll deals. Perry along with Senator Steve Ogden, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, and then Speaker Tom Craddick hatched a plan to raid the funds in 2008 by establishing a "revolving fund" to loan money to toll roads that the private market won't touch and fund themselves.

When the retirees along with the grassroots defeated that bill during Perry's called special session last summer, it seemed the pension funds were finally safe, albeit temporarily. So Perry has found another way to get his hands on retirees' pension money to enrich his toll road buddies at Zachry. Though its cloaked as an $800 million real estate investment, an announcement published in Euromoney Institutional Investor Online on June 25 states the purpose is to invest in infrastructure. Part of it goes directly into Zachry American Infrastructure, which is a direct investor in the Trans Texas Corridor TTC-35 and Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69 projects. Both deals use public private partnerships (PPPs) and involve risk, especially since SH 130, the first toll road that's a leg of TTC-35 is so empty that a plane landed on it during "rush hour" traffic!

TxDOT has been discussing ways to increase traffic on SH 130 for over a year. In fact, the taxpayers will subsidize that losing project for all 40 years of the bond debt to the tune of $1 BILLION.

Even though these PPPs are sweetheart deals that GUARANTEE the private operators never lose money, they are still going bankrupt all over the country due to overblown traffic projections that fail to show-up and pay-up. Today's version of toll roads are based on what amounts to pure speculation with little science and lots of manipulation to convince investors toll roads are a sure thing, since they're government-sanctioned monopolies.

The South Bay Expressway in San Diego and the South Carolina Greenville Southern Connector bankruptcies are just two recent examples of failed projects. This doesn't bode well for retirees who rely on their pensions for daily necessities. Who's going to bail them out and will there be enough taxpayer money to do so given the $12 billion in toll road debt that the State has already incurred under Perry?

In other news... Canadian economist condemns road privatization

The latest in a string of critics to condemn public private partnerships (PPPs) is Canadian economist John Loxley, whose new book, Public Service, Private Profits, exposes the truth that PPPs amount to taxpayer rip-offs.

A review by Canada's Chronicle Herald says this of the book: "Loxley and his research team succeed in amassing a mountain of evidence to prove their essential thesis that P3s are generally a bad deal -- more costly to build, less accessible to the public, and of poorer quality than their traditional public sector counterparts...The book ends, predictably, with an overview of the case studies arguing that the risks far outweigh any advantages."

To read the review, go here.

South Carolina toll road goes bankrupt

Link to article here.

Wilbur Smith & Associates (the company that did the traffic & revenue or toll viability study for this bankrupt toll road) projected overblown traffic counts where barely a third ever showed up. They also based the success of the road upon PURE speculation that further development would occur around the toll road (yet the market busted). This stuff has very little science and a whole lot of guesswork behind it. There was a court case in the 90s where a Judge challenged the flawed thinking that driving habits remain the same under a tolled versus non-tolled scenario.

This is the big achilles heel of the toll road advocates. They often think that the same level of traffic (or close to it) will show up whether its tolled or not (thinking if they keep the free routes congested enough or give people no other viable alternatives, they'll just "have to pay" because they have to get to work somehow). But common sense tells us when you have to pay more for something, naturally people try to avoid the new tax even if it means a more circuitous route, moving closer to work, or staying stuck in traffic.

This is why toll road policy is failing. It's basically no different than real estate speculation or day trading, except that, for the most part, it's being done with taxpayer money. Instead of building a network of massively underutilized roads, let's fix our congested freeways and move on. "Innovative financing" ought now to be code for "risky failure."

Greenville SC Southern Connector toller files for bankruptcy

Posted on Fri, 2010-06-25 02:06 , Toll Road News

Connector 2000 Association developer and operator of the Greenville Southern Connector tollroad filed for bankruptcy today in US Bankuptcy Court in nearby Spartanburg, South Carolina. The filing done under chapter 9 of the US Bankruptcy code that handles broke government entities has been expected for some time.

The Association defaulted on debt service in January.

Moves in the state legislature to bail out the lenders went nowhere.

No equity investment is involved since this was one of a bunch of not-for-profits that were all the rage as "innovative finance" in the 1990s. All have crashed. They were promoted by developers who made their money in the construction and had no interest in the viability of the roads as ongoing businesses.

Revenues from the Southern Connector are not sufficient to service the debt, the Connector 2000 Association toiler says in its US Court filing because actual traffic and revenues are "substantially less than projected."

"The debtor is insolvent" their lawyers say bluntly in the Ch 9 filing.  $500m was borrowed. Equity was zero.

Court papers note Wilbur Smith Associates projected 21k/day in the opening year but fewer than 7.5k showed up.

Traffic and revenue has remained about a third of that forecast by WSA when the association launched the tollroad project in this small South Carolina town in the late 1990s. The highway on the southern/southwestern fringe of the city only made sense as an access and development road. The road is too indirect to provide any time savings for long-distance traffic which has stuck to the free interstates.

A semi-belt route, 2x2 lanes and 16 miles, 26km long the Southern Connector tollroad  has interstate designation I-185.

Tolls for 2-axle vehicles are $1.00 cash, 75c transponder and 50c at the ramp plazas which are unattended. Tractor trailers pay $3.00/$2.25 sat the mainline plazas and 50c at the ramps.

Trouble is for most trips through the Greenville area the main drag untold I-85 remains much more direct and quicker. And even for east-west trips traversing the Greenville area to points south  the old I-85/I-385 combination was quicker than transiting I-185. It swings too far out.

The pike failed also because it was conceived as catering to continued development of Greenville as a light industrial and warehousing hub on the Atlanta-Charlotte corridor in the mid-1990s, just when that particular bubble was bursting. Most of the land on either side of the Connector remains undeveloped.

Revenues are running at barely $5.5m/yr and toll transactions 12.5k/day. Tolls are taken at two mainline and three ramp toll plazas along the road so vehicles on the road are substantially less than the transaction number.

The last annual financial report available is for 2008.

Designers, engineers, lawyers, consultants and construction companies made their money in the development and construction and left the resulting mess to Connector 2000 Association a phony public-private entity without any real owners. So much for "innovative finance" as touted by ARTBA and other DC lobby groups.

Lehman Bros NY which collapsed in Sept 2008 was the principal promoter of Southern Connector bonds.

The road opened Feb 27, 2001. First tolls were collected March 13, 2001.  It continues in operation using toll revenues to pay for operational expenses.

see http://www.southernconnector.com/

filings

http://www.southernconnector.com/Zfilings.htm

Public coffers prop-up privatized toll deal on LBJ

Link to article here.

Note: There's more public money going into the deal than private money. PABs are tax-exempt bonds giving them all the same low-cost borrowing benefits of a public toll entity. The LBJ rip-off demonstrates why public private partnerships are code for public money for private profits. With so little skin in the game, guaranteed profits, and other sweetheart provisions like non-compete agreements, Cintra can't lose on the deal.

Cintra closes financing for the LBJ Freeway in Texas

LBJ Infrastructure Group, a consortium in which Ferrovial subsidiary Cintra has a majority stake, has successfully secured the placement of Private Activity Bonds (PAB), which signifies the last phase of the 2.78 billion dollars financing (2.26 billion euro) for the LBJ highway (IH-635) in Texas, USA. The company expects to sign the relevant documentation for financial closure within the week.

The 21.2 kilometer highway, which will be operated under a "managed lanes" system, is located in the Dallas metropolitan area; the concession period is 52 years. The project involves constructing, maintaining, managing and financing the highway, which is expected to enter into operation progressively from 2013 to 2015.

The project has been funded from four sources. Firstly, LBJ placed 615 million dollars of PABs (Private Activity Bonds) in the US municipal bond market on 15 June. In spite of the challenging conditions of the financial markets, this transaction was very well received by investors. Moreover, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) will invest close to 496 million dollars of public funding in the project. The US Federal Government has also granted a TIFIA credit of 850 million dollars.

Additionally, the three partners in LBJCintra (51% stake), Meridiam (42.4%) and the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System (6.6%)will contribute close to 665 million dollars in proportion to their stakes. In December 2009, Cintra closed funding amounting to 2 billion dollars for the North Tarrant Express toll road in Texas, in the important Dallas-Fort Worth corridor, one of the most congested routes in the US. The toll road measures 21.4 kilometers (13.3 miles).

The LBJ will use an electronic free-flowing tolling system, which will allow for smooth traffic movement and increase traffic carrying capacity. Tolls will be set dynamically on the basis of demand, and will vary throughout the day with the goal of providing users a safe and reliable level of service. Traffic on the road will be monitored in real time so as to keep vehicles moving at no less than 50 miles per hour in all segments.

Wolff says tolls 'last option'

Link to article here.

Wolff: Transportation Gridlock Could Halt Recovery

Wolff pushes highways, children's hospital in State of the County

By Jim Forsyth
Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff told his annual State of the County speech this afternoon that the county has emerged from the recession and will begin adding jobs this year, but he warned that one thing that can derail the economy and the area’s economic recovery is gridlock on the highways," 1200 WOAI news reports. Wolff spoke to a packed house of more than 600 people at the AT&T Center, in a 'rock and roll' themed speech which was focused on the message 'Bexar County Rocks." But Wolff warned that Bexar County won't rock if it can't roll down the highway, and he said the options available for paying for new highways are not desirable.

"Raise the statewide fuel tax by 10 cents, which would generate $1.5 billion a year, but cost motorists only $50 a year," Wolff said. 'Index the fuel tax. Give local governments the option to submit to voters a local 10 cent fuel tax that would raise $1.2 billion over 25 years, and could be used to build our highways, transit, and arterial roads."

Wolff said toll roads remain 'a last option.' He also stressed the effort to develop a streetcar system downtown, as well as a passenger rail system from San Antonio to Georgetown north of Austin, and he said efforts must be made to discourage urban sprawl.

"Policies to encourage downtown and central city residential and commercial development will complement the issue of streetcars," Wolff said. Wolff also pushed again for the construction of a $300 million to $400 million stand alone children's hospital, and he blasted the four local hospital systems for not being willing to participate in the project.

Wolff said the county will not require a tax increase to balance its' budget due to cuts made over the past two years, and he praised several projects underway, including the $1 billion University Hospital expansion, the construction of the performing arts center, and the extension of the Mission Reach of the Riverwalk. Printed from: http://radio.woai.com

Dallas City Council ponders "road user fee"

Link to article here.

Who do politicians turn to in a budget crunch? Taxpayers. It never crosses the minds of politicos to CUT spending as we have to do when money is tight. No, they expect us to dig deeper and make more cuts to our necessities so that the City Council can balance its budget and continue the gravy train. Note the article says Austin area residents are already assessed a "road user fee" on their properties. Between this and the proposed charge by mile tax being floated, we may as well be taxed for the air we breathe....shhhh, let's not give them any ideas!

Check out this article by a Dallas Examiner for another perspective on this hair-brained idea  .

Dallas City Council considers charging a road-use fee

Thursday, June 17, 2010
By STEVE THOMPSON / The Dallas Morning News
One of the ideas being kicked around Dallas City Hall to raise more revenue in a lean budget year is to charge residents and businesses a road-use fee.

The idea, sure to be controversial if it gains traction, was one of several presented to the City Council on Wednesday in a "brainstorming" session on the budget.

"This is a program that is implemented in some cities to assess a property a fee for the benefit they receive from the road system," said Jack Ireland, executive general manager of the city manager's office. "It's based on the trips that are generated by that property, and it helps defray that cost of the road system."
Ireland noted that Austin employs such a program, which collected $20.2 million last year from residents and $18 million from commercial properties.

The road-use-fee idea didn't prompt much discussion among council members. Only council member Ann Margolin took exception to such a fee.

"I have a really serious problem with that," she said. "Charging to use our streets, I can't even imagine the havoc that that's going to create."

"How many of you would at least like to take a look at it?" Mayor Tom Leppert asked his colleagues. About seven said they might.

Leppert then told City Manager Mary Suhm to continue to consider the measure.

Another revenue-generating idea was to encourage large nonprofit organizations who use city resources to voluntarily contribute to the city in lieu of taxes, which they are legally exempt from paying.

The practice, known as PILOT – Payment in Lieu of Taxes– is used by cities across the country, according to city staffers.

"It may be based on a percentage of the taxable value, or it could be some negotiated rate to cover the cost of police and fire," Ireland said. Applying the city's property-tax rate to charitable, tax-exempt hospitals and medical buildings alone would generate $8.8 million in annual revenue, he noted.

A third idea was to require that waste collected inside city limits be disposed of in the city. The requirement would increase the city's McCommas Landfill revenue by perhaps more than $14 million per year, city officials say.

Cintra completes financing of LBJ project


Link to article here.

Two notable things in things article. One, Mr. Jones erroneously assumes that because Kay Bailey Hutchison lost the primary battle to Rick Perry that it means Texans want their freeways sold to Spain and to be subsequently charged 75 cents a mile to drive. Second, note the underhanded plan by TxDOT to do a backdoor CDA for I-35 to Denton County using pass through financing after the Legislature said "no" to CDAs and foreign-owned toll roads last year. As usual, TxDOT thinks it answers to no one and doesn't get the "message" from Texans and their lawmakers...it just keeps creating loopholes from thin air so it can railroad Perry's agenda to sell Texas freeways to foreign companies in sweetheart deals.

Cintra says LBJ financing 'completed'

Rodger Jones/Editorial Writer    

This just in from Cintra US, an arm of the Spanish-led investor group heading the massive rebuilding and partial-tolling of LBJ Freeway:

LBJ Infrastructure Group, LLC (LBJIG) announced today that financing for the LBJ Express project has been completed ahead of schedule to begin construction and operation of this anticipated roadway. The company is expected to administratively complete the process over the upcoming days.
This achievement marks a major milestone in the long-awaited re-development and expansion of a major traffic corridor in the Dallas area - a project that will help reduce travel delays, enhance safety, provide mobility choices and help reduce the carbon footprint often associated with idling traffic. The project is also expected to create thousands of new jobs.

If you want to mark your calendars, the Cintra announcement says work starts in 2011 and ends in 2016. Many drivers will be more interested in the toll rates that will be set for the LBJ speed lanes. Plans called for a 50 mph average speed, with tolls to be set high enough to clear the riff-raff out of the way. Rates will start at 75 cents a mile, according to a policy set by the Regional Transportation Council.
Cintra is also heading the North Tarrant Express project to the west of us, another highway expansion involving toll lanes and free lanes. Both roadways represent (I think) the biggest highway construction PPPs under way in the U.S. -- a fact that gets politicians worked up in Austin (even though they won't raise the gas tax to build these roads the old-fashioned way).

The political fireworks over Spanish money has mostly fizzled since Cintra was pushed out of the SH 121 toll project. KBH hammered away at foreigners during her run at Rick Perry this year, but most people are glad to have the cash regardless of who's writing the checks. Austin sure isn't.

Transportation officials hope to also harness private money to help build the I-35E project from northern Dallas County into Denton. The road is overloaded, there's not tax money to rebuild it, and a new idea called "pass-through tolling" is being pushed for the project. Private investors would be paid per vehicle for the cars and trucks they put through. It's being pushed as something different from the "CDA" model used for LBJ and N. Tarrant Express, but is sure walks like a duck.

Newspaper to toll authority: 'Just go away'

Link to article here.

In Texas, there is a growing sentiment to dump some local toll authorities as well, specifically Regional Mobility Authorities (RMAs) created under Rick Perry's toll-only regime. They're a second tier bureaucracy duplicating TxDOT duties and wasting tens of millions of taxpayer dollars. Bexar County's RMA has blown through $40 million and hasn't built a single lane mile of freeway in over 5 years! It has failed to pay back loans from both the county and city of San Antonio, and has been on life support via loans and grants from TxDOT (using our gas tax money to prop-up a toll entity, a huge DOUBLE TAX) since its inception. The Alamo RMA is charging taxpayers a $20 million "management fee" (to do a project TxDOT should be doing) to waste stimulus money on building HALF of an interchange for the price of a whole one. Last year, three of the Bexar County Commissioners floated the idea of dissolving the RMA completely. We say it's high time they follow through!

SW Florida toller to disband - victim of housing/economy collapse

Posted on Sun, 2010-06-13 17:26
 
Southwest Florida Expressway Authority (SWFEA) board is looking to disband the toller just five years after it was established by the state legislature. They voted unanimously last week to explore how best to wind up the toll authority. It is a victim of the great housing and economic bust of 2008 and no early prospect of earning any significant toll revenues.

SWFEA was established mid-decade when the Naples/Bonita Springs/Cape Coral/Ft Myers area of SW Florida was booming.

I-75 the main highway running north-south and parallel with the coast looked in urgent need of widening from six lanes to ten lanes.

There was a grand plan to use toll revenues to help reconstruct I-75 into a 2/3/3/2 lanes format, the central pair of 3 lane roadways being tolled, and the outer 2-lane roadways being free.

Slow unraveling

From about 2006 onward these schemes began to unravel.

It seemed at first that adding 5th and 6th lanes to a 4-lane portion plus a single reversible lane addition - a 7 lane scheme - might be a viable interim scheme.

But the last year has been brutal as the full extent of the area's mortgage mess was revealed.

At the last meeting of the board Wilbur Smith's Jonathan Hart said housing starts in the area are down 96.7% on 2005 numbers.

That's almost stopped!

About 4% of the housing stock is in foreclosure making it #3 Foreclosure Metro Area in the nation.

No recovery until 2015-2017

Traffic, he said might not recover to 2005 levels until the years 2015 to 2017.

Tourism has dropped away.

State and local government revenues are down and almost all agencies that pledged startup money to SWFEA are begging out because of budgetary crises over core activities. FDOT wants repayment of a $1m loan, and Lee and Collier counties smaller amounts.

SWFEA has debt of $1.9m run up to finance studies.

The economic basis for toll lanes has collapsed, as there is presently no congestion to relieve, and little prospect of any in the foreseeable future.

Major local paper: "Just go away"

In these circumstances public support for the toiler evaporated, the Naples Times editorializing recently:

"The future for the Southwest Florida Expressway Authority?

"Go away. Just go away. The sooner, the better."

http://www.swfea.net/

TOLLLROADSnews 2010-06-13

Lawmakers critical of TxDOT audit: "Didn't go far enough"

Link to article here.

Jun 9, 2010 10:33 am US/Central

Value Of TxDOT Audit Being Called Into Question

By Reeve Hamilton and Julian Aguilar
AUSTIN (The Texas Tribune) ―

As the Texas Department of Transportation heads into a hearing today to review a highly critical 628-page audit with members of the House Transportation Committee, the very value of Chicago-based consulting agency Grant Thornton's $2 million report is being called into question.

The audit said that TxDOT's senior leaders were not inclined toward meaningful self-analysis due to "a deep-seated belief that TxDOT is doing all the right things." But TxDOT Executive Director Amadeo Saenz appeared on Tuesday to welcome the report, saying in a special Transportation Commission meeting that the auditors had done "a good job of collecting and analyzing stakeholder expectations across a number of levels."

Not all observers of the Texas transportation scene agree. "[The report] was not as in-depth as I'd like to see," said state Rep. Joe Pickett, D-El Paso, the chairman of the Transportation Committee. In a statement issued shortly after the report's release, state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, said the document was hardly revelatory for those who follow transportation. It includes long-standing criticisms of the agency, including the widely held perception that its senior management is "not addressing the big issues … not trusting other TxDOT staff … not setting clear expectations or goals … not being open to feedback … [and] lacking respect for governing bodies."

"No surprises," Pickett said. "It's just ratifying what most of us already knew existed."

Pickett said he would have liked a more detaied breakdown of TxDOT's financing and a more thorough examination of "who does what to who" within the organization — concerns he will likely make known when representatives from Grant Thornton testify before his committee today. He also questions the auditors' heavy reliance on employee interviews, which he says aren't likely to be objective and could have been done by TxDOT internally. And he's frustrated that, in a study "this in-depth and this long" — it's been nearly a year since TxDOT commissioned it — no updates were provided to TxDOT or legislators on the auditors progress and findings prior to the release of the final report. Pickett was also surprised to see TxDOT administrators raked over the coals while the commission that oversees the agency got off comparatively easy.

"For the last six years, the commission has been dictating … to the administration," he said. "I personally believe the administration is acting upon the commission's desires, but the commission came out of this unscathed."

Unlike Pickett, state Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, was pleased with the report and encouraged by Saenz's general acceptance of its findings, said Steven Polunsky, the staff director of the Senate Transportation Committee, which Carona chairs.

"[Carona] fully expects the commission to proceed immediately with the remedies recommended in the audit," Polunsky said. "Change is a hard process. It takes the right leadership and some outside oversight."

One of the audit's central themes was a need to shake up the "singular, deeply entrenched culture" that has developed over the agency's 93 years in operation. Saenz agreed with Grant Thornton that the traditional "TxDOT way" was failing to meet expectations, saying the agency will continue to make internal changes to better align its operations to its mission. "There are some things we should have recognized sooner and managed to adjust our operations to meet our customers' expectations," Saenz said. "As we move forward, we must commit to doing better."

But he said some major issues — like future funding for roads — are beyond TxDOT's control. "We've said it over and over again, but it bears repeating: Unless new funding sources are in place by 2012, no additional mobility projects will be added to the agency's plans," Saenz said.

How big a funding hole?

Like so much about TxDOT depicted in the Grant Thornton report, even the amount of funding needed is hazy. The audit posits that in 2040, Texas' population will be roughly the same as present-day California, with approximately 36 million people. But just how much road spending will be necessary to accommodate that growth remains a point of contention.

According to a review of future transportation funding needs by the 2030 Committee, a 12-member research team appointed two years ago by Transportation Commissioner Deirdre Delisi, Texas will need to invest about $315 billion within the next two decades to maintain current congestion levels. That amounts to roughly $14 billion a year — in 2008 dollars. Though careful not to speculate on the effects of future legislation, the 2030 Committee concedes that "available funding will not be adequate to address all of the needs identified," including pavement, bridges, urban and rural mobility, and safety needs.

Yet a report released in 2009 by the House Research Organization, a legislative research agency, indicates TxDOT itself has projected an $86 billion funding gap by 2030. That figure was recalculated again by the state auditor, bringing the new estimate down to $77.4 billion. Even the HRO auditors cautioned against using that figure to make policy or funding decisions, "because it contained costs that should not have been included, a mathematical error, and additional undocumented costs."

The Grant Thornton audit indicates this funding confusion contributes to the underlying mistrust the public and the Legislature holds toward the agency — specifically in its efforts to sustain its current funding levels or justify an increase. "Some stakeholders said that 'TxDOT isn't broken, it's just broke,'" the audit notes. "Others said that TxDOT isn't sufficiently high-functioning to know if it has the resources required to do the job needed."

The audit offers still another view from skeptics who believe adequate funding is a secondary issue to TxDOT's current internal operations. "If we can't manage effectively the funds provided to us," Saenz acknowledged, "then we cannot expect the trust to use the funds to follow."

Grant Thornton puts some of the blame for the funding confusion on lawmakers' increasing reliance on bond funding for roads. "The only specific question I have is about where it says the Legislature should not have gotten away from pay-as-you-go and done the bonding," said state Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, a member of the House Transportation Committee. "I want to understand why that is. I'm not defensive about it. I'm willing to accept it. I just don't understand. I thought the logic of borrowing money at today's cost seemed to make sense."

While Dunnam said he's ready to hear what lawmakers might have done wrong, he also believes TxDOT needs to make some "fundamental changes" of its own. "It seems to me that it's the structure of the agency that promotes this lack of transparency," he said. "There are good people at TxDOT, but their organizational structure lends itself to all this."

Not surprisingly, Dunnam, who's also the House Democratic Caucus Chair, points the finger even higher. "At the end of the day it's an executive agency that's run ultimately by governor's appointees," he said. "But nobody sees it that way. Our governor has always been able to use that Chinese Wall to say, 'Well, I didn't know.'"

Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle said the governor has the ultimate confidence in his appointees, "who requested this review, to look at how best to implement the recommendations."

And Saenz, for his part, believes the agency has the ability to adapt. "We're making strides … but there are still many more bridges to cross with this," he said. "I'm looking forward to making our agency even better."  

That attitude will likely serve him well in front of the Transportation Committee. "We don't need to beat them up too much," Pickett said. "I'm looking for some action now."

Information gathered and originally published by The Texas Tribune, a non-profit news organization based in Austin.

(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Subcategories

Eminent Domain

Video

Page 66 of 103

Latest News

Latest Press Releases