Only 17% get relief using toll lanes on one of most congested CA roads

Link to article here. Note that only 50,000 cars per day can afford to pay $9.50 ONE WAY daily to use the toll lanes down the middle of existing freeway SR 91 in Orange County, CA. It says the total number of cars that use the corridor is 300,000. So only 17% of commuters ever get congestion relief when politicians toll existing freeways. Also of significance is why they're finally widening the free lanes...because it's causing the toll lanes to get backed-up. When profit comes before mobility, the taxpayers consistently LOSE (their shirts)!

One of California's toughest commutes getting relief with 91 Freeway widening

Officials Tuesday will break ground on a $59.5-million project to widen the eastbound 91 Freeway with the hopes of easing congestion for commuters along the heavily traveled stretch between Orange and Riverside counties.

The section through the Santa Ana Canyon has long been considered one of the worst freeway bottlenecks in the nation, connecting bedroom communities in the Inland Empire to job centers in Orange and Los Angeles counties.

The roughly 6-mile-long project will run from the 241 Freeway, a toll road, to the 71 Freeway and will add one lane to the four existing eastbound lanes, excluding two express lanes.

Me-oc-commute3
“The 91 corridor, that’s been one of the toughest puzzles to solve,” said Peter Buffa, chairman of the Orange County Transportation Authority. “There’s 300,000 cars traveling that route each day.”

He said the agency also hopes to eventually widen the freeway in both directions from the 55 Freeway to the 241 toll road. Commuters in that area got another boost this week with today's grand opening of new lanes on the 241 toll road, another route channeling Inland Empire commuters into Orange County.

The “Fast Trak” toll lanes run through the Windy Ridge toll plaza. Some 50,000 commuters pass through that plaza each weekday and the new lanes on the 241 Freeway are supposed to ease traffic flow to and from the 91 Freeway, said Jennifer Seaton of the Transportation Corridor Agencies. Seaton said that stretch of the 91 Freeway east of the 241 Freeway can be “very, very congested” and that the backup affects commuters using the toll road.

Transportation officials have been talking for decades about how to ease the commute between the Inland Empire and Orange County.

More than a decade ago, officials opened toll lanes along a portion of the 91 Freeway, offering less congestion for commuters willing to pay the price. The 241 toll road, which runs from the 91 into South Orange County, was also designed to improve the commute.

The 91 runs through a narrow canyon amid several mountain ranges, making it hard to build additional freeways between the Inland Empire and Orange County. In recent years, planners have talked about tunneling 11.5 miles through the Cleveland National Forest to build a new route, but those plans are still very much in the conceptual stages.

Orange County transportation officials said the bulk of the 91 widening project, $47.9 million, is being funded with federal stimulus dollars and local agencies.

-- Ari B. Bloomekatz

Idaho DOT head fired for reducing cost to taxpayers

Link to article here. We can actually begin to see a trend here...Schwarzenegger tried to oust his own appointee for being critical of giving gravy train contracts to the private sector when it can be done cheaper by the public sector and save taxpayers' money. Bullies all! Our elected officials DO NOT work for us any longer, they work for the high-paid lobbyists who grease the wheels of government.

Former Idaho transportation head sues over firing
AP ONLINE
November 6, 2009
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The former head of the Idaho Transportation Department filed a lawsuit Friday against the agency, saying she was fired in a political power play to help Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter and his big campaign donors.

The lawsuit in 4th District Court claims Pamela Lowe was fired by the Transportation Department board after refusing to bow to threats by governor's aides not to interfere with a contract originally worth $50 million. The contract benefitted URS Corp. and CH2M Hill.

Lowe says Jeff Malmen, the governor's former chief of staff, and Darrell Manning, chairman of the Idaho Transportation Board, grew upset after she told the state Legislature in 2007 she would renegotiate the contract so as much of the work as possible was done by the highway agency's own employees.

"Ms. Lowe was repeatedly warned and harassed by the governor's staff and Mr. Manning about taking work away" from the companies, according to her lawsuit. "Ms. Lowe was not deterred by these threats."

The two engineering companies have given the governor at least $22,000 combined since 2005.

After she refused to resign, Lowe was fired in July. The board cited concerns over "improving customer service, economy of operations, accountability and our relations with the Legislature."

Lowe succeeded in trimming the contract but claims she was fired this year before she could take virtually all the work back from the companies.

She is seeking back pay, reinstatement or compensation in lieu of that, and attorney's fees, according to her lawsuit. No amount is specified.

Jon Hanian, Otter's spokesman, said, "because this is in litigation, we are unable to comment."

Malmen, now a lobbyist at the Idaho Power Co., didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Manning, who previously has said there wasn't a connection between the contract and Lowe's firing, was out of town and couldn't be reached, the transportation department said.

By law, the Idaho Transportation Board can remove its director for "inefficiency, neglect of duty, malfeasance and nonfeasance in office."

But Lowe contends she had received satisfactory performance reviews.

Her lawsuit also contends that a bill introduced in the 2009 state Legislature by state Sen. John McGee, R-Caldwell, was meant "to punish her for cutting CIP's contract." It would have given Otter the power to fire the highway department director.

In a telephone interview, Lowe said agency board members told her they feared McGee's bill would undermine their authority so they relented to pressure to force her out. The board hires the director.

McGee said Friday that he had "a different experience" of what happened but said he can't comment because of the lawsuit.

When he introduced his bill in March, McGee contended he was dissatisfied with Lowe's performance. Some lawmakers also said they didn't trust her agency, citing that as one reason for voting against bills like Otter's proposed $61 million gas tax hike during the 2009 session.

Lowe initially lodged a tort claim against Idaho in August, a notification that she was considering a lawsuit. She hasn't heard from the state since then, she said, and filed this new lawsuit Friday to meet a statutory deadline for whistleblower complaints.

Additional claims, including for gender discrimination, will be added to the lawsuit next week, said Erika Birch, Lowe's attorney.

Lowe doesn't think Idaho has made a serious effort to investigate her claim but said she's gotten messages of support from her former employees at the Transportation Department to press ahead in court.

"That's really helped," she said.

Rendell resurrects attempt to toll I-80 in Pennsylvania

Article from: www.thenewspaper.com/news/29/2955.asp


Pennsylvania Resurrects Plan to Toll Interstate 80 Freeway
Pennsylvania re-files application to add tolls to the Interstate 80 freeway to generate $473 million in revenue.

I-80 Toll roadPennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell (D) has not given up on his dream of adding toll booths on Interstate 80, a freeway that serves as a vital commercial link between New York and Chicago. On October 30, state officials filed an official memorandum to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) reopening the application for permission to toll the 311 mile route in order to help balance the state's budget.

"Without tolls on I-80, state lawmakers and the administration would have to plug a $473 million gap in next year's budget, and that gap will steadily widen," Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission Chief Executive Joe Brimmeier said in a statement.

In July 2008, the FHWA explained that the governor's plan did not appear to meet the requirements of federal law for conversion of a federal interstate into a toll road. The state's new filing with federal transportation officials included further details on the proposal, such as planned locations for electronic toll booths and an extensive financial analysis. The deal, authorized at the state level by Act 44 of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, faces an uncertain future as a number of key political players remain unconvinced that the Turnpike Commission should expand its reach to previously untolled roads.

"This is the same Turnpike Commission that has been the backdrop for several scandals and a slew of indictments," US Representative Glenn 'GT' Thompson (R-Howard) explained in a statement. "Act 44 is a cover-up of years of mismanagement of taxpayer funds and the perpetuation of an antiquated and corrupt Turnpike Commission. This is not fair to the taxpayers in Pennsylvania -- not just along the I-80 corridor, but in the commonwealth as a whole."

An opinion poll taken last year found that 63 percent of voters agreed with Thompson's assessment. A coalition of business groups, the Alliance to Stop I-80 Tolling, formed to coordinate efforts to block the tolling plan.

"There are simply better options that will generate more money with less hardship," coalition co-chairman Vince Matteo said in a statement. "The bottom line is that once gantries are up on I-80, local businesses and communities will be crippled and a harsh inflationary rise will be felt throughout the entire commonwealth economy."

A Grove City College study calculated last month that a 10 cent gas tax increase would raise $600 million at a cost of just 0.5 cents per mile for an average automobile -- far cheaper than the per-mile rate of a toll road that requires expensive overhead to operate (view study).

Big money wants new govt agency just for PPPs


Texas State Representative Carl Isett already introduced a bill, HB 1815, in the last legislative session to do this very thing - create a whole state agency that does nothing but write contracts that sell-off Texas roads to Wall Street in sweetheart deals. This is an abomination for taxpayers and anyone who cares about maintaining control of our public infrastructure. It's obvious the big money wants to control our infrastructure through these toll road monopolies, and we have far too many politicians willing to sell-out Texans to give it to them.

Calls Come for 'Programmatic’ P3 Approach
By Audrey Dutton
Bond Buyer
Tuesday, November 10, 2009

WASHINGTON — Market participants are pushing for states or the federal government to take a “programmatic” rather than a piecemeal or project-by-project approach to financing infrastructure through public-private partnerships.

But states may be better equipped than the federal government to assemble a P3 program, and the Georgia Department of Transportation’s newly launched multi-project P3 initiative could provide a case study, some said last week at The Bond Buyer’s 10th annual Transportation Finance/P3 conference in Dallas.

“Right now it’s too fractured” in the P3-financed infrastructure sector, Chee Mee Hu, managing director for Moody’s Investors Service, said during an interview last week, adding, “It’s almost opportunistic rather than programmatic” how P3s are evolving now in the U.S.

State departments of transportation currently have to do “a lot of footwork” to put together P3 deals and are essentially reinventing the wheel for each project-based partnership, she said.

“One thing we don’t have in a rational way are P3 proponents,” Hu said. “In Canada, they have provincial groups” that focus on P3 programs. The U.S. needs “some agency at the state or federal level” to act as a clearinghouse or design a centralized program for P3s, she said.

Read the rest of the story here.

Toll hikes, sale of toll roads to Wall Street cost NJ Governor re-election


Link to article here.

This ought to send shudders down Rick Perry's spine. The people have spoken in New Jersey and they rejected their pro-toll Governor's scheme to sell the New Jersey turnpike to Wall Street in an asset monetization and privatization scheme that could have increased tolls 800%. Even after he dropped the plan in 2008, Corzine presided over a 40% increase in tolls and another 40% increase planned for 2012. Governor Perry has permanently hitched his wagon to the policy of privatizing and tolling Texas highways which translates into toll taxes of 75 cents per MILE and $3,000/yr on average in NEW taxes on driving.

Folks, this is the BEST news we've had a long while...tolls are NOT a winning political issue at the ballot box. Dump Rick Perry....March can't come fast enough.

N.J. Gov. Corzine hurt most by struggle to deliver on financial promises
By Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger
November 03, 2009

Gov. Jon Corzine never quite fit the profile of a white knight — not with the beard and the bald spot and the predilection for sweater vests — but when he rolled into office four years ago, he seemed a better bet than most to tame New Jersey’s runaway spending and property taxes.

Voters liked his pedigree as one of Wall Street’s brightest lights, a trader who had risen to CEO at Goldman Sachs, a top investment house. Five years in the U.S. Senate added a touch of gravitas and political experience to the package.


One tumultuous term later, as property taxes continue to climb and as residents feel the lingering pinch of the longest national recession since World War II, those same voters have shown Corzine the door.

With his loss tonight to former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, Corzine becomes just the third New Jersey governor in the past 60 years to go down after a single term in office.

Veteran legislators who have worked with Corzine — both in public and behind closed doors — point to a number of reasons for his defeat, but they say none looms larger than the Democratic governor’s struggles to deliver on his signature issues: reining in taxes and firming up the state’s shaky finances.


"The governor promised four years ago there would be a reduction in property taxes. Clearly that hasn’t happened," said Rep. Leonard Lance (R-7th Dist.), a former state senator who has long had a cordial relationship with Corzine. "The income tax has been raised. The sales tax has been raised. We have systemic budgetary problems in New Jersey, and while some headway has been made, a great deal more needs to be done."

Lance, a Christie supporter, was almost sympathetic in his analysis, saying Corzine ran into an economic buzzsaw. New Jersey’s coffers are heavily dependent on high-income taxpayers, who suffered big investment losses and lost their jobs in droves when the recession hit, Lance said. That translates into few tax dollars with which to work.

Corzine did push through property tax reform, capping annual increases at 4 percent, but the average tax bill climbed to more than $7,000 for the first time last year, giving the administration little to crow about.

Others said Corzine badly misread the mood in New Jersey when he floated a plan to pay down state debt by dramatically raising highway tolls. He dropped the initiative after hearing invective — and a few boos and catcalls — at town hall meetings across the state.

"Jon Corzine was never able to connect with New Jerseyans and convince them that his vision of New Jersey should be theirs," said state Sen. Bill Baroni (R-Mercer).

"The toll hike increase, the tax increases and the fact that he was a Wall Street guy at a time when Wall Street was the devil all combined to make him a one-term governor," Baroni said. "I think people saw him as an ethical guy who was trying, but he never connected with them."

In some cases, he had trouble connecting with members of his own party, with whom he went to war early in his tenure over his insistence on a one-cent increase in the sales tax. The result: the first government shutdown in state history. After the fray, some legislators complained Corzine acted as if he were still a chief executive ordering around "junior traders."

The governor ultimately made peace with his party, but with his popularity sinking as the election neared, he faced a near insurrection: Some Democratic leaders wanted to replace him on the ticket, a move that ended when an internal poll showed Newark Mayor Cory Booker wouldn’t fare any better, top Democrats said. Some party leaders even considered abandoning Corzine for Christie after a major corruption bust this summer.

"He was in danger of losing party support," state Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Union) said. "People were looking to jump ship and line up with Christie. That could’ve been a disaster."

Backers say Corzine made important and lasting changes in Trenton, pushing through ethics reforms and killing so-called "Christmas-tree spending," or pork doled out by lawmakers.

But he also had a political blind spot that left him vulnerable to criticism, said Senate President Richard Codey, who served as governor for 14 months. Corzine’s romantic entanglement with former union chief Carla Katz, his decision to bail out of jail a lobbyist accused of stalking the state Democratic chairman, and his huge donations to an influential minister who later endorsed the governor all raised suspicion with voters.

Corzine never understood that, even if his motives were pure, others would view such incidents differently, Codey said.

"The thing is, okay, how does it read?" Codey said. "He didn’t understand the incredibly wide disparity between being a U.S. senator and a governor and the scrutiny that comes every day. You have a life of your own as a U.S. senator, and as a governor you’re in a total fishbowl. You’re the man. Who you have a drink with at night, that’s the story."

Statehouse Bureau reporters Josh Margolin and Claire Heininger contributed to this report.

_______________________________________________________________________
Link to article here.

New Jersey governor says will freeze tolls after saying he'd revive 'monetization' on smaller scale
Posted on Sat, 2009-10-31
Toll Road News

A close political race for state governor in New Jersey, and accusations that incumbent Gov Jon Corzine was reviving his 2006 plan for monetization of the Turnpike produced a commitment to freeze tolls during his next term. "No toll increases, no leasing of the turnpike...Off the table. Not happening, period." That's how Gov Corzine spoke today after tolls became a furore that he judged threatened his re-election.

Gov Corzine, Democrat, is in a close political race with Republican Chris Christie. He was quoted in the New York Times Thursday as saying his previous plan for 'monetizing' the Turnpike based on increases of as much as 800% in toll rates by 2022 was  “too big, too fast, at the wrong time."

The size of toll increases was unacceptable, Corzine said, because of the developing recession.

"Maybe we just need to scale it back..."

But, as reported yesterday by the NY Times, he said "the idea worked” and he added: "So maybe we just need to scale it back.”

In 2008 Corzine said he was abandoning the monetization plan. He couldn't get legislative support. However toll rates were increased by 40% with a commitment then to another 40% increase in 2012.

Corzine had floated mini-monetization before

Gannett's state reporter Michael Symons writes that in a debate at William Paterson University Oct 16 Corzine said:

"There's no question that the plan that I laid down (for monetization of the Turnpike) was too much, too fast for the circumstances, particularly within the context of a recession that we took on.

"But the problems that underlie what we were attempting to accomplish — pay down debt by a half, make sure that we had the resources to be able to fund quality transportation system and to make sure that we provided for open space — was what we had the conversation with the public about."

"We still have to fix those problems. Unattractive alternatives are fundamental to how you will be able to do that. But we need to make sure that we're moving forward and address that."

"New York Times got it wrong"

Today Corzine said the New York Times "got it wrong."

He said he was talking about how "we may raise money out of our reststops on properties that surround the turnpike."
COMMENT: There is no serious extra money in rest stops or land along the New Jersey Turnpike.

Rest stops are already contracted as concessions having been auctioned to the highest bidder.The Turnpike needs more land for widening, and any land it has to sell is low value because of utility easements, traffic noise and difficulties of access.

Most toll authorities periodically look at what land they can sell, and what extra income they can get from non-toll activities in order to avoid unpopular toll increases. There's usually not much there.

Accusing the New York Times of misreporting him is a classic case of shooting the messenger. They appear to have reported him quite accurately. However what he had said suddenly became a political liability, so he needed to "unsay" it by denouncing their quite accurate reporting.

Trend of selling-off public roads to Wall Street goes south

Link to article here.

Privately run infrastructure deals dry up
By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY
October 27, 209

A rush by state and local governments to sell roads, bridges and airports to private operators in return for eye-popping upfront sums has all but collapsed in the recession.
That could leave taxpayers on the hook for more of the $200 billion a year needed to maintain the nation's transportation system, according to federal estimates.

An era of privately operated infrastructure seemed near when Chicago leased its 7-mile Skyway for $1.8 billion in 2003 and Indiana leased a 157-mile toll road for $3.8 billion in 2006, deals that had other governments rushing to cash in, too.

States had proposed selling all kinds of things, from highways to lotteries, to raise $10 billion or more. In return, the private companies would operate the assets during long-term leases and bank the revenue.

The purchase of government assets has all but stopped as credit has dried up. Now, with tax collections falling, state and local governments are scrambling to finance projects.

The biggest casualty so far: a $2.5 billion agreement to sell Chicago's Midway Airport fell apart in June when investors could not round up enough money.

"Investors are skeptical. These are difficult times," says Peter Samuel, editor of Toll Road News, a trade publication. The buyers of the Chicago Skyway and Indiana Toll Road "have lost their shirts," he says.

Earlier this year, Macquarie Infrastructure Group said its toll road investments, which include the Chicago Skyway and Indiana Toll Road, had lost one-third of their value. The investments are made based on long-term, historic trends, company spokesman Alex Doughty says. "In any business, there's likely to be peaks and troughs," he says.

The high-priced deals were great for government, though. Indiana got paid in cash and is using the $3.8 billion to fund 400 road projects.

"We had great timing," Indiana budget director Ryan Kitchell says. "We may never see those types of prices again." Recent dead ends:

•South Carolina. The 16-mile Southern Connector, outside Greenville, announced it will default Jan. 1 on the $312 million borrowed to build the four-lane road. Traffic has been about half what was predicted.

•Pennsylvania. A Citigroup-led investor group withdrew a $12.8 billion offer to buy the 537-mile Pennsylvania Turnpike in September. Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat, had his proposal blocked in the Legislature.

•Florida. "Alligator Alley," a 78-mile section of Interstate 75 that crosses the Everglades, received no bids when the state put it up for auction in May.

A few small deals are still alive. A Florida company has agreed to build and own a $100 million toll bridge in Chesapeake, Va., to replace a closed city-owned bridge. "Without private money, this bridge wouldn't get built any time soon," Chesapeake City Manager William Harrell says.

"These deals aren't dead," says John Schmidt, an adviser on infrastructure deals. "The economic logic makes too much sense." The amount paid in cash may be lower, he says.

Wolff threatens to oust Adkisson as Chair of MPO


In a not so veiled threat, the freshman commissioner on the Bexar County Commissioners Court, Kevin Wolff, whose father is pro-toll County Judge Nelson Wolff, is publicly attacking the senior Commissioner on the Court, Tommy Adkisson, for what Wolff calls "severely lacking" and "myopic" leadership of the MPO, and threatened to remove him as Chair if he doesn't move on from the toll road issue.

“If he doesn't start figuring out that this job is much larger than the narrow, myopic place he's taken it to, I think you'll find a board that says, ‘You know what, we've got to make a change,'” Wolff said.

Apparently Wolff hasn't read the MPO's long-range plan that has no less than 22 toll projects. That sure seems to warrant some focus since the vast majority of those toll roads are in Wolff's precinct and amount to a NEW TAX on his constituents without a vote of the people. Since the majority of the angry taxpayers who filled the Alzafar Shrine Temple at Monday's MPO meeting to testify against toll roads are Wolff's constituents, it also seems wise for Wolff to take heed. Those same attendees heaped praise on Adkisson and are now cursing Wolff, yet he boldly attacks Adkisson in this article.


To clarify, I told this reporter that TxDOT and the RMA are setting themselves up for a third round of litigation by refusing to put a non-toll option on the table, which is legally a different statement than what he placed in the article where he made it sound like it's a "kill tolls or I'm suing" ultimatum.

Tolling IS THE ELEPHANT in the room and has been the MAJOR focus of the MPO since Rick Perry took office. To brush it aside and to brush aside the voices of hundreds of people opposed to tolling who took time out of their busy lives to attend and/or to testify at the MPO ought not be ignored and seems like denying the obvious. Adkisson's point at the outset of Monday's meeting is exactly right....we CAN'T move on as a community until we move past this constant impasse over tolling existing highways. As long as 22 projects are in the MPO's plan, it WILL BE an issue.

By contrast, the other transportation issues at the MPO do NOT involve levying new taxes. The MPO's own public involvement policy is that people should have a say over the transportation decisions that affect their lives. The people overwhelmingly opposed tolling these freeways. The MPO violated it's own policy Monday night. Why doesn't the Express-News print that in the paper?

Web Posted: 10/27/2009
Adkisson shifts focus after losing toll vote

By Josh Baugh - Express-News

Terri Hall knows no defeat.

Monday night's toll road vote by the Metropolitan Planning Organization, she said, wasn't a loss in her crusade against toll plans in Bexar County.

That the proposal to strip toll plans from segments of U.S. 281 and Loop 1604 was shot down by a 13-5 vote wasn't a surprise to Hall. The MPO board held a “roll call” vote, Hall said, and now there's an official record of how each MPO member — 11 of whom are elected officials — stands on toll roads.

Read the rest of the story here.

TxDOT uses up funds for Wurzbach instead of 281, 1604

Even residents who want Wurzbach Pkwy finished admit this is a bad case of misplaced priorities. Even a casual observer can see the traffic is far more acute on 281, 1604 than Wurzbach. TxDOT is advancing Wurzbach for Prop 12 bonds BEFORE the MPO has even formulated a project priority list to submit for Prop 12 bonds. Once again, TxDOT races to use up ALL available funding (gas tax, Prop 14 bonds, Texas Mobility Funds, stimulus funds, Prop 12 bonds) to fix 281, 1604 so it can continue to claim there's no money and toll our existing FREEways!

However, the MPO just voted down an amendment to fund the most congested segment of 1604 (from 151 to Bandera Rd) using Prop 12 bonds last Monday. So it's clear our politicians have no interest in fixing these freeways and keeping them toll-free. Also of note is the fact that costs are at their lowest in years due to the downturn in the economy. TxDOT's Clay Smith says so: "In August, TxDOT officials estimated the project would cost $170 million. But Smith said costs have dropped recently and construction bids have come in lower. He also said he believes the project could be completed within the budget the transportation commission would approve." Over half of 281 or the west side of 1604 could be fixed with $126 million!


Web Posted: 10/30/2009

Wurzbach Parkway's finish may be near


By Josh Baugh
Express-News

By next summer, the Texas Department of Transportation could at last begin finishing Wurzbach Parkway, adding an east-west connector expected to relieve congestion on Loop 1604 and Loop 410.

The Texas Transportation Commission on Thursday reviewed a list of 78 projects — including the parkway and an expensive expansion of Interstate 35 in Hill, McLennan and Bell counties — that would be funded by proceeds from Proposition 12 bonds approved by voters in 2007. Commissioners are expected to vote on the package in November.

Last summer, TxDOT began updating its environmental study on the parkway despite an absence of funding. Officials wanted it to be “shovel-ready” in the event any more federal stimulus funds became available.

That hasn't happened.

Read the rest of the story here.

TxDOT plans to use more than HALF Prop 12 bonds on I-35 in Central Texas

Link to article here.

This is punishment for Texans daring to slay the Trans Texas Corridor, TTC-35 project. As retaliation, Rick Perry's Transportation Commission is going to use more than half of the Prop 12 bonds to expand I-35 (the parts that aren't even the most congested as they are in Austin and DFW) since he can't get his Trans Texas Corridor built. The Legislature passed the Prop 12 bonds to help give urban areas relief without needing toll roads. Now, as usual, that's not what TxDOT is doing....

State transportation officals recommend more than a billion dollars for widening Interstate 35 in Central Texas

By Michael W. Shapiro Tribune-Herald staff writer

Friday, October 30, 2009

Calling Interstate 35 the most important corridor in Texas, state transportation officials took an important step Thursday toward paying to widen several four-lane stretches of the highway in and around McLennan County.

At a meeting in Fort Worth, Texas Department of Transportation staffers recommended the Texas Transportation Commission put $2 billion toward road construction statewide. More than half of that total would go to widening portions of I-35 in McLennan, Bell and Hill counties from four to six lanes.

The recommendations aren’t final, and the five-member commission won’t vote on the projects until a Nov. 19 meeting in Austin. But Commissioner Bill Meadows made an oral demonstration of the importance of the highway.

“We all know it: I-35 arguably is the single most important travel corridor in the state of Texas,” Meadows told The Dallas Morning News.

Though plans for the Trans-Texas Corridor, a proposed network of toll roads running parallel to I-35, have floundered, Meadows said that “does not negate the fact that it is a critical problem we have to face every day.”

The portions of I-35 listed for widening in the recommendation and the estimated costs of the projects are:

* About 13 miles between North Loop 340 and West ($212 million).

* About nine miles between Farm-to-Market Road 2063 in Hewitt and Woodlawn Road near Bruceville-Eddy ($192 million).

* Another $679 million for four projects widening the interstate from West to Abbott; from Bruceville-Eddy to Troy; from Troy to north Temple; and through much of Salado.

The projects would be financed with Proposition 12 bonds. Proposition 12 was approved by voter referendum in 2007, allowing the state to borrow up to $5 billion for road projects. The money is to be paid back using general state revenue, not gas taxes.

For Waco Metropolitan Planning Organization director Chris Evilia, the development came as a relief after several rounds of belt-tightening forced local planners to cut back a series of construction projects.

“It’s excellent news, and we’re very pleased to hear it,” Evilia said.

He said he’s hopeful the Transportation Commission follows its staff’s advice and approves the widening projects, noting that “obviously the recommendation will carry some weight with the commission.”

Chris Lippincott, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation who was at the Fort Worth meeting, said the chances the commission will move forward on the I-35 widenings, while not certain, are “pretty good.”

“The commission understands the urgency of advancing these projects,” he said.

Gilbert only gubernatorial candidate with transportation plan

Link to article here. Hank Gilbert is a Board member for Texas TURF. He's fought alongside us to stop the Trans Texas Corridor and toll road proliferation for more than 4 years. He was instrumental in KILLING private toll road contracts (where they sell our TX roads to the highest bidder on Wall Street and hand them over to foreign companies) in the special session and protecting teacher and public employee retirement funds from being raided for these risky toll road deals that are failing all over the country.

Hank Gilbert has transportation specifics

    8:15 PM Thu, Oct 29, 2009 | Permalink | Yahoo! Buzz
Rodger Jones/Editorial Writer      Bio |    E-mail  |  News tips
gilbert.jpg

Unlike other candidates for governor who are looking to knock off Rick Perry, Hank Gilbert has a detailed proposal for transportation. The East Texas rancher has been battling against the Trans-Texas Corridor concept for years, so it stands to reason that anti-tolling is at the heart of the plan the Tyler Democrat announced today.

The most remarkable item is on the bottom of page 10 of a 10-page pdf. It says:

Hank proposes a one time increase in the gas tax of 8 cents and implementing automatic increases in the gas tax annually from 2012 forward based on increases in the Highway Cost Index (HCI), with a four percent cap on any annual increase. Should the HCI increase by more than 4% in any year, the balance would carry forward to the next year and be added to any increase for that year.
In years where there is a zero or negative increase in the HCI, revenue generated from carryovers would go toward reducing TxDOT's existing debt. This is the only way we can build out the infrastructure Texas desperately needs and restore fiscal responsibility to transportation funding without incurring massive new debts that will burden this state for decades to come.

At least Gilbert has the guts to own up to the cost of building and maintaining a first-class transportation system. Tom Schieffer came out critical of an 8-cent increase today but neglected to make clear that he was responding to his Democratic rival. We have yet to see a fleshed-out Schieffer plan, however.

Gilbert's hostility to toll roads makes sense only if a higher gas tax would raise enough money to build the projects we need. Without lots of new money, this metro area can't keep up without tolls.

The giant LBJ rebuild and North Tarrant Express project, for example, could never go forward without outside money and tolls, under the current revenue picture.

If a governor could squeeze that kind of tax money out of the Legislature, he or she would be a miracle worker. And it might take a miracle for a person to get elected while calling for a tax increase. Lots of political leaders thinks it's needed, but few of them will admit it publicly.

One thing I like is Gilbert's call for state money to help build mass transit systems.

One thing I hate is Gilbert's idea for an elected transportation commission. We don't need more politics in transportation policy.

________________________________________________________________________________

Will voters buy a tax increase for roads?

    12:30 PM Fri, Oct 30, 2009 | Permalink
Rodger Jones/Editorial Writer      Bio |    E-mail  |  Suggest a blog topic
gilbert (Small).jpg

And maybe put a guy like Hank Gilbert in the governor's office?

The rancher Democrat announced his transportation plan yesterday in Fort Worth, including an 8-cent gas-tax hike and permanent indexing of the tax to cost of construction.

It came on the same day as doomsday scenarios laid out elsewhere in Fort Worth, before the Texas Transportation Commission. Money for roads continues to slide by the billions as cars use less fuel.

Coincidentally, regional transportation guru Michael Morris suggested to commissioners that traffic and roads might get so bad that voters could end up supporting raising taxes for roads.

Enter Gilbert. Does he have a chance with voters with his tax plan, as Morris might suggest? One trade-off Gilbert offering is to make it very tough to get more toll roads built. He has strong backing of anti-tollers across the state.

Gilbert said his gas tax plan would cost the average commuter between $1.20 and $1.60 a fillup. Say that's $10 a month for a lot of people. It could sound like a bargain for those who pay as much in tolls as they do to the electric company each month. A Frisco resident who commutes downtown on the tollway pays more than $8 a day if they have a TollTag.

Other things to like about Gilbert from the standpoint of local transportation officials: He is bullish on mass transit. (Aside: That could win him points with this newspaper's editorial board, considering our years-long push for expanding regional rail transit.)

The Gilbert plan says:

Improving and further integrating additional transit models into Texas' transportation infrastructure makes both financial and environmental sense. Hank proposes making more state funds available to cities to improve existing transit systems in the state's major metropolitan areas.
Hank also proposes funding more "ring line" transit routes and commuter/light rail systems to allow commuters to travel around a city's center without going through it, and connecting these ring lines to existing transportation infrastructure to make public transportation more efficient and consumer-friendly. ...

Hank proposes expanded high speed commuter rail lines. Hank proposes funding to allow cities with large suburban populations to create (or expand) commuter rail to help commuters get in and out of major metro areas faster and more efficiently.

Like it or not, Gilbert has the only transportation plan out there among challengers to Rick Perry from either party.

Throw the bums out! San Antonio MPO votes to toll AGAIN...

More details to come, but here's the list of the MPO members who voted to toll your EXISTING FREEWAYS despite 800 people packing the room and one hundred testifying AGAINST tolls. In total there was five and a half hours of testimony against tolling our existing freeways, 13 MPO Board members still voted in favor. Only 7 people testified in favor of tolls, and they were the Greater Chamber of Commerce, the North Chamber of Commerce and those who work for the highway lobby. It was over 90% AGAINST tolls. This should sound the alarm quite clearly that our elected officials no longer represent us. It's taxation without representation!

Let's issue pink slips to the elected officials and FAST!

Senator Jeff Wentworth

Commissioner Kevin Wolff

Commissioner Chico Rodriguez

Councilman John Clamp

Councilman Ray Lopez

Councilman (of Selma) William Weeper

Plus City appointees:

Mary Briseno (Via)

Rick Pych (Via)

Majed Al-Ghafrey

Mike Frisbie

(2) TxDOT votes

Joe Aceves (county employee)
______________________________________________________________________________

GOOD GUYS WHO VOTED AGAINST:

State Representative David Leibowitz

Commissioner Tommy Adkisson

Mayor of Leon Valley Chris Riley

Councilwoman Jennifer Ramos

Councilman Reed Williams

MPO MUST vote to keep our freeways toll-free!


Link to article here.

Board must vote down NEW taxes to drive on 281, 1604
By Terri Hall
Published in Express-News & the Examiner
Oct 25, 2009
What began as a taxpayer revolt like the Boston Tea Party over four years ago known as the San Antonio Toll Party (later going statewide as Texas TURF), will culminate in a decisive meeting of the Metropolitan Planning Organization (or MPO, local board set-up by federal law that allocates highway dollars to local projects) tomorrow night at the Alzafar Shrine Auditorium at 6:00 PM. After petition drives, packing public hearings, grassroots organizing, working for change at the MPO and in the Texas Legislature, and even a recall campaign, angry taxpayers who oppose imposing tolls on our existing freeways (already built and paid for with gas taxes) will have a shot at reversing course tomorrow night.

In July of 2004, the MPO voted to convert 281 (north of 1604) and the entire northern loop of 1604 (from 151 on the west side to I-10 on the east side) into toll roads. Since then, parts of I-35, I-10, Bandera Rd., and Wurzbach Pkwy have been added to the toll plans. The voters have NEVER had a say about whether or not they approve of this new tax for driving on northside freeways, the lifeblood of daily living. We still aren't getting a vote, but many of the elected officials on the MPO represent residents who live and work near 281 and 1604, and they need to HEAR FROM YOU and SEE YOU at tomorrow's meeting at Alzafar Shrine.

The Express-News calls a non-toll plan for 281 and segments of 1604 the "Adkisson-Hall" plan, but the non-toll plan to fix 281 is TxDOT's plan promised in public hearings in 2001 ( see www.281overpassesnow.com for proof). TxDOT recently disavowed its own plan that had $100 million in gas taxes to fix the freeway (the gas taxes inexplicably disappeared last year), and said it was "old" based on an engineering study from 1984 that it now "can't find."

Converting freeways to tollways -- a DOUBLE TAX

Schematics for the lanes planned by the tolling authority (the RMA) for 281 and parts of 1604 clearly demonstrate that access roads, not conventional highway lanes, will be the only non-toll lanes if these freeways are converted to tollways. Tolled lanes are clearly overlaid onto the existing free lanes on 281, which under the RMA's plans will no longer be free. This violates Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison's federal law that prohibits imposing tolls on existing highway lanes, a practice that wrought the term DOUBLE TAXATION. Commuters should NEVER have to pay NEW taxes to drive on a freeway their tax dollars have already built and paid for (at a cost of $2,000-$3,000 a year on average)!

Today's Express-News story explains how the MPO specifically asked for a side-by-side comparison of TxDOT's original non-toll plan for US 281 and the RMA's current toll plan, and after three meetings, none was provided. However, TxDOT's Clay Smith made the case that a 2005 proposal by Zachry, for what was to be the first phase of the toll road on 281, was a valid plan and testified that the Zachry bid of $78 million for the first 3 miles (which went to contract) is the REAL cost of improving 281.

Rick Perry's TxDOT in total rebellion, refuses to do non-toll fix on 281

After a complete failure by the MPO Committee tasked with providing the board vital detailed information about toll and non-toll options, Good Guy Commissioner Tommy Adkisson, Chair of the MPO, asked TxDOT to sponsor a non-toll option for 281 using the 2005 Zachry proposal (changing the highway lanes to free lanes versus all-tolled) for the Board's consideration at tomorrow's big meeting. TxDOT REFUSED to do that, too! Read it here.

If this doesn't demonstrate the complete obstinance of this out of control agency, I don't know what does. All the while they and the RMA, who are conducting what's required to be a new unbiased environmental study of both tolled and non-tolled options, claim to be studying a non-toll option for both 281 and 1604. Yeah right!

It's high time the MPO shows these un-elected agencies who's boss, and insist a non-toll plan be implemented NOW! Exacerbating the long-standing problems with the San Antonio-Bexar County MPO, nearly half, 9 of its 19 members, are also UN-ELECTED, unlike MPOs around the state that average 2 unelected members. These rogue agencies have the pecking order reversed...it's the MPO who directs TxDOT and the RMA what to do, not the other way around.

Claims of insufficient info is a ruse

Members of the MPO Board cannot claim they do not have data for a non-toll option on 281 upon which to base a decision tomorrow when TxDOT just testified October 9 that the 2005 Zachry plan and cost are valid. This plan was previously vetted by the MPO and actually went to contract. The total cost to fix 281 from 1604 to the Bexar County line (7.8 miles total) using Zachry's hard numbers to get a cost per mile ($26 million per mile) comes to $202.8 million, nowhere near the tolling authority's $475 million toll road cost. Just for the interest on PART of the toll road debt comes to a whopping $864 million over 40 years. That makes the minimum toll project cost $1.3 billion. RMA documents also affirm the toll tax will NEVER come off the road when the debt is repaid, so it's a permanent new tax on driving!

On Monday, October 19, 2009, the RMA testified that they plan to enter into risky multi-leveraged debt financing of the Texas Mobility Fund money in order to finance the toll road. This is the sort of multi-leveraging (like taking out second, third and fourth mortgages on our highway system) that created the current global financial meltdown, and which the Texas Legislature rightly rejected during the special session in order to prevent TxDOT from doing so. Will the MPO allow such reckless financial schemes by the Bexar County RMA that racks-up unsustainable debt?

The 281 market value study shows that the toll plan requires 200,000 cars per day in the out years just to stay financially solvent (versus today's 86,000 cars per day, on average). This level of traffic guarantees ongoing legal battles over environmental impacts to our aquifer.

Some also claim all options must remain on the table, however, the ONLY option currently on the table in the MPO plans are toll roads. So a vote for the status quo is a vote for toll roads. If you care to see who's using YOUR taxpayer money to lobby for a new tax on driving on the northside, read about the partially tax-funded San Antonio Mobility Coalition, the chief lobbyists for toll roads and its list of road contractors and financiers who have a vested interest in raiding your wallet on risky toll road schemes here.

Skiddish MPO board members seem to be holding 281 and 1604 to a different standard and different level of scrutiny than when these plans were adopted as toll plans. For instance, when the project cost for 281 went from a $100 million freeway plan in 2004 dollars to a $475 million toll road by 2006, no one questioned it. Now when the taxpayers seek accountability for the "lost" $100 million in gas taxes that were promised to fix 281 and insist the non-toll fix be restored, board members shudder at a cost reduction and want more "data"?

RMA's risky toll road financing scheme a house of cards

None of the RMA's toll road plans on 281 and 1604 are toll viable, meaning they already know not enough people can afford to take the toll roads to even cover the cost of construction, so it needs to SUBSIDIZE them with MASSIVE amounts of public money. The RMA couldn't even secure all the subsidies it needed for 281 last year before the environmental clearance got yanked, and at one point was considering an additional loan, this one for $95 million that would have required $700 million in interest!

It also sought $135 million in stimulus funds to subsidize the 281 toll road before the public outcry ensued over such TRIPLE TAXATION: gas taxes already paid for existing lanes, they planned to use more tax money (stimulus money) to turn existing lanes into toll lanes, and then charge a third tax, toll tax to drive on it. Bottom line: the RMA can't show how it will finance its toll road other than to use the word "leveraging" a bunch of times and basically say "trust us."

Can they name investors who will finance a start-up toll entity with a BBB rating (one step above junk bond status) using extremely risky multi-leveraging scenarios (using borrowed money to leverage another loan to get more borrowed money to use as down payments to "secure" yet more borrowed money and so on multiple times over) with this tight credit market where ratings agencies have gone sour on toll roads that are going into default all over the country? This is the rock solid "data" the RMA has provided to finance it's $1.3 billion toll road that some MPO members argue they're more comfortable keeping in place than a $202 million non-toll fix? What's wrong with this picture? Politics and BIG MONEY!

Insist our elected officials stop playing politics with people's lives, end the controversy and legal wrangling, and get our community moving forward again by voting against these ill-conceived plans to turn our freeways into tollways. Those being held hostage in congestion EVERY DAY because of TxDOT's mismanagement of funds and two environmental studies (one inadequate, the other fraudulent) that caused the clearance to be pulled on 281 twice (then later affecting 1604), deserve better.

Contact MPO Board members here: www.FixGridlock.com.

Be at Alzafar Shrine Auditorium Monday, October 26, at 6 PM and make your voices heard or be tolled!

Burka: Raising the gas tax?

Link to article here.

Senate Transportation Chair John Carona: Modestly raising the gas tax "is the most fiscally conservative way to build our Texas roads."

Raise the gasoline tax?
Texas Monthly
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
posted by paulburka at 4:13 PM

In the comments to my earlier post, “Dewhurst hits bottom,” referring to the light gov’s op-ed piece in today’s American Statesman, I wrote about what I would have done to close the budget deficit. One of my recommendations would be to raise the gasoline tax, index it to inflation, and issue bonds on the revenue.

This suggestion generated a response from the TxDOT camp. It is worth a discussion:

Paul, you really believe raising the gas tax and indexing to inflation will provide any additional funding?

It would need to be raised to about $1.50 per gallon immediately to fund current transportation projects and then raised very frequently. With the current TX population boom, projects will increase, and so will the need for funds. Eventually (soon), folks would stop paying $4 or $5 per gallon (carpool, public transit, etc.), and then the tax would be raised even more to account for lost revenue.

This is not to mention the additional dollars per gallon the gas tax would need to be raised to deal with more fuel-efficient vehicles that offset revenue (and they’re getting more MPG all the time).

Relying on the gas tax is not an option. It would very quickly be raised so high that goods will stop moving across Texas, businesses will relocate to cheaper gas tax states, and our economy would quickly collapse.

I completely disagree that the gasoline tax has lost its viability as a source of revenue for building highways.

If we raised the tax by 50% (ten cents per gallon), and dedicated all the new revenue to roads (no diversions), it would raise about an extra $1.4 billion. That may not sound like a lot, but it would more than double the available baseline funding — and if you index to inflation and add bonding ability, the ability to build roads grows accordingly.

I find it incredible that TxDOT and its supporters are still clinging to Ric Williamson’s projection that the gasoline tax would have to be raised to $1.50 per gallon. Nonsense. TxDOT couldn’t spend that kind of money if you drove up a Brinks truck and handed it to them. The $2.4B could clear up a lot of urban congestion: Loop 1604 in San Antonio, which needs a third lane going both directions; Highway 290 east out of Austin (probably tolled); U.S. 67 out of the Metroplex toward Cleburne; and these would be free roads. And that’s this year. Next year there another $2.4B would be on the way.

It is true that fuel efficient cars have reduced the revenue raising capacity of the gasoline tax. But that doesn’t mean that the tax is no longer viable, or that it has to be raised to $1.50 to get anything done, or that if you increase the gas tax our economy would collapse. Nobody believes that stuff any more. TxDOT has cried wolf too often.

I think that the prospects are decent for the Legislature to raise the gasoline tax next session. Dan Patrick, for example, has said that he would support a statewide increase (although he opposes a local-option gas tax). This is something that can get done, with a little leadership. Unfortunately, that’s something we haven’t had much of.

________________________________________________________

October 21st, 2009 at 5:23 pm

 
State Senator John Carona says:

Look, folks. Paul Burka is right on this one. As Chairman of the Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security, I can attest that the only near-term answer to the transportation funding dilemma we are facing is to raise and index the gas tax. Stopping the diversion of gas tax revenues for other legislative purposes, as is long overdue, will not alone solve the problem.  
Calls from naysayers indicating that the tax would have to be raised to $1.50/gal are ill-informed. The Governor’s Business Council, a blue ribbon panel of Perry invitees, told the Legislature over three years ago that the shortage of roadway dollars (estimated then at $60-90 billion dollars, depending upon whomever you believe) could be corrected by a modest (ten cents per gallon) gas tax increase, indexed to annual inflation in highway construction costs, and then bonded against. Those who speak otherwise share misinformation and are sending us into a massive network of privately-operated toll roads which will cost the average driver exponentially more than simply raising the gas tax.

 
The motor fuels (gas) tax is a credible source of transportation funding for at least the next 20 years. Based upon careful study, it is by far the most fiscally conservative way to build our Texas roads. The persons who most often criticize it are politicians doing their level best to avoid any sort of “tax increase” on their political record. Where, fellow drivers, is the statesmanship in that?

Hogs at the trough lobby MPO to keep 281, 1604 toll roads

Let's keep the hogs at the public trough from raising our taxes by pushing to impose tolls on existing freeways for their personal profiteering! Fight back by emailing the MPO here. Phone numbers to elected officials on the MPO and information on the October 26 MPO meeting where they'll decide whether or not to keep 281, 1604 toll roads or fix them as freeways are at www.FixGridlock.com


If you want to see who is paying the San Antonio Mobility Coalition (SAMCo) to lobby AGAINST the taxpayers go here.
__________________________________________________________________________

In yet another glaring example of taxpayer-funded lobbying, the San Antonio Mobility Coalition (SAMCo), a coalition of over 70 private companies who profit from road building, has sent out multiple email blasts encouraging its members to lobby the MPO to keep 281 and 1604 toll roads. The emails also contain blatantly erroneous and even libelous information as well as glaring examples of "the sky is falling" hysteria.

Let's not forget that SAMCo is also supported by dues from the City of San Antonio and Bexar County. The County has contributed in excess of $250,000 since 2005. SAMCo is chaired by none other than pro-toll Terrell McCombs, with Jim Reed of the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority (ARMA, the tolling authority) as an officer. Guess who else sits on the Executive Committee? Mayor Julian Castro and Councilman John Clamp (who also serves on the MPO). Good Guy Commissioner Adkisson is also on the Executive Committee since the MPO Chair has an automatic seat (I believe its the same for the Mayor and County Judge). But after you read SAMCo's email, I don't think you'd fault Commissioner Adkisson for not attending the meetings or supporting this organization.

SAMCo Members:

On October 19 and 26, the Bexar County/San Antonio MPO will host two special meetings to consider revisions to the project descriptions and funding sources for the US 281 North and Loop 1604 Projects.

Specifically, the MPO Policy Board will receive testimony on a proposal by Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson and Comal County resident Terri Hall to eliminate toll financing as an option for funding US 281, Loop 1604, or other projects in Bexar County.

Instead, the Commissioner and Ms. Hall have proposed a plan for US 281 and Loop 1604 that provides far less congestion relief for motorists,  eliminates two-thirds of new lanes along Loop 1604, truncates US 281, makes faulty funding assumptions, and risks losing San Antonio’s existing federal stimulus funding.

After considered review, we believe the MPO Policy Board should reject the Adkisson/Hall plan for the following reasons:

1)      The plan completely removes 16.33 miles of Loop 1604 improvements between Bandera Road and Redland Road, leaving motorists stuck in traffic near I-10, US 281, UTSA, and other key corridor segments.

2)      The plan will result in a substantial reduction in scope for the US 281 North by reducing funding from $475 to $200 million.  The plan does not address how the project would be re-engineered to reflect a funding reduction of 58 percent.

3)      The plan risks losing $216 million in Texas Mobility Fund (TMF) dollars that have been reserved by TxDOT for Loop 1604 and US 281 as leveraged (i.e. tolled) projects.  Because the Commission (TxDOT) has required projects in other urban regions to meet TMF  leveraging requirements, we believe it is extremely doubtful that the Commission would make an exception for San Antonio that would expose TxDOT to charges of favoritism and unfairness.

4)      The plan risks losing $140 million in federal stimulus (ARRA) and Prop 14 dollars awarded specifically for the US 281/Loop 1604 Interchange.  The plan unilaterally diverts $60 million in Prop 14 dollars from the Interchange to  US 281 North and attempts to substitute a similar amount of TMF dollars in its place – also likely to be rejected due to leverage requirements and other technical issues.  With the Interchange no longer fully funded, Commissioners would have little option but to transfer the $140 million to the next eligible “shovel ready” project on the statewide federal stimulus list developed by TxDOT last February.  This might not be in San Antonio.

5)      The plan assumes the Transportation Commission will allocate $200 million in Proposition 12 dollars to Loop 1604.  As of today’s date, the Commission has yet to determine how $1 billion available from Prop 12 dollars for the current biennium will be allocated.  Based on last month’s Commission workshop, it appears that much of this funding will be allocated to safety/maintenance projects and to statewide connectivity (for example I-35 north of Waco).   Whatever remains for  “urban mobility” will likely be awarded through a competitive call for projects.

6)      The plan is not geographically balanced and  fails to provide a system-wide solution for congestion, focusing only on small parts of US 281 and Loop 1604 and leaving little or no funding for transportation improvements in other part of San Antonio and Bexar County.

Since our inception in 2001, SAMCo has supported introduction of new and expanded funding tools and approaches – including tolling as a funding option of last resort - to address declining levels of traditional state and federal funding.

In an era of increasing uncertainty regarding future available funding and with more than $19 billion in unmet transportation needs for our region by 2030 (2006 MPO estimate), we would urge members of the Bexar County/San Antonio MPO Transportation Policy Board to:

1)      Retain all funding options in the MPO’s future plans for US 281, Loop 1604, and other added capacity projects;

2)      Support the ongoing Alamo RMA Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) processes for US 281 and Loop 1604, which will include development of both toll and non-toll options.   With two or more years of intense study still ahead, there is no need at this time to pre-determine the outcome or eliminate any particular option;

3)      Reject any plan that does not provide a system-wide solution or that creates a significant geographic imbalance in how the MPO’s transportation funds are allocated.

4)      Continue to support local option legislation, federal and state motor fuels increases/indexing, and creation of other new revenue sources to provide potential new funding for San Antonio projects;

5)      Continue to support development of “Super Street” projects along both US 281 North and Loop 1604 (west) to provide some measure of temporary relief while the longer term studies are being completed.


How SAMCo members/partners can help:

1)      Attend the October 19 and 26 public meetings Click here for details and register to say a few brief words In support of keeping all funding options on the table.

2)      Strongly encourage your co-workers, employees, business associates, friends, neighbors, etc. to do the same.  It is important that the MPO Policy Board see that there is broad-based support for moving forward with these mobility projects and approaches. Consider car-pooling to the meetings, especially the evening of October 26.

3)      Send a brief one or two sentence email to the MPO Policy Board letting them know you support:
a.       Retaining all available options to fund US 281, Loop 1604, and future mobility projects
b.      A system wide solution, not just a solution that only addresses a few selected miles
c.       Moving forward with the Alamo RMA’s Environmental Processes for US 281 and Loop 1604
d.      Anything else you might want to add to personalize your email
e.      Just cut and paste the following email addresses for all voting and ex-officio (nonvoting) MPO members:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

4)      We will continue to provide updates as this issue evolves.

A small minority has dominated this issue for too long, with significant consequences for San Antonio’s quality of life and economic future.   It is time to change that.

Thank you in advance for your assistance in this effort.

Vic


Victor M. Boyer
Executive Director
San Antonio Mobility Coalition, Inc. (SAMCo)
13526 George Road #107
San Antonio, TX 78230
(210) 688-4407 - Phone
(210) 688-4507 - Fax
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
_______________________________________________________________________

Our response to this vitriolic email from SAMCo:
There are glaring inaccuracies in Vic Boyer's email (above). First of all, the non-toll plan is not Commissioner Adkisson's or my plan, it's TxDOT's plan promised to the public in hearings in 2001. It doesn't risk stimulus money, and, in fact, the RMA seeking an environmental exemption on the interchange and it's failure to coordinate with the City of Hollywood Park risks losing stimulus money far more than shifting pots of money ever could. They've been warned from day one that how ever they design the interchange will pre-determine what it connects to in the future (either a future toll road or non-toll lanes), and will prejudice both the 281 and 1604 environmental studies (that require all alternatives to be studied). The RMA's vacillation on the promise to build the entire interchange non-toll, only to abandon the northbound ramps, makes their intent to impose tolls in the future on 281 abundantly clear.

The non-toll amendment before the MPO only affects 281 north and the west side of 1604 (by Braun Rd) and uses money already allocated to those roadways and DOES NOT take money from other projects. San Antonio can expect about 10% of the Prop 12 monies to come to our region. TxDOT is trying to advance Wurzbach Pkwy for that money, which is far less congested than both 281 and 1604 west. By TxDOT's own admission, if a reasonable source of revenue can be identified (in this case Prop 12 and Texas Mobility Funds which have already been allocated to 281/1604), it's sufficient to place it into the short range and long range plans at the MPO.

The eventual pot of money may change. In addition, the Texas Mobility Funds DO NOT REQUIRE leveraging or tolling. The Transportation Commission's own Minute Order shows in black and white that Texas Mobility Funds can be used for FREEways and that it's not necessary to toll a road to get access to them. It's also possible to meet the bogus leveraging requirement for the Texas Mobility Funds with a different source of revenue (instead of Prop 14 bonds), which Commissioner Adkisson is working on (with next to no cooperation from any of the agencies).

By comparison, virtually every segment of the current toll plans are not funded either, and make financial assumptions that cannot be substantiated. To assume massive leveraged debt to fix the entire northside at one time is reckless. This proposed toll system is unsustainable and requires MULTI-BILLIONS to be sucked out of our local economy, money that now goes to support local restaurants, stores, hotels, movie theaters will now have to go to transportation costs that few in San Antonio can afford. If they could, the toll road would pay for itself and not need to be subsidized with public money!
San Antonio cannot afford the interest on $900 million of debt for the 1604 toll road and the $864 million in interest just for the 281 toll project (not counting the interest on the other loans proposed to subsidize the 281 project). I'll be 90 years old when these tollways would be be paid off, if they're EVER paid for before going into default (which just happened in South Carolina). What on earth are we doing? In addition, the non-compete agreements that prohibit or penalize the region for expanding or building any new free lanes surrounding the tollways for up to 50 years at a time is plain malfeasance. That means Stone Oak Pkwy, Bulverde Rd., Blanco Rd., Braun Rd., Shaenfield, Culebra, Bander, etc.

The MPO is an equal player in transportation decision-making along with the FHWA and Transportation Commission. Though under Rick Perry Transportation Commission decisions have become highly politicized and bullying and threats have ruled the day, ultimately, these roads cannot be tolled if the MPO votes to make them non-tolled. Let's not forget Perry is a heated primary battle and has already retreated on the Trans Texas Corridor because "there was no political support for it." Well, clearly there has been no political support for tolling our existing freeways in San Antonio either.

So it's pure hogwash to say the non-toll options will cause the sky to fall. This is pure politics. We can have an endless impasse and get nothing done, or we can move this community forward.
Contact your city, county, and state elected officials and MPO Board members NOW to tell them to VOTE NO TO TOLLS and fix our freeways without TOLLS!

Press coverage on Prop 11, establishment ready to accept crumbs

Link to article here.

Prop 11 stirs eminent domain debate
 

10/17/2009

By KELLEY SHANNON  / Associated Press


A proposition banning governments from taking Texans' property for private development is last on the Nov. 3 ballot but is getting ample attention from the Republican candidates for governor, farmers and anti-toll road activists.

Prop 11 would ban state government from taking private property and giving it to a private developer to boost the local tax base, its supporters say. Property could still be seized if it's used by the government or the public at large or to eliminate "urban blight," according to the proposed language approved by two-thirds margins in the Texas House and Senate.

The proposed constitutional amendment, one of 11 on the November ballot, also would limit the Legislature's authority in granting eminent domain power in the future.

With early voting beginning Monday, Gov. Rick Perry is on the same side as the Texas Farm Bureau and his Republican primary opponent, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, in promoting the proposition even though the Farm Bureau and Perry have been at odds over private property rights in connection with Perry's now-dead plan to build a Trans-Texas Corridor toll road across the state.

For Perry, it's a chance to cast himself as a protector of private property before the March primary.

"I hope you'll work with us. We're going to be very actively engaged in drawing attention to Proposition 11," Perry told the Texas Association of Realtors last week. He said the proposed amendment would require public "ownership, use and enjoyment" of property.

"So they can't turn and hand it over to somebody in the private sector," he said.

Look for Perry to campaign for the proposition this coming week.

Hutchison also plans to promote it at campaign events. She recently won the farm bureau's endorsement after opposing Perry's Trans-Texas Corridor, which would have seized private farm and ranch land for government use. Prop 11 wouldn't stop governments from seizing property for public roads.

Hutchison said Prop 11 is an important step toward protecting private property rights and "is the beginning of Texas' badly needed eminent domain reform that I will help finish as governor."

Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples and a long list of state officials are taking part in a campaign to win passage of the proposition.

Opposing Prop 11 is Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, a property rights, anti-toll road group. The proposed amendment leaves loopholes for seizing property for economic development and does not address questions like diminished access to land that remains after an eminent domain seizure or relocation assistance for people displaced from their land, said Terri Hall, founder and director of TURF.

"I think it's wide open for lots of chicanery," Hall said. "They can take your land for who knows what (reason)."

The Texas Farm Bureau's 421,000 members want even tougher eminent domain laws, including one to address diminished access, and got crossways with Perry over his 2007 veto of a bill that rural property owners said would have protected them from eminent domain for private uses.

Perry said he rejected the measure because it was loaded up with "personal interest legislation" and high costs for taxpayers. He said he didn't like that the bill would have expanded damages a landowner could recover to include reduced access to property when other nearby property is condemned — that provision the farm bureau still wants.

Much of the November ballot proposition is already in Texas law, but adding it to the state constitution could give it teeth, said farm bureau president Kenneth Dierschke.

"When it comes to safeguards protecting private property, Texas laws have been lacking," he said. "Texas Farm Bureau has fought for years to enact meaningful reforms of our eminent domain laws, but for years political games have stood in the way."

The proposition comes as a response to a U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed government to seize property for economic development projects, not just for public uses like roads. The court ruling allowed states to set their own laws governing such eminent domain.

Prop 11 is the last one listed on the November election ballot, but Republican Rep. Frank Corte of San Antonio, who pushed the proposal, said ballot order won't deter interested voters.

Texas voter turnout is typically low in an off-year elections in which only propositions are on the statewide ballot. Houston is expected to see a larger turnout than many places because of its open mayor's race.

Other proposed constitutional amendments would set aside money to develop more top-level research universities; help to establish a Veterans Administration hospital in the Rio Grande Valley; and mandate public access to Texas beaches.

Early voting runs until Oct. 30.

___

On the Net:

Texas Secretary of State's Office at http://www.sos.state.tx.us

Vote NO on Prop 11, it’s counterfeit eminent domain reform


Prop 11 is window dressing for eminent domain reform
By Terri Hall
Express-News/Houston Examiner
Sunday, October 18, 2009
We've been down this road before...lawmakers write a convoluted amendment to the Texas Constitution that comes back to haunt us when we find out what politicians will do with it once we leave the polls. Proposition 11 is one of those amendments. We witnessed Governor Rick Perry weaken this legislation all through the 81st Legislature to reduce the amendment to a virtually meaningless attempt at eminent domain reform.

You have to ask yourself, if Rick Perry vetoed REAL eminent domain reform in 2007 (HB 2006), why would Perry stage a photo-op ceremonial signing of this constitutional amendment in front of the Alamo in 2009 when it didn't even need his signature? Because it's not genuine eminent domain reform. His show-boating is because he's running for re-election, and he knows that veto of HB 2006 cost him the Farm Bureau's endorsement.

Why did Perry veto the bill? Because it would interfere with his Trans Texas Corridor that is slated to gobble-up massive swaths of private property (4 football fields wide, biggest land grab in Texas history) and give it to foreign corporations in sweetheart deals with guaranteed 12-19% annual profits by charging Texans hefty tolls to use what should be a public road!


The logical course of action by the Texas Legislature would have been to dust off HB 2006, introduce the same bill again, and pass it early in the session so the Legislature could override the expected gubernatorial veto. But that's not what the Legislature did. They allowed Perry and his cronies to use eminent domain reform as a bargaining chip all session long (to re-authorize the controversial contracts called CDAs that sell our Texas highways to foreign companies). Meanwhile, he and the special interests chipped away at the strength of the private property protections originally found in HB 2006.

So Prop 11 is Perry's fabricated version of eminent domain reform to serve as penance for his veto. But once one examines the language, it's clear it doesn't remotely resemble genuine property rights protection as he claims it does.

So many flaws, so little time

What are the flaws of Prop 11? Economic development isn't defined. Public use isn't clearly defined nor limited. Good faith negotiations for offers of "adequate compensation" (the current constitutional language) aren't required. Urban blight isn't defined, and even though the legislative committees writing the bill couldn't accurately discern the voluminous entities that currently have eminent domain powers, Prop 11 continues to allow the Legislature the power to grant yet more undefined "entities" the power of eminent domain for "public use," which Perry ensured still included privatizing Texas roads to benefit foreign entities.

Proposition 11 says: "The constitutional amendment to prohibit the taking, damaging, or destroying of private property for public use unless the action is for the ownership, use, and enjoyment of the property by the State, a political subdivision of the State, the public at large, or entities granted the power of eminent domain under law or for the elimination of urban blight on a particular parcel of property, but not for certain economic development or enhancement of tax revenue purposes, and to limit the legislature's authority to grant the power of eminent domain to an entity."

It states property cannot be taken using eminent domain UNLESS it's for public use for "entities" granted the power of eminent domain OR for the elimination of urban blight, but not for "certain economic development or enhancement of tax revenue purposes."

The loopholes in that language are so wide you could drive a truck through them! Any true eminent domain reform that would protect us from the Supreme Court Kelo case would include:

- Strong definition of public use limiting eminent domain for ANY economic development and tax enhancement purposes
- Good faith negotiations (prevent entities from low-balling landowners and forcing them to hire expensive lawyers to get fair market value)
- Compensation for diminished access to a landowner's property
- Limit the granting of eminent domain to any further entities without a vote of the people
- Relocation assistance for displaced landowners
- Ability to buy land back at original cost after 10 years if the State doesn't use it

State lawmakers could have hit a home run and FINALLY delivered TRUE eminent domain reform. But they let Perry and politics get in the way of protecting YOUR property rights, and as usual, settled for scraps from the master's table. The authors of the bill even admitted upon final passage that this amendment falls short, and that there's still a long way to go on eminent domain reform. They expect us to choke down a milquetoast amendment that's little more than window dressing so that they can claim some level of victory? Thanks, but no thanks!

If Texans vote for this amendment, it's likely no further private property rights reform will EVER happen, especially if Rick Perry remains the Governor. We must demand protection from the eminent domain abuse that the Kelo case wrought. We've been waiting for 3 years, and would have had it in 2007 had Perry not wielded his veto pen. When over half the states have passed laws or changed their constitutions to protect landowners from the eminent domain abuses of Kelo, our politicians have left Texans vulnerable.

Insist on authentic private property protection and vote NO on Prop 11. It's hazardous to your freedom!

And another one bites the dust…toll roads are unsustainable, folks

Link to article here.

Mississippi DOT stops Jackson Airport Parkway P3 - rating agencies No to investment grade
Posted on Wed, 2009-09-09 12:54

Mississippi DOT (MsDOT) have announced "suspension" of the procurement process for a private sector concession to build the state's first tollroad in the modern era - Jackson Airport Parkway. The concession financing depended on federal TIFIA loan support which is only provided if the rating agencies provide an investment grade rating to senior debt.

Three shortlisted potential concessionaires told MsDOT they couldn't get the needed investment grade ratings for their loan financing, an official told us, so they were not able to make proposals which were formally due next week - Sept 15.



A statement from MsDOT quotes Executive Director Larry L (Butch) Brown as "disappointed" but saying that the parkway "project, like many other greenfield toll road projects, is suffering from general economic weakness and tight credit markets which limit the amount of credit and capital available for new transportation projects."

Private sector must show savings

Brown is quoted further: "The private sector needs to demonstrate that it can deliver meaningful savings versus a traditional MDOT financing and delivery plan.  For example, unless private sector bidders can genuinely deliver construction cost savings, operational savings, or financing savings, the numbers just don't work.  In this economy, revenue projections are under pressure and investment grade ratings for the project's senior debt are difficult to obtain."

Shortlisted three

Three groups shortlisted to make proposals Sep 15 but unable to raise the capital were:

- Jackson Access Mobility Group (ACS and Dragados)

- Airport Parkway P3 Group (Cintra and Ferrovial)

- Global Via

They are Spain-based international groups active around the world in toll and other concessions.

Znachko

Brenda Znachko, chief financial officer at MsDOT says she gets the impression the rating agencies are generally negative about tollroads at present. She says she thinks the lack of any history of tolling in the state was also a handicap.

Znachko says they are not giving up on the project, but are considering alternatives. They will look at alternative ways of structuring the project as a concession, and also look at public financing using the credit of the state as backing.

She thinks the project is still viable as a tollroad, but it may need to be approached differently. MsDOT is supported by consultants Nossaman lawyers, JP Morgan finance, and URS engineers and traffic and revenue modelers.

MsDOT will take a new plan for advancing the parkway project to state commissioners later this year.

The project is designed to serve the most rapidly growing portion of the state, the eastern edge of the Jackson area. Although it would serve the Airport this by itself was not a major part of the projected traffic for the Parkway - which goes from the central business district east, then splits to make links to the north and south of the airport.

A URS traffic and revenue study produced for MsDOT shows toll revenues for the project at a toll of 18c/mile (11c/km) with a  Jan 2013 opening as 2015 $16m, 2020 $22m, 2025 $39m, 2030 $53m.

Project cost has been put at around $500m. The project consists of 20km, 12 miles of expressway standard road with at least four interchanges. Major structure needed is a bridge over the Pearl River immediately east of the central business district.

The project has alll its environmental permits.

Most of the engineering design is done.

80% of the right of way has been acquired.

There is strong support for the project from the key three cities, and virtually no public opposition.

Znachko has said they are flexible about the scope and staging of the project. They have already deferred a downtown end 'pitchfork' feeding three streets as something that can be added at a later date. To start with it would have just one downtown connection. The eastern ends have also been left flexible for staging also.

see http://www.theairportparkway.com/Home.aspx

summary of project:

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/sites/default/files/JAPflyer.pdf

TOLLROADSnews 2009-09-09

More arrogance from state Governors…”let us loot our citizens without interference”

Link to article here. Oh, now I get why Rick Perry is suddenly so fond of states rights...

State guvs to US on P3s: "Bug off, the roads are ours"
Posted on Tue, 2009-10-06 19:44

Regardless of party, state governors are opposing moves in the US Congress to second guess their arrangements for privatization of roads, toll concessions, or public private partnerships.

Apparently without dissent the National Governors Association has adopted a formal 'Policy Position' on surface transportation that says that they oppose any federal restrictions on states' ability to enter into toll concessions or other public-private arrangements.

The draft reauthorization bill produced by the House transportation committee provides for a new federal Office of Public Benefit - a newspeak title right out of Orwell's 1984. This office would have the power to allow or disallow toll concessions and other public-private arrangements entered into by states.

NGA official policy

The governors take a firm line against the OPB proposal saying in their official policy, and we quote them in full on this subject:

"13.2.2 Non-Traditional Financing

"Governors urge the development of flexible, innovative, accountable, and alternative financing mechanisms that support the mobility goals of the states and oppose any federal restrictions on states’ ability to pursue public-private partnership arrangements to address their own infrastructure needs.

"Governors support the removal of federal restrictions on states’ authority to toll federally-aided highways.

"State and local authorities, as the owners and operators of the surface transportation system, must determine the appropriate level of private sector participation in their surface transportation programs.

"Governors oppose any efforts to condition federal financial investment in state surface transportation programs to any mandate for a particular level of private participation."

Bill stalled

The new transportation bill championed by chairman James Oberstar has made little progress due mostly to lack of funding. Short term extensions are keeping money flowing under the old SAFETEA-LOO formulae.

Oberstar has lost respect among colleagues for his buckpassing on funding this next six year transportation bill. The Obama administration seems to have has other priorities than transportation.

Oberstar's moves to exercise federal control over P3s at the same time federal financial support is hand-to-mouth over a protracted period seems calculated to exacerbate frustration in state capitals at US Government incompetence in transportation.

see text of National Governors Association policy:

http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.8358ec82f5b198d18a278110501010a0/?vgnextoid=289a9e2f1b091010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD

TOLLROADSnews 2009-10-06

Another toll road bites the dust, this time in South Carolina


Link to article here.

Greenville Southern Connector headed for bankruptcy - default likely Jan 1 2010
Posted on Mon, 2009-10-05
Toll Road News

bankruptcy
default
greenvile
South Carolina
southern connector
 
US Bank, trustees for the bondholders of Connector 2000 Association, the owner of the Southern Connector tollroad in Greenville South Carolina have issued an official notice that they expect a default Jan 1, 2010 with insufficient funds being available from the pike to make debt service that's due. They say the Association concluded that converting the not-for-profit into a for-profit toll concession to avoid default - as occurred with the Pocahontas Parkway in Richmond VA - is not feasible.

In or outside bankruptcy there will be a forced "restructuring" of the bond capital, the US Bank trustees say. Investors will take a hit. (NOTE: US Bank would like us to note that they did not use the word "forced" of the capital restructing, though that's what we think it is! Also we have corrected the second sentence to reflect that the Association concluded sale to a for-profit concession was infeasible ahead of bankruptcy restructuring, not US Bank - editor 2009-10-07)



South Carolina DOT has already declared "an insolvency Event of Default" in a letter of June 12 which called on the not-for-profit owners to seek a "plan of adjustment." SCDOT says it reserves the right to terminate the Association's License Agreement under which the Connector Association operates the tollroad. Macquarie Capital is working for the trustee.

Accountants blast Association

Things may be worse than the official reports. Association accountants Bradshaw Gordon & Clinkscales in a statement accompanying an Update on the association's financial condition say that accounting standards board (GASB) requirements have not been met, and warn that the effect of the pike's departure from accounting standards has not been determined.

They say in one passage: "Management has elected to omit substantially all of the disclosures and statements of cash flows required by accounting principles generally accepted in the US...."

Deficiency of $163m

The statement reports as of June 30  liabilities of $322m against assets of $160m for a net deficiency of $163m - comically they report cents as well as individual dollars. The largest liabilities are bonds of $304m but the Association also owes  the state DOT some $8m in unpaid license fees and interest.

Interest ten times operating profit

Toll revenues in the first half of the year were running at barely $5m/yr against operating expenses of $3.2m for an annual operating surplus of just $1.8m. Interest expense was ten times that and net loss was running at $22.8m after interest, depreciation and amortization.

Accumulated deficits are $163m, and they are being added to at about 14%/year.

Toll revenues for the first half of 2009 were running at 4% below year-ago levels, pretty much within the normal range for tollroads around the country. Since then they have been flat or slightly above year ago monthly levels.

Trouble from the get-go, traffic below half forecast

The Connector looked to be in trouble from virtually the day it opened in March 2001.
Traffic had been forecast after 'ramp-up' at the end of the first year to be around 28k/day so traffic of 20k was expected in the beginning.

Traffic has always been below half forecast levels, starting at 10k and rising at about expected annual percentage rates, but from the disappointing base.

Eight years after opening traffic is 15k to 16k/day versus 33k forecast when the original financing was done in 1998.

The original traffic studies seem to have been fundamentally flawed.

Law suits on forecasts

Robert Bain - UK-based author of the recent book on toll road forecasting - tells TOLLROADSnews that he has been engaged as an expert witness twice in the last 18 months by lawyers contemplating taking legal action against traffic forecasters for over-optimistic predictions.  Neither engagement resulted in lawsuit to date.  "It's only a matter of time", says Bain.

Why forecasts failed

Our analysis is that the Connector (I-185) simply does not serve major commuter flows within the 540k pop metro area. These flows are on a southeast-northwest axis Simpsonville, Mauldin, Greenville and along US276 and I-385. This is mostly to the north and east of the Connector.

The Connector including the toll-free portion of I-185 swings too far south, southwest and west to compete for major internal metro area traffic.

Located to serve development, not to relieve congestion

The pike was located to serve new industrial and residential development on the southern and southwest fringe of the area, development which has occurred, but more slowly than the tollroad promoters predicted.

Higher paying truck traffic is tiny. 96% of vehicles are 2 axle.

Slower employment growth than predicted in the area has meant that for the most part the free roads have adequate capacity even for peaktime work trips. The exception is I-385 northbound through Mauldin in the mornings weekdays.

But trips on the Connector are too much longer in distance to be an attractive alternative for most motorists.

Studies show the  Connector corridor generally has good developmental potential still, although portions are handicapped by lack of utilities like sewer.

New Stantec T&R study

A traffic and revenue study by Stantec published in May this year found toll rates were too low to maximize revenues. Toll rates should be increased 50 to 75%, it recommended.

The Association has since gotten SCDOT permission for three 25c toll increases, the first immediately, a second Jan 1 2012 and a third Jan 2016. 25c toll increases could be implemented every four years thereafter. Ramp tolls would be increased proportionately.

Stantec now project toll revenue of $10.2m by 2016 based on 16.3k daily traffic and $20.3m in 2026 based on traffic of 25k/day.

The Stantec report contains no analysis or suggestion as to why the 1990s study was so wrong.

Indeed they don't even mention the existence of that report.

Maybe the bankruptcy court can exhume it?

Southern Connector website:

http://www.southernconnector.com

BACKGROUND: Greenville Southern Connector is a 2x2 lane expressway with interstate designation I-185. The not-for-profit called Connector 2000 Association was the idea of Bob Farris, a former Federal Highway Administration chief who formed Interwest to develop the project. It entered into a design-build contract with a large local builder Thrift Bros.

26km or 16 miles long the Connector connects the end of an existing free I-185, a southward spur from central Greenville to I-85 the big east-west interstate through the area, to I-385 in the southeast completing a loop or belt route around the southern portion of the metro area. The project has end interchanges with I-85 and I-385 and four intermediate interchanges of a simple diamond design.

The Connector has two mainline toll plazas and two pairs of ramp toll plazas.

The mainline toll plazas have 4 toll lanes each direction. In one direction of traffic the left two lanes are unattended. The far left is highway speed electronic tolling signed for 45mph (72km/hr) while the next lane is coin machine. There are toll collectors in the third and fourth lanes.

On the ramps there is a single unattended lane for transponder or exact change in a coin machine.

Electronic toll collection was introduced as an option when the pike opened in Mar 2001. Brandnamed PalPass (Palmetto Pass) it is an IAG standard Mark IV system, but the Connector has not joined IAG so there are no provisions for interoperability. It has TransCore readers with IAG read capability.

Electronic tolling has not achieved high usage and 75% of transactions are cash, suggesting a lot of occasional use.

34 toll collectors are employed on the pike.

COMMENT: Not-for-profit (NFP) tollroads, a unique manifestation of the 1990s now have a perfect score: two failures out of two.

First Pocahontas Parkway in Richmond VA, now the Southern Connector in Greenville SC.

Although well-intentioned it's a bad, bad model, which skews all the incentives the wrong way - toward road developers and builders and financial and legal brokers who make their money before the pike opens and leave all the obligations and risks to bondholders.

When all the profit is upfront and there is no skin in the game longterm, it's only natural that you get too much road built,  at too much expense, where it's not really needed.

A product of the great financial bubble period, NFP tollroads have their analog in the no-money-down mortgage, where people get more house they can afford and walk away from it when the debt burden proves too great for their income. Hopefully we've seen the last of this irresponsible financial structure.

TOLLROADSnews 2009-10-05 BACKGROUND, COMMENT added 2009-10-06 12:00

TxDOT Commish: “I’m the most arrogant”


In case the taxpayers need any more reasons to dump the current leadership at TxDOT, here's the most blatant one yet. In the Express-News article below about the supposed demise of the Trans Texas Corridor, Commissioner Ted Houghton, ya know, the one who called TURF Board member Hank Gilbert and TURF supporters "bigots" (watch it here) for opposing the sale of Texas roads to foreign corporations in sweetheart deals, accurately claims:

“I am Ted Houghton, the most arrogant commissioner of the most arrogant state agency in the history of the state of Texas.”

Watch Houghton claim he's the most arrogant commissioner:

 

Rick Perry is using his Transportation Commission appointee as a diversion from his own arrogance in ramming his Trans Texas Corridor down Texans' throats. Who better to take the knocks for Perry than his most despised Commissioner who picked up where former Chairman Ric Williamson left off. While the circus was distracting from the real issue of Perry repeatedly wielding his veto pen to benefit his cronies when Texans, through their elected representatives, attempted to shut the TTC down, few understand the technical significance of the method Perry is using to continue TTC-35 despite the announcement.

Rather than simply send a letter to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to close the Trans Texas Corridor file for good, Perry is taking 4-6 months to take public comment (I guess over 10,000 people against at the hearings weren't enough) and seek a Record of Decision on the project despite the claim they're not going to build it. What this does is allow TxDOT to change its mind and come back later to resurrect the project (after the Republican primary perhaps?) at any time.

Also, nowhere does the article below or any of the others we've seen question how TxDOT can possibly claim the taxpayers are only out $16 million for environmental work when a State Audit report in 2007 said the taxpayers had already paid $60 million (for engineering, environmental work, and legal fees, and it was found 21 of 32 invoices pulled were mismarked engineering when it was really spent on PR!) for TTC-35 just through 2006.

So, we're supposed to believe Cintra just walks away from a potential $186 billion deal, for which it paid $3.5 million to develop? Considering Senator John Carona saw to it that a STATE LAW was changed to lift the cap on payments to LOSING BIDDERS earlier this year just so Cintra could get paid $3.6 million for losing its grip on the 121 toll deal in Collin/Denton counties, how can anyone expect us to believe that buried among the 1,000 pages of financial documents and termination clauses in the TTC-35 contract that Cintra is going to get NOTHING but the two segments on SH 130, a loop around Austin, when the State kills the deal? Yeah right! Somewhere there's a BIG, FAT taxpayer liability looming on the horizon that we're not going to hear about until AFTER the next election...

The only sure way to be rid of this looting? Dump Rick Perry!

____________________________________________
Link to article here.

Web Posted: 10/08/2009

Money flows on road that went nowhere

By Peggy Fikac - Express-News

AUSTIN — Texas already has spent close to $60 million on the recommended-for-death parallel to Interstate 35 that once was envisioned as part of the Trans-Texas Corridor.

More money — perhaps millions more — will be spent as Texas closes the environmental review process and gets public comment on the recommendation to the federal government, state transportation officials said Wednesday.

They said the planning expenditures weren't wasted because they can use the information in the future: “It will be our asset. It will be ours,” said Transportation Commissioner Ted Houghton of El Paso.

Critics were quick to call it a waste.

“Texans shouldn't be forced to pay a tax for (Gov.) Rick Perry's arrogance in pushing a project that nobody wanted but Rick Perry,” said Joe Pounder, spokesman for U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who's challenging Perry for the GOP nod for governor.

The $59.4 million in expenditures that the Texas Transportation Commission reported to lawmakers at the end of fiscal year 2008 went for planning, environmental reviews and engineering studies. The expense was part of $131 million spent on several segments since 2004.

Houghton said in weighing costs, one should consider a separate agreement with Spain-based Cintra and Zachry Construction Corp. of San Antonio.

Their partnership paid the state $25 million for the privilege of building State Highway 130 and collecting tolls on it, Houghton said. He said that infrastructure is worth $1.2 billion.

Any significant effort to address congestion relief on Interstate 35, including financing, now is an open question.

The I-35 parallel was among the last vestiges of the once-ambitious Trans-Texas Corridor championed by Perry as a network of highways, rail lines and utility corridors that would criss-cross Texas and relieve congestion.

The idea relied heavily on public-private partnerships and tollways since highway tax dollars are falling far short of the need.

Opposition from groups including landowners prompted transportation officials earlier this year to drop the Trans-Texas Corridor name and declare they'd scale back the network idea.

Now State Highway 130 in Central Texas and the proposed Interstate 69 from Brownsville to Texarkana are its last remnants.

Democratic candidate for governor Hank Gilbert, noting January's announcement, said he suspects the demise of the corridor has been slow because there are additional costs associated with it: “Vampires die quicker than Rick Perry's transportation policy.”

Perry and others have challenged critics to come up with an alternative, workable transportation plan. Hutchison and Gilbert haven't yet disclosed plans; their campaigns say they will.

Activist Terri Hall of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom is among those unconvinced that the Trans-Texas Corridor is dead, noting lawmakers didn't remove the idea from state law this year, plus the continuation of I-69.

“The Trans-Texas Corridor is not dead until Rick Perry is no longer governor of the state of Texas,” she said.

State officials said they remain committed to expanding Interstate 35 to three lanes each way from Austin to the “Y” in Hillsboro. It's currently that wide from San Antonio to Austin. They've identified some money for the effort, including stimulus money, but still lack $1.5 billion.

Any further effort to create loops around cities, a parallel to I-35 or other congestion relief will be looked at regionally by committees focusing on their area's segment, Houghton said.

Transportation officials largely blamed themselves for not properly marketing the plan. Houghton, in a reference to the way the agency was portrayed by anti-corridor and anti-toll activists, as well as Hutchison, introduced himself at Wednesday's news conference this way: “I am Ted Houghton, the most arrogant commissioner of the most arrogant state agency in the history of the state of Texas.”

Subcategories

Eminent Domain

Video

Page 72 of 103

Latest News

Latest Press Releases