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Nadar: Purloining the People’s Property

Published on Monday, August 3, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
Purloining the People's Property

by Ralph Nader

Every week, Marcia Carroll collects examples of privatization (that is, corporatization of the peoples’ assets). Looking at her website, privatizationwatch.org [1], will either make you laugh helplessly or make your blood boil.

The “off the wall” giveaways at bargain-basement prices of what you and other Americans own eclipses imagination. The latest escapes from responsible government are called “public-private partnerships” and are designed to enable the likes of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to take over highways, meter-collecting, and public buildings in deals that are loaded with complex tax advantages for the investors.

Here are two of her latest entries. Arizona lawmakers and Governor Jan Brewer are moving to fill a $3.4 billion budget shortfall by selling state-owned buildings. These include not only prisons, but also the House and Senate buildings. That’s the state legislature, fellow Americans! Metaphor becomes reality!

The proposed sale has bipartisan support and will require a leaseback by the buying corporation to the lawmakers with the right to repurchase the premises within twenty years.

The Arizona Republic reports that the deal, which includes 32 state properties, would bring in $735 million in upfront money and entail state lease payments totaling $60-70 million a year.

“We need the money,” State Minority Whip Linda Lopez, a Tuscon Democrat said, adding, “You’ve got to find it somewhere.” Well, why not rent out the backs of the state legislators to their favorite corporate funders? At least the public would get full disclosure of ownership.

“I look at it as taking out a mortgage,” practical Arizona House Majority Leader John McCormish, a Republican, told the Wall Street Journal.

The second item comes from the Denver Post, which reports that the foreign consortium, auto-estradas de Portugal (Brisa), operating the toll road Northwest Parkway under a 99-year lease, objected to improvements on a nearby public road. Under the complex leasing contract, the company could cite the improvements as an “adverse action” reducing toll revenue and the number of vehicles using the parkway. This action would presumably entitle this foreign company to compensation from Colorado taxpayers.

Last year, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell tried to push through the legislature a complex, 75-year lease of the storied Pennsylvania Turnpike in exchange for $12.8 billion up front. All kinds of tax breaks and trap-door evasions filled the 686 page lease. The Governor was prepared, for example, to agree to pay the consortium of foreign investors if new safety measures or emergency vehicles entered the toll road and affected the flow of traffic. Fortunately, the legislature rebelled and blocked the deal.

The Indiana Toll Road was turned over to private companies in 2006. The 75-year lease was for $3.8 billion, which is a little more than the cost to repair the Woodrow Wilson bridge over the Potomac River between Virginia and Washington, DC.

Tolls on the Indiana Toll Road have already doubled and are expected to double again within ten years, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Last year, Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago privatized the city’s parking meters. Chicago’s inspector general concluded that the meters were worth nearly twice as much to the city as the $1.15 billion that the city received under an agreement rushed through the City Council with no civic input. A fourfold increase in meter rates this year has driven many motorists to residential neighborhoods in search of free parking spaces.

Indiana, a leader in outsourcing governmental functions to private corporations, gave the servicing of the state’s welfare program to IBM. According to the Indianapolis Star, error rates since corporatization have risen 17.5 percent last November and 21.4 percent in December.

The myth that corporatization is “better, faster, and cheaper” is falling apart. This year, the IRS announced that it will end the use of private tax collectors after consumer groups argued that taxpayers were subjected to immediate payment demands by private collectors while IRS employees would offer citizens an array of options to help pay their tax debt.

Then there are the corporatized water systems where the companies deliver poorer service at higher cost.

Since the 19th century, privatizing public functions has opened the doors to kickbacks, price fixing, and collusive bidding.

New depths of corruption were reached in Pennsylvania recently when two state judges pleaded guilty to taking bribes in return for sending youths to privately-owned jails.

After reading report after report about the vast, relentless waste, fraud, and abuse arising out of corporate contractors to the Pentagon in Iraq, why should readers be surprised at this domestic scene whereby taxpayers pay through the nose for corporations to govern them?

So, you’re not surprised. But are you indignant? Are you ready to make sure the politicians hear from you in no uncertain terms, hear from you to stop this recklessness and restore public control of the public infrastructure under accountable government?

If the state politicos try to pull a fast one, demand public hearings with thorough reviews of the proposed contracts or leasebacks. Better yet, in states like Arizona or Colorado, require any such proposals go through the open, state-wide referendum voting process.

Corporatizations such as the above just pass on to our children the burdens that our generation should have assumed itself to run government within its means funded by fair taxation.
Ralph Nader [2] is a consumer advocate, lawyer, and author. His most recent book is The Seventeen Traditions [3].

Article printed from www.CommonDreams.org

URL to article: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/08/03-9

Outsourcing Sovereignty: Why Privatization of Government Functions Threatens Democracy

Link to article here.

Ex-W&M chief sets IT framework
Richmond Times-Dispatch by Jeff Shapiro
Sunday, August 2, 2009

As Virginia deals with the headaches -- financial, political and administrative -- of turning over its info-tech system to deep-pocketed defense giant Northrop Grumman, a voice from the past may offer guidance for the future of privatization in a state that seems more corporate subsidiary than commonwealth.

Paul R. Verkuil, former president of the College of William and Mary, is a free-market advocate who worries that relinquishing government responsibilities to the private sector only drives up profits at the expense of public capital.

In his book "Outsourcing Sovereignty: Why Privatization of Government Functions Threatens Democracy and What We Can Do About It," Verkuil warns that taxpayers are surrendering power by letting big business do the people's business.

Verkuil, now a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardoza School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York, made it clear the other day he's not familiar with the continuing food fight over Northrop Grumman.

But, says Verkuil, if there are constants in these big-money deals -- Northrop Grumman is pocketing $2.3 billion over 10 years in the state's richest-ever outsourcing contract -- they are: Is it appropriate to privatize a particular service? Is the public assured oversight and accountability?

On the face of it, farming out IT might a no-brainer.

But when one considers that Northrop Grumman is now custodian of data that make every man, woman and child in Virginia more than a number -- remember the recent hacking of the state's prescription-drug file? -- it could be argued this exercise is fraught with risk. At a minimum, this would include your privacy as well as the state's and the company's liability.

"Not every public solution is wrong and not every private solution is better," says Verkuil, president of William and Mary from 1985 until 1992.

Verkuil, who has examined such controversial privatization contracts as guns-for-hire in Iraq and housing in post-Katrina New Orleans, suggests that one measure of the effectiveness of the Northrop Grumman deal may be how it stacks up against IT programs still under state control.

The General Assembly and Virginia's courts are not covered by Northrop Grumman's contract with the Virginia Information Technologies Agency. Nor are colleges and universities. More than 80 departments, all in the executive branch, are on the Northrop Grumman hook for computer services.

The legislature, judiciary and higher education have contractual relationships with high-tech firms but, for the most part, retain authority over hardware, software, networks and staff. In other words, they determine their own destiny.

"Are these other branches prospering better in some ways -- and why?" says Verkuil. "Is it because they retain power and capacity that Northrop Grumman didn't allow [the state]?"

Perhaps these questions could be put to the watchdogs of this monster deal: the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, which is the General Assembly's investigative arm, and the Auditor of Public Accounts, the legislature's bean counter.

One element of Virginia's adventure in outsourcing-land that neither JLARC nor the auditor can fully measure: $833,374 in political contributions from Northrop Grumman since 2001. That year, voters chose as governor the techie who led us down this rabbit hole: Mark Warner.

_________________________________________________

Link to article here.Sunday, August 02, 2009
Richmond Times-Dispatch - McClatchy-Tribune

EDITORIAL: Keep Digging

On July 2 we said: "A definitive judgment regarding the state's information technology program must await the completion of a thorough report. We have confidence in the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission." A determined probe remains an imperative.

The story broke with Lem Stewart's ouster as head of the Virginia Information Technologies Agency. Stewart had questioned the public-private partnership with Northrop Grumman. The questions have multiplied. Stewart's reputation has been enhanced.

Situations such as this often have political implications. Governors take heat when controversies strike state agencies. The Northrop Grumman contract presents political complications, however. The public-private partnership was the brainchild of Mark Warner's administration. The stories have surfaced during Gov. Tim Kaine's watch. Yet if Republicans in the General Assembly attempt to score partisan points, they might run into some difficulties. Warner originally proposed that VITA report to the governor, but in a compromise with Republicans in the legislature he agreed to create VITA as a free-standing agency, led by a board independent of the governor's office. Now add this: Although VITA does not fall under direct executive oversight, Stewart's interim replacement -- Len Pomata -- also serves as Virginia's secretary of technology, which makes him a member of Kaine's Cabinet, which exposes the administration to second-guessing.

The questions bother Virginians. We do not have all the answers. Mergers in the public sector do not always proceed as smoothly as predicted. Business relationships such as these typically experience imperfections. They also require great scrutiny. Northrop Grumman concedes some of the delays but argues that the transformation process has proved more complicated than anticipated. The company points to considerable progress. Critics still wonder whether the commonwealth is seeing the expected efficiencies -- and whether it ever will.

The program may be undergoing pains associated with birth, although this seems a protracted delivery indeed. VITA may suffer from organizational flaws. The private side of the partnership may be falling short.

The Times-Dispatch will continue to press the story. We hope the commonwealth will be spared unhappy choices.

Indiana toll road value tanks under private operator

Link to article here.

The Indiana toll road value went from $3.8 Billion down to a pathetic $445 million. The foreign investors get to jack up the rates to cover their costs and milk taxpayers for profits, while Hoosier motorists have to pay increasingly aggressive tolls for 75 years. Who's getting the sweetheart deal? Certainly not Indiana taxpayers. Truckers pay nearly $70 to use the road. Think our cost of goods isn't going up to cover that kinda financial damage? Think again!

Toll-road lease tumbles in value
Ailing operator denies talk that it might sell its stake
Sat. August 01 - 2009 Peter Schnitzler - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Indiana Business Journal staff

Gov. Mitch Daniels expected his unprecedented $3.8 billion Indiana Toll Road lease to last 75 years. It may be tested after just three. The foreign companies that privatized the property haven’t escaped the global economic downturn. As a result, the value of their investments has plummeted.

Now, as they labor to shed enormous debt loads, analysts and the financial media are abuzz that the Indiana Toll Road lease could change hands. In June 2006, Indiana struck a deal with Australia-based Macquarie Group Ltd. and Spain-based Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte SA.

Indiana got $3.8 billion upfront, money it’s used across the state to fund the Major Moves highway improvement initiative. In exchange, the investors bought the right to collect tolls, with the obligation they manage, maintain and upgrade the road. If the companies sell the lease, the new owners would take over that duty.

Or if Macquarie and Cintra retain the lease but fail to live up to its terms, Indiana gets its toll road back. The outlook for the state of Indiana might be least favorable under the status quo. That’s because the companies could try to dig themselves out of their financial hole by continuing to aggressively raise tolls.

Getting the road back, on the other hand, wouldn’t necessarily be an unfavorable turn of events for the state. Indiana would be on the hook for future improvements, but also would receive the toll revenue—which totaled $155 million last year. Retaining ownership might be the most appealing option for Macquarie and Cintra, since any sale likely would reap a fraction of what they paid.

Recent write-downs by Macquarie suggest the same lease deal today could fetch as little as $445 million. Both companies have been exiting investments across the globe to reduce debt, and some Australian stock analysts say Macquarie is likely to do the same with its stake in the Indiana Toll Road, since vehicle traffic hasn’t met expectations. Macquarie flatly denies that possibility. “[Macquarie] is not in the market pursuing a sales process for any of its U.S. assets, including the Indiana Toll Road,” wrote Macquarie spokesman Alex Doughty in an e-mail. “Speculation suggesting otherwise is simply incorrect.” The private operators, who thought they bought a cash cow, have already proven aggressive in hiking tolls.

With so much invested, the companies have an incentive to milk the lease, taking advantage of language in the agreement that could permit annual toll increases of 5 percent or higher. That’s exactly what House Speaker Pat Bauer, D-South Bend, an outspoken critic of the Indiana Toll Road lease, feared from the start. “It was never meant to be a profit center or to make money,” he said of the highway, which opened in the mid-1950s. “It was meant to be low tolls for maintenance and, eventually, a free road.”

Unbreakable lease?

The Indiana Toll Road lease is hundreds of pages long, all legal screed. It details the operators’ duties and every other obligation a legal team led by locally based Ice Miller LLP and Chicago-based Mayer Brown LLP could negotiate. State officials consider it unbreakable. And they say it anticipates every conceivable risk, including operator bankruptcy.

“No question there are financial challenges out there for both [Macquarie and Cintra]. But that’s the nature of the economy,” said Leigh Morris, the Indiana Department of Transportation’s deputy commissioner for toll road oversight. “I have every confidence this is not going to turn out to be a problem for the state of Indiana.”

The lease mandates $4.5 billion in improvements over its seven-and-a-half decades. The companies already have made good on $191 million worth of upgrades, mainly by adding electronic tolling and widening congested stretches of the road. Another $157 million in projects are scheduled by the end of 2010. The partnership is funding improvements through a $660 million bank loan, which Cintra spokesman Patrick Rhode said is scheduled to remain in place until 2014.

“The Indiana Toll Road is a long-term lease and during that term there will be peaks and valleys,” Rhode wrote via e-mail in response to IBJ’s questions. “This is a valley, but the economy will recover and in the future we will be talking about the ITR and its performance peaks, not the valleys.” Analysts’ main concern today is that weak tolling traffic could drain cash reserves used for debt service on the bank loan before 2014.

In a June 2009 report on the state of U.S. toll roads, Moody’s Investors Service gave the industry a negative outlook for the next year to 18 months, noting weak economic conditions have flattened traffic growth. On July 17, Macquarie reported revenue fell 5.1 percent on three of its four U.S. toll roads last year. The company also holds stakes in Chicago’s Skyway and Virginia’s Dulles Greenway. The exception was the South Bay Expressway in San Diego. Its traffic fell just 2.3 percent.

“For the most part, toll roads have demonstrated pricing power and financial stability through aggressive toll increases, or the reduction or elimination of discounts,” according to Moody’s report.

“Careful budgetary management, the deferral of some capital projects, and lower construction costs have allowed most toll roads to maintain solid cash flows and credit metrics.”

The report adds: “We are concerned that accelerated traffic declines and toll increases (needed to support increased debt issuance) could soften financial ratios and cause more ratings downgrades.”

But Ian Myles, an equity analyst for Macquarie Securities—a unit of the Australian financial giant—downplayed the possibility of an Indiana Toll Road cash crunch. “ITR has significant cash reserves. The purpose of those reserves is to ensure they meet their debt obligations during periods of weak traffic,” he said in an e-mail from Australia. “Whilst they may never have forecast the extent of the weakness, there is significant cash on the balance sheet to meet the interest obligations. We estimate reserves of $110 [million]. … We do not believe the road is at risk of default.”

Unwinding portfolios

The Indiana Toll Road is just one of many infrastructure properties Macquarie and Cintra hold stakes in around the world, acquired in deals mostly funded with debt. In the recession, both companies became over-leveraged and now are unwinding their portfolios. One of the Macquarie properties on the block is downtown’s Chase Tower, the state’s tallest building. The company listed it in January, with an asking price of $180 million.

“No matter how you look at it, Macquarie Group is in the process of unraveling itself from the tangled web of funds that once catapulted its executives into the salary stratosphere but now shackle every attempt to resurrect its tarnished image,” Ian Verrender, a columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald, wrote in June. “Everything—including the flagship Macquarie Infrastructure Group—is now up for grabs.”

On July 17, Macquarie subsidiary Macquarie CountryWide Trust agreed to sell its 75-percent interest in 86 U.S. grocery-anchored shopping malls for $1.3 billion. Macquarie Communications Infrastructure Group is nearing completion of a $1.3 billion takeover by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Cintra has had its own problems. A March 24 analyst’s report by Credit Suisse called the Indiana Toll Road “Cintra’s most risky major asset,” pointing out disappointing traffic has led the company to curtail dividends. It also says refinancing Indiana Toll Road’s debt will be tough.

On July 27, Cintra sold its parking lot division for $634 million. The next day, Bloomberg News reported that Macquarie may sell its leases on the Chicago Skyway and Indiana Toll Road to raise cash. But if either Cintra or Macquarie sold now, they would be locking in huge losses. Macquarie subsidiary Macquarie Infrastructure Group has written down its stake repeatedly in the past year, most recently in July.

The valuation for its stake is 61-percent less than it was a year ago and suggests the entire lease may be worth just $445 million on the open market. If either Macquarie or Cintra decided to sell their stakes, they’d need the state’s approval, said Ryan Kitchell, director of Indiana’s Office of Management and Budget.

Enforcing the lease

Before the deal, Indiana had been spending about $35 million annually on maintenance, INDOT’s Morris said. If the state got the road back, it would be on the hook for the billions of dollars in improvements the private partnership promised to make over the life of the lease. But Indiana already has its $3.8 billion, noted University of Indianapolis finance professor Matt Will. If it repossessed the toll road, it might even be able to enter a fresh lease with somebody else, creating another payday.

“This is why it was such a genius deal, because of the upfront payment,” Will said. “It’s a no-lose situation for the state.”

For the state, the biggest challenge could be ensuring the current leaseholders live up to all aspects of their agreement despite their financial problems. There’s a lot of middle ground between failure to meet the standards of one of the lease’s sub-clauses and complete default. INDOT’s Morris said the contract lays out a series of steps on the way to repossessing the road if the partnership fails to keep it up properly, each requiring 90 days’ notice. So far, he said, the companies have been in complete compliance.

“They have met every obligation they assumed under the lease,” Morris said. “They have been very good business partners.”

But Hoosiers, long used to low tolls, still are getting used to having the Indiana Toll Road run with a business mindset. In 2005, the year before the lease, state records show the Indiana Toll Road generated $96 million in revenue, almost entirely from tolls. By 2008, the private partnership had boosted the road’s revenue 62 percent, to $155 million.

From 1985 to 2006, the state kept the price for driving a car with two axles across the Indiana Toll Road’s 157 miles constant at $4.65. Today, the toll is $8 for the trip. And the price is far higher for larger vehicles. A truck with seven axles pays $69.75. Those prices will rise. The lease allows operators, starting in 2011, to hike tolls every year by the percentage increase in the U.S. gross domestic product or by 2 percent, whichever is greater.

Over the last 25 years, U.S. Department of Commerce records show that U.S. GDP has risen an average of 5.7 percent a year. In 1984, when the United States came out of its last deep recession, GDP grew 11.2 percent.

“It is impossible to pinpoint future rates,” wrote Cintra’s Rhode. “But rest assured any adjustment will be within the provided parameters.”

Hutchison gets federal money for I-69

Link to story here.

A contract has been awarded to ACS of Spain to develop the entire Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69 trade corridor, but it has yet to be signed. TxDOT has now re-named the project back to I-69 to make the public think it'll be a free interstate. Hutchison is seeking federal funding to ensure the project remains a FREE federal interstate not to continue Rick Perry's foreign-owned toll road, land-grabbing Trans Texas Corridor debacle.

Hutchison secures half-million dollars to finance I-69 project

By ASHLEY COOK
The Lufkin Daily News

Sunday, August 02, 2009

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison announced half a million dollars in funding Friday toward building a massive highway project Lufkin's mayor said could be the city's single largest economic development factor.

Hutchison (R-TX), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced approval of the funding through the Fiscal Year 2010 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, according to a press release. The bill's next step is consideration by the full Senate.

The I-69 Corridor is a nationwide transportation plan for a route running from Mexico through Texas and up to Canada.

The Texas portion of the I-69 project — formerly the Trans-Texas Corridor, Gov. Rick Perry's mammoth plan to link the state in freeways, rail and utility routes — was pronounced dead in January after heavy public backlash against the proposed plan which would have required new infrastructure trails cutting across the state. That plan has been separated into smaller corridor and local infrastructure development plans.

"It really upset a large number of people. The map of possibilities looked like it was going through everybody's backyard," said Lufkin's Mayor Jack Gorden. "Now it's back on track, for the most part sticking to the existing right-of-way for U.S. 59."

Gorden is on the I-69 state level committee and on the executive board of the I-69 Alliance, representing cities, counties and other interested parties from Laredo to Texarkana.

Access to the interstate is one of the top priorities for businesses, and Gorden's preference is for the route to stay right on U.S. Highway 59 — through that highway's current path. Other ideas over the years have included an S-shaped curve skirting Lufkin's south side by a few miles, turning north at Diboll or as far south as Corrigan.

Gorden said an interstate just south of Lufkin would be fine as well, likening it to the benefits Tyler sees in its proximity to I-20.

"If it can be built, it can be the single largest economic development factor for Lufkin in all of Deep East Texas," Gorden said.

Gorden said Hutchison's continuing efforts ensures more steps will be taken to move the project forward.

"If they can get the environmentals finished, it will be in a position to actually seriously get laid down and hopefully built," Gorden said.

A town hall meeting in Nacogdoches last week allowed local residents to voice their questions to a panel of state and regional officials, the (Nacogdoches) Daily Sentinel reported. The discussion centered around the I-69 Corridor and whether the Trans-Texas Corridor was gone for good.

Amadeo Saenz, TxDOT executive director, said then that the state was "in essence" not working on looking at the entire TTC, but was going to look at building I-69, to "build what needs to be built."

The state would be relying on segment committees to work with locals on identifying regional needs in order to determine where construction would take place, he said.

Critic Larry Shelton said in July he was concerned the project would leave other important local projects on the back burner, including the congested south loop in Nacogdoches that is one of the high-priority projects within the Lufkin TxDOT District.

TxDOT on Friday announced an upcoming regional citizen advisory group meeting to discuss I-69 development. The meeting is set for 9:30 a.m. until noon Wednesday at the Polk County Economic Development/Chamber of Commerce Center, 1001 U.S. Highway 59 Loop north, Livingston. Angelina County will be represented by Jerry Huffman. Lufkin/Angelina Economic Development Corp. will be represented by Jim Wehmeier. Diboll will be represented by Mayor Bill Brown.

Gorden on Friday said the meeting and others like it were an improvement for citizens to have input, something he said TTC never offered.

"I hope they can make some serious progress for us. It had gone away, and now it's got a little life again," he said.

Commissioners vote to continue controversial Grand Pkwy, feeder to Trans Texas Corridor

Link to article here. Grand Parkway is a feeder to and possibly even a leg of the Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69 (the route around Houston has not yet been identified). Another controversial aspect of the Parkway is the fact officials are seeking stimulus money to subsidize the project as a toll road, a massive double tax. More here.

County to seek Grand Parkway stimulus funding
By JAMES PINKERTON Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
July 29, 2009

Harris County Commissioners Court voted today to apply for $181 million in federal stimulus money to pay for construction work on a $600 million section of the controversial $5.1 billion Grand Parkway project.

The court also voted to solicit proposals for a comprehensive traffic and revenue study to determine the viability of the 15-mile toll road known as “Segment E,” a stretch of the proposed 180-mile Grand Parkway project that would link U.S. 290 and the Katy Freeway in northwest Harris County.

Although contracts for $20 million in engineering and other work on Segment E were approved this year, an “investment grade“ study of the ability of tolls to pay for the project has not been awarded and may not be completed by the February deadline to begin construction.

Art Storey, who heads the county's Public Infrastructure Department, said the study does not have to be completed before construction begins.

“Today's action was merely a formality in the process ,” County Judge Ed Emmett said afterward. “But anything that helps expedite this project is an important step in the process of alleviating the persistent congestion that has become such an obstacle for motorists across western and northwestern Harris County.”

The toll project and the use of federal stimulus funds, which was recommended by the Texas Department of Transportation, has a number of critics.

“Today, the problem is they're rushing to spend stimulus money that could have been spent on maintenance and transit, and other things more aligned to community priorities. Instead, they're spending on new roads where a small fraction of the people in our region live,” said Jay Blazek Crossley, program developer for Houston Tomorrow, a nonprofit group focusing on transportation and urban planning.

Precinct 3 Commissioner Steve Radack, who has been critical of TxDOT's handling of the project, called Segment E “the only thing out there, short term, that will bring any kind of relief to 290.”

He acknowledged that the roadway project still faces environmental hurdles, including a obtaining a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“The fact of matter is, this has to be ready to bid by February and we don't even know if we'll have a Corps permit by February,” Radack said. “There are all kinds of things that can jump up and keep us from getting a permit. ”

Hutchison renews call to prohibit tolling existing interstates

Link to article here.

KBH pushes for continuing federal highway toll ban
By Andy Hogue
Lone Star Report
July 31, 2009

U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, likely Republican candidate for Governor of Texas and (for the meantime) a member of the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations subcommittee, secured language in a transportation bill that would continue the current ban on placing tolls on existing interstate highways in Texas through September 2010.

According to a press release from the Hutchison's senate office, In 2007 and 2008 legislation was approved that prohibits the tolling of existing federal highways in Texas built with taxpayer dollars -- which was likely a counter-move against Gov. Rick Perry's and the Texas Department of Transportation's plan to expand the implementation of toll collection on roadways as a means of transportation funding.

A spokesman for Perry, who is running for re-election, was not reached for comment at the time of posting.

“Again this year, I have worked to ensure that Texas motorists aren’t charged to drive on roads they have already paid for through their taxes,” Hutchison said. “My provision extends this taxpayer protection for another year, but we must still pursue a permanent prohibition of tolling existing federal highways so we can prevent this form of double taxation on drivers, once and for all.”

In another press release, Hutchison announced the securing of $2 million for Capital Metro funding from the federal government's Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, to help operate and develop the city of Austin's bus and rail system.

TxDOT rolling in the dough, record spending coming...

Link to article here.

Here's a sobering reality...we're supposed to be excited about record levels of deficit spending because of our elected officials failure to properly fund roads with cash. Reporter Ben Wear's "articles" read like a TxDOT press release, but we can usually glean moderately useful information from them anyway, like the sky is falling and we're so broke every road has to be a toll road, never mind a record $5.9 billion in projects that are going to be let this next fiscal year. Ignore fiscal reality and just be excited with Ben and TxDOT...okay?

Borrowing, stimulus boost TxDOT road plans
Agency expects a record $5.9 billion in construction and maintenance spending in coming fiscal year.
By Ben Wear
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Thursday, July 30, 2009 The rags-to-riches-to-rags trajectory of state highway spending is about to zag upward again, officials said Wednesday, thanks to a cobbling together of federal stimulus funds, massive new borrowing and some help from the Legislature this spring.

But the surge from the federal stimulus plan and the borrowing will be mostly exhausted over the next two years, leaving the Texas Department of Transportation debt-ridden, once again dependent on flat-to-ebbing gas tax revenue and in need of more help from the Legislature in 2011.

In the 2003-06 period, TxDOT spent $4 billion to $5 billion annually building and maintaining roads. That dropped to $3 billion last year.

But the agency now estimates it will spend a record $5.9 billion on projects in the fiscal year beginning Sept. 1 and $5 billion in the 2010-11 fiscal year, TxDOT Chief Financial Officer James Bass said Wednesday.

Central Texas will benefit along with the rest of the state from TxDOT's financial recovery, temporary though it could be, including:

TxDOT has reaffirmed its commitment to spend about $200 million to complete the Interstate 35/Ben White Boulevard interchange by adding four flyover bridges and also to widen Texas 195 from north of Georgetown to the Bell County line. A contract for the I-35 project should be awarded in October, said Carlos Lopez, TxDOT's Austin district engineer, and the Texas 195 work is expected to occur in 2010 and 2011.

"We all breathed a sigh of relief" when the commission in June decided to borrow another $3 billion of gas-tax-backed bonds, Lopez said, allowing the two projects to proceed.

The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority is expecting to receive $90 million in stimulus funds and expects an additional $31 million today when the Texas Transportation Commission acts on a state infrastructure bank loan, The authority would use the money to begin the U.S. 290 East tollway project in the coming months.

The area also has been promised another $95 million in stimulus funds for various road and rail projects.

The commission, taking advantage of what have been lower-than-expected contract bids, probably will approve seven more maintenance projects at its meeting today. The additional $6 million in stimulus-funded projects will be used to resurface highways from Llano to Austin to Caldwell County

TxDOT finances have been on a roller coaster this decade.

When Gov. Rick Perry took office in early 2001, the agency was using the pay-as-you-go financial model it had employed since its 1917 founding, using a combination of gas tax and vehicle fees to pay for projects as money became available.

But Perry, aided by the late Ric Williamson as chairman of the Transportation Commission, pushed through changes in state law that will allow the state to borrow about $17 billion for roads.

In addition, Perry and Williamson enlisted private companies to build, operate and profit from building state-owned toll roads, bringing in a handful of large upfront payments.

That private toll road initiative, however, ran into public and legislative resistance in 2007 and has mostly stalled out as public policy. But the financial vestiges — principally a $3.2 billion payment from the North Texas Tollway Authority when it outbid a private group on the Texas 121 toll road — will allow TxDOT to build a number of large projects over the next two years.

The Legislature this spring also authorized TxDOT to borrow $2 billion and pay it back with the state's general tax revenue, rather than with gas taxes.

And it stopped the "diversion" to nontransportation purposes of about $365 million of gas tax revenue every two years, added money for TxDOT that will allow it to borrow an additional $3 billion — it already has sold about $2.9 billion in gas tax bonds earlier this decade — and pay it back over 20 or so years.

All that money, along with $2.25 billion of federal stimulus funds that the agency has already begun spending, will underwrite the gusher of road spending the next two years.

But the agency would need an additional $120 million in the 2012-13 biennium and years to come to make the debt payments on that new $3 billion of gas tax-backed borrowing. And agency officials say they hope that the Legislature in 2011 will authorize another $2 billion of borrowing against the general fund that voters authorized in 2007.

If not, Bass, the agency's chief financial officer, said the squeeze will resume by 2012.

"We're thankful we'll be able to deliver all these projects sooner," Bass said. "But we're also looking at years three, four, five and six and wondering how we'll be able to pay for projects."

Kay vs Rick - Transportation sure to be hot topic in primary battle

Link to Dallas Morning News article here. Link to Express-News/Houston Chronicle article here.

Criticism for Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison abounds, but if Rick Perry is so "set," then why waste the ink? Few Texans are paying attention to anything other than scraping to make ends meet in hopes they can keep their jobs as unemployment rises. Politicians, as a lot, are considered public enemy number one these days as corporate America gets bailout after bailout while the debt and tax burden reaches unsustainable levels for the average Joe citizen and his great grandchildren who have to pay it all back. Pocketbook issues will likely carry the day, and Perry's extremely disliked transportation policies that seek to sell Texas highways to foreign entities and that explode Texans' cost of living will definitely come into play in the battle over who will become the next Governor of the great state of Texas.

Are Texans better off today than just a few years ago? They're paying higher tuition, higher property taxes, DOUBLE tax tolls to get to work (if they still have a job), and new business taxes (curtailing job growth - Perry claims he cut business taxes, when in reality he raised taxes on businesses, some had 400% increases, only to reduce it slightly when businesses owed taxes even when they didn't make a profit! Wow, thanks Guv.). Many are struggling and are tired of being taxed to death, despite Perry's claims of being a tax cutter. Any politician with a pulse will demonstrate that Perry's walk doesn't match his talk.

Memo to Perry, Hutchison: Let's hear a real debate about transportation
Michael Lindenberger/Reporter
Dallas Morning News, July 23, 2009

The Senate commerce committee voted this week to advance a plan pushed by the Obama Administration to provide emergency funds for federal highway trust fund, a move that in turn delays much bigger -- and vastly more expensive -- efforts to completely overhaul federal transportation policy.The latter is the preferred method of House transportation chairman James Oberstar, D-Minn., but it's going nowhere.

perry.JPGAgainst that backdrop, Gordon Dickson, the Star-Telegram's transportation reporter, has a piece this morning that highlights the committee's ranking Republican, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's "reluctant" support for the extension bill. He quotes her and Gov. Rick Perry's spokeswoman as saying they'd prefer a more comprehensive reform than a band-aid approach.

But saying you're for reform and saying what that means, exactly, isn't always the same thing.

For instance, Hutchison's preference is a bill she filed that would allow states like Texas, who pay more in gas taxes than they receive in regular transportation funding, to opt out of the federal highway system altogether. Call it, if you're smiling, a proposal for a mini-secession, if you will.

We wrote about this in April, and Dickson quotes Hutchison:

"Donor states like Texas should not be required to continue funding other states' transportation needs for an additional 18 months at the expense of our own priorities," she said.

She explained her views herself in an op-ed earlier this year. Trouble is, none of the ideas that are in serious contention for Congress' time this summer include a plan to allow big states to withdraw from the federal highway program.Perry's spokesman seized on that reality immediately, as reported by Dickson.
On the other hand, Perry hasn't done much to add his own weight to the debate over how Washington should go about funding and building highways in the future. He launched something of a revolution earlier this decade when he pushed Texas into the private toll road hunt -- a lurch, now quieted, that drew national attention, and plenty of followers in other states -- but since then he's mainly kept quiet.

His surrogates haven't been so quiet. Ned Holmes of Houston, a transportation commissioner appointed to the job by Perry, has led a national campaign aimed at shaping the debate over our transportation future, and that group's approach has evolved over time to include a broad range of suggestions, not just toll roads. (Holmes now supports Hutchison for the governor in 2010.)

It's probably fair for folks to start asking Perry what his ideas for transportation in the second decade of the 21st century are. Hutchison's pull-out proposal may not have a lick of a chance at becoming law. But it is an idea, anyway.

These two politicians are going to be going at each other hard for the next several months. I'm hoping they each lay out some specific proposals for how to move people and goods around in Texas, how to pay for it, and how Texas should use its big clout to influence the same decisions in Washington.

There is a lot at stake in the 2010 race for governor, and one of biggest things is the multi-billion-dollar business of building roads and rail.

Let the policy debate begin.

__________________________________________________________
08/03/2009

Path to victory for Hutchison now a challenge

By R.G. Ratcliffe- San Antonio Express News

AUSTIN — U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison began this year as “Kay the Invincible.” But as she prepares to officially launch her bid for governor later this month, that aura is gone.Hutchison entered the year with the ability to make other politicians quake. She had two re-election victories under her belt with more than 60 percent of the vote in each. Her popularity ratings in polls put her at the top among Texas politicians. And polls showed her leading Gov. Rick Perry by anywhere from 6 to 27 percentage points.
Then Hutchison went silent — leaving the field of Texas politics to Perry for more than four months.

The senator “squandered her opportunity,” Republican political consultant Mark Sanders said. “She ceded the Republican base to Gov. Perry.”

Perry focused a message on conservative Republican primary voters. He railed against the federal government, against stimulus funding, against federal health care plans and for states' rights.

Hutchison's advantage in the polls was eliminated, and Perry took a lead of more than 10 percentage points in three polls in June.

Even as she prepares for her expected Aug. 17 announcement that she's running for governor, Hutchison's message continues to lack focus.

Over the past week, Hutchison has been critical of Perry for not accepting $550 million in federal stimulus money for unemployment insurance, but even that criticism contrasts with the fact that she said nothing publicly on the issue when the Legislature was in session and she could have made a difference in whether the issue passed.

Perhaps nothing so clearly showed Hutchison's stumble than the fumbling series of interviews she gave last week about resigning from the Senate in October or November to run for governor. She gave mixed messages about having to resign only because it is a contested election, and she ended up urging Perry to drop out. He said no.

University of Texas political scientist James Henson said it looks like Hutchison's advisers underestimated Perry and thought she could sit on her advantage until the campaign began.

“Kay was going to have the equivalent of a Rose Garden campaign,” Henson said, referring to the presidential election strategy of not leaving the White House except on official business.

Henson said momentum in the race “has clearly swung in Perry's favor” but that the best news for Hutchison is that the vast majority of Texans are not paying attention to the race.

Last December, state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, said Democrats were avoiding the governor's race because “Hutchison is such an intense brand, it's hard to get market share on that one.”

Van de Putte now says Hutchison “has got her challenges.” She said the GOP primary may be so “bloody” that the Democrats have a shot at defeating either Hutchison or Perry in the general election.

“It's going to be the clash of titans,” Van de Putte said.

Tom Schieffer of Fort Worth is the only Democrat officially in the race so far.

Hutchison supporter Gary Polland, a former Harris County GOP chairman, said too much emphasis is placed on where Hutchison stood early in the race, as opposed to now.

“It was an aura of invincibility. I never thought it was reality,” Polland said. “The governor is an outstanding politician.”

Polland said that when Hutchison officially launches her campaign she will be able to make the case that Perry is not the conservative leader he says he is and that the Texas economy is not as good as Perry claims. He said Hutchison spent the spring concentrating on her work in Washington, D.C.

“She's not even really campaigning. Perry is always in campaign mode,” Polland said. “Once Sen. Hutchison engages, the race will get close.”

TxDOT grants "toll amnesty"

Link to article here. More on the toll collection nightmare here.

TxDOT approves toll amnesty
Scofflaws would get a break on paying 90 percent of non-payment fees.
By Ben Wear
American-Statesman Staff
Thursday, July 30, 2009

SAN ANGELO — Toll violators on Texas Department of Transportation turnpikes will be forgiven up to 90 percent of nonpayment fees if they pay the overdue tolls and sign up for electronic toll tags, under an amnesty program approved today by the Texas Transportation Commission.

By offering to forego payment of the lion's share of $58.4 million owed in late fees, TxDOT hopes to collect much of the $3.2 million in unpaid tolls. But officials said today that there hasn't been a comparable program on other Texas toll roads, so they couldn't predict what percentage of scofflaws might be enticed to pay up by the offer.

The amnesty applies to four toll roads in Central Texas and one in Tyler.

"What we've been able to piece together is if you approach something like 90 percent, you're liable to get more participation," said Phil Russell, TxDOT's assistant executive director of innovative project development.

Details of how the amnesty will work will be released in a few weeks, TxDOT said.

To date, about 140,000 cars have run up more than 2.9 million unpaid tolls, according to TxDOT. The amnesty of 60 to 90 days — TxDOT is officially calling it a "toll recovery" period — will likely begin Sept. 1 or shortly thereafter, TxDOT officials said.

Rental car companies will not be eligible for the amnesty.

And it will not apply to tolls rung up and unpaid on the 183-A toll road, which is run by the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, not TxDOT.

The first Austin-area toll roads opened in late October 2006 and began charging tolls in January 2007. But TxDOT, though it has billed for tolls and aggressively pursued collection from non-payers, to date has not taken anyone to court.

That will change after the amnesty period, Russell said.

"We didn't want to be perceived to be a heavy-handed government coming in," Russell told commission members before the vote. "We've had patience. But we are at the point now where we must move forward. And we will be initiating court proceedings."

An unpaid toll can generate $25 in fees within four months. If it is referred to court, the possible tab rises to $450 for each toll.

Commissioner Ted Houghton suggested that perhaps the agency could encourage payment by the worst offenders by publishing their names in the newspaper. The American-Statesman in fact earlier this month asked TxDOT for the names of the 10 people owing the most money.

However, the portion of state law allowing TxDOT to operate toll roads explicitly prohibits it from releasing personal information about people who incur tolls. A request from the American-Statesman earlier this month to release the amounts owed by the 10 worst offenders, without their names, was referred by TxDOT to the Texas attorney general for an opinion and remains unresolved.

At today's meeting, Russell said that the No. 1 scofflaw owes the agency $40,000 in tolls and late fees.

In other action today, the commission:

\• Approved a $31 million loan to the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority for the first phase of the U.S. 290 East tollway. The authority plans to begin a $265 million project this fall to build four flyover bridges at the U.S. 183/U.S 290 intersection along with six toll lanes and free frontage roads to east of Springdale Road, executive director Mike Heiligenstein said.

The loan will be used to buy right of way and to move utility lines for that project. The rest of the money for the project will come from a $90 million grant under the federal stimulus program, from agency funds and from bonds to be sold next year.

The agency will eventually extend the U.S. 290 tollway to near Manor.

\• Authorized spending about $6 million in federal stimulus funds for road resurfacing projects on seven Central Texas roads, including U.S. 183 between MoPac Boulevard and Burnet Road.

\• Approved a $457 million list of projects that included $83 million for buy right of way and move utilities for expansion of Interstate 35 from four lanes to six lanes in parts of Bell and McLennan counties.

Trucker Association: Gas tax fairest way to fund roads

Link to article here.

ATA to Congress: Fuel Tax is Most Effective Way to Fund Infrastructure ARLINGTON, Va., July 23

/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Trucking Associations (ATA) today told the House Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures, House Committee on Ways and Means, that the federal fuel tax remains the most cost-effective way to fund essential highway infrastructure projects.

In her statement on behalf of ATA, 2nd Vice Chair Barbara Windsor said that an increase in the fuel tax -- with the additional revenue invested in projects and programs that address national highway infrastructure needs -- is by far the best way to ensure sufficient funding for highway projects over the near term.

"With collection costs at just 0.2 percent of revenue, no alternative funding schemes can match the efficiency or equitability of the federal fuel tax," said Windsor, who is President and CEO of Hahn Transportation, based in New Market, Maryland.

ATA maintains support for the federal fuel tax because it:

Offers minimal opportunity for evasion;
Can be collected and enforced without imposing excessive administrative and recordkeeping burdens on highway members;
Is based currently on readily verifiable measure of highway and vehicle use;
Remains uniform in application among classes of highway users; and
Does not create impediments to interstate commerce.
Windsor explained that highway funding schemes like tolling, vehicle miles traveled taxes or public-private partnerships do not stand up to the criteria for viable highway funding and provide a minimal return on the highway user's investment.

A strong transportation system is the backbone of our nation. Trucking pays 33 percent of state and federal highway user fees, but logs just 14.4 percent of annual vehicle miles traveled on our highways. In addition to the federal fuel tax, trucks contribute to the system through a Heavy Vehicle Use Tax paid on all trucks above 55,000 pounds, a sales tax on all trucks and trailers, and a tire tax paid on all tires sold by manufacturers, producers or importers.

Windsor also said that the climate and energy legislation recently passed in the House is likely to significantly increase the cost of fuel. This increase would impose significant costs on American consumers and jeopardize the ability of the trucking industry to fund both the highway infrastructure that is greatly needed and also absorb the added costs to fuel brought by climate and energy legislation. It is important to note that improving highway infrastructure will decrease fuel consumption and carbon output by both cars and trucks.

Click here to read the entire testimony from Barbara Windsor.

The American Trucking Associations is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. Through a federation of other trucking groups, industry-related conferences, and its 50 affiliated state trucking associations, ATA represents more than 37,000 members covering every type of motor carrier in the United States.
SOURCE American Trucking Associations

Ports to Plains, new Trans Texas Corridor route hits West Texas

Link to story here.

Same playbook, different names. The Ports to Plains Coalition is patterned after the Alliance for I-69 and other business and trade groups looking to soak taxpayers for their own personal gain. The article sounds innocuous, but it's just like the Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69 project that was renamed I-69 in hopes of quelling the controversy surrounding the Trans Texas Corridor. Of course, what this latest group fails to disclose is that ports to plains has been identified in sworn testimony by TxDOT Executive Director Amadeo Saenz as part of the Trans Texas Corridor network of foreign-owned toll roads. Buyer beware, it's never as rosy as the big business interests paint it to be.

Group promotes ports-to-plains highway
By Amanda Casanova
Abilene Reporter News
Monday, July 27, 2009

Duffy Hinkle, vice president of membership and marketing for the Ports-to-Plains Coalition, has a photo of a truck circling the Boise City, Okla., courthouse, carrying wind turbines and disrupting traffic. It is a common sight for the small town and others like it where heavy truck traffic causes congestion.

The coalition is hoping for congressional support for a highway expansion project it favors to construct a major freight roadway, better serve rural U.S. areas, and ease trade congestion.

“Everything that travels from south to north or north to south goes right through the middle of our town,” said Gloria McDonald, Big Spring City Council member and city representative for Ports-to-Plains. “We’re very interested in making a pathway.”

A 20-year plan would expand the highway between Laredo and Denver to four lanes at an estimated cost of $2.6 billion. The expansion would allow for an increase in the flow of goods from Mexico to Canada. It is also estimated that the roadwork would generate $4.5 billion in new jobs, sales taxes, lodging and manufacturing.

“Economic development has always followed transportation,” Hinkle said. “Enhanced infrastructure for transportation of goods and services will increase economic development opportunities in rural communities throughout the corridor.”

New Mexico, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana and North and South Dakota are encouraging regional projects, which together with the Texas-Colorado segment, would connect Laredo to the Canadian border, spanning a total distance of 2,300 miles.

Produce, livestock, petrochemicals and oil and gas equipment are transported on the roadway. Combined, the nine states accounted for about $43.2 billion in corridor truck exports to Mexico in 2007 and $38.2 billion in imports.

While the city of Big Spring, Howard County, Howard College, the chamber of commerce and the economic development board are all supporting the highway, the town’s 25,000 people were not as thrilled with the project in the beginning.

“Like anything new, people were bitterly opposed at first,” McDonald said. “Three years of town hall meetings, they’ve come to understand the kind of traffic we’re trying to get to go around is not the kind that is going to stop and buy barbecue or get gas.”

McDonald said she has assured residents that Big Spring visitors and travelers will not be affected by the road.

“We’ll still have the traffic that will stop and eat and buy gas,” she said. “The other road is not a shorter route, so we’ll tell travelers to go through town.”

Launched in 1997, the Lubbock-based coalition has worked with the project’s founder, U.S. Rep. Randy Neugebauer, and other state and federal officials to secure project funding.

“As far as opposition, we see very little,” Hinkle said. “People realize the potential of what the corridor can do for their communities.”

The multilane highway would connect with the Heartland Expressway and Theodore Roosevelt Highway, leading to the Canadian border.

In May, the Province of Alberta in Canada joined the coaltion in hopes to transport Canadian oil and agriculture.

“They can get the oil where it needs to be more quickly,” McDonald said. “It’s really connecting all the dots.”

In Big Spring, the McMahon-Wrinkle Airport could be used for moving shipments.

“If goods are moving from Colorado and somebody wants to switch, we have the area to store containers,” she said. “We’re probably also the only one on the route that has a truck-rail-air connection here.”

While Big Spring welcomes the route, McDonald said other parts of Texas should as well.

“This road is also a priority of Texas Department of Transportation because it will relieve the 1-35 corridor,” she said. “It’s much simpler to build roads in the wide open spaces than in the metro area.”

Within the next 25 years, Texas population is expected to balloon by 64 percent, with highway use estimated to increase 214 percent.

“According to a Ports-to-Plains study,” Hinkle said, “upon completion of the corridor, the number of accidents will be reduced by almost half in the state of Texas as well as a significant reduction of accidents in the other Ports-to-Plains states. Safety is just one of many benefits that will result from upgrading highways from two to four lanes along the corridor.”

Several highway projects along the corridor have been started. In mid-July, Eagle Pass broke ground for State Loop 480, while Dalhart and Texline, towns near the New Mexico-Texas state line, have also began construction for the highway.

Toll rates hiked 80% to fund light rail

Link to article here.

Note from a friend who lived in D.C.:
"Dulles Airport is connected to Washington by a toll road. The toll road authority has promised to sell $2.5 billion of new toll bonds. The money will be given to the Airport Authority to build a $5 billion light rail line connecting the airport to the nearest DC Metro light rail line. Then the airport will give the rail line to DC Metro.

There are currently 4 free freeway lanes and 8 tollway lanes + frontage roads. But traffic has been flat on the road lanes since 2001. To repay the new toll bonds, the tollway lanes will have to have rate increases. The first round will be 80%. The rate increases will reduce traffic on the toll lanes. Those people will probably end up on the train.

This is gratuitous spending. People who would rather drive to the airport (and surrounding communities) are being purposefully priced out of their cars and forced onto a train. The roads are not congested. They
will soon be underutilized. That will mean more rate increases."

DC airports outfit to hike tolls 80% on Dulles Toll Road to fund metro rail line
Toll Road News
07-13-2009

Dulles Toll Road (DTR) toll rates will be nearly doubled by 2012 under a plan being considered by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) who want to use tolls and toll revenue bonds to finance just over half the cost of a 5.26b metro-rail line. A "Plan of Finance" for the Dulles metrorail project by the airports authority's Corridor Advisory Committee lays out two options, one of which doubles tolls at the mainline plaza from their present 75c to $1.50 by the end of this year and increases ramp tolls from 50c to 75c.

The second option would raise toll rates at the mainline plaza 25c in 2010, another 25c in 2011 and a third 25c in 2012. Most trips on the DTR involve a mainline toll and a ramp toll so the average trip on the 18km (12 mile) road would go $1.25 now to $2.25, or 80%. If the average trip is 15km (9mi) the toll rate would go from 8.3c/km (13.4c/mi) to 15c/km (24c/mi).

ADDITION: Meetings Wednesday morning (July 15 9am) will consider "Material Changes" to the revenue bonds and trust indenture, select a pricing advisor for bond sales, update the recommended plan of finance, hear new cost estimates, and consider amendments to toll rates. Mercator Advisors LLC are lead financial advisers to MWAA. (ADDED 2009-07-13 14:30)

Wilbur Smith Assoc (WSA) estimated for MWAA that Option 1 would increase toll revenues from $65m now to $101m in 2010 and $107m in 2012, whereas the Option 2 phase-in would increase toll revenues: 2010 $87.4m, 2011 $97.1m, 2012 $107.1m.

Option 1 garners an aggregate $377m over four years 2009-2012 compared to $357m with the Option 2 three year phase-in.

WSA's new traffic and revenue study has not yet been released by the airports agency. [ADDITION: A spokesman said Monday that the WSA T&R report is only preliminary and not ready for public release. She said the final T&R study by WSA will be released as part of the bond prospectus. 2009-07-13 11:20)

A graph in the Finance Plan presentation showing changing forecasts suggests WSA reduced their estimates of revenue between a December 2006 and an August 2008 report. They appear to have gone from a 2011 to 2013 estimate of toll revenue of around $125m 2006-12 to about $97m 2008-08. The graph shows they now (2009-05) project revenue in those years at the $107m in 2012.

That's a 65% increase in revenue from an 80% increase in toll rates, suggesting a decline in traffic from present levels of about 9%.

2020 projections keep getting better

For 2020 the three WSA projections show toll revenue on the DTR for 2020 as $180m (2006-12), $195m (2008-08) and $220m (2009-05). We can only read off the graph since MWAA hasn't released the reports with their tables.

You have to wonder why WSA's reported forecasts of DTR toll revenue for 2020 would get progressively more optimistic between December 2006 and May 2009, swelling in two iterations by about 15%. (Do they now assume a two-term Reaganite president ushering in a new era of economic growth from 2012 on?)

Need $220m tolls/year by 2020

Anyway, the DTR "Plan of Finance" presentation states bluntly: "Gross toll revenue on the DTR will need increase from approximately $65 million in 2008 to $87 million in 2010 and $220 million by 2020 to cover potential debt service costs."

That's because MWAA plan to issue $2,956m of DTR toll revenue bonds 2009 through 2013, nearly half of that in the next 18 months.

Other sources of money for the metro-rail line will be $2489m comprised: $900m federal grants, $275m Virginia state monies, Loudoun County $252m, Fairfax County $846m, MWAA airport money $215m. The Dulles Toll Road contributes $2767m (53%) on this reckoning, about $190m less than the amount to be issued in toll revenue bonds - so they have some spare cash for reserves.

Traffic has been rather flat on the Dulles Toll Road 2006 through 2008 at around 110m transactions/year (300k/day). 2005's traffic volume has never been reached again.

2005 saw a toll increase, but from 2001 onward growth in traffic had been slight.

Baltimore Washington International Airport (BWI) has gained market share at the expense of Dulles and anti-growth policies in Fairfax and Loudoun counties have reduced the pace of new development in the corridor. Also competing tax supported roads such as I-66, VA7, VA28 have been improved.

1991 through 2001 were the boom years for the Dulles Toll Road with traffic growing from 137k transactions/day to 287k, a 110% increase. That's 7% to 8% per year.

Those glory days are past.

BACKGROUND: Dulles Toll Road opened in 1985 and was widened progressively from 2 travel lanes each direction to 4 lanes per direction. It straddles the untolled Dulles Airport Access Highway of 2x2 lanes which opened with the Airport in 1965. DAAH has no offramps westbound and no onramps eastbound to prevent it being used by commuters who are serviced by the DTR tolled lanes.

The metro-rail Silver line, 37km (23 miles) in length with eleven stations is a spur off the existing Orange line at I-66 in Falls Church, proceeding in the median of the Dulles Toll Road/Airport Access Highway/ I-66 connector road almost to the Beltway, diverting south into Tysons Corner then heading back up to the Dulles Toll/Access Road running in the median to Dulles Airport, from there joining the Dulles Greenway, running in its median about a third the length of the Greenway terminating in Loudoun County at VA772.

On present plans MWAA will turn over the Silver line to Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (WMATA) to operate trains and bear the costs of operating losses. WMATA runs the rest of the DC area metro-rail system, the second largest in the country after New York's subways.

on the metro-rail project:

http://www.dullesmetro.com/

on Dulles Toll Road:

http://www.metwashairports.com/tollroad

Toll opponents score a BIG one with Adkisson retaining power

Link to article here.

07/29/2009

Board's toll-road backers suffer loss with vote

Scott Stroud - Express-News Columnist

After taking over as chairman of the Metropolitan Planning Organization, one of several local entities with a lot to say about San Antonio's transportation future, Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson vowed to “declare war” on gobbledygook. But when it came time to explain the maneuvering that surrounded his installation as chairman, he went all murky.

Maybe this will help sort through the haze: MPO members who are open to toll roads got their butts kicked Monday.

Throughout the MPO's history, the agenda for passing out road-building dollars has been controlled by its chairman. But Adkisson, a toll road critic, worries people on the other side enough that they proposed having the MPO's executive committee set the agenda instead.

Anti-toll road Force of Nature Terri Hall spoke up to say this would require a bylaw change and, therefore, violated the state's open meetings law because it wasn't on the agenda. Turns out she was right.

Rep. David Leibowitz, D-San Antonio, an anti-toll road board member, moved that two issues — the nominating process and the agenda-setting authority — be “bifurcated,” so Adkisson could become chairman. The vote to separate them ended in a tie, after which Leibowitz said the agenda-setting change was outside the scope of the nomination committee's jurisdiction and shouldn't have happened.

Adkisson, who was already presiding because his predecessor, Sheila McNeil, had left the City Council, said grandly that there was “only one person who might see the inside of a Bexar County cooler” if something illegal took place. He was about to forge ahead with the bifurcating when City Councilwoman Jennifer Ramos reversed herself, voting to separate the issues.

At that point, Adkisson, who seemed to have planned his dance steps with Leibowitz, stood up, said, “I'm at the point where I have to turn into a pumpkin,” and left the room while the board voted. He returned as MPO chairman, his agenda-setting authority undiluted.

But then another funny thing happened. Before Hall could get to the lobby to declare victory before TV cameras, Adkisson — occasionally given to verbiage that borders on loopy — opted to “share a thought or two” on where he hoped to lead the MPO.

“When the day is done,” he began, “what we're really trying to do in a macro sense is all about the red, white and blue.”

The goal is to improve the city, he explained, and, therefore, our great nation. He vowed to work with friends on “both sides of the aisle,” cut through the aforementioned gobbledygook and strive to make the world a better place.

County Commissioner Kevin Wolff, recognizing both defeat and an opportunity, applauded Adkisson's remarks. In the spirit of such graciousness, he said, he hoped Adkisson would allow a vote on the procedural change.

Oh sure, Adkisson said.

Out in the lobby, however, both Leibowitz and Hall said they saw no reason to change things at all. And Adkisson, the warrior against gobbledygook, said a vote would be fine but called it “fixing something that isn't broken.”

In layman's terms: I win. You lose. And toll roads just took a step back.

New MPO Chair: “I will leverage heaven and earth” to fix 281 & 1604

Link to article here.

07/28/2009

MPO boss' power remains intact

By Josh Baugh - Express-News

Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson, a toll-road opponent and environmentalist, took over as chairman of the Metropolitan Planning Organization on Monday and dodged an attempt to dilute his agenda-setting authority.

Adkisson was in line for the chairmanship two years ago but lost the position to then-City Councilwoman Sheila McNeil. The MPO vote that installed McNeil broke the organization's long-standing tradition of rotating the leadership role between city and county leaders.

Because of his toll-road opposition, Adkisson lost the chairmanship in 2007, when one MPO board member said the organization didn't want its image tarnished by electing a toll critic to be its leader.

The MPO oversees about $200 million in federal transportation funding and must approve most transportation projects within the county.

On Monday, Adkisson said he would “leverage heaven and earth” to fix congestion at U.S. 281 and Loop 1604 on the city's North Side and prioritize mass transit. He fell short of saying he would quash toll roads during his term but said he doesn't think they work well.

“All the toll-road arrangements I'm seeing around the country are losing money and traffic,” he said. “And if you can imagine when you have an economy like this, and you have extrapolated into the future a revenue stream that depends on people supporting it, I think you have to be very careful.”

Though Adkisson and Councilman John Clamp were unanimously elected chairman and vice chairman, the board split on a vote on whether to take up the issue of agenda-setting authority. In the MPO's three decades of existence, the board chairman always has set the agenda for the organization's monthly meetings. It became an issue during McNeil's term because she removed an item that state Rep. David Leibowitz, D-San Antonio, had placed on the agenda, declaring that as chairwoman she had absolute authority to do so.

County Commissioner Kevin Wolff recommended Monday that the board vote to give the agenda-setting power to the MPO's executive committee, composed of the board chairman and board members representing the city, the county, the Texas Department of Transportation and VIA Metropolitan Transit.

Leibowitz floated a motion to vote only on the nominations and leave the agenda-setting discussion for another day. Initially, the board vote was a tie, but Councilwoman Jennifer Ramos later changed her vote, tipping the count in favor of Leibowitz's plan.

Whether the policy change will be placed on an agenda remains to be seen. Adkisson, who currently has sole authority over the agenda, said he has no problem letting the full board take up the issue. At the same time, he sees no reason to change things.

“This MPO has been around since the early '70s, and it's never had an executive committee,” he said. “(Agenda-setting) has been within the sole province of the chairman. So it's really fixing something that isn't broken.”

Terri Hall, founder of Texans United for Reform and Freedom, said she and her supporters were gravely concerned with giving the power to a committee with a large contingent of non-elected members. She also said Monday's meeting would have violated the Texas Open Meetings Act if the board had voted to begin the process of shifting the power away from Adkisson because the issue wasn't properly announced on the MPO agenda.

Wolff, who says toll roads are a tool to ease congestion, disagreed. He said proper notice was given. More importantly, he said, the authority should be spread over an entire committee regardless of who happens to be chairman. Wolff said he would continue to push for the policy amendment.

But Hall said toll-road advocates are “trying to change the rules in the middle of the game.” Still, she was thrilled with Adkisson's victory.

“This is a breath of fresh air for everybody in San Antonio,” she said.

Power grab at MPO...AGAIN! Plot to neuter toll opponent, Adkisson

07/25/2009

Toll-road opponent set to lead MPO

By Josh Baugh - Express-News

Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson, a toll-road critic and environmentalist, is poised to lead San Antonio's Metropolitan Planning Organization, the agency that oversees how $200 million in federal transportation funds are spent in Bexar County.

Whether Adkisson's leadership will change the MPO's bearings, however, remains an open question. He didn't lay out an agenda for his term as chairman, but he made clear that mass transit is one of his priorities.

“I think one of the things that's painfully evident to me is that our mass transit, especially light rail, needs to be fast-forwarded,” he said.

On Monday, the MPO board is expected to elect Adkisson. His two-year term likely will get under way with the toll-road debate on low heat. That wasn't the case in 2007, when Adkisson was expected to be elected chairman but ultimately lost to then-Councilwoman Sheila McNeil.

Though it's not written in MPO policy, there's been a gentlemen's agreement that chairmanship of the board rotates between Bexar County and the city. But that's not how it played out two years ago, after then-City Councilman Richard Perez left the board, which has 19 voting members that include elected and appointed officials and government staffers.

Back then, council members argued that Perez, a strong toll advocate, would have maintained the chairmanship if it weren't for the City Council's term limits. The council members on the MPO stacked the nominating committee and then chose one of their own to serve as chairwoman. They blocked Adkisson reportedly because of his opposition to toll roads.

Before Perez, the county and city had each had four-year stints in the chairman's seat.

The MPO chairman doesn't just run meetings. The chair traditionally has set the MPO's meeting agendas, a powerful tool in deciding what does — and doesn't — get done.

But that power is likely to be diluted at the same time Adkisson is nominated for the chairmanship.

County Commissioner Kevin Wolff, who serves on the MPO's nominating committee, said he assumed the organization's executive committee set the agenda.

“It turns out I was wrong,” he said. “A lot of it's set by what's actually required under state law, but the rest was just kind of arbitrary on behalf of the chair. Well, I see that as a huge problem, regardless of who's the chair.”

Wolff said the nominating committee's recommendation on Monday would be to elect Adkisson chairman and City Councilman John Clamp vice chairman, and leave agenda-setting to the four-member executive committee. Representatives from the Texas Department of Transportation and VIA Metropolitan Transit make up half the committee.

Toll critic Terri Hall, who balked at handing that much authority to non-elected officials, said she believes Adkisson's would-be power is being slashed because of his toll opposition.

“That's what they want — they want to dilute Tommy's power,” she said. “They only think that having all the power in one person is suitable when they're in charge. But when they're not in charge, well, by golly, ‘We better diffuse that power because we don't want someone like that running the board.'”

Clamp shrugged off the contention that Adkisson's authority would be diluted because of his politics. “I just think the body should really help set the agenda — not just one person.”

Find this article at:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/traffic/Toll-road_opponent_set_to_lead_MPO.html

Foreign-owned toll roads not dead yet...lawmakers vow to resurrect

Link to article here.

Mr. "Pro-Toll Tax" and lobbyist-in-chief, Bill Noble, needs to do a simple glance at our web site to see we're all about non-toll solutions and have offered them for years. They don't like our solutions, so they dismiss them. However, the taxpayers deserve the most affordable transportation solutions, not the most expensive one that he and Rep. Larry Phillips are advocating: foreign-owned toll roads.

CDAs ‘not dead yet’ opponents, supporters say
by Andy Hogue
Sun, Jul 12, 2009
Dallas Morning News blog

Two billion dollars and another two years of life isn’t a bad deal for the Texas Department of Transportation, is it?

It depends on with whom you speak.

Besides losing the ability to continue transportation comprehensive development agreements (CDAs), the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and the Perry administration also lost a great deal of political capital and bargaining power after the special legislative session.

The Legislature renewed TxDOT without much in terms of reforms, but did not approve a bill continuing a list of 13 CDAs — effectively calling a time-out on a six-year expansion of toll roads.

This raises a few questions as to where things are going next with transportation.

Surely, $2 billion in recently released Proposition 12 funds won’t last forever in building freeways. So the next two-to-four years are still anyone’s game, and both sides in the toll road debate agree that CDAs aren’t dead — nor is TxDOT giving in.

What projects were stopped?

At least two CDA toll projects will be preserved through 2011 under SB 792 from the 80th session — Highway 161 in Dallas and the Grand Parkway loop around Houston. While forging a deal on those projects may continue, most other CDAs will expire Sept. 1.

A lifeline was cast to 13 projects during the special session as part of SB 3, which would have extended their CDAs on a project-by-project basis. There was not enough legislative will to see the whole list through (LSR, July 3), but members attempted to compromise with a short list — only those projects already agreed to by the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA), namely managed lanes on I-35 East, Highway 183 and I-30 in the DFW area.

Bill Noble, executive director of the pro-CDA Texans for Safe and Reliable Transportation, said CDAs made Highway 130 bypass around Austin possible, for example. Projects like I-69 were casualties.

There were 87 toll road projects implemented in Texas, per discussion during the 80th legislative session in 2007. According to committee testimony during the 80th interim, about 400 toll projects were being considered. So is it possible that, by the Legislature’s not continuing CDAs, that nearly 300 would-be toll roads were prevented? Terri Hall of Texans United for Reform and Freedom (TURF), a TxDOT watchdog, thinks so (at least for now).

"I do think that they [toll road lobbyists] are going to keep trying to bring CDAs back up, as there’s so much money behind them. So it’s up to the taxpayers to remain vigilant," she said. "CDAs are the more expensive tool in the toolbox. But that’s the one they keep reaching for."

Does TxDOT have any clout left?

Hall claims the support of a large movement of taxpayers who oppose the expansion of toll roads and accumulation of debt from CDA agreements. Noble said he’s certain toll roads remain a popular transportation option among voters as a "tool" in the aforementioned toolbox.

"We want all the tools — and that includes gas tax and indexing," Noble said. "But we don’t believe that a massive gas tax would be politically viable, and that’s what would be required if you didn’t have the option of toll roads."

Hall said allowing international conglomerates (such as Cintra of Spain) to own and manage toll roads in private, behind-closed-doors contracts is less politically viable than proposing upping the gas tax.

TxDOT declined to comment.

Rep. Larry Phillips (R-Sherman) thinks there’s plenty of room left for TxDOT to negotiate its future — as well as an extra session in which to debate meaty issues.

"We will need to build roads in the future, and I think that will be the debate over the next two sessions on how we build those roads," Phillips said.

One option to continue CDAs in the future is to give the Legislature oversight over each individual project — a method Phillips said might prove burdensome.

Phillips called for a greater role of toll authorities, such as NTTA and the Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA), in the approval process, as a check on TxDOT.

"Conventional wisdom is that projects may be approved on a case-by-case basis rather than a blanket authority through TxDOT," Noble said. "But that’s a cumbersome process … at the end of the day, Texans are going to realize that roads are not going to get better unless all options are on the table, including toll roads."

Noble said TxDOT’s overall standing has been lowered since mid-decade, but there has been some rebound under the leadership of TTC Chair Deirdre Delisi.

"We did some polling when I first got involved, and back then TxDOT was a highly credible entity. And Texans really had a high opinion — far greater than lawmakers,’" Noble said. "And some of that has come down, especially with leadership. But under the leadership of Delisi and Amadeo Saenz, we’ve seen a sea change — that being, they appreciate the openness, the responsiveness, and the efforts to work with Legislature to find solutions. And you look at it in what the Legislature could have done as far as radical changes in Sunset, all that really didn’t happen."

At least until 2011, TxDOT continues to have a friend in the Governor—most recently exemplified by a veto of HB 2142, which would have prevented TxDOT from advertising the use of toll roads.

"Marketing toll roads as a user-fee-based alternative to congested highways is important to relieving congestion on other state roads and keeping Texas moving," Gov. Rick Perry said in his veto proclamation, echoing TxDOT’s ad campaign slogan "Keep Texas Moving."

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, likely Perry’s biggest major challenger in the GOP primary for Texas Governor, called for federal legislation to ban tolls on federally owned roadways — a sign that transportation will be a key issue in the 2010 gubernatorial campaign.

Will anti-toll road movements keep on?

Noble said anti-toll-road activists, now that they have their way for at least another two years, are going to have to provide solutions — solutions that may not prove popular with their own volunteers. "The only other way to relieve congestion is a massive gas tax increase," he said. "Opponents of toll roads are slowly beginning to trickle out when faced with the question of ‘what’s your answer?’"

Many conservative opponents of toll roads were leery of Sen. John Carona’s (R-Dallas) solution in the form of the Local Option Transportation Plan – most vocal were concerns that the gas tax would be raised in large communities.

True, a motor fuels tax increase (or index to inflation) won’t be popular with some conservatives, Hall said. But there are more issues at stake in her organization than just the CDAs vs. the gas tax debate, such as transparency in contracts.

"Our legislators often don’t have a clue what’s in these contracts — they have no idea what they’re selling off," Hall said, noting that a Cintra contract for the North Tarrant Express near Fort Worth had a charge of 75 cents per mile at peak hours.

"We’re all in favor of a motor fuels tax increase," she said. "But you have to end [Fund 6] diversions before we give you more money. Also, we’ve got to reform TxDOT — getting into the books, looking into the finances, and basically gutting the agency … Until they change the culture at TxDOT, they will continue to have problems and blowback from the public."

What message was sent by the 81st?

A simple message was sent by the refusal of the Legislature to approve CDAs in the 81st regular and special sessions: CDAs are still highly suspect. Whether or not the Legislature’s inaction on CDAs was a referendum on their viability as a transportation solution is debatable.

"I don’t think the special session was specifically that," Phillips said. "I think that referendum occurred during the regular session on the Sunset bill. And it’s pretty clear that the Legislature wants us to have a transparent process, and that it becomes understandable to the public on how roads are being built … and how MPOs interact with the state, environmental studies are conducted, etc. … It’s fairly difficult in such a short time frame to hash these things out and discuss them [CDAs]. The question was in 2007 can we slow down and take some time in the interim to look at it. So tapping on the brake is not such a bad thing for now."

Noble, who said there has been a "thoroughly inadequate hearing on CDAs" in recent sessions, agreed there is room to haggle. "I think it’s a clean slate for us — we know where we stand now, and for a few years," Noble said.

"I don’t see that CDAs are dead," Phillips said, "as long as we make sure they’re approved by a local community."

Nichols deliberately misleads about ties to TTC lobbyist to protect private toll operators

Link to story and to view the two-part news video, go here.

This CBS News expose of Senator Robert Nichols' efforts to protect private toll road investors instead of taxpayers is spot-on. However, Senator Kevin Eltife says he's against foreign-owned toll roads on camera, but he voted FOR every bill and amendment that would hand our public roads to private toll operators on the floor of the Texas Senate. Why won't politicians tell the truth and defend the taxpayers over the special interests? We MUST hold them accountable! To read more specifics about how Nichols brokered this deal with a lobbyist, go here.

Senator Robert Nichols and Toll Roads
By Roger Gray

In the last legislative session, the future of toll roads was on the line.

But one area state senator was more involved than most. In fact some critics say the fix was in.

"You can't do toll roads in rural Texas. It won't work," says State Senator Kevin Eltife.

Yes, the original Trans Texas Corridors were huge, and controversial.

Whitehouse rancher and toll road critic Hank Gilbert called it, "the largest land grab in the history of the U.S."

Senator Eltife agreed. "It's a total property right's mess."

Gilbert added, "I don't think the people of Texas, rural and urban, are going to allow that to happen."

And Austin seemed to get the message.

"I think there's no question, the Trans Texas corridor is dead," Eltife concluded.

But some advocates clung to the idea of foreign companies building and running toll roads as private enterprises.

Eltife is an opponent. "They should never be owned by a private company, ever. That's a gold mine for the state."

As is Gilbert, of Texans United for Reform and Freedom. "Comprehensive Development Agreements that would allow private investors to come in, plan, build, operate, maintain, the whole nine yards."

Eltife agreed, "The state ought to own them. They ought to be a small piece of the puzzle."

State Senator Robert Nichols "seemed" to agree when we spoke to him by phone during the session.

"The people of East Texas are clear," he said. "They do not want the East Texas Corridor. But they do want to develop Interstate 69."

But did Sen. Nichols want to insure that private toll road contracts were a part of that I-69 development? He added an amendment to his transportation bill that seems to guarantee a contractor couldn't lose money.

Gilbert explained, "You have one of our own East Texas Republican senators is offering an amendment to his own bill which would guarantee a profit. To me that kind of goes against capitalism."

Nichols, though, disagreed. "There is language related to buy backs, but there is absolutely no guarantee whatever that anybody will ever get any of their debt back."

But, we have a copy of an e-mail sent out by toll road lobbyist Gary Bushell, and it says,

"...we have reached an agreement with Senator Nichols on a buyout provision...that provides protection of their position in the event they find themselves upside down on their debt to fair market value...I want to thank Senator Robert Nichols and his chief of staff Steven Albright for making this outcome possible."

Nichols doesn't think that's what he did. "Well, it's incorrect, because that's not true."

Gilbert concluded, "That's not very free market."

So, according to one lobbyist, Senator Robert Nichols went to bat for private toll road contractors.

"That's crazy," he protested. "No. I don't know who told you that, but that's nuts."

I responded, "Well, I've got an email from a lobbyist who says that's exactly what you did."

Nichols again disagreed, "Well, it's incorrect, because that's not true."

"So this lobbyist is wrong," I replied.

"If that's your interpretation of what he says," Nichols responded. "I'm not looking at whatever it is you're reading."

"I read you exactly what he said, " I said. "that provides protection of their position in the event they find themselves upside down on their debt to fair market value.'"

"Ok, I did not write that." He concluded.

Toll road critic Hank Gilbert is skeptical.

"At any point in time, this developer comes to the realization that they're not getting the return on investment they anticipated from this road, they can sell it back to the state at that time and with this amendment, they're guaranteed not to lose money."

Nichols again protested, "If you're saying the State of Texas or any entity is going to guarantee an investor his money back, no. Not correct."

But we have a copy of the amendment and it says.

".the fair market value of the private entity's interest...is not less than the (entity's) outstanding debt at that time plus other reasonable costs."

In short, they get out at least what they've put in.

So why would Nichols continue beating the toll road drum? The explanation may lie in his contributor list.

His top donor by far, James Pitcock of Williams Brothers Construction of Houston, the second largest TxDOT contractor for toll roads.

But Nichols still insists toll roads aren't a certainty.

"So, it's your contention that even though these CDA's, comprehensive development agreements are in HB300," I asked, "we're not talking toll roads for East Texas."

"Well, now, that's a different question." He replied. "You have toll roads in Tyler."

And Robert Nichol's tried to push these CDA's again in the special session last week. He didn't succeed.

Apparently, as long as the political money is there, toll road advocates will keep pitching.

Toll authority approves immediate 32% rate hike, automatic hikes every two years!

Link to article here.

The North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) is literally drowning in debt and can't make it's debt service payments without raising toll rates 32% in a down economy, yet it's hard to feel sorry for them when they acted like high rollers on the taxpayers dime with its $42,000 junket to Austria.

The NTTA wouldn't be in this mess were it not for being forced to bid against Spain-based, Cintra, in order to keep Hwy 121 in public hands. They had to come up with an up front "balloon" payment of over $3 billion and now it's coming home to roost. Regardless of who got the rights to what was once called the "crown jewel" of toll projects, it's the taxpayers who are on the hook to pay the tolls. The tolls would be even higher were Cintra in charge. Read about the coming 75 cent per mile toll Cintra will bleed out of motorists on LBJ and I-820 here. Add to that the fact Senator Robert Nichols added an amendment to his bill to GUARANTEE when a public road is sold to a private toll operator that the corporation NEVER LOSES money on the deal, you see how severely our politicians have sold out the taxpayers!

North Texas Tollway Authority OKs rate hike
Thursday, July 16, 2009
By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER / The Dallas Morning News

Tolls will jump about 32 percent on North Texas Tollway Authority toll roads Sept. 1, thanks to a 8-1 vote this morning by board members.

The new rates will be about 14.5 cents per mile on the President George Bush Turnpike, State Highway 121, now known as the Sam Rayburn Tollway, and the Dallas North Tollway.

In imposing the increase, the board turned aside, by a 7-2 vote, a proposal by board member Bob Day, a Dallas County appointee. Day wanted the increase to be phased in over time. Day voted against the increase.

The new rates will boost NTTA revenues about $14 million this year, and $43.5 million in 2010, and a steadily rising amount in every year beyond.

Director Dave Denison said he was concerned that the rate was in response to temporary conditions caused by the current recession, and will bring in more than is necessary to meet the agency's obligations.

"I'm not absolutely fully convinced" that the 14.5 cent rate is necessary, Denison said.

"If we come out of the recession and are going great guns we may not need all this money," he said.

Some board members also initially seemed opposed to wording in the new rate policy that nows sets an automatic toll rate increase every two years. Every two years from now on, rates will jump nearly 6 percent, without the need for a board vote.

The increase is necessary, CFO Janice Davis said, because NTTA's revenues are no longer enough to meet obligations to creditors to whom NTTA owes about $6 billion. Bond convenants require NTTA revenues to be at least 1.5 times its debt payments. Without the increases, the agency would likely not meet that obligation in the next couple years.

The automatic increases are necessary, too, or else NTTA's ability to borrow more money to build new roads will be constrained, staff and financial advisors said. Previously, toll rates were reviewed only every five years.

NTTA's financial squeeze is due to a combination of factors: while total traffic numbers are up, they are lower than expected; collections from drivers without toll tags have been less successful than expected; and fewer drivers on the new Sam Rayburn Tollway have signed up for toll tags.

TxDOT to forgive toll fines...but just this once

Link to article here.

This is a one-sided, TxDOT slanted story. When TxDOT isn't sending the toll bills to the right address, when they send you to collections after the first notice, when they fine the owners of the vehicles and not the actual driver's who commit the offense, and when they refuse to negotiate down any of the fines even in the case of mistakes, it's high time TxDOT do something to remedy the highway robbery. This is the testimony we've heard from dozens of Texas motorists who are experiencing nothing short of usury from our highway department. Read this story about a woman who racked up $11,000 in fines.

TxDOT may forgive tens of millions in toll fines
Proposed 'amnesty' would offer forgiveness of most accummulated fees and fines, but scofflaws would have to pay the overdue tolls and get a TxTag.
By Ben Wear
AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Central Texas toll scofflaws could get a pass on paying much of $56.1 million in late fees and fines under a still-in-the-works "amnesty" policy set for a vote July 30 by the Texas Transportation Commission.

The partial break on the surcharges, which can reach almost $450 per toll, probably would be tied to nonpayers' signing up for a TxTag, the electronic device affixed to windshields that allows a motorist to be charged instantly for tolls. The tardy tolls would still be due in full.

On Monday, Texas Department of Transportation officials were not yet ready to reveal the exact extent of the fine discounts under the amnesty.

Mark Tomlinson, TxDOT's turnpike division director, said that nonpayers would be asked to pay only a "small percentage" of the accumulated fees and fines. Experience with other toll agencies has shown that it takes a substantial reduction to entice violators to come forward, Tomlinson said. And he said the agency already offers nonpayers 50 percent off fees if they pay their tolls in full and sign up for a TxTag.

The amnesty period, which would apply to TxDOT's four Austin tollways and one in Tyler, would last one to two months, officials said.

According to TxDOT, 140,000 "accounts" — individual vehicle owners — have failed to pay 2.1 million toll charges, for a total of $3.2 million in unpaid tolls. The potential fees and fines associated with those charges, the amount subject to the amnesty: $58.4 million.

Those figures include the Tyler toll road, which has about $60,000 of unpaid tolls and $2.3 million in pending fees and fines.

TxDOT's uncollected money is overwhelmingly from the Central Texas toll roads.

Tomlinson said the agency probably would begin referring some of the cases, those involving chronic nonpayers, to local justice of the peace courts shortly after the amnesty period ends. What about people who might assume that yet another amnesty is down the road and continue to ignore toll bills?

"It would be an absolute mistake for anyone to think in those terms," Tomlinson said. "Our administration has made it absolutely clear that this will be a one-time offer."

The first three of TxDOT's four Austin-area toll roads — Loop 1, Texas 45 North and Texas 130 — opened in November 2006, and the agency began charging motorists in January 2007. The first violators were eligible for referral to court almost two years ago.

TxDOT's other area road, Texas 45 Southeast, which opened this spring, began charging customers only last month and thus would not yet have any violators teed up for a court appearance.

The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, which opened Austin's fifth toll road, 183-A, in March 2007, began justice of the peace referrals in January and so far has taken 47 of its worst offenders to court.

Why has it taken so long for TxDOT to begin using the court system for unpaid tolls? Spokeswoman Karen Amacker said the agency focused initially on its invoicing and collections efforts, which are handled by an outside contractor, the Washington Group, and then on helping the mobility authority begin referring toll cases to court. In addition, she said, TxDOT has to work with several justice of the peace offices — rather than just one, as the mobility authority does — because its 66 miles of Central Texas toll roads extend over a much larger area.

In addition, Tomlinson said, "We've tried to operate with the philosophy of making good toll-paying customers, and we've tried to avoid having to take big violation fees. Certainly, taking people to court is the last resort."

TxDOT's turnpike division has fewer than 40 employees and has seen significant turnover at the top over the past year or so. Tomlinson replaced longtime tollway chief Phil Russell about a year ago at roughly the same time as toll operations director David Powell left for a private sector job. Powell's position has not been filled.

In addition, TxDOT has undergone a tumultuous two years because of a $1.1 billion accounting error and opposition to its use of private toll road leases, creating an inauspicious political environment for taking citizens to court over unpaid tolls.

The fees and fines for a single toll can be substantial.

People who go through a tolling point on a TxDOT road without a TxTag or without stopping to pay with cash would get two invoices within 45 days, each carrying a $1 administrative fee. Failure to pay after 75 days raises the fee to $5. Then at day 112 the unpaid toll goes to a collection agency, and the fee jumps to $25.

Going to a justice of the peace court, which would occur at the 200-day mark when TxDOT begins to refer unpaid tolls, could cost a nonpayer almost $450 for each toll.

Plane lands on EMPTY toll road!

Link to article here.

Laughing out loud...the SH 130 toll road is SO EMPTY during rush hour traffic that a plane can land on it, sit there all day while it gets repaired and take off later that evening! Something is seriously wrong when we're building billions of dollars of toll roads scarcely a soul can afford to drive. SH 130 was supposed to take the trucks off I-35. I still sit bumper to bumper with nothing but trucks the whole way from San Antonio to Austin on I-35. What a flop! Enough of the multi-billion-dollar grand experiments...toll roads don't solve congestion!

Plane takes off after emergency landing on toll road near Hutto
CBS 42 Reporter: Stephanie Serna
June 30, 2009

Late Tuesday afternoon a plane took off from the SH 130 toll road near Hutto where it had to make an emergency landing in the morning.

It landed just south of Highway 79 around 8:30 a.m.

The pilot, 24-year-old Lindsey Moreland, told investigators she took off from an airstrip at Austin-Bergstrom Airport and was headed to Georgetown when she had engine trouble.

The toll road was closed while crews moved the single engine Cessna to the shoulder of the southbound lane.

At 4:30 p.m. the highway was shut down again so the plane's owner could take off and fly to Temple.

The landing damaged a couple of road signs that will cost about $1,000 to repair. But TxDOT says her insurance will pay for it.

Sidebar

Important Information

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Outsourcing Sovereignty: Why Privatization of Government Functions Threatens Democracy

Indiana toll road value tanks under private operator

Hutchison gets federal money for I-69

Commissioners vote to continue controversial Grand Pkwy, feeder to Trans Texas Corridor

Hutchison renews call to prohibit tolling existing interstates

TxDOT rolling in the dough, record spending coming...

Kay vs Rick - Transportation sure to be hot topic in primary battle

TxDOT grants "toll amnesty"

Trucker Association: Gas tax fairest way to fund roads

Ports to Plains, new Trans Texas Corridor route hits West Texas

Toll rates hiked 80% to fund light rail

Toll opponents score a BIG one with Adkisson retaining power

New MPO Chair: “I will leverage heaven and earth” to fix 281 & 1604

Power grab at MPO...AGAIN! Plot to neuter toll opponent, Adkisson

Foreign-owned toll roads not dead yet...lawmakers vow to resurrect

Nichols deliberately misleads about ties to TTC lobbyist to protect private toll operators

Toll authority approves immediate 32% rate hike, automatic hikes every two years!

TxDOT to forgive toll fines...but just this once

Plane lands on EMPTY toll road!

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