Jobs slashed, not the time for toll roads

Link to article here.

Employers cut jobs for 6th straight month
By JEANNINE AVERSA
Associated Press
7/3/2008

Employers cut payrolls by 62,000 in June, the sixth straight month of nationwide job losses, underscoring the economy's fragile state. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.5 percent.

The latest snapshot of business conditions, released by the Labor Department on Thursday, showed continued caution on the part of employers who are chafing under high energy prices and are uncertain about how long the economy will be stuck in a sluggish mode, reflecting fallout from housing, credit and financial troubles.

Heavy job losses in construction, manufacturing and financial services, along with cuttbacks in retailing, eclipsed job gains in education and health services, leisure and hospitality, and government.

The report, however, weak, was largely on target with economists' forecasts. They had been expecting employers to reduce payrolls by around 60,000 jobs in June and for the unemployment rate to slip a notch to 5.4 percent.

The jobless rate spiked to 5.5 percent in May. That marked the biggest over-the-month increase in two decades and left the rate at its highest since October 2004.

Job losses in both April and May turned out to be considerably deeper than had been thought. Payrolls dropped by 67,000 in April, versus the 28,000 previously reported. And, losses in May came to 62,000, rather than the 49,000 initially estimated.

So far this year, the economy has lost a total of 438,00 jobs, an average of 73,000 a month.

The economy is the top concern of voters. The faltering labor market is a source of anxiety not only for those looking for work but also for those worried about keeping their jobs during uncertain economic times. It also can spell more trouble for an already shaky economy if people and businesses were to hunker down further.

Private analysts predict the economy will continue to shed jobs in the months ahead, pushing the unemployment rate higher.

"The economy is at risk of a hard landing," said Brian Bethune, economist at Global Insight.

The number of unemployed people in June was 8.5 million, up from 7 million a year ago.

In a separate report from the department, the number of newly laid off people signing up for unemployment insurance rose sharply last week. New applications jumped by 16,000 to 404,000, the highest level since late March. The increase was bigger than economists were expecting; they were forecasting claims to rise to around 385,000.

With inflation concerns growing, the Federal Reserve last week ended an aggressive rate-cutting campaign, started last September to shore up economic growth.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues are caught between risky crosscurrents of plodding economic growth and spiraling energy and food prices that threaten to spread inflation. Lowering rates further would worsen inflation. But boosting rates too soon to fend off inflation could hurt the fragile economy.

Oil prices on Wednesday hit a new record above $144 a barrel, while gasoline prices reached a new nationwide high of $4.092 a gallon on average, according to AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express.

Workers with jobs saw modest wage gains in June

Average hourly earnings rose to $18.01 in June, a 0.3 percent rise from May. That matched economists' forecasts. Over the past year, wages have grown 3.4 percent, the smallest annual increase since January 2006. Paychecks, though, aren't stretching as far because of high food and energy prices.

In its latest economic assessment last week, the Fed observed that "labor markets have softened further."

However, the Fed believed that its powerful series of rate reductions along with the government's $168 billion stimulus package, including tax rebates, will help lift economic growth over time.

Some economists fear that when the bracing force of the rebates fades, the economy could be in for another rough patch. Those analysts worry that the economy _ which has been coping with sluggish growth at best _ will have a "relapse" and lose momentum near the end of this year.

There's been a lot of talk about whether the economy is on the brink of, or has fallen into, its first recession since 2001. The official determination, made by a panel of academics, usually comes well after the fact.

Economists expect the unemployment rate to hit 6 percent or higher early next year, even if the economy were to show better growth. Companies will be reluctant to ramp up hiring until they feel certain the economy will stay on firmer footing.

Talk of $200/barrel for oil, $6/gallon at pump!

Link to article here.

Oil's Rapid Rise Stirs Talk of $200 a Barrel This Year
Long List of Factors Keeps Prices High; Releasing Reserves?
By NEIL KING JR.
Wall Street Journal
July 7, 2008; Page A6
Oil's historic ascent from $100 to nearly $150 a barrel in just six months is lending weight to a far grimmer prediction: Crude could reach $200 a barrel by the end of the year.

Oil at that price would wreak deeper havoc on the world's airlines and automobile industries.

[Chart]
In the U.S., $200 crude would push the price of gasoline to well over $6 a gallon, causing commuters to alter their driving habits more sharply than they have already, while putting extreme strains on large sectors of the U.S. economy. In Europe, it would stir more political unrest and increase the clamor to cut the continent's stiff petrol taxes. In Asia, governments would be under pressure to cut fuel subsidies and risk a popular backlash.

U.S. benchmark crude prices leapt 3.6% last week, closing before the Independence Day holiday at a record $145.29 a barrel. Roughly halfway through the year, oil prices have soared 50% since Jan. 1 and have doubled since the same time last year. (See related article.)

Few oil watchers are now ready to bet that oil will hit $200 a barrel by New Year's Eve. But nearly all are wary of predicting how and when oil's upward stampede will be reversed.


What makes the market so unpredictable, analysts say, is that prices are being pushed by such a wide array of factors, while no single force has emerged with the power to throw them in reverse.

"Crude is going up," said Dave Pursell, an oil analyst at Tudor Pickering in Houston, "because there is nothing strong enough yet to push it down."

In Washington, deepening fears that oil prices will shoot still higher have stoked talk in Congress and within the Bush administration of using one of the last remaining cudgels to try to reverse the price rise: a sharp and sustained release of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Those discussions remain preliminary, though, while most senior administration officials remain opposed to such a move, because the oil stored in salt mines is meant for release in genuine supply emergencies.

The list of forces shoving prices upward is long: a weak dollar driving hot money into commodities; jitters over a possible military conflict with Iran; soaring costs and chronic project delays in the world's oil patch; concerns over scarce supplies and long-term production declines; and continued robust demand growth in much of the developing world.

Oil ministers and top petroleum executives have added to the alarm. Paolo Scaroni, head of Italy's biggest oil-and-gas company, Eni SpA, told an Italian newspaper last week that he could see prices hitting $200 a barrel this year. Chakib Khelil, president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, predicts that crude could go as high as $170 a barrel this summer.

Oil's seemingly unstoppable rise has also scared off some of the very financial players that would otherwise temper the market. Oil producers who would normally lock in high prices by hedging on the futures market have now backed off, assuming that prices will continue to rise.

That has fueled the upward momentum as financial players continue to bid up oil on the futures market, said Larry Goldstein, an economist at the Energy Policy Research Foundation. "The problem is that the natural hedgers, the producers themselves, are shying away, while the buyers get bolder," Mr. Goldstein said.

Geopolitics, particularly the fear of a potential Israeli or U.S. attack against Iran, have also re-emerged as a significant factor in the market. Some investment houses were saying last week that it was more likely than not that a war with Iran would break out this fall.

With so many forces arguing for higher prices, the big question is: What would spook the market enough to cause prices to fall?

So far, falling gasoline use in the U.S. has done nothing to put a damper on prices, largely because growing demand elsewhere in the world has managed to keep global supplies tight.

"The reality of it is, swings in U.S. consumption just don't matter that much anymore," said Jeffrey Rubin, chief economist at CIBC World Markets, who is predicting that oil will average $200 a barrel in 2010.

The one shift in demand that would have a serious price impact would be any sign of diminished thirst for fuel in China. Speculation has run high for months that Chinese demand may have surged artificially in advance of the Beijing Olympics as the country turned to oil over coal for power generation to ease pollution. It is also unclear whether China stockpiled gasoline and diesel to avoid any shortages.

"But if consumption roars on even after the Olympics, then the upside pressure on prices will remain pretty strong," said Stephen Brown, an energy economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

Another force that could shove prices down in a hurry would be signs of a significant buildup in oil inventories in the U.S. But even with oil use down in the U.S., crude stockpiles remain unusually low. The U.S. now has just over 19 days of total commercial supplies, compared with 23 days worth at the same time last year.

Alarmed over the economic impact of soaring oil prices, Saudi Arabia tried last month to hammer the market back down by boosting its monthly output and promising a dramatic long-range increase in its production capacity. But neither announcement by the world's largest oil producer had any perceptible affect, further underscoring how weak the market's traditional levers now are.

Some advocates are clamoring for the Bush administration to take a more dramatic step and release millions of barrels from the U.S. strategic reserves, which contain around 706 million barrels. The House of Representatives is weighing legislation to force a release from the reserves, while support for such a move also appears to be building in the Senate.

The administration strongly opposes using the reserve for market interventions.

A release of two million barrels a day for long as a month, analysts say, could make a sharp impact on prices, in part because the barrels would be sold at auction, thus allowing buyers to set the oil's value. The U.S. consumes a little more than 20 million barrels a day.

"We have exhausted all other short-term policy options," said Mr. Goldstein, a veteran of the Washington energy establishment who is among those pushing aggressively for a significant release from the reserves. He argues that the U.S. Energy Department should step in to tamp down oil prices and thus prevent further damage to the U.S. economy.

But others worry that even that step could backfire. For one, sky-high prices have made refiners all the more reluctant to build up oil stocks.

"And even if you release 20 or 30 million barrels, people are still going to be worried about Iran or something else," said Michael Lynch, a Massachusetts-based oil analyst who is among the many who believe that oil prices are already far too high.

• Pump Politics: Who Wins From $4 Gas?

Public critical of Tarrant toll project for Hwy 820

Link to article here. Be sure to submit your public comments to TxDOT opposing the tolling and very costly private financing of this project by July 14!

In North Richland Hills, Loop 820 hearing draws hundreds
By MATT FRAZIER
Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
July 2, 2008
NORTH RICHLAND HILLS — About 350 people signed up to speak Tuesday at a federally required public hearing on the planned expansion of Northeast Loop 820. But first they had to wait.

For the first hour of the hearing at the Richland Hills Church of Christ, officials presented plans to expand the highway from two to five lanes, including two toll lanes, in each direction from Texas 121 through North Richland Hills, Haltom City and north Fort Worth to Interstate 35W.

The second hour was taken up by public officials, including mayors, council members, a Tarrant County judge and a chamber of commerce member — all unanimously agreeing that the expansion plan is the correct way for Northeast Tarrant County to meet future transportation needs.

But the plan didn’t prove as popular with residents.

"Everybody is begging for help," said Pat Coyle of North Richland Hills. "You are going to help us by giving us one free lane."

Each person had three minutes to ask questions or make comments on the plans.

Officials didn’t respond to the public’s comments Tuesday. The Texas Department of Transportation is expected to respond in the project’s environmental impact statement, expected out by the end of the year.

Judith Anderson, a Transportation Department engineer, said the public’s input will be carefully considered during the end-stage design of the project.

Northeast Loop 820 expansion plan Some of the questions asked during Tuesday’s hearing:
Why build two toll lanes for the affluent but only one for regular traffic?

Why is a foreign company being paid to build a Texas road?

Why has it taken so long for the Texas Department of Transportation to put together plans to meet the transportation needs of Northeast Tarrant County?

Didn’t make the public hearing?

It’s not too late to have your say. Written comments may be submitted by mail and must be received on or before July 14 to become part of the official hearing record.

Address: Texas Department of Transportation Fort Worth District Office

2501 SW Loop 820, P.O. Box 6868, Fort Worth, TX 76115

Online: www.txdot.gov

Ft. Worth seeking private toll deal to relieve bottlenecks


Link to article here.

Worst bottlenecks in North Texas? Right here in Tarrant
By Bud Kennedy
Star Telegram
Friday, June 20, 2008

We’re No. 1.But not in a good way.

Northeast Loop 820 in Hurst is the worst bottleneck in all of North Texas, according to a new study that ranks the region’s roads among America’s most choked, behind only Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Washington.

There’s more bad news.

Not only is the 820-Airport Freeway interchange the No. 1 bottleneck — worse than anyplace in Dallas— but the Loop 820 exits at Denton Highway and Rufe Snow Drive are Nos. 2 and 3.


Overall, Northeast Tarrant County drivers face worse traffic than anyone in Dallas or Houston, according to a study of truck GPS data compiled by INRIX Inc. of Seattle.

Only Austin — where Interstate 35 amounts to a 5-mile-long elevated parking lot — has a freeway as crowded as Loop 820, and that city’s traffic overall is nowhere near as bad as Fort Worth’s.

What’s more, the region’s No. 4 worst bottleneck is Interstate 35W north of downtown Fort Worth. It’s congested an average of 7 hours a day.

Basically, Houston and Dallas already fixed their roads. We’re waiting for state money.

I would like to assure you that every county and city official is working on the problem.

But I couldn’t find many of them yesterday. For all I know, they were stalled in traffic at Holiday Lane.

When North Richland Hills Mayor Oscar Trevino called back, he was weaving down neighborhood streets to escape U.S. 377.

He described Loop 820 as "just ugly."

"The people who have to drive that every day don’t say nice things," he said. "It’s bad for our city. Businesses want to come, but they see the traffic and say, 'Why would I get into this?’ "

County Judge Glen Whitley is very familiar with the time-waste potential of Loop 820. He lives in Hurst.

"It’s a big drawback to the whole county," he said. "The traffic north of Fort Worth is so unreliable that nobody can predict how long it’ll take to get to work."

There’s a solution in the making. But lots of Texans won’t like it.

Three Spanish-owned companies are in the running for a $1 billion contract to widen Loop 820 and operate two private toll lanes. The toll would be $4 each way.

The project is part of the North Tarrant Express, a new tollway network slow off the drawing board in Austin.

"We can’t get Austin to move forward," Whitley said. "It’s ridiculous that this is the last part of Loop 820 to be improved."

A public hearing July 1 at 7 p.m. at Richland Hills Church of Christ will give both residents and tollway-haters a chance to vent about both the slow plans and high tolls.

Terri Hall of San Antonio leads an anti-tollway group, Texans Uniting for Reform & Freedom (TURF). She said she opposes any private tollway.

"The bottom line is, this the most expensive way to expand that road," she said. "It means the highest possible cost to taxpayers and drivers, and hands over money to foreign companies. When the state has a record budget surplus, it’s hard to see how there’s not money for that road."

Poll: 9 in 10 hit hard by gas prices...it's no time for tolls, too

Link to article here.

The only people left on the planet who think toll road proliferation the politicians courted by them. Politicians beware...your comeuppance is coming if you continue down this path. Just a $.20 cent per mile toll is like adding $5 to every gallon of gas you buy (if one's vehicle gets 20 MPG). There's nothing like a shrinking household budget (due to higher gas and now food prices) and stagnant wages to stir-up trouble at the ballot box!

Tuesday, Jul 1, 2008
Poll: 9 in 10 hit hard by gas prices

By ALAN FRAM
Associated Press Writer

Four-dollar gasoline has stolen a beach vacation from Julie Jacobs' family, "little small luxuries" like exotic bath washes from Angela Crawford and dinners out from folks all over the country. Phil English has had to sell his beloved but fuel-guzzling red pickup.Like a plague that hits every economic class, race and age, soaring fuel prices are inflicting pain throughout the U.S. Nine in 10 people are expecting the ballooning costs to squeeze them financially over the next half-year, says an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll released Monday.

Nearly half think that hardship will be serious. To cope, most are driving less, easing off the air conditioning and heating at home and cutting corners elsewhere. Half are curtailing vacation plans; nearly as many are considering buying cars that burn less gas. U.S. auto companies are closing plants that make pickups and SUVs that people have stopped buying.


As the price of gasoline has spiraled upward, so, too, has the public's ire.

Two-thirds consider gas prices an extremely important issue, edging the economy and outpacing health care and Iraq as the country's most distressing problem. In November, when gas cost about $1 a gallon less than today, just under half rated it extremely important.

"Do you think there's an end in sight? I don't," the 33-year-old Crawford, a Dallas homemaker, said in an interview.

She said switching to bar soap from a favored lotion is one of many "little small luxuries" she has given up, along with fewer restaurant meals and new clothes. She also has talked with her husband, a flooring contractor, about finding a job involving less long-distance driving with his heavy van.

"It's depressing and it makes you nervous," she said.

The AP-Yahoo News poll, conducted by Knowledge Networks, has tracked the same 2,000 people since last fall to see how their views change during the presidential campaign. The latest survey shows how the price of gasoline has caught or eclipsed every other issue, not just as a political topic but as a problem in people's lives.

"You're saddened prices are going up, and you can't do the extra things you would have done," said Amy Pysarenko, 35, of San Antonio, whose concern about gas prices has grown since November. She says while her family has cut back on amusement park visits and saving for their children, "I feel fortunate because maybe someone else eats beans instead of hamburgers."

The 47 percent in the most recent survey who expect higher gas costs to cause serious hardship is about the same as in last year's poll, but an increase from the 30 percent who said so in an AP-Ipsos poll in June 2004. Then, regular gas averaged $1.97 a gallon nationally, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.

Lower-income people are bearing the brunt of it. As higher prices push grocery, pizza delivery and other costs upward, just over half of those without college degrees - and about the same percentage of those earning less than $50,000 a year - are expecting serious personal financial problems to result.

"We just don't do as much," said William Fisk, 39, a former dishwasher in Freeport, Maine. "We used to go out to have dinner, but we're cutting way back on that."

Yet significant numbers of the better-off are feeling pain, too. Four in 10 people in families earning $50,000 to $100,000 annually, and one in six earning more than that, expect serious financial hardships from rising gas costs, as do one in three college graduates.

Many lower-earning families are responding by easing their use of air conditioning and heating, trimming vacation plans and cutting other spending. But higher-income people are not far behind.

Two-thirds of those earning under $25,000 a year are cooling and heating their homes less, as are nearly six in 10 people earning more than $100,000. Just over four in 10 of the lowest earners are cutting vacation spending - only slightly likelier than those earning at least six figures to do so.

Rich or poor, black or white, young or old, nearly everyone is looking to drive less: A nearly uniform seven in 10 say they are reducing driving. That compares with six in 10 who said so in an April 2005 AP-AOL survey.

Jacobs, a homemaker and mother of three in Baltimore, said gas costs forced her to turn down two summer trips - a cousin's wedding in North Carolina and a vacation with her parents in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

"My parents said, 'Come down, spend a week with us,'" said Jacobs, 35. "But when you add on the expense of gas, it's just not worth it."

Ironically, Jacobs plans to begin taking lessons this week for her first driver's license. "Just as prices go through the roof," she said.

Four in 10 are considering buying vehicles that get better gas mileage than their current ones. That is about the same percentage who said so three years ago.

Some have already taken that step. English of Papillion, Neb., sold his 1998 Ford pickup, which got about 13 miles per gallon, for a more fuel-efficient convertible.

"It was a nice truck," said English, 43, an aircraft mechanic. "It didn't feel good" to get rid of it "and it still doesn't," he said.

Midwesterners are among the likeliest to think rising gas costs will cause them serious personal hardship. Southerners are among the more willing to reduce driving.

As a political issue in the presidential campaign, gas prices provide a slight edge to Democrat Barack Obama. More prefer him over Republican John McCain to handle the problem, 28 percent to 20 percent, while an additional 18 percent trust both equally.

There is a strong sense of powerlessness. One-third do not think either candidate can deal with the problem. That includes half of independents, one-third of Republicans and one-quarter of Democrats.

The AP-Yahoo News survey of 1,759 adults was conducted from June 13-23 and had an overall margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points. Included were interviews with 844 Democrats and 637 Republicans, for whom the margins of sampling error were plus or minus 3.4 points and 3.9 points, respectively.

The poll was conducted over the Internet by Knowledge Networks, which initially contacted people using traditional telephone polling methods and followed with online interviews. People chosen for the study who had no Internet access were given it for free.

---

AP Director of Surveys Trevor Tompson and AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

Americans blame Congress for prices at the pump

Link to article here. With this kind of angst over gas prices, add tolls on top of it, and politcos can expect an explosion of taxpayer backlash against unsustainable transportation policies. Americans just don't have the money to pony-up any more of the family budget for transportation!

Americans Blame Congress for Gas Prices, Consumer Reports Survey Shows
By Keriann Hopkins
CNSNews.com Corespondent
June 30, 2008

(CNSNews.com) - A Consumer Reports survey reveals that Americans are blaming Congress for high gas prices, which are compelling them to make shifts and sacrifices in their consuming habits.

The Auto Pulse Survey, conducted by Consumer Reports National Research Center, showed that 77 percent of consumers single out the government's failure to implement an effective energy policy as a root cause for high gas prices; 75 percent of consumers blame oil companies; and 70 percent blame foreign oil producers.

When asked about actions the federal government could take to reduce fuel costs, 81 percent want to allow more drilling in the United States and offshore and 90 percent support increasing alternative energy development.

Among the respondents, 84 percent want to negotiate lower prices with oil-exporting nations, and 83 percent want to encourage conservation through tax incentives or alternative transportation.

In 2007, Consumer Reports found the "tipping point," at which motorists said they would drastically reduce driving, to be $3.50 per gallon of gasoline. According to the Department of Transportation, Americans have driven 20 billion fewer miles this year compared to the same time period in 2007.

Compared with last year, more people walked or bicycled (31 percent) this year, carpooled (24 percent), worked from home (18 percent), used more public transportation (16 percent), and even moved closer to work (10 percent).

But the rising gas prices affect more than just the transportation decisions. Some troubling trends show 45 percent of respondents have been putting less money into savings accounts; 34 percent have cut back on essentials like food or healthcare; and 17 percent have charged more expenses on credit cards.

In addition, consumers are willing to make significantly more sacrifices when buying new cars. A full 54 percent of car owners would pay more for a vehicle with greater fuel-efficiency, and 80 percent are considering a diesel, flex-fuel or hybrid vehicle. That is up from 2007, when only 47 percent were interested in purchasing vehicles with alternative engines.

More than one-quarter of consumers have considered down-sizing to two-wheeled vehicles - 18 percent have considered motorcycles and 14 percent have contemplated scooters. Most of these respondents were men ages 18-34.

The Consumer Reports National Research Center interviewed by telephone a nationally representative probability sample of 884 people who drive a vehicle or whose household owns at least one vehicle.

DFW heap of anticipated toll cash reaping millions in interest

Link to article here.

The danger of borrowing anticipated toll revenues up front to spend like Monopoly money on other road projects, is that no one knows exactly how much of that revenue will actually materialize. Given that we're in uncharted territory with the highest price of gas in history with no end in sight, these market-based toll deals are allowing politicians to gamble away our future and build another house of cards cottage industry (courtesy of road builders & infrastructure funds) for the taxpayers to bail out, perhaps worse than the current $700 billion (and counting) mortgage mess. With the biggest drop in driving in recorded history now on the books, who do they think has the money to take these toll roads?

Toll stash in Metroplex churning out dollars
By Ben Wear | Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Austin American Statesman
By this weekend, the Dallas-Fort Worth area will have another $1 million to spend on transportation. This time next month, another $10 million or so will have rolled in.

That’s what happens when you go borrow $3.2 billion, and then don’t spend it for awhile. Of course, all this “free” money will have to paid back, and then some, on the back end.

What happened is that the North Texas Tollway Authority agreed to pay TxDOT $3.2 billion for the privilege of getting to build the Texas 121 tollway in Collin County. It won this right last year in a curious bidding war with a private group headed by Spanish toll road builder Cintra. The idea is that the road is so perfectly located in Dallas’ congested north suburbs that it will belch up generous amounts of toll revenue over the next several decades. That allowed the tollway authority to borrow much of the anticipated profits upfront.

That money, in turn, will be used in the Dallas-Fort Worth area on other transportation projects, including tollways, freeways, managed lanes, traffic signals and bike/pedestrian projects. State law requires that it be spent only from whence it came.

But for now, it’s just sitting in the bank, as it were, and churning out bucks, with the exception of about $120 million already spent on projects that were underway and had gone over budget. To be specific, the money has generated $69.2 million in earnings in a little over six months. That’s more money than the 11-county Austin districts gets in a full year, and that’s back when TxDOT actually had money to pass out to the locals.

As we said above, the tollway authority will of course have to pay interest over the next 30 years or so on the borrowed $3.2 billion, money that will come from tolls. But in the meantime, the stash will generate enough money to build a next freeway interchange (or more) for each year it sits there.Link to article here.

The danger of borrowing anticipated toll revenues up front to spend like Monopoly money on other road projects, is that no one knows exactly how much of that revenue will actually materialize. Given that we're in uncharted territory with the highest price of gas in history with no end in sight, these market-based toll deals are allowing politicians to gamble away our future and build another house of cards cottage industry (courtesy of road builders & infrastructure funds) for the taxpayers to bail out, perhaps worse than the current $700 billion (and counting) mortgage mess. With the biggest drop in driving in recorded history now on the books, who do they think has the money to take these toll roads?

Toll stash in Metroplex churning out dollars
By Ben Wear | Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Austin American Statesman
By this weekend, the Dallas-Fort Worth area will have another $1 million to spend on transportation. This time next month, another $10 million or so will have rolled in.

That’s what happens when you go borrow $3.2 billion, and then don’t spend it for awhile. Of course, all this “free” money will have to paid back, and then some, on the back end.

What happened is that the North Texas Tollway Authority agreed to pay TxDOT $3.2 billion for the privilege of getting to build the Texas 121 tollway in Collin County. It won this right last year in a curious bidding war with a private group headed by Spanish toll road builder Cintra. The idea is that the road is so perfectly located in Dallas’ congested north suburbs that it will belch up generous amounts of toll revenue over the next several decades. That allowed the tollway authority to borrow much of the anticipated profits upfront.

That money, in turn, will be used in the Dallas-Fort Worth area on other transportation projects, including tollways, freeways, managed lanes, traffic signals and bike/pedestrian projects. State law requires that it be spent only from whence it came.

But for now, it’s just sitting in the bank, as it were, and churning out bucks, with the exception of about $120 million already spent on projects that were underway and had gone over budget. To be specific, the money has generated $69.2 million in earnings in a little over six months. That’s more money than the 11-county Austin districts gets in a full year, and that’s back when TxDOT actually had money to pass out to the locals.

As we said above, the tollway authority will of course have to pay interest over the next 30 years or so on the borrowed $3.2 billion, money that will come from tolls. But in the meantime, the stash will generate enough money to build a next freeway interchange (or more) for each year it sits there.

Poll: Texans don’t want tolls, gas tax hikes


Link to poll story here or read it below.

The headline declares Texans want their roads fixed but don't want to pay for them. But it's not a matter of not wanting to fund them, it's a matter of economics. Texans don't have any more money to give to transportation with gas at $4 a gallon! The cost of living is rising much faster than our ability to pay for it. Then, when you consider TxDOT spending $100,000 a month on lobbyists and $9 million on an ad campaign pushing toll roads and the Trans Texas Corridor, frivolous spending like $18 million rest stops with free Wi-Fi, and the endless raiding from our gas taxes that we ALREADY PAY for roads, it's no wonder Texans are in no mood for tax hikes.

Add to all that the fact that the State of Texas has had surplus after surplus (which is a result of overtaxation) with another $15 billion surplus projected by the start of next year's legislative session, Texans don't believe the State is out of money or that we're taxed too little, not for one minute!

I found it interesting that the poll didn't use numbers at all like amount of gas tax hike or any cost comparisons on toll project costs versus freeways. Like on US 281, to keep it a freeway would cost $170 million, but to make it a toll road, it will cost $1.3 billion. This would likely draw much stronger opposition to tolling existing roads given that information. They also shied away from informing people about the specific number of lane-miles slated to be tolled and how much they'd pay per mile in tolls versus gas tax, which would help people make a more informed comparison of the choices and show that it will be difficult to avoid taking the more expensive toll roads with so many in the queue.

Nonetheless the message is clear, Texans don't want tolls or higher transportation costs, period.

New poll shows Texans want better roads, don't want to pay for them
By CHRISTY HOPPE / The Dallas Morning News
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
AUSTIN – Texans think congestion is a serious problem and want road improvements, but a solid majority is adamantly against paying at the toll booth or gas pump for bigger and better highways, a poll released today shows.

For state policy makers, “it shows the difficulty they’ve been having,” said James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin.

Of the 1,000 Texans polled, 60 percent said they strongly oppose a hike in the state’s gas tax, while 46 percent strongly oppose tolls on new highways. Meanwhile, 53 percent said they strongly oppose tolls on existing highways.

The poll by the Texas Lyceum, a nonpartisan public policy group, showed that most Texans want to improve existing roadways as opposed to building new ones. They also would like to see a strong commitment to mass transit systems, such as light rail. There was also strong support for high-speed rail to connect cities such as Dallas, Austin and San Antonio.

In addition, 44 percent of Texans copped to talking on cell phones while driving, while 60 percent said they would favor a ban on such behavior.

Texans were also asked what they strongly would consider doing in the face of high gas prices. The number one answer – 66 percent – was buying a hybrid or more fuel efficient auto. The next was carpooling and a little over half said they are thinking about taking public transportation.

Only 37 percent said they would consider moving closer to work or school so that the commute would not be so far.

The poll, conducted June 12-20, has an error margin of 3.1 percentage points, meaning results can vary by that much in either direction.

TxDOT announces use of existing highways for TTC-69

Link to article here. Read TURF's response to TxDOT announcement here. This isn't as it appears...the new corridor isn't toll viable so they have to revert back to the existing "free" competition to a toll road and toll it, so they get their monopoly in place!

TxDOT says TTC won't mess with rural Texas; Review urges agency overhaul to restore public trust
By Zen Zheng
Housotn Chronicle
June 13, 2008

After waves of public protest, the Texas Department of Transportation has decided that it would not mess with rural Texas with its proposed Interstate-69/Trans-Texas Corridor that would stretch from Mexico to Texarkana.

The project route, it announced, would instead be confined to the right of way of existing major highways. (See a map of the proposed route below.)


To opponents of the project, the dark clouds didn't dissipate, but has only changed its shade.

TxDOT's wording maintains a degree of vagueness as it said it would "consider" sticking to existing highways "wherever possible," Terri Hall, founder of the opposition group, Texas United for Reform and Freedom, pointed out.

Hall said that despite TxDOT's announcement, the corridor "can still be a 1,200-foot wide land-grabbing, privatized, tolled" facility. She said because the right of way of existing highways is already paid for with gas taxes, building the corridor as a tolled facility would be "double taxation." She added:

This corridor was promised as a free interstate highway for decades, now they'll convert existing freeways like (U.S.) 59 into privately-controlled toll roads. Somehow we feel in no mood to celebrate.

If TxDOT changes the scope of the project like a new route and study area, TxDOT has to, by law per (National Environmental Policy Act), redo the environmental study totally and take public comment all over again, not just submit some letter to the (Federal Highway Administration) reflecting the change.

Much of the route would now go along U.S. 59. In the Houston area including Fort Bend County, in addition to U.S. 59, Loop 610 and Grand Parkway remain TxDOT's options for the corridor, according to Amadeo Saenz, the department's executive director.

The Harris County Toll Road Authority is pushing for the construction of the northwest segment of the planned Grand Parkway, which would be tied into the namesake road through Fort Bend.

It is unclear how the changed I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor plan would affect our region. While the exact route is yet to be determined, earlier plans had shown that areas near Huntsville, Navasota, Prairie View, Waller, Sealy, Wallis, Kendleton, Richmond and Rosenberg would be in the corridor's path.

Fort Bend County Judge Bob Hebert Friday called the TxDOT's decision "a good first step" but cautiously said "there is a great deal of work left to be done." On the possibility of the corridor coming through Fort Bend County, he had this comment for me:

One thing I will work to assure is that the existing portions of US 59 and the Grand Parkway within Fort Bend County are not used as part of a Houston by-pass. The growth of local traffic demands on those two highways prohibits such a use.

Two Republican state lawmakers were quick to praise TxDOT's announcement.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison hailed the decision as "a major victory" for landowners, farmers and ranchers who have feared that their land could be taken by the government by eminent domain.

Rep. Kevin Brady from The Woodlands, who led a nine-member state congressional delegation to push for the corridor to stay out of the way of rural communities, said he wants to also push for upgrading existing highways, including U.S. 59, to "interstate standards." Doing so would "restore public support" for the Trans-Texas Corridor, he said.

Observers, however, doubt that the public would ever support the TTC project. Residents, community leaders and officials at various government levels, including some Fort Bend County commissioners, have repeatedly expressed frustration with TxDOT's alleged lack of regard for local and community input in many of its projects. Public trust in the state agency has been greatly eroded, they say.

The Sunset Advisory Commission, which reviews agencies regularly on their performance, in its report issued this month, among a host of recommendations, calls for the replacement of the current five-member Texas Transportation Commission, which is TxDOT's governing board, with a single commissioner and shorten the term of office from presently six years to two years.

Here is an excerpt from the report:

The Sunset review of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) occurred against a backdrop of distrust and frustration with the Department and the demand for more transparency, accountability, and responsiveness. Many expressed concerns that TxDOT was 'out of control,' advancing its own agenda against objections of both the Legislature and the public . . . tweaking the status quo is simply not enough.

Nevertheless, critics said that even with the downsizing of the TxDOT's governing board, the lone commissioner would still be appointed by Gov. Rick Perry, who led the crusade for the unpopular Trans-Texas Corridor plan. Critics noted that the current commissioners have been advancing the very agenda of one who appointed them.

Hutchison: Federal Highway Trust Fund to go bankrupt

While we applaud the Senator for having the foresight to prevent the Highway Trust Fund from going bankrupt in the near future, she did vote for the last highway bill (SAFETEA-LU in 2005) that contained more than 6,000 earmarks for congressional pet projects, including the bridge to nowhere in Alaska and a parking garage for a PRIVATE university (University of Incarnate Word). We have no "trust fund" because politicians keep perpetually raiding it, just like the Texas Legislature siphons off nearly 50% of our gas taxes for non-transportation related things like tourism promotion, mental health, and school buses. We need to demand Congress get their priorities straight before the taxpayers go BANKRUPT!

Highway Trust Fund Cut threatens Texas Highways
By Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison
San Antonio Express-News
06-25-08

The federal Highway Trust Fund, which is the largest single source of funding for Texas’ 79,000 miles of roads, is on the brink of insolvency.

Unless Congress takes action, there will be a 34 percent cut in U.S. highway and bridge investment, which will cause our transportation infrastructure to deteriorate and our economy to suffer. I am working in bipartisan cooperation with other members of the Texas congressional delegation to prevent this from happening.

In recent years, funding has been borrowed from the Highway Trust Fund for emergencies, like the devastating Minneapolis-St. Paul bridge collapse in 2007. These funds must be replenished in order to maintain the solvency of the trust fund.

If the federal Highway Trust Fund goes in the red, our state will be one of the biggest losers.
Texas could expect nearly 30 percent less in highway maintenance and improvement funds for fiscal year 2009. Nearly 30,000 Texans would lose their construction jobs, the second greatest loss of any state.

The decline in road capacity also would have a detrimental effect on our economy.

The Texas Transportation Institute reports that congestion in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area already costs the local economy $2.7 billion in lost productivity and wasted fuel every year. Houston is not far behind with an annual loss of $2.3 billion.

In the Senate, I introduced a measure that will replenish the Highway Trust Fund and keep highway projects funded through 2009. The legislation must still be approved in the House of Representatives and signed by the president to go into effect.

However, we need a long-term fix.

When Congress does consider a permanent solution to maintain the solvency of the federal Highway Trust Fund, I will work to make sure Texas receives its fair share of transportation dollars. We’ve already made great strides in this area.

When I came to the Senate in 1993, our state received only 76 cents in transportation funding for every onedollar we paid in gas taxes. But in the years since, I have worked with my colleagues to increase our average annual funding by almost $800 million — or 92 cents on the dollar — making Texas second only to California in federal transportation support.

The money Texans pay should be used on Texas roads, and I will continue my efforts to secure a 100 percent return on our gas tax dollars.

In Texas, some of our new major projects may rely on toll funding in one form or another. I believe that tolls can be useful as one part of the solution when done with local input and consent.

A perfect example is the George Bush Tollway in North Texas. But tolls should never be placed on highways that have already been paid for by Texas taxpayers. That would be a violation of the public trust. Although we need to solve our transportation problems, we must do it in a way that is fair and honorable to the people of Texas.

Businesses and communities depend on efficient, properly managed infrastructure, which allows people to live and work wherever they choose.

We must work hard to find responsible solutions to our transportation needs to keep our residents safe and our economy thriving.

Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69 steams ahead

Link to article below here. Yep, TURF nailed it. Read our analysis earlier this week here. The moratorium bill only specifically prohibits awarding contracts to build and collect tolls. It does nothing to prevent TxDOT from awarding development contracts or what this story refers to as a "design" contract. It also reveals what we tried to sound the siren about years ago...the development rights contract granted to Cintra-Zachry for TTC-35 gave them the right of first refusal on 5-6 segments of that Trans Texas Corridor (verified in Cintra's own annual report in 2005).

This removes any requirement for competitive bidding, which on it's face is an absolute failure of the State's fiduciary duty to protect the taxpayers from monopolistic sweetheart deals and what's certain to be inflated costs. We must make Legislators pay at the ballot box for their malfeasance in granting the authority for such no-bid contracts and for failing to rein-in TxDOT with a GENUINE moratorium last year BEFORE this next private sweetheart deal got signed (or more appropriately, they should have banned these public-private partnerships, known as CDAs in Texas, altogether!).

TxDOT contract today will push Trans Texas Corridor forward
By MICHAEL LINDENBERGER / The Dallas Morning News
Thursday, June 26, 2008

AUSTIN -- The second half of the massive Trans Texas Corridor will take a large step toward reality today, when state transportation officials award a $5 million design contract to a team of private toll road operators. The operators will develop a master plan for the portion of the project that will run from Northeast Texas to Houston and then to Mexico – about 650 miles.

Also Online

Document: Map of proposed route of Interstate 69

The contract will not directly authorize the winning consortium to build any part of the super highway. But it will give the winning bidder a position of power for winning the much larger construction contracts -- almost certainly to be worth billions of dollars – for the toll roads that will make up the super highway. The design contract will give the winning team 12 to 18 months to flesh out a master development plan for the project, which is expected to largely follow the path of the proposed southern extension of Interstate 69.

The two teams competing for the contract are led by subsidiaries of Spanish firms that are among the world's largest toll road operators.

One, called ZAI ACS TTC-69, is run by Texas construction company Zachry American Infrastructure Inc. and ACS Infrastructure Development Inc., perhaps the world's largest toll road developer.

The second, Bluebonnet Infrastructure, is led by Cintra, the Spanish firm that is already developing the master plan for the other half of the Trans Texas Corridor. Cintra last year won the design contract for the segment of the corridor that will run north to south, roughly parallel to Interstate 35. It is also the firm that was initially slated to build State Highway 121 in North Texas.

State transportation officials said Wednesday that Cintra's contract to plan the 600-mile I-35 corridor of the Trans Texas Corridor is a good model for the contract to be announced today. Since winning a $3.5 million design contract for that project last year, Cintra has been working to develop plans for the massive network of toll roads that will stretch from the northern tip of Texas to Laredo.

Although that deal did not authorize the building of any aspect of the road itself, it did allow the firm to fast-track a proposal to build and operate a toll road on one of the most lucrative segments of the project, the State Highway 130 extension outside of Austin.

The extension of SH 130 had long been planned by state transportation officials as a gas-tax road, and then was considered as a publicly operated toll road. But officials of the Texas Department of Transportation said Wednesday that future toll revenues would not have been high enough to allow the state to borrow the full price of the project -- well over $1 billion -- in order to build it itself. Instead, it would have had to spend $600 million or more of scarce tax dollars on the project, said assistant executive director Phil Russell.

After winning the design contract last year, Cintra focused on that project and offered to pay the state $25 million for the right to build and operate the toll road. It also will cover all construction costs. Private operators are often able to borrow more money against future toll revenues because they accept far more riskier projections than the more conservative projects required by bond markets in which state or other public entities borrow.

Under the terms of its design contract, any proposal to build a toll road that does not require state tax dollars can be negotiated with Texas without competitive bids from other potential toll operators. Mr. Russell said the state accepted the proposal from Cintra because doing so fast-tracked the development of the badly needed toll road and allowed the state to save well over a half billion dollars in tax money.

The same kind of arrangements could flow from the contract announced today. Mr. Russell said, however, that the development agreements do not obligate the state to accept the winning firms' proposals to build the more profitable aspects of the road. It can still reject those proposals, or require that the firms enter a competitive bidding process.

Texas to invest public school funds in foreign toll operator

Link to article here. You bet this is incredibly risky business, especially with gas prices at $4 a gallon and the sharpest decline in driving in recorded history!

Risky Business
June 13, 2008 | Political Intelligence
Tolls for Tots
Texas Observer

Texas’ School Land Board is set to invest $100 million of public school endowment funds in a controversial company that privatizes public assets of cash-strapped cities and states that need billions of dollars to support aging infrastructures. The company, Macquarie Infrastructure II LP US, hopes to build private toll roads in Texas and across the United States. Its Australian parent, Macquarie Group Ltd., already owns private toll roads, airports, and other infrastructure assets around the globe.

So far, Macquarie has made a handful of unsuccessful bids on toll roads in Texas, including State Highway 121 and U.S. 281-Loop 1604 in San Antonio. It is still waiting on the results of an offer for Interstate 635 in Dallas. Recently, Macquarie also entered negotiations to lease Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. Another subsidiary of the Macquarie Group owns several small-town newspapers in Texas.


General Land Office Commissioner Jerry Patterson, who oversees the School Land Board, said he sees nothing wrong with investing public funds in private toll roads. “With a 15 to 16 percent annual rate of return, I don’t see a problem,” he said. “My duty is to make money for the Permanent School Fund.”

Patterson said the fund would invest nationwide and not necessarily contribute to toll roads in Texas. “This is a bluechip fund that is not just limited to toll roads,” he said.

Dallas Republican state Sen. John Carona, chair of the Transportation and Homeland Security Committee, takes a more cautious view on the investment. He said this summer his committee will look closely at the policy implications of public pension fund and endowment investment in companies like Macquarie that privatize publicly owned properties.

“The state needs to invest very carefully and with significant due diligence,” Carona said. “We need to keep a close eye on this.”

Carona is concerned about reports in business publications charging that Macquarie has overpaid for projects and engaged in risky financial schemes. In a 2007 Fortune article, the magazine was critical of what it termed the “Macquarie Model,” whereby the company buys the rights to run toll roads from cash-strapped governments and then sells the roads back to the public via a stock offering.

Last April, an independent New York-based corporate governance service, RiskMetrics Group Inc., slammed the Macquarie Group for elevated debt levels, high fees, inadequate disclosure, and poor corporate governance.

Macquarie defended the performance of its funds in the 2007 Fortune article. The firm pointed out that its funds have returned an average of 19.8 percent annually and sold assets for more than twice their purchase price.

“It’s risky,” said Carona of the land board’s investment in Macquarie. “But then, with higher risk, there is a higher return.”

Indiana drivers upset with foreign toll operators

Link to article here. See what we have to look forward to? Cintra won the development rights to TTC-35 project and now has control of SH 130, the first segment of the Trans Texas Corridor TTC-35 project. It's also one of two bidders on TTC-69. Let's not forget that the toll rates doubled this year. That's why the foreign toll operators could "invest" $46 million in improvements. It's a cash cow!

Drivers complain about virtually all aspects of Indiana Toll Road
Landline Magazine
June 24, 2008

In Indiana, several state offices are being bombarded with complaints from drivers about the Indiana Toll Road, which is operated by two foreign companies.

According to The Associated Press, drivers complained about time-consuming backups at toll gates, dirty restrooms at travel plazas, and inflated fuel prices. Some people also complained about the toll road’s mascot – the “I-Zoom Girl” – saying she is a little too curvaceous and that the campaign using her portrays Hoosiers as hillbillies.

The toll road operators – Cintra of Spain and Macquarie of Australia – have since addressed some of the problems. The companies stated that they’ve spent $46 million on electronic tolling and a new fleet of snowplows.

TURF response to Sunset Committee Report

TURF Committee Report Response

Submitted in response to the Sunset Committee Report on June 24, 2008

Overall, we’re delighted that the Sunset Commission sees the need for fundamental reform at TxDOT, and acknowledges that simply tweaking some things or maintaining status quo will not suffice to restore the public trust in this agency or in transportation decision-making around the state.

However, in response to the Committee Report, we have some further suggestions we need the Commission to recommend to the Legislature.

ISSUE 1
SINGLE ELECTED COMMISSIONER
While the Sunset Committee staff recommends abolishing the Transportation Commission and replacing it with a single commissioner, we DO NOT need to have that position APPOINTED by the Governor, giving us more of the same. The new head of this agency needs to answer directly to the people of Texas through statewide election. We need an independent representative who answers to the voters and who represents the entire state, as a whole, in transportation matters. A single elected commissioner also avoids chopping up the state by region with regional commissioners, which inevitably pits region against region, urban against rural, and may compromise seamless transportation throughout the state. When 76% of the feedback you received from the public asked for an elected commissioner, it’s abundantly clear that’s what the people of Texas want the Legislature to adopt.

ISSUE 2
PROJECT PROGRAMMING – NEED FREEWAY VS TOLLWAY “NEEDS” ANALYSIS
We agree that TxDOT and MPO planning mechanisms are broken. We need to end the toll road wish lists (TMMP plans that even the Governor admitted were based on an if-money-were-no-object principle) and get a true side-by-side, apples to apples comparison of the cost of fixing our roads and keeping them freeways versus the cost of turning them into tollways. If it's anything like the US 281 project in Bexar County, TxDOT/ARMA has turned a $100 million gas tax funded FREEway plan into a $1.3 billion toll project. This side-by-side comparison will help Legislators and the public discern our true "unfunded needs" if we truly have any, since we cannot rely on TxDOT's "funding gap" figures to be accurate. Then and only then can we accurately assess funding our roads in the least invasive, most affordable, and most transparent fashion.



ISSUE 3
PROPAGANDA VERSUS EDUCATION CAMPAIGNS
TURF is suing the State to STOP TxDOT's propaganda campaign called Keep Texas Moving, which advocates the Trans Texas Corridor, privatization, and tolling. Just look at the fixation on tolling over other funding options on TxDOT’s web sites. The Committee Report highlights no less than 3 web sites dedicated to tolling using taxpayer money. The information found on these sites only extols the benefits of tolling and privatization (never any criticisms) to the exclusion of other modes of transportation and other forms of financing. Conveniently, tolling puts the most money in TxDOT’s coffers and creates a slush fund not subject to federal law, which has higher environmental and public involvement standards.

The Sunset Commission needs to strongly recommend to the Legislature that we need a statute that clearly spells out what TxDOT is authorized to do as far as marketing. A statute must include restriction of advertising toll roads (restrict to “Get your toll tag here” for toll projects already built and open to traffic) and advocating one policy over another through its web sites, public information resources, staff time and resources. The law must also clearly prohibit not only advocacy of certain policies over another (versus truly educational campaigns like “Click it or ticket”), but also enforce the prohibition against state agencies lobbying using taxpayer money. TURF would be happy to share the evidence we’ve uncovered in our lawsuit that shows the blatant political nature of the ad campaign and that also documents illegal lobbying, including the hiring of registered lobbyists, by TxDOT.

NOT JUST PUBLIC “INVOLVEMENT,” BUT PUBLIC VETO POWER
There are no specific public involvement recommendations that would force TxDOT to do what the public asks them to, particularly in regards to toll projects and the Trans Texas Corridor. Simply taking public testimony and then ignoring it is what has caused a massive revolt against transportation policies all over the state! We need some public involvement REQUIREMENTS that FORCE TxDOT to implement the alternative chosen by the public, not the one that makes the State the most tax revenue. Whether it be a public vote on all toll projects, or through public comment on projects through public hearings, something must be done to give the taxpayers who foot the bill the final say, including how the project is financed, on the best alternative for their community.

TRANSPARENCY, NOT LIP SERVICE
SB 792 tried to force more transparency with the financial terms for toll projects. However, the financial guts of these projects are still being withheld from the public, by law. For instance, as long as TxDOT calls something a “draft” document, they do not have to release it. Also, the market valuation studies and toll viability studies (also called traffic and revenue studies) that reveal the genuine feasibility of these projects, the structure of the bonds, and if the tolling entity plans to refinance and backload a toll, are not being released per SB 792.

The San Antonio MPO, for instance, was asked to give final approval of the financial terms on the US 281 toll project in December 2007 without having access to the actual market value study or documents showing the financial terms of the deal (which aren’t required to be disclosed per SB 792 until 30 days prior to letting a contract). The public hearing revealing this financial information didn’t happen until June 2008, and the meeting was held at 1:00 PM in the middle of the workday 20 miles from the project area. The purpose of a public meeting is to solicit public comment, and when the tolling entity holds the meeting when the vast majority of the population is at work as far away from the project area as possible, the meeting can in no way be legitimate. The whole process is secretive and absolutely backwards! If the public objects to the structure of a deal, how can they stop it if the MPO already approved it prior to disclosure of the information? It’s insane to withhold these documents from the public and even our Legislators when they’re being asked to give FINAL APPROVAL for the toll rates and terms of these deals at the MPO.

This practice has got to stop! If a toll project is in the public’s best interest, then it should withstand the light of day.

ISSUE4
END THE “BEST VALUE” PROPOSAL AND PAYMENT TO LOSING BIDDERS, IT’S A TAXPAYER RIP-OFF
The report mentions that toll contracts are different than the Department’s traditional contracts. This differing standard shows the disproportionate emphasis and special privileges given to toll road contractors not otherwise enjoyed on non-toll projects. Rather than require TxDOT use the lowest bid, toll contracts are allowed a nebulous “best value” bid. State law also allows payments of to $1 million to losing bidders on toll projects.

This policy creates an entire pro-toll lobby through road contractors themselves who will profit handsomely by merely bidding on a toll project and it allows them to re-coup a cost of doing business that other industries do not enjoy when bidding on government projects. This practice is a total waste of taxpayer money and needlessly inflates the cost of transportation. No other bidders on government contracts get this pay-off, and it’s likely to spread to other government agencies. This is NOT a precedent the taxpayers want to set. The Sunset Committee’s job is to identify waste, fraud, and abuse, The “best value bid” and payments to losing bidders qualify! Get rid of them!

DO NOT RE-AUTHORIZE CDAS
If the public outcry over privatizing our public infrastructure wasn’t loud enough in the 80th Legislative Session, then what more must the public do to end this risky, extremely expensive method of delivering toll projects? How quickly the testimony from Dennis Enright of Northwest Financial in New Jersey before the Senate Transportation Committee March 1, 2007 has been forgotten. Mr. Enright said there is no risk transfer to the private entity and that CDAs cost the taxpayers of a minimum of 50% more than public toll roads. Mr. Enright rightly called toll roads monopolies by their very nature. He also said it’s always best to keep these projects in the public NOT private sector. So why are CDAs being discussed at all? We wouldn’t need all the recommended extra oversight and bureaucracy if CDAs were not re-authorized. There were 20 lawyers present at the signing of the SH 130 CDA. Such waste of taxpayer money when TxDOT is claiming we’re out of money for roads is the height of hypocrisy! Public infrastructure (a government sanctioned monopoly free of competition) that Texans depend on for daily living shouldn’t be under the control of private companies whose primary motive, naturally, is profit, not the public interest.

OTHER AREAS NOT ADDRESSED
ABOLISH UNACCOUNTABLE RMAS, FIX MPOS
The Committee Report was silent on the problems with Regional Mobility Authorities enacted through HB 3588 in 2003, but touches on some of the problems at MPOs. MPOs and RMAs are just as tone deaf to the will of the public as TxDOT. Hundreds of people can fill their boardrooms and submit public comments opposing toll projects, yet they proceed with tolling anyway. RMAs are subdivisions of the State, and though local county commissioners appoint most board members and often provide some start-up loans, they are funded primarily by TxDOT and an extension of TxDOT’s toll-first mentality. They’re merely a front for local control. When TxDOT shows them the money, we know who holds the wheel.

RMAs are essentially created to sell bonds and toll roads, and they were created without a public vote. We have the Texas Turnpike Authority, TxDOT, and now RMAs. We do not need all of this duplication in effort. RMAs are mini-TxDOTs, they don’t answer to the people, and pit region against region (board members from one part of a city vote to toll another part of the city). We’ve also found that even though Board members are appointed by Commissioners representing various precincts, the majority of appointees do not reside in the areas to be tolled, leaving those who will be tolled without representation. The same is true of MPOs. The regions that won’t be tolled vote with TxDOT to toll the regions that are proposed to be tolled, leaving the citizens who will bear the tax increase with no meaningful representation.

If a law is enacted as suggested in the “PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT” section giving the public the ability to choose the best alternative for road projects, it must also apply to overruling an MPO plan that may designate a project as a toll road. The PEOPLE should have the final say, period.

END THE FIXATION ON TOLLING
The Transportation Commission passed a Minute Order on December 18, 2003 mandating all new capacity to Texas roads be studied for tolls first. This policy is why TxDOT is tolling everything in sight, and the Legislature must step-in to change the direction.

With gas at $4 a gallon, and driving decreasing for the first time in more than 30 years, we have to revisit this shift to tolling. We’re in uncharted territory as it relates to fuel and energy costs, even topping the inflation adjusted high of 1980. Selling billions in bonds for toll projects that depend on high growth rates and old patterns of driving for 40-50 years at a time, is foolish and unsustainable in the long-term. Some of these RMAs are foregoing buying bond insurance for multi-million dollar toll projects. This leaves the taxpayers on the hook to bail out failed toll projects. We’re setting up the taxpayers for an Enron/mortgage-crisis style bail out.

Transportation Commission to select private partner on TTC-69

The Texas Transportation Commission meeting this Thursday has an agenda item that shows the Commission will consider executing a private toll contract for the development of Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69 despite the moratorium prohibiting private toll contracts through September of 2009. Cintra is likely who had the most influence in the change in route for TTC-69 since Senator Steve Ogden let the cat out of the bag the week before our rally saying the TTC-69 new corridor was "dead." This is because the new route for the corridor was deemed by the private bidders NOT to be toll viable (they weren't getting any bites from the private sector to build it because it wouldn't make enough money).

So they had to go back to existing footprint to toll the "competing" existing freeway so as to capture more toll revenue outside the Houston area (which was likely the only toll viable segment of the new corridor alternative). One of the reasons we objected to the moratorium bill, SB 792, was because it excepted out portions of TTC-69 from the bill allowing it to move forward.

The language of the moratorium seems only to block contracts allowing the private entity to collect tolls. There are many types of private toll contracts for the various phases of development. Since TxDOT may not be granting a construction contract that allows the collection of tolls yet, TxDOT may in fact be authorized to choose and execute a contract with a "developer" or "planning partner" for TTC-69. First they sign a deal for development and financing, then for design, construction, and collection of tolls of the individual segments.

See the agenda item for Thursday's Transpsortation Commission Meeting below:

6. Toll Road Projects
a. Various Counties – Act on the recommendation of department staff concerning:
(1) the selection of the best value proposal for the planning, development,
acquisition, design, construction, financing, maintenance, and operation of the
element of the Trans-Texas Corridor System from Northeast Texas to the
Texas/Mexico border (I-69/TTC); and (2) the execution of a comprehensive
development agreement for I-69/TTC-69


Here's the text of SB 792 that allows private toll contracts (called comprehensive
development agreement) to be executed for portions of TTC-69 (here referred to using the federal name of "high priority corridors 18 & 20") :

(f) Subsection (b) does not apply to a comprehensive
development agreement in connection with a project:

(1) on the ISTEA High Priority Corridor identified in
Sections 1105(c)(18) and (20) of the Intermodal Surface
Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (Pub. L. No. 102-240), as
amended by Section 1211 of the Transportation Equity Act for the
21st Century (Pub. L. No. 105-178, as amended by Title IX, Pub. L.
No. 105-206), including land adjacent to the project needed to
widen the project for a transportation use, if the project remains
in a highway corridor designated by those laws; and
(2) located south of Refugio County.

Also, the moratorium on private toll contracts leaves out the word "develop" in its prohibition. It seems to allow TxDOT to sign a development contract for the TTC-69 corridor which is still allowed in Subchapter 223 of the Transportation Code and is different from a design and construction contract (directly involving the collection of tolls). Though the Commission's agenda item for Thursday includes the whole enchilada (development, design, construction, etc.), their Request for Proposals so far involves just what they refer to as a "planning partner."

SB 792 language with no reference to "development" and allows these contracts if it doesn't involve collecting tolls yet:

(b) comprehensive development agreement entered into with
a private participant by a toll project entity on or after May 1,
2007, for the acquisition, design, construction, financing,
operation, or maintenance of a toll project may not contain a
provision permitting the private participant to operate the toll
project or collect revenue from the toll project, regardless of
whether the private participant operates the toll project or
collects the revenue itself or engages a subcontractor or other
entity to operate the toll project or collect the revenue.


Language of the Transportation Code giving the authority for comprehensive development agreements:

§ 223.201. AUTHORITY. (a) Subject to Section 223.202,
the department may enter into a comprehensive development agreement
with a private entity to design, develop, finance, construct,
maintain, repair, operate, extend, or expand a:
(1) toll project;
(2) facility or a combination of facilities on the
Trans-Texas Corridor;

AND LATER...(it tells how the moratorium doesn't apply to CDAs that don't directly involve the collection of tolls)

(h) Subsection (f) does not apply to a comprehensive
development agreement that does not grant a private entity a right
to finance a toll project or to a comprehensive development
agreement in connection with a project:
(1) that includes one or more managed lane facilities
to be added to an existing controlled-access highway;
(2) the major portion of which is located in a
nonattainment or near-nonattainment air quality area as designated
by the United States Environmental Protection Agency; and
(3) for which the department has issued a request for
qualifications before May 1, 2007.

So at Thursday's Commission meeting we'll all see how TxDOT tries to wiggle around the citizens' vehement objections to privatizing our public infrastructure and plowing ahead with the universally detested Trans Texas Corridor!

Watch Sunset Commission Slam TxDOT

Mission accomplished. The Sunset Commission heard your voices loud and clear and will investigate scrapping the appointed 5 member transportation commission with a single ELECTED commissioner and more (like investigate their misuse of taxpayer $$$ on illegal lobbying and its advocacy for tolling and the Trans Texas Corridor).  

Read some of the news coverage that overtly passed over TURF's release of the damaging video of TxDOT's top brass LYING under oath here and here. But the Houston Chronicle's blog and the Dallas Morning News blog did mention the TURF lawsuit. See below...


Houston Chronicle Blog
July 15, 2008

About that Keep Texas Moving lawsuit

Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, a Sunset Advisory Commission member, is questioning the large number of people in the Texas Department of Transportation's government and public affairs division - 63 - and its efforts to promote toll roads through efforts like the Keep Texas Moving campaign.

"It would be like almost TEA (the Texas Education Agency) creating a Web site for vouchers," the controversial idea of proving public funds for private-school attendance, Kolkhorst said at today's Sunset hearing.

Keep Texas Moving sparked a lawsuit by Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, but it was dismissed last month by State District Judge Paul Davis.

TURF's Terri Hall said her group will appeal the dismissal.

TURF contended the Keep Texas Moving campaign violated a a state prohibition on state officers or employees using their authority for political purposes.

The state said it was allowed to promote toll projects under law and its campaign was responsive to a call from the public and elected officials for more information on road initiatives.

The campaign had been proposed at a cost of $7 million to $9 million.

It has cost $4.5 million and no additional big advertising or outreach pushes are in the works under the KTM banner, said TXDOT spokesman Chris Lippincott -- although its Web site will continue to be maintained.

"As an agency," Lippincott said, "we have been asked to cut back."

Houston Chronicle blog

Posted by Peggy Fikac at 06:37 PM | Comments (0)

Hearing on transportation begins with a bang

The Sunset Advisory Commission has started with a bang: Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio, says officials need to seriously consider the idea of an elected transportation commissioner.

"I think that we ought to have everything on the table," McClendon said, asking Sunset staff to explore pros and cons of the idea, which would be a dramatic change from the current five-member commission appointed by the governor.

She said everything should be looked at from leaving the commission the way it is to making that big change to an elected overseer for the agency.

Rep. Linda Harper-Brown, R-Irving, agreed that the idea of an elected transportation commissioner should be explored, saying 76 percent of those who commented wanted the commissioner to be elected.

The idea drew an "Amen" and applause from TxDOT critics in the hearing room.

Dallas Morning News blog

TxDOT hearings continue into the evening, turn testy

6:04 PM Tue, Jul 15, 2008

After hours of mostly polite, if often pointed, questioning by members of the Sunset Advisory Commission, a hearing in Austin turned uglier late Tuesday.
Rep. Ruth McClendon, D-San Antonio, questioned the honesty of TxDOT executive director Amadeo Saenz when he said he couldn't immediately recall the details of State Highway 281 in south Texas. "After we started off on such a positive start, and after all this talk of honesty and transparency, you sit here in front of us and say you do not know."

No, Mr. Saenz repeated, he did not have the details in front of him, but said he would get the information and meet separately with the commission members when he did.

Ms. McClendon and the 11 other members of the advisory committee are grilling TxDOT today over allegations that the agency has lost its way.

Other areas of disagreement that led to sharp questioning by the lawmakers include the question whether TxDOT is illegally spending millions of dollars to advance its preference for toll roads and, in many cases, private toll roads.

State Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, asked TxDOT executive Coby Chase how much the agency had spent in the past year on Keep Texas Moving, the agency's public campaign supporting its road-building agenda. "$4.5 million," he said, to the guffaws of some in the audience who have seized on the spending as evidence of the agency's improperly politicizing transportation.

State law prohibits state agencies from lobbying, and Rep. Kolkhorst said TxDOT spending money to promote toll roads is just as illegal as if the education department ran ads encouraging vouchers.

But TxDOT spokesman Christopher Lippincott said the agency does not participate in the kind of advocacy prohibited by state law. It does not, he said, lobby for particular changes in the law. Toll roads, even private toll roads, are entirely legal and have been authorized by statutes passed by the Legislature, he said.

TxDOT's top brass perjures themselves
TURF releases explosive footage of depositions from ad campaign/lobbying lawsuit to Sunset Commission

Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - Some very damaging footage of TxDOT's top brass under oath was presented to the Sunset Advisory Commission at its hearing on the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) today. As part of TURF's lawsuit against TxDOT to stop its illegal lobbying and ad campaign called Keep Texas Moving to promote toll roads and the Trans Texas Corridor in violation of Texas Government Code Chapter 556, several top officials of TxDOT were deposed under oath where they perjured themselves.

TURF gave each member of the Commission a DVD of a new documentary film, Truth Be Tolled TURF Special Edition, made about TxDOT's Keep Texas Moving campaign that shows portions of legal depositions of TxDOT Executive Director Amadeo Saenz, Director of Government and Public Affairs Division Coby Chase, and Transportation Commissioner Ted Houghton.

TURF showed the Sunset Advisory Commission that TxDOT has made an unprecedented push to win public approval for its controversial toll road and Trans Texas Corridor project, using public money, which is not only illegal, it unfairly stacks the deck against citizens.

Houghton swore under oath that TxDOT had not hired registered lobbyists when these invoices (view here.) show they have (as well as Houghton's own admission during a Town Hall Meeting in Hempstead, view here.). State law prohibits state agencies from hiring lobbyists and prohibits them from using public money for a political purpose. State agencies are to implement policy, not shape it. Video clips from the Town Hall meeting in Hempstead also show Houghton trying to sway the crowd in favor of the Trans Texas Corridor while under oath he was adamant that TxDOT and he had not done so.

PULL ANY ADVOCACY CAMPAIGNS FROM TXDOT
Keep Texas Moving advocates the Trans Texas Corridor, privatization of infrastructure, and tolling. The information in this campaign only extols the benefits of tolling and privatization (and never includes criticisms).

The stated goal of the campaign found in TxDOT documents is:
"To shift perception among those who are opposed to or on the fence about the TTC" and to change the political environment to "make it less hostile to the TTC" and to promote the "benefits of TTC...and help inoculate it from negative attacks" as well as "increase support of TxDOT programs."

"This is no public information campaign. It's a taxpayer-funded political ad campaign, which is not only illegal, but it also abuses the taxpayers in order to line TxDOT's pockets with the MOST EXPENSIVE transportation tax," says Terri Hall, TURF Founder who testified before the Sunset Commission.

TxDOT hired 5 registered lobbyists to the tune of $100,000/month to directly lobby Congress and other elected officials for more CDAs, the TTC, and tolling. Saenz, Chase, and Houghton all claimed ignorance of the law under oath, but Chapter 556.009 says all state officers and employees are given the law prior to taking a position with the State and a record of their acknowledgment of receipt is to be kept in writing.

"So any claim of ignorance of the law by the top brass is no get out jail free card," Hall said.

This document shows TxDOT targeted County Judges in the path of the TTC-69. Houghton testified in the TURF lawsuit that lobbyist Gary Bushell is who arranged Houghton's meetings with the County Judges. County Judges are key in appointing an arbitration committee between landowners and the State in eminent domain cases. So TxDOT's lobbying effort was clearly to give the State an advantage in eminent domain proceedings for the Trans Texas Corridor.

Despite the TURF lawsuit and the suspension of hiring outside lobbyists, TxDOT recently hired an in-house lobbyist, Rebecca Reyes, to lobby Democrats in Congress through TxDOT's Washington office (view here) and joined a lobby group named Transportation Transformation, or T2, with 4 other DOTs and private investors, like Goldman Sachs, to lobby Congress for more CDAs (see here).

TxDOT (see here) seeking to gain public approval of the TTC, which included asking overtly political questions like political party affiliation and if the respondent voted straight ticket in the last election.

In another document, it states TxDOT's messages in the ad campaign would promote tolling over gas taxes with statements like, "tolls are better than gas taxes to fund roads" (see here).
"The Sunset Commission needs to strongly recommend the repeal of Section 228.004 from the transportation code and remove from TxDOT any ability to promote toll roads. They've become an arm of private industry that cannot be trusted to expend funds in a way that protects the public interest," insisted Hall.

END FREEWAY TO TOLLWAY CONVERSIONS
TURF and many of its supporters addressed the reforms the citizens demand in order to restore trust in the agency, anywhere from replacing the unelected 5 member Transportation Commission with a single ELECTED commissioner to fixing how decisions to toll roads are made (and giving the public real veto power), to getting an accurate figure of road funding needs independently of TxDOT, as well as ending freeway to tollway conversions.

The complete conversion of US 281 from a freeway, already built and open to traffic for decades, to a toll road shocked the Commission and was a central part of the hearing. Representative Linda Harper-Brown questioned TxDOT's perversion of a state law, HB 2702, that prohibits conversions without a public vote and requires them to leave as many non-toll lanes that exist before adding toll lanes. But TxDOT is tolling every single express lane (or main lane) on US 281 and downgrading the non-toll lanes to access roads with slower speed limits and permanent stop lights, an unfair replacement say critics.

Even worse, the 281 improvements have been funded with gas taxes starting in 2003 ($100 million plan total), but it was turned into a toll road simply to generate revenue for other area projects, clearly a discriminatory, targeted tax. Now as a toll road, the pricetag has ballooned to a whopping $1.3 billion!

"With highway robbery of this scale, it's no wonder the supposed funding gap for future roads swelled to $86 billion. This is insane! Rep. Joe Pickett once stated we can build 4 freeways for the price of one toll road. In the case of US 281, we can build 10 freeways for the price of one toll project!" notes an outraged Hall.

TURF also delivered disks of all the evidence in their lawsuit to the Travis County District Attorney's office to press them to file criminal charges against guilty parties.

"Texans are tired of one legal standard for them and another for those in power. The Truth Be Tolled TURF Special Edition DVD (www.TruthBeTolled.com) is enough evidence to show TxDOT is guilty of lying under oath and prosecuting an illegal ad and lobbying campaign on the taxpayers' dime. Blood's in the water now, and the sharks are circling. The people demand justice," Hall commented.


See these links for more info:

Suggestions on how to remedy the inadequacies of the Sunset Committee report and how we'd like to see TxDOT reformed.

Read original suggestions submitted to the Commission in 2007.

Alamo RMA approves toll contract despite citizen comment against it

Link to article here. Read citizen comment at this hearing here.

U.S. 281 toll pact gets board's OK
06/11/2008
By Patrick Driscoll
Express-News

Voting in the shadow of a federal lawsuit and record high gas prices, the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority approved a contract Wednesday to rebuild part of U.S. 281 into a tollway.

It’s time, Chairman Bill Thornton said, to put some 600 people to work over the next four years to give congestion-weary motorists new express lanes and bring in toll revenues that someday might help fund other projects.


“It is an immediate benefit,” he said.

At a public hearing before the board vote, four speakers from business groups and a former San Antonio councilman agreed with Thornton.

“If we don’t move forward today, then we’re doing this community a terrible disservice,” said Richard Perez, president of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce. “Please move forward with it quickly.”

Eight speakers derided the toll plan. They called for switching back to a cheaper gas-tax funded project and asked how drivers can afford tolls when regular-grade gasoline now averages $3.90 a gallon in San Antonio and federal officials say prices will remain high at least through next year.

More coverage
 KENS video: Watch the broadcast
“This plan has been funded and should have broke ground in 2003,” said Terri Hall, founder of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom. “I guess you left us no choice. I’ll see you in court.”

TURF and Aquifer Guardians in Urban Areas filed a federal lawsuit in February to demand a more detailed study on financial impacts to motorists and effects to the Edwards Aquifer and wildlife.

The mobility authority hopes to resolve the lawsuit in time to sell bonds and start construction in October. The $328 million design-build contract with Cibolo Creek Infrastructure Joint Venture, which the board approved Wednesday, could be signed as early as July 16.

The 10- to 20-lane toll road, including non-toll access roads to replace existing highway lanes, would stretch 8 miles between Loop 1604 and Comal County.

The segment between 1604 and Marshall Road could open in June 2011 and the rest by June 2012.

Drivers of cars and small trucks would pay 17 cents a mile in 2012, with fees rising gradually to an estimated 48 cents by 2048. The charge for vehicles with four axles or more would be almost three times higher.

Guerra: TxDOT dysfunctional, needs replacing

Link to article here.

Mr. Guerra nails TxDOT to the wall in his very truthful and accurate assessment of what's gone wrong at TxDOT. One of my favorite lines: "TxDOT — which spends $8 billion annually — is not only dysfunctional, it is clearly hell-bent on pushing an agenda that few outside of the road-construction industry agree with." Amen, Mr. Guerra!

Carlos Guerra: TxDOT's problems warrant not just a fix, but replacement
Express-News
06/06/2008
Outside its own, its contractors' and Gov. Rick Perry's offices, the Texas Department of Transportation doesn't exactly have a bunch of fans.

That was apparent earlier this week when cheers erupted statewide after the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission released its blistering 159-page staff report on the agency.

Created by the Legislature in 1977, the Sunset Commission reviews each of the state's 150 agencies every 12 years, looking for waste, inefficiency and duplication.

The commission's 12 members often tweak staff recommendations, then fire them to the Legislature before the agencies are reauthorized.

If an agency is not reauthorized, it dies. This seldom happens, but Sunset recommendations have led to changes, even a few important ones.

One big reason TxDOT's evaluation got so much ink and air time is that it is unusually harsh and extensive. But it also confronts incredibly contentious Texas issues: TxDOT's relentless drive to build toll roads, privatize state roads and build the Trans-Texas Corridor that will cut through thousands of acres of private property.

TxDOT's ham-handed actions have created a broad and deep-seated distrust of the agency, so it wasn't surprising to read in the staff report's second paragraph: “Sunset staff found that this ... distrust permeated most of TxDOT's actions and determined that it could not be an effective state transportation agency if trust and confidence were not restored.”

And if that isn't clear enough, ask the thousands who attended TxDOT's public hearings on these issues and were treated rudely and then blown off entirely, or the reporters and others who sought public information only to be stonewalled.

TxDOT — which spends $8 billion annually — is not only dysfunctional, it is clearly hell-bent on pushing an agenda that few outside of the road-construction industry agree with.

But the Sunset report also excoriates its secrecy, and disingenuousness, and for how it remains unaccountable, even to the lawmakers who appropriate its budget. It also details management, bookkeeping and policy-development practices that are, at best, questionable.

TxDOT's projected $86 billion shortfall, for example, was even disputed by the Governor's Business Council Transportation Task Force before the state auditor faulted its seriously flawed methodology.

And what about that $1.1 billion accounting error that TxDOT kept under wraps for months? Or the instances in which the propriety of expenditures — like spending millions to promote and lobby for the Trans-Texas Corridor — have been seriously questioned?

And some of its practices have also made it difficult, if not impossible, to verify if appropriations are being spent for their intended purposes.

When the Sunset Commission meets in August to review this report in Austin, they can count on drawing a big crowd.

But replacing the five-member, governor-appointed Texas Transportation Commission with a single commissioner — the Sunset staff's principal recommendation — doesn't address long-term issues that need attention now.

Lawmakers need to replace this insular agency entirely with one that does not view itself as a self-governing road-building entity that lets private-sector vendors write its policies. In today's fast-changing world, Texas must deal with transportation more comprehensively by seriously incorporating rail and other public-transit options into its plans.

And if we don't, our grandchildren will inherit a huge system of largely underused highways that either will be controlled by unaccountable private-sector operators from who knows where, or will have been sold back to the state but their debt will remain unpaid for generations to come.

What kind of future is that?

Sunset Commission comments by TURF

Sunset Commission Comments by TURF
Submitted as public comment to the Commission in 2007

TxDOT is a rogue, unaccountable, defacto taxing entity that does not do what the people of Texas want, which is NO TOLLING EXISTING ROADS & RIGHT OF WAY! The people have also spoken LOUD & CLEAR that they do NOT WANT to privatize the PUBLIC'S highway system. So what does TxDOT do? Spend $7-9 million in taxpayer money on an ad campaign to push those very policies, including the Keep Texas Moving web site that steers everything to toll roads, the Trans Texas Corridor, and privatization of our public infrastructure. TxDOT is a State agency; they are not policy makers. It violates Texas Government Code Chapter 556 to lobby in favor of toll roads and privatization. The taxpayers deserve a responsive, frugal, and accountable highway department that simply implements the policy the public wants.

Dissolve TxDOT as an agency and replace the appointed Transportation Commission with a single ELECTED Commissioner. Then start fresh with zero-based budgeting and only fund what's necessary, not increasing their budget year after year without justifying every line item. Put Texas taxpayers, frugality, accountability, TRANSPARENCY, proper planning, and environmental concerns (including human health and economics) ahead of international trade and private, special interests like road contractors and bond investors.

TRANS TEXAS CORRIDOR
The Trans Texas Corridor is a national travesty and threatens one of the bedrock foundations of our country, private property rights. Never should a government agency be given the power to steal land (eminent domain abuse) from one to give it to another for profit (a private, foreign company no less) in a revenue sharing scheme with the State of Texas. Tens of thousands of Texans have adamantly opposed the Trans Texas Corridor network of privatized toll roads, yet TxDOT continues to railroad the project and even spends taxpayer money to advocate for it over the LOUD opposition to it.

FREEWAY TO TOLLWAY CONVERSIONS
When the law (HB 2702) prohibiting tolling existing highways requires as many non-toll lanes as exist before the toll lanes, it often means that the taxpayers will then have to foot the bill for more lanes than are actually needed simply so government can get away with stealing FREEways and convert them into tollways. Tolling existing right of way is DOUBLE TAXATION per the Comptroller's Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority:
A Need for a Higher Standard Special Report in 2005. Converting freeways into tollways more expensive, it's unnecessary, and it encourages TxDOT to bulldoze perfectly good roads in order to rebuild them as toll roads. This policy makes no fiscal sense, is a total waste of taxpayer resources, serves to grow government and it primarily benefits road builders, not taxpayers.

For instance, the gas tax plan for US 281 promoted by TxDOT in public hearings in 2001 demonstrates that overpasses and adding 2 additional lanes along with access roads was more than sufficient to fix the traffic congestion woes in the 281 corridor north of Loop 1604 in Bexar County. The cost was $100 million in 2003 & 2004 dollars (today it would be $170 million). The funds have been there since 2003 for the first segment and the San Antonio TxDOT District Engineer David Casteel confirmed they now have $100 million in gas taxes available to fix 281 TODAY without TOLLS! But then TxDOT did a bait and switch. They decided they could profit from picking motorists pockets in that corridor and by extorting toll taxes to make the public BUY BACK what's already built and paid for by withholding those overpasses and lying to the public saying the ONLY way to get those overpasses is to convert 281 into a toll road.

Now as a toll project, the pricetag for bulldozing that FREEway and rebuilding it as a tollway is a whopping $475 million. The gas tax plan, 10 lanes (including access roads); as a tollway, 20 lanes (including access roads). Now TxDOT claims the original gas tax plan in "insufficient" due to growth and it's also lying saying the gas tax plan didn't have access roads when it did. The Federal Highway Administration data shows driving in Texas has NOT GROWN and has remained flat since the rise in the price of gas began in 2005. Also, the home values in the 281 corridor are already plummeting due to the mass exodus because of the proposed tollway, so growth is NOT going to happen as projected.

With such abuse and lies taking place, the public NO LONGER TRUSTS the highway planning process nor anything related to toll roads. In fact, each region's planning has been hijacked by road builders and complicit politicians and officials to put profit and pavement ahead of sensible transportation solutions. There is NO ACCEPTABLE JUSTIFICATION for building a 20 lane, $475 million tollway when a $170 million, 10 lane FREEway plan is sufficient. There is NO ACCEPTABLE JUSTIFICATION for converting an EXISTING FREEway (already built and paid for with taxpayer money) into a tollway leaving stop light ridden access roads as the ONLY non-toll "option." That's STEALING our FREEWAY and forcing drivers into economic servitude or forcing more than half of motorists to become second class citizens relegated to congested free lanes for the next 40 or more years WITHOUT A VOTE!

This is taking one of the foremost highway systems in the world and chopping it up into a two-tiered highway system, expressways for the wealthy and congested access roads for the rest of us. Tolling roads is the MOST EXPENSIVE and most UNACCOUNTABLE transportation option.

TxDOT has become a defacto taxing entity through tolling, which is taxation without representation. One thing I hear repeatedly from the more than 35,000 supporters of TURF is LET THE PEOPLE VOTE! EVERY toll project should come to a PUBLIC VOTE just like voters weigh in on bond initiatives! The excuse for not doing so is that a messy little thing like Democracy is too cumbersome and expensive for every toll project. Not only is such an elitist attitude more akin to kings and dictators, it also shows that far too many toll roads are being crammed down the people's throats all over this state! Projects that affect the public's right to travel (especially those that takeover highways people depend on to make their daily bread), and that involve privatization or multi-million dollar (and in some cases multi-BILLION dollar) public debt need to come to the voters for approval, period!

Also, this practice of keeping traffic & revenue studies and vital financial information to determine the market valuation of toll projects SECRET from the public until 10 days before a contract is let is unacceptable and a total violation of the bedrock principles of open government! MPOs are voting to give FINAL approval on projects BEFORE the financial guts are made public. Secondly, this whole notion of market valuation is an affront to taxpayers! Viewing the PUBLIC'S highways as assets to hawk-up to the highest bidder on Wall Street is driven by greed, not the public interest. Dennis Enright testified before the Senate Transportation Committee on March 1, 2007 that toll roads are MONOPOLIES by their very nature. They are not assets in a free market, competitive environment nor do these PUBLIC highways belong to TxDOT to offer up for sale! Their ad campaign "Texas is Open for Business" is yet another testament to what's wrong with TxDOT.

Not only should all toll projects be brought to a public vote, all toll projects should have economic impacts studies  conducted by an independent, honest source not tied to the bond market or highway lobby to determine the impact on existing businesses (including ability to retain employees, potential losses in revenue and sales tax losses to cities and counties) property values (and potential losses in property taxes for cities and counties), motorists and the overall economic health of the region.

Studies have shown increasing the cost of transportation HURTS not helps the economy. Pro-toll economists like Ray Perryman try to gin-up economic benefits to massive road projects, but there is no substantive data to show there is the same economic cost to benefit ratio today as there was when the interstate highway system was built (connecting the states for the first time allowing interstate commerce to boom).

The PEOPLE must have VETO POWER over road projects. The Texas version of the federal NEPA law should not stop at presenting and considering alternatives in public hearings without being required to implement the option the public determines is the best option. The taxpayers MUST have a say in which alternative is best for the residents in each particular project area. TxDOT must be made to COMPLY with what the taxpayers determine is the best project route and/or alternative and that includes how it's financed!

Also, MPOs and TxDOT should have a more ethical and formal process for receiving and evaluating public comments on road projects, especially when it comes to final approval of toll projects. For instance, we've personally witnessed road contractors and those connected with building highways turn out at public hearings and testify in FAVOR of toll projects that their companies would financially benefit from. There is an inherent conflict of interest in so doing and it skews the public comments to appear as though more people are in favor of toll projects than actually are. Anyone with ties to the road building industry or whose company would potentially profit from the project should be required to disclose it when submitting comments or testimony just like public officials must disclose this sort of information when serving on boards or serving in public office.

Also, at a recent San Antonio MPO meeting to approve toll rates on 281, highway interests started a stealth email campaign to submit comments by road contractors and their employees to the MPO Board in support of the toll project. The grassroots soon found out about it and starting sending in comments to the MPO board members. However, there was NO OFFICIAL nor publicized means of getting comments on the record for the vote. Once at the meeting, MPO Board members in favor of tolls claimed they had received up to 5,000 comments in favor and only a few hundred opposed and they claimed to base their decision on those unofficial comments. Our group alone confirmed more than 1,200 comments were sent to ALL MPO Board members prior to the December 3 vote. So clearly, there was monkey business happening and those 5,000 supposedly in favor were not vetted to see which were submitted by those connected to the highway lobby and which were ordinary taxpaying citizens.

There was also a closed door meeting October 19 at the Valero headquarters in San Antonio (the public and press were denied access) where the San Antonio Mobility Coalition and members of the highway lobby discussed how to win approval of the 281 toll project at the December 3 MPO meeting (this was the stated purpose of that meeting IN WRITING! Link to memo in this post: http://texasturf.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=260&Itemid=26). I personally witnessed SAMPO Chairwoman Sheila McNeil and two TxDOT employees (one a voting member of the MPO Board) walk into that meeting that took place prior to the December 3 vote at SAMPO. This is collusion to gain approval of a toll project among members of the MPO Board and those who will financially benefit from the project. This behavior needs to be expressly PROHIBITED IN LAW.

Clearly, everything about TxDOT and the approval of toll projects is not occurring with the public's best interest at the forefront; TxDOT as an agency and the process as a whole is corrupt and unethical. Such collusion to "fix" a vote needs to be made a criminal violation with jail time and the ability to void the vote of ANY agency affected by such violations. This is where we get the term "the fix is in." When our government is so clearly sold out to private interests, the taxpayers don't stand a chance.

It's up to this Sunset Commission to right what's wrong at TxDOT, but also to make strong recommendations about how to reform the entire process by which transportation decisions are made and how projects are chosen, funded, and approved. As it stands today, every step of the process is broken! Thank you for your service to the great state of Texas!

Victory at the SAMPO, pulled most controversial bylaw changes

Hip, hip hooray for the grassroots! Before we had even arrived at today's San Antonio MPO Board meeting where it was to vote on proposed changes to its bylaws, it had already responded to the overwhelming number of emails/public comment opposing many of the changes to the bylaws by striking the most controversial provisions. The MPO pulled the proposal to allow the Mayor and County Judge to unilaterally appoint an alternate member to the Board in the place of an elected official. Considering the MPO is the subject of a TURF lawsuit to force the recomposition of the Board to force out the majority of the appointees who are diluting the elected officials' votes, the proposed bylaw changes added fuel to the fire and demonstrated the propensity of this body to stack the deck with as many appointees as possible.

The MPO also removed some of the changes to how projects are scored and prioritized (that would have made tolling easier) and even added a provision that the category at issue could NOT be used on toll projects! SCORE AGAIN!


However, the Board still voted to loosen what constitutes a quorum (allowing vacancies not to count toward a quorum almost guaranteeing appointees rather than elected officials will be making multi-billion tax decisions without the people's elected representation), and to give the Chair unilateral discretion to direct the Executive and Finance Committees instead of that power being vested in the entire Board as a whole. It also approved language that paves the way to expand its boundaries to engulf the Hill Country in its jurisdiction, sure to cause a near riot once the citizens north of Bexar County catch wind of such a plan. You can't get more anti-toll than Texas House District 73.

Commissioner Tommy Adkisson gave rousing and well-reasoned arguments for a distrust of the feds pushing a boundary expansion saying "you can't trust anything coming down from the feds. Everything they touch is a mess! I say local control." He and Representative David Leibowitz also objected to the changes to a quorum since it will only encourage elected officials to tarry in filling vacant seats when controversial votes (ie - toll roads vs no tolls) will likely be cast leaving these decisions to appointees whose jobs depend on towing the pro-toll line.

For those living in the 281/1604 area (Precinct 3) in the first round of toll tax assaults, your County Commissioner Lyle Larson, was a no show for today's important bylaw battle.

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