Ron Paul on the TTC & tolls/taxes

Taxes or Tolls on the Trans Texas Corridor
by Ron Paul | February 24, 2008
Texas Straight Talk

One major concern I discussed a few weeks ago regarding the Trans Texas Corridor is where the land will come from. Another concern is where the money will come from. Official government websites for the TTC assure that public-private partnerships will shield the taxpayer from bearing too much of the cost burden, but a careful reading shows the door is definitely open to public funding sources, while at the same time there is no doubt of the intention to charge tolls on the road.

Taxpayers already pay for their transportation system through hefty gasoline taxes, vehicle registration fees, and other fees. They have every right to expect the roads they have already paid for to be properly maintained and toll-free.

However, private foreign corporations have flocked to this country eager to participate in toll collection on our poorly managed toll roads, and they make a lot of money doing so. Taking over the management and maintenance of an existing toll road is one thing. Converting taxpayer built roads into cash cows for big corporations is quite another. Using eminent domain to take privately owned land, and taxpayer funding to build a highway that is designed to bring in private revenue is nothing short of highway robbery.

Cintra/Zachry, a private Spanish firm, is poised to make billions from TTC tolls. Yet my fear is that as planning progresses, more and more public burden will creep into the process, and more profit will be pledged to the private corporation. The costs will be socialized and the profits will be privatized.

And to add insult to injury – private lands will be taken for this road which will be, for all intents and purposes, a private business. The government should not use the power of eminent domain to seize and redistribute land for the benefit of a private company. This is wrong and unconstitutional. Cintra Zachry should negotiate with each individual land owner and go through the normal private land acquisition process to start its new business. If mutual agreements can be reached, fine. If not, government force is not appropriate. Our government should protect property rights, not facilitate theft.

Toll roads should not be paid for with taxpayer dollars, or even bond funding that pledge future tax dollars. Taxpayers should not have to pay additional fees for something they have already paid for. Eminent domain should absolutely not be used for private businesses. This public-private partnership has all the makings of the worst of both worlds. I am doing my part at the Federal level in Congress to limit the damage to the taxpayer. I introduced a bill in that prohibits the use of federal funding for any part of the TTC and I will continue to push for this bill, and other bills protecting property rights, taxpayers rights and our national sovereignty. The government should not fund and enforce private efforts like this and thumb their nose at land owners and taxpayers.

Can’t pay your toll bill? Toll authority hires collections company

Link to article here.

Friday, February 22, 2008
Gila Corp. will call those who skip tolls
Austin Business Journal

The organization that runs the relatively new toll roads in Central Texas has hired its first bill collector.

Austin-based Gila Corp., through its business unit Municipal Services Bureau, was recently awarded a contract with the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority www.ctrma.org. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Gila CEO Patrick Swanick says the collections firm, which works with a variety of governmental agencies, made it a goal last year to work with more toll authorities. Gila www.gilacorp.com was selected to provide video billing, violations processing and collection services to the mobility authority. The company was founded in 1991 and employs about 280 people.

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Dewhurst, Craddick order audit of TxDOT

Link to article here. May we finally get some accountability at TxDOT?

Top leaders order audit of TxDOT
By Pat Driscoll
Express-News
February 21, 2008

The Legislature's top two lawmakers this week said the transportation department's recently admitted billion-dollar boo-boo, and refusal to issue available bonds, has cast enough doubt to warrant a thorough outside audit.

craddick.jpg
Tom Craddick
DavidDewhurst.jpg
David Dewhurst
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick sent a letter to the state auditor to get him to comb through the Texas Department of Transportation's finances.

"It became evident that significant weakness and questionable accounting procedures exist in the financial forecasting and reporting of the agency," the letter says. "We are requesting that the entire financial process of TxDOT undergo a comprehensive review."

LETTER
The light clicked on two weeks ago when TxDOT, which says it's going broke, announced a $1.1 billion blunder at a joint hearing of the Senate finance and transportation committees. Money had been counted twice, and so half had to be stricken from the books.

TxDOT officials also told senators they won't issue $3 billion in available bonds, or count on another $5 billion that voters approved in November until legislators actually fund it. Yet the agency expects to be $3.6 billion in the hole by 2015.

More than half a dozen senators opened fire and bluntly told TxDOT officials they don't trust what they saying, and suspect some ploy may be underfoot because lawmakers last year slowed down privatization of tollways so they could take a closer look.


State senators grill TxDOT
Dewhurst and Craddick also want the audit to peruse TxDOT numbers on construction inflation, higher maintenance costs and a projected 25-year funding gap, all agency fodder to justify toll roads and private leases while downplaying ideas to raise the gas tax.

"I hope the audit will dig deep and provide a clear picture of the agency's finances," House Transportation Committee member Linda Harper Brown said in a statement.

State Auditor John Keel told Reuters his staff will try to finish the audit by Aug. 31, and Texas Transportation Commission Chairwoman Hope Andrade said she welcomes the review.

"The mobility challenges we face are significant, and effectively addressing these issues will require an open dialogue," Andrade is quoted as saying.

Texas lawmakers seek audit
TxDOT is also undergoing a scrubbing this year with a sunset review and probing by legislative committees. Also, a state panel is now studying the merits of privatization.

Past highlights:

  • The dark side of bonds
  • State senators grill TxDOT
  • Lt. governor wants answers from TxDOT
  • Shortfall forces TxDOT to cut budget
  • TxDOT cries "uncle"
  • They want more, more, more
  • Draining the highway fund
  • Holes in the funding gap
  • Probing the Trans-Texas Corridor
  • Tolls vs. taxes ... a real study

Lou Dobbs reports on the TTC

Video no longer available

TxDOT hands out cash bonuses during hiring freeze and cries of no money

Link to story here.

Exclusive Investigation: You're Paying For State's Big Bonuses
By Brian Collister
WOAI-TV
San Antonio
February 14, 2008

Hiring freezes, cuts in services and increased fees. Those are just a few of the steps state agencies are taking, claiming they are strapped for cash. Wait until you find out what they do have money for.

Share your comments below...

News 4 Trouble Shooter Brian Collister is breaking the story of how millions of your tax dollars are going into the pockets of state employees.

In the very near future stretches of highway in our area will be toll roads. That's because TXDOT says it does not have the money for new road projects, but we found that TXDOT and others state agencies apparently have enough of your money to give out big cash bonuses.

State senators scold TXDOT officials at a hearing in Austin last week over the agency's budget shortfall and claim it needs to build toll roads because it does not have enough money.


Sen. Judith Zaffirini (D-Laredo), who sits on the Senate Finance Committee, said last week, "I have to tell you that the impression out there is that, really, this is a ploy to put pressure on us to go back to the toll road plan, and that's just the political reality of it."

We've uncovered that TXDOT has enough money to give more than $1 million in bonuses to employees in the past three years. That includes top management. We got our hands on these state documents, that show before he retired last August, TXDOT Director Michael Behrens gave several of his top managers cash bonuses ranging from $2,000 to $3,000 each.

Terri Hall with the San Antonio Toll Party said, "I think it's completely wrong. It's outrageous. It shows they have a really bad case of of misplace priorities." Priorities that toll road opponents say should be aimed at saving every penny for new roads.

"This really just highlights everything that's wrong at TXDOT," said Hall. "They're giving hand-outs to top management while everyone out here is suffering."

TXDOT defends the bonuses saying it is only one half of one percent of its budget and that it needs to reward and retain its best employees, adding that money would not prevent the need for toll roads.

TXDOT is not the only state agency claiming it does not have enough money. After the governor asked all state agencies last year to cut their budget by 10%, budget shortfalls have forced state parks to close, Child Protective Services says it need more staff, but cannot afford to hire them, and cuts to public colleges means tuition rate hikes.

That's why what we uncovered in these records from the Comptrollers Office is even more disturbing. The list includes every cash bonus given to every state employee in the past three years. It also reveals that state agencies combined have given nearly $75 million of your money in bonuses.

The money went to state employees like Dimitria Pope, who until this week was the acting head of the scandal-plagued Texas Youth Commission. She has been criticized for her handling of that agency, including spending thousands on new office furniture. Last April, while the agency's chief of staff, she got a nearly $14,000 bonus on top of her $88,000 dollar a year salary. TYC says it gave her the bonus to bring her salary more in line with what the position pays.

George Ferrie, the Director of Compliance at Licensing and Regulation got three bonuses totaling $13,000 in just over a year, on top of nearly $80,000 salary. The agency says he was rewarded for taking on more responsibilities, and this is just one example of their efforts to properly reward and compensate its employees for outstanding performance.

When it comes to handing out bonuses to top managers, Attorney General Greg Abbott's office tops the list. Abbott gave $493,000 in bonuses to 142 of its directors. The agency says the money comes from unexpended salaries from vacant positions, and these directors shoulder the weight of added responsibilities.

Senator Carlos Uresti thinks these bonuses are out of line. Because of our investigation, he's asking the state auditor to look into it.

Uresti told us Wednesday, "What we're going to ask the state auditors office is to look into not only TXDOT, but all the agencies as a whole, to be sure that if they're awarding these bonuses that they are applied consistently, they are reasonable and it's fair."These bonuses were created to help agencies keep employees in difficult jobs that have a high turnover rate, and we did find some doing just that. We'll be sure to let you know what happens when the state auditor looks at these bonuses.

Perry may remove Chair, put "political hack" on commission

Link to article here.

We couldn't agree with Senator John Carona more...we don't need a political hack like Deirdre Delisi as Transportation Commissioner! We'd all be happy to see Interim Chair Hope Andrade get the boot, too. All she wants for San Antonio is higher transportation taxes, market-based tolls among them.

Perry's decision could shake up highway board
Many are seeking Williamson's spot; governor also may bump chairwoman
By PEGGY FIKAC
Houston Chronicle, Austin Bureau
Feb. 8, 2008

AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry's former chief of staff, a big campaign donor and people active in North Texas transportation are among contenders for a spot on the powerful commission that oversees state highways.

There's one vacancy on the five-member Texas Transportation Commission, left by the death of chairman Ric Williamson, but a Perry spokesman left open the possibility Friday that he could cause a bigger shake-up by deciding to replace Hope Andrade, of San Antonio.

The interim chairwoman, Andrade is the only commissioner from South Texas. Her term expired last year.

Andrade said the GOP governor has neither indicated he'll replace her nor assured her that she'll stay. Other commissioners are Ned Holmes, of Houston, Ted Houghton Jr., of El Paso and Fred Underwood, of Lubbock.

"I will do whatever the governor asks me to do," said Andrade, who was appointed by Perry in late 2003. "Whether it's one month, three months or one year, I'm going to do the best job I can to bring us all together to work on finding long-term solutions to our transportation funding challenges."

Perry spokesman Robert Black said replacing Andrade is "within the governor's purview" but "no decision has been made yet."


Matter of geography?

Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, said, "We hope to keep Hope Andrade on the commission. ... She has been a hardworking, conscientious and able advocate for the needs, transportation-wise, of our part of the state. I think she deserves more time as a member."

Perry's office made it clear that his former chief of staff, Deirdre Delisi, of Austin, is in the running despite reported concerns by Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, chairman of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee.

Like other officials from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Carona is pushing for an appointee who would give that region the geographic representation it lost with the death of Williamson, who was from Weatherford.

Among those being considered is former TXU chief executive and chairman Erle Nye, of Dallas, who has donated $203,000 to Perry since 2000 and would have to give up his seat on the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents to serve on the transportation panel. Black said contributions have no effect on appointments.

Looking for a post

Other applicants include former Fort Worth City Councilman Bill Meadows, a member of the North Texas Tollway Authority; former Duncanville City Councilman Grady Smithey Jr., a Perry appointee to a panel studying private participation in toll projects and secretary of the Dallas Regional Mobility Coalition; former Denton County Commissioner Sandy Jacobs; Benny Fogleman, in insurance sales in Livingston; Alan Wade Tompkins, vice president and general counsel for Unity Hunt Inc. in Dallas; and Southlake Mayor Andrew Wambsganss.

Lawmakers have said it's important that the appointment take into account the need to smooth relations between the Legislature and the commission. The fiery Williamson tangled with lawmakers in pushing Perry's transportation vision, including private investment in toll roads, an avenue the Legislature sought to curtail.

Carona said in a speech that he was opposed to Delisi being appointed, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

"We don't need political hacks in that position," Carona said, according to the newspaper report. "We need people who understand the business. We need people who understand transportation. We don't need someone who's unpopular with the Legislature."

Black said, "I'm really not going to dignify that, other than to say I think Deirdre Delisi, over her tenure in state government, has proven herself to be an exceptional leader and incredibly talented individual."

Delisi, 35, was Perry's gubernatorial campaign manager in 2002 and worked in George W. Bush's first presidential campaign.

Toll roads aren't "economic engine," rather a money pit


Link to article here.

Tollways may or may not be money machine
By BEN WEAR
Austin American Statesman
February 11, 2008

It was the first, and seemingly best, argument I heard for toll roads when I got this beat more than four years ago. Haven't heard it much lately, however.

Toll roads, Texas Department of Transportation officials said, would be an "economic engine" for highway financing as gas taxes grow increasingly scarce, generating excess cash that could be spent on other roads. Like in Houston, they'd say, where the Harris County Toll Road Authority has spun off cash for other nontoll projects and still has hundreds of millions of dollars stockpiled.

But when TxDOT officials the other day gave legislators a spreadsheet with the agency's expected cash flow through 2015, I didn't see any toll road profits in there. I asked James Bass, the agency's chief financial officer, about that. After all, TxDOT owns six toll roads now, including three in the Austin area. Won't they be throwing off some cash, I asked Bass?

Not anytime soon, he said.


So I looked at the "official statement" for the Central Texas Turnpike Project, which is the overall name for the Loop 1, Texas 45 North and Texas 130 tollways. It was a thick document shared with the investment community before the agency went out and borrowed $2.2 billion on the bond market in 2002.

The numbers are startling. It looks like the only thing throwing off dollars will be TxDOT itself.

According to that statement, the three roads will make $8.7 billion in toll revenue through 2042. In that same time, there will be $7.2 billion in debt payments for that borrowed $2.2 billion, $1.1 billion in operations costs, $752 million in routine maintenance and $388 million for long-term maintenance. The net of all that? Almost $750 million in the hole over 35 years.

More like an economic jalopy.

Of course, the three roads could do better than expected. That happens. But sometimes tollways underperform instead.

Parts of the Austin toll roads have been open for 15 months now and have charged tolls since last January. Hard to draw any firm conclusions from the limited history. But at first glance, the results don't scream, "Bonanza!"

The three roads made $27.5 million from January through November, $3.6 million in the last month, which equates to about $31 million for the first full year. That's well under the $42.4 million first-year projection in the official statement. That statement shows revenue nearly doubling in three years, to $79.4 million, and then topping $100 million in year five.

Will that actually happen? Only 75 percent of Texas 130 is open — the rest opens in April — and another tollway completing the Austin bypass to Interstate 35 should be done in about a year. Maybe the tollways — with that loop done, with economic growth and more consumer comfort with tolls — will hit the targets. And lose three quarters of a billion dollars over the next generation.

Economic engine? We'll see.

NYT: Trans Texas Corridor private toll road causes uproar

Link to article here.

Proposal in Texas for a Public-Private Toll Road System Raises an Outcry
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
New York Times
February 10, 2008
ROBSTOWN, Tex. — Leon Little’s farm here near Corpus Christi would not be seized for Texas’s proposed $184-billion-plus superhighway project for 5 or 10 years, if ever.

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Multimedia

 The Trans-Texas CorridorMap
The Trans-Texas Corridor

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Michael Stravato for The New York Times
Near Victoria, Tex., a sign announces the coming of Interstate 69, which is now listed as part of a major state highway project.

But Mr. Little was alarmed enough to show up Wednesday night with hundreds of his South Texas coastal neighbors to do what the Texas Department of Transportation has been urging: “Go ahead, don’t hold back.”

Don’t worry. Texans have gotten the message, swamping hearings and town meetings across the state to grill and often excoriate agency officials about a colossal traffic makeover known as the Trans-Texas Corridor, a public-private partnership unrivaled in the state’s — or probably any state’s — history, that would stretch well into the century and, if completed in full, end up costing around $200 billion.


“Is your road more important than the foodstuffs we put together for you?” asked Mr. Little, glaring at transportation officials at the town meeting.

The plan envisions a 4,000-mile network of new toll roads, with car and truck lanes, rail lines, and pipeline and utilities zones, to bypass congested cities and speed freight to and from Mexico.

Critics abound, but experts say Texas is addressing a problem certain to worsen nationally in coming decades: the price of gasoline may be rising but revenue from gasoline taxes is not, and with the rise of more fuel-efficient vehicles, less money is being raised for highway projects, even as traffic grows.

So transportation planners are increasingly looking to the private sector to put up construction money for toll roads in return for revenue from motorists.

“We’re relying on 1993 income for 2008 output,” said Robert Harrison, deputy director of the Center for Transportation Research at the University of Texas in Austin. “It’s unsustainable.”

Texas has been a victim of its own success, officials say. From July 2006 to July 2007 it added more people than any other state — nearly half a million, beating California by nearly 200,000. In the past quarter century, they say, the state’s population has grown by nearly 60 percent while road use has doubled.

“They make fun of us, but a whole bunch of people want to be Texans,” said Phillip E. Russell, assistant executive director of the Texas Transportation Department, who presided over the meeting here at the Nueces County Fairgrounds, along with the agency’s executive director, Amadeo Saenz.

Mr. Saenz said that Texas highways averaged 46 years of age and that the state was running out of money to maintain them, let alone build new roads. “The problem is our needs far outweigh the money available,” he said.

At particular issue in South Texas is a stretch of federal Highways 77 and 59 designated part of a proposed new segment of the federal highway system, I-69. But what was to have been a new interstate long sought by some businessmen and local officials is now listed as TTC-69, or part of the Trans-Texas Corridor.

“I don’t think people realize it has morphed into a toll road,” said Linda Stall, founder of a opposition group called Corridor Watch. Ms. Stall said the project was backed by “the guys who build, financiers and the suits.”

“The only person who loses is the citizen,” she said. “We’re paying everyone’s profit.” She also said investors would “cherry pick” the most lucrative toll routes, leaving other sections unfinanced.

Mr. Saenz said some routes might not require bypassing. “The no-build alternative is still an alternative,” he said.

The corridor project grew out of the 2002 governor’s race when Rick Perry, the former Republican lieutenant governor who had completed George W. Bush’s unfinished term, surprised transportation experts by taking ideas they had discussed a decade earlier, to little interest, and “supersizing them,” as one recalled.

The project grew to consist of four “priority segments:” new multimodal toll roads up to 1,200 feet wide paralleling Interstates 35 and 37 from Denison in North Texas to the Rio Grande Valley; a proposed I-69 from Texarkana to Houston and Laredo; I-45 from Dallas-Fort Worth to Houston; and I-10 from El Paso to Orange on the Louisiana border. But the exact routes are years away from being designated.

With construction, land acquisition and other expenses, the cost was estimated in 2002 at up to $183.5 billion, all of it to be put up by private investors, state officials say. No existing roads would gain tolls.

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Multimedia

 The Trans-Texas CorridorMap
The Trans-Texas Corridor

The first planning contract, for a segment paralleling I-35, was awarded in 2004 to a partnership of Cintra, a publicly traded transportation giant based in Madrid, and the Zachary Construction Corporation of San Antonio. But lawmakers, concerned over the public outcry, put the brakes on additional contracts until next year.

Legislators also asked transportation officials last week to explain why they were complaining of budget shortfalls while failing to use $9 billion in voter-approved bonding authority.

Now that 12 town meetings have concluded and the agency this month began the first of 46 public hearings to run through next month, Mr. Saenz said, “We have now gotten to first base.”

Once the Federal Highway Administration signed off on the plans, he said, the agency, perhaps next year, could begin a second phase of four to six years to select actual routes. But meanwhile, people here complained, they were being left hanging.

“Six to 15 years puts us in limbo forever,” said John Floyd, whose antiques shop is the only business in San Patricio, a historic crossroads dating from 1828 and on the map as a possible corridor route.

David Helpenstell, himself a soon-to-retire employee of the transportation department, also felt threatened. “Your proposed alternate passes through the middle of my house,” he said. Now even if he wanted to sell, he said, “nobody would buy it.”

At least Texas could share the road wealth, said John Coggin of Bluntzer, suggesting that displaced landowners get a percentage of toll revenues, just as they would for mineral rights.

On his nearby farm, where he was turning over the soil for sunflowers, Dean Nesloney climbed out of his tractor to show where he feared TTC-69 could go. “It’s kind of like this,” Mr. Nesloney said extending his arms diagonally across his field.

“They’d probably take it all up,” he said. “Maybe leave me some little bitty corners.”

CA activists kill toll project through popular beach/surf town


Link to article here.

How refreshing to see a board that actually votes to represent the will of the people.

California commission nixes toll road near famous surf break, though backers vow to appeal
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press
February 7, 2008

DEL MAR, Calif. - Surfers and environmentalists threw a roadblock in front of a proposed toll road through one of the world's best surf breaks — but backers say they will fight on.

The California Coastal Commission voted 8-2 late Wednesday against the project, which critics said would wipe out about a dozen endangered or threatened coastal species, decimate an ancient Indian burial ground and block sediment that creates world-class waves at San Onofre State Beach.

The panel's vote means that commissioners found the project doesn't meet with the legal requirements of the federal Coastal Zone Management Act and California's Coastal Act.

But toll road officials said they will file an appeal next week with the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to keep the $875 million project alive.


"It's not over yet," said Lance MacLean, chairman of the Foothill Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency. "We still believe firmly that our project as proposed provides the best traffic relief in the most environmentally sound way."

An estimated 3,000 people — surfers, environmentalists, commuters, union activists and tribal members — showed up for the marathon commission hearing, some with surfboards in tow.

Opponents hoisted signs that read "Protect Our Parks" and "Highway from Hell." They erupted in raucous cheering and dancing as the vote was tallied.

"When I look at this project, I can't believe it," Commissioner Sara Wan said before the vote. "This looks like something from the 1950s, not from now, when we know how endangered our planet is.

"I guess if you throw enough spaghetti at the wall, you hope that some of it will stick or at least prevent the majority of folks from understanding the issues."

Supporters said the turnpike was necessary to relieve crushing rush hour traffic on Interstate 5, where 125,000 cars pass each day between Orange County and San Diego. An alternative — widening the I-5 — would destroy more than 1,200 homes and businesses.

They also argued the road would increase access to the pristine beach for low-income and minority families and provide an alternate escape route in case of a wildfire.

"The area is in gridlock most of the time," said Tom Margro, the toll road agency's chief executive officer. "The fact that Southern California needs an alternative to the I-5 in this area has been known for decades."

But speakers at the hearing questioned the wisdom of intruding on the state's fifth-most popular state park and its famous surf break for the benefit of commuters. The break, Trestles, attracted 400,000 surfers last year and contributes up to $13 million to the local economy, the commission staff said.

Castillo: State forces toll roads as it plays budget shell game

Link to article here.

Motorists forced to face toll roads as state plays budget shell game
By Jaime Castillo
San Antonio Express-News
02/06/2008

It's amazing what pushes the outrage needle these days.Web hits mushroom and national debate ensues when a blowhard like Al Sharpton accuses another blowhard like Don Imus of making dumb statements.

If Britney so much as leaves her compound, the world stands still.

But here in Texas, it's a mere annoyance that the Legislature and state transportation officials are making bigger fools out of us than we previously thought.

Gridlocked Texas drivers have known for some time that they are being held hostage, caught between a vice of gutless state budgeting and Gov. Rick Perry's love affair with toll roads.

We've been asked to swallow tolled highways as the only way out of a situation in which construction costs are rising as fast or faster than a booming general population.

And we've been told to do this while state lawmakers poke us in the eye with one hand and use the other to continue to drain highway dollars for things that have nothing to do with building roads.


In the current two-year state budget, another $1.57 billion will be diverted from road building to allow the supposedly fiscally conservative state leadership to balance the books in other areas.

And now we come to find out, the situation is even worse.

During a Senate hearing Tuesday, it was revealed that the Texas Department of Transportation made a $1.1 billion accounting error when it erroneously tallied some bond proceeds twice.

The news came a day after a story by Peggy Fikac in the Express-News showing that more than $3 billion in dedicated fees and taxes will go unspent for their specified purposes, which include trauma care and clean-air efforts.

The reason?

State lawmakers are using the money to shore up the budget in other areas.

As one economist put it: "We're basically borrowing from ourselves. It's like using the rent money to pay the food bill."

A governor's spokesman pointed the finger at the Legislature, saying lawmakers need "to square up with Texans" and make the budgeting process more "transparent."

Rep. Warren Chisum, the Republican chairman of the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee, dismissed the whole matter as nothing more than "a bookkeeping deal."

In this void of accountability, the state is continuing a long tradition of watching revenue from things like the state lottery go to places other than where officials told us it was going to go.

A major subplot of this year's state legislative elections is the future of unpopular House Speaker Tom Craddick.

If a coalition of moderates and Democrats succeed in toppling him, they should remain mindful of the fate of the current Democratic Congress.

After being handed a majority in the U.S. House by frustrated voters, the new leadership shamefully plunged ahead and continued the pork-barrel system of funding local projects through things called budget earmarks.

Today, the approval ratings of Congress are worse than those of war-torn President Bush.

We Texans now know that our state's budgetary shell game involves highways, state parks, trauma care and clean-air efforts.

What we don't know is if Texas lawmakers — from either political party — will ever understand why this is wrong.

Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69 comment period extended to April 18

Link to PDF of TTC-69 FACT SHEET outlining what TTC-69 is and why the state is building it here.

Link to PDF of TTC-69 PUBLIC COMMENT GUIDE with suggestions for public comment on the project here. The comment period has been extended to April 18, 2008. TxDOT has made it clear ONLY comments specific to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) will become part of the OFFICIAL LEGAL record. So knowing the areas appropriate for public comment are VITAL!

You do NOT need to live in the path of TTC-69 to submit comments. It effects ALL Texans!

Submit comments to www.keeptexasmoving.com or mail them to I-69/TTC, P.O. Box 14428, Austin, TX 78761.

Evidence shows TxDOT lobbied; TxDOT calls it "outreach"...you decide!

Link to article here. TxDOT's spin doctors are spinning alright, and Mr. Wear seems to be buying it. The statute says a state agency cannot hire a registered lobbyist, it doesn't matter how TxDOT defines that lobbyist's activities, or if they are federal lobbyists or not (there's a federal law forbidding it as well), just "taking notes" or otherwise, it's abundantly clear what a registered lobbyist does....LOBBY! That's why the statute forbids them from hiring one. They did. They broke the law. No amount of spin can change it.

Getting There: Ben Wear
Is TxDOT illegally lobbying? No, it's 'outreach'
Anti-toll groups say agency flouting state prohibition on agencies paying to influence lawmakers.
Austin American Statesman
Monday, February 4, 2008
But the question is: Did TxDOT break the law by lobbying? The answer, despite toll opponents' certitude, is not so clear.

The hubbub began Jan. 22, when Texas Transportation Commissioner Ted Houghton took the mike at a public hearing in Hempstead (about TxDOT's proposed super-tollway, TTC-69, from Brownsville to Texarkana) to answer a question. The moment, inevitably, is now on YouTube.

Yes, Houghton said, "we hire lobbyists up there (in Washington) to represent the interests of the State of Texas."

Aha, Comal County tollway opponent Terri Hall said in a news release titled "Smoking gun," Houghton "admits TxDOT violated the law!" Houghton, of course, confessed to no such thing.


Hall was depending on state law that bars state agencies from spending money to "employ, as a regular full-time or part-time or contract employee, a person who is required by Chapter 305 to register as a lobbyist."

If you read Chapter 305 of the state Government Code, it basically refers to lobbying the Legislature and the executive branch of Texas government. The four lobbyists named by TxDOT in response to a lawsuit filed by Hall's Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom — including former Land Commissioner Garry Mauro — work their magic in Washington, not Austin. None are registered lobbyists in Texas.

Now, TxDOT did pay the Rodman Group at least $65,000 to have Gary Bushell, a registered Texas lobbyist last year, spend much of the first half of 2007 talking to local elected officials along the Interstate 35 and Interstate 69 corridors. This was right when the Legislature was considering banning private toll road contracts of the type TxDOT wants to use to build TTC-69. A bunch of TTC-69 local folks came to Austin about that time, asking that their road be exempt. They got what they and TxDOT wanted.

Was Bushell lobbying for TxDOT? No, he was doing "outreach," spokesman Chris Lippincott and Bushell say, taking notes about the local folks' concerns and answering questions. If he had, Lippincott said, "we would have fired his (behind) on the spot."

Lobbying or not, TxDOT has certainly been an active political player the past few years. The late Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson at times last year seemed to be a 182nd legislator. He and Houghton, usually accompanied by TxDOT's entire senior executive team, were all over the Capitol last spring. TxDOT's efforts to overturn that session's adverse results (from its point of view) have taken a variety of forms since.

Williamson is gone now, and TxDOT faces a battery of legislative committees looking to tame it, starting with two hearings Tuesday. Lobbying charges may soon be the least of TxDOT's problems.

TxDOT's own $1 billion error caused statewide frenzy & sparked an audit

Link to article here.
Getting an "earful" is putting it mildly...TxDOT had a public flogging. However, actions speak louder than words. Will these senators have the spine to take on this Governor in May of 2009 as the next legislative session winds down and he dishes more threats and ultimatums? Will these same legislators GUT the Texas Department of Transportation and enact REAL reforms, or was yesterday's hearing all hot air? What will likely determine that is the grassroots revolt now underway. The Lege is either with us, or they're with the lobbyists and the Governor. There is no in between.

TxDOT gets earful at Senate hearing
02/05/2008
By Patrick Driscoll
Express-News

AUSTIN — There was plenty of blame to go around but little trust Tuesday as Texas senators probed Texas Department of Transportation finances, promises and actions — scrutiny that could last another year.Lawmakers, trying to figure out why the department this year suddenly faces funding shortfalls, didn't like what they heard at a joint hearing of the Senate finance and transportation committees.

Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, after listening to state auditors and budget officials describe the agency's bookkeeping, jumped the gate before TxDOT even got a word out.

"It doesn't matter what they come up and tell us, if they have poor internal controls," he told his colleagues. "I don't have a lot of confidence with what's coming out of that shop over there."


More than half a dozen senators took turns slinging similar barbs. The sharpest accusation, verbalized by a few, was that TxDOT may have created a funding crisis after the Legislature last spring put a leash on private financing of toll roads and tasked another committee to study the merits.

"There are many, many people, myself included, who believe this is a ploy to pressure us to go back to toll roads," said Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo.

Last July, after state lawmakers went home, the agency took another look at its finances. There were federal cutbacks, more state diversions, inflation and some expected drying up of private toll investments to deal with.

Bottom line: TxDOT was headed into the red — $3.6 billion by 2015. The agency said it would have to slice out $1.1 billion in projects this fiscal year, on top of $900 million pushed back months before because projections had been too optimistic. That left just $3.1 billion for construction, way down from $5 billion in 2006, dubbed the "go-go year."

But what wasn't widely known, until Tuesday, was that the $1.1 billion was an accounting error. That money was never there to begin with — some bean counters or planners had tallied some bond proceeds twice.

"Let me state right off that we should have done a better job of anticipating this state of affairs," TxDOT Director Amadeo Saenz said in a written statement to senators.

Senators were aghast.

"You've got to be kidding," said Sen. Kip Averitt, R-Waco.

Zaffirini said TxDOT officials should have pointed the finger at themselves months ago instead of blaming lawmakers for their woes. She said a Dec. 5 talking-points paper, just handed to her, never mentions the agency's own goofs.

Saenz, pointing to a Dec. 10 talking-points paper in front of him, said it does mention the inflated projections.

They literally were on different pages.

Meanwhile, Saenz recently reorganized staff so that planners, schedulers and bill payers will all report to the finance director.

"We have a system and that system needs to be improved," he told the senators. "We're working on that."

Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, said something definitely needs to change. While holding a TxDOT balance sheet, he said he knows how to do a cash-flow statement and what he was looking at wasn't that.

"I mean, this is screwed up," he said. "This is bad."

The other big questions of the day had to do with why TxDOT won't use $2.9 billion in available bonds, or include another $5 billion approved by voters in November in financial projections.

Transportation officials said it's because they don't know if legislators will pay debt service on the $2.9 billion. Otherwise, some road maintenance would have to be deferred.

And as far as the $5 billion, which would be paid back with an infusion of general funds rather that relying on existing flows of gas taxes and other driver fees, the Legislature still has to make that appropriation, which could happen next year.

"We want to make sure that we do not leave this agency in debt," said Hope Andrade, chairwoman of the Texas Transportation Commission, which oversees TxDOT. "As long as we can work together on how we can pay the debt, we will be open to any option."

Trust us, senators replied. But, they added, with construction inflation outstripping interest rates, it's best to put the $2.9 billion in bonds into action.

"We expect you to issue that debt," Transportation Committee Chairman John Carona, R-Dallas, said
_____________________________
Link to article here.

TxDOT
$1 billion error caused cash crunch
Agency officials say they double-counted bond revenue; legislators remain skeptical about legitimacy of fiscal 'crisis'
By Ben Wear
Austin American Statesman

But lawmakers, always skeptical, were often openly hostile during a lengthy Senate committee hearing that amounted to a thorough wood-shedding of TxDOT. They let department officials know that they remain suspicious about the legitimacy of the fiscal crisis.

Texas Transportation Commission members, said state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, "have an agenda. And that's to privatize the second-largest (highway) system in the world. And you are hell-bent-for-leather to do that."

State Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, pushed for a third party to look at TxDOT's books.

"It's important to me that we get the state auditor's office in there as quickly as possible," said Williams, who carried legislation last year that substantially curtailed TxDOT's authority to agree to long-term leases with private companies to build and run tollways.

TxDOT's executive director, Amadeo Saenz, said he would welcome an audit.

Saenz, TxDOT Chief Financial Officer James Bass and three transportation commissioners spent three hours answering questions in an unusual, out-of-session joint meeting of the Senate Finance and the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security committees.

TxDOT officials first announced a money shortage in November, ascribing it to a number of factors: inflation, reduced federal transportation grants, increased road maintenance needs and, most tellingly to legislators, the loss of revenue from those private toll road leases. Until Tuesday, top TxDOT officials had said nothing publicly about having made a serious bureaucratic error.

According to Saenz and Bass, the $1.1 billion that was counted twice was money borrowed through selling bonds. As a consequence, top agency officials told TxDOT's various divisions and districts that they had $4.2 billion to spend this fiscal year.

"As soon as I heard that number," Bass said, "I knew it was an overestimate."

Soon after, with so-called "lettings" for 2008 trimmed to $3.1 billion, TxDOT officials announced huge cuts in spending on right of way and project design, as well as a freeze on the start of many road projects that were ready to go. That sudden halt to projects got legislators' attention — and their goat. The Legislature and voters last year gave the agency authorization to borrow an additional $8 billion — though $5 billion of that will require further legislative action in 2009 — and so legislators don't like that crucial road projects are suddenly up on blocks.

It didn't take long after the freeze announcement for the idea to take hold that TxDOT was manufacturing a crisis to coerce legislators into backing away from the limits on private toll road contracts.

Tuesday's alternative explanation may have been only partially helpful to the agency.

"So, what you're saying is, it's not a political effort on your part," Watson said. "It's a lack of competence."

Saenz said he has brought the planning function, along with project procurement, under Bass' control to avoid the sort of left hand-right hand problem that caused the error.

How state and federal money goes into and out of TxDOT has long been a puzzle, one made only more complex by the addition of toll road financing and a growing practice of delegating road building to local agencies. Lawmakers, gazing at balance sheets gray with numbers and listening to Bass' clarifications of them, said the opaque nature of how TxDOT presents its finances makes it hard to trust the numbers.

"This is screwed up," said state Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, chairman of the Finance Committee, brandishing a revenue-and-expense table. "This is really bad. I heard your explanation. But based on the data, it doesn't match."

TxDOT gins-up shortfalls to get legislators' attention...it worked!

Link to article here.

Perry, Dewhurst at odds over TxDOT funding status
02/04/2008
By Patrick Driscoll
and Peggy Fikac
Express-News

On the eve of a legislative hearing on whether the Texas Department of Transportation is going broke or crying wolf, the state's top two leaders squared off on opposite sides.Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said TxDOT has some explaining to do about massive construction cutbacks, which some claim are a ruse to pressure state lawmakers into backing off last year's restrictions on private-sector financing of toll roads.

Dewhurst called the Senate finance and transportation committees into a hearing today, set for 9 a.m. in Room E1.036 of the Capitol Extension, to find out why TxDOT says it'll be $3.6 billion in the hole by 2015 when it can sell $9 billion in bonds.

"I am concerned the forecasting sheet used to produce that number does not show the complete financial picture," he said in a letter Friday to Hope Andrade, chairwoman of the Texas Transportation Commission, which oversees TxDOT.


But Gov. Rick Perry, who appoints the commission and is devoted to tolling and private investments as the best way to pay for new highway lanes, believes state lawmakers have dropped the funding ball.

"The governor wants a long-term solution" and has put forth ideas, Perry spokesman Robert Black said. "It's time for the Legislature to step up and do the same."

Today's hearing on TxDOT is just the latest round of the scrutiny, which intensified a year ago and continues to get hotter as toll critics burn the ears of officials.

Also Monday, Assistant District Attorney Beverly Mathews of the Travis County District Attorney's office said the office is investigating a complaint that TxDOT illegally lobbied and promoted toll roads.

"We have opened an investigation," Mathews said, declining to give details.

Terri Hall of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, which filed a civil lawsuit on the issue last year, said it's about time.

"A big fat yippee," she said. "People are so fed up with TxDOT, which is so out of control."

TxDOT officials say they did nothing wrong.

Perry and TxDOT's widespread push to use toll roads to make up for frozen gas taxes being swallowed by inflation hit a rough patch last year. Many lawmakers who previously passed enabling toll bills had since become skittish over public outcries.

Last year's Senate Bill 792 reined in toll and privatization plans and called for a committee to study private financing. TxDOT also is going through a sunset review.

Before the 2007 legislative session ended, the agency began warning of a looming financial crisis. Officials blamed federal cutbacks, diversions of state road funds, inflation and the Legislature's toll restrictions.

By November, TxDOT said it will have to slash spending for engineering and land purchases and stop any new construction after Feb. 1.

The agency has delayed $135 million worth of projects in the San Antonio region, including $64 million in Bexar County. Other areas saw similar cuts, such as an estimated $276 million in four counties in and around Houston.

Dewhurst said TxDOT should have told legislators about such problems last year. He also pointed out that lawmakers passed $3 billion in highway fund bonds, got voter approval for $5 billion in general obligation bonds, and that $1.3 billion in Texas Mobility Fund bonds still may be available.

"At the committee hearing," he wrote to Andrade, "I hope to see that TxDOT has provided a cash forecast sheet that includes all the financial tools."

Black said the $5 billion figure is fiction because the Legislature hasn't authorized debt service, which could happen in 2009. And TxDOT did count the $1.3 billion in its projections.

But Perry advised the agency not to issue the $3 billion.

"Because it's a Band-Aid," Black said. "It is yet another short-term fix that will only put us into debt further because it is building something today we'll have to pay for tomorrow."

Zaffirini: “TxDOT is an agency in turmoil and chaos”

Senate Transportation Committee and Senate Finance Committee held a joint hearing in Austin today to probe TxDOT's supposed funding shortfall for 2008. The Legislature wasn't even out of session 6 months before TxDOT fired-off letters to legislators telling them they planned to cut billions in already committed/funded projects. The sparks flew back and forth during the heated "discussion" that seemed more like a public flogging of TxDOT than a committee hearing. Here's just a flavor...

Senator Steve Ogden, Chair of Senate Finance Committee, on TxDOT's balance sheet: "This is really screwed up. Y'all need to redo your sheet."

Senator Tommy Williams: "TxDOT has poor internal controls...I don't have confidence in anything TxDOT is telling this committee."

 

Senator Kirk Watson: TxDOT's either "political or incompetent."

Senator Judith Zaffirini: "TxDOT is an agency in turmoil and chaos. This (blaming Legislature for TxDOT's own incompetence and poor planning) disdainful and awful behavior by some agency staff is at best intellectually dishonest."
_______________________________


The senators put the screws to TxDOT for three hours, and something remotely resembling the truth managed to emerge at the other end. The end result is that the Legislature ought to be exploring TxDOT's "credibility gap" instead of its ginned-up "funding gap." Fed-up like the taxpayers, the senators are tired of being lied to by a state agency over which they have oversight, tired of being lectured to by the Governor (who rejects ANY affordable transportation funding option besides selling off our freeways to his buddies), and tired of being blamed for TxDOT's incompetence. Now let's hope they finally mean it when they say TxDOT needs fixing!

TxDOT is up for sunset review in 2009, so it's the Legislature's golden opportunity to clean house at this "agency run amok."

Though much transpired at the hearings today, here's the summary of the juicy stuff. TxDOT had to admit that it put out false information that misled both the public and legislators about the claimed $4.2 billion "shortfall" (which acting Chair Hope Andrade later revised the term "cuts" to more correctly mean "delays") and the reasons for it.

At the end of the day, TxDOT admitted to repeated accounting errors (overstating the 2008 shortfall by $3 billion), that they welcomed an audit "so we can know what's going on" inside their own agency, and that they haven't "cut" spending, but are rather just moving money around.

Senator Ogden brought up a good point when he stated that the Legislature gave TxDOT $7.5 billion MORE money this two-year budget over the last, so he questioned why are they cutting projects? TxDOT Executive Director Amadeo Saenz then admitted they are making "cuts" based on future projections of shortfalls in 2015, not shortfalls in this immediate 2-year budget cycle. In plain English, they're making "cuts" now in order to advance the Governor's political agenda of selling off our highway system to the highest bidder.
It's good thing only a small cabal of ordinary citizens and taxpayers were there or TxDOT would have been run out on a rail! The most heated discussion of the day came when Senator Zaffirini asked TxDOT for the talking points it sent to the various district engineers who sent letters announcing the cuts in December 2007. TxDOT produced a different letter, but Zaffirini read the initial talking points TxDOT leadership sent out that blamed the U.S. congress and the state legislature, not TxDOT's own overcommitment to projects it couldn't fund due to the poor planning and chaos inside its own doors. Saenz admitted there are three divisions, forecasting, management, and the one that pays the actual bills, where neither knew what the other was doing.

Senator Watson summed it up best when he said: "So TxDOT's either being political or incompetent." But when the dust settled, all of them were more worried about the billions in lost contracts for the highway lobby than they were about the taxpayers held hostage by TxDOT's incompetence and man-made congestion crisis.

The second half of the day was the first meeting of the study committee on private toll roads as required by SB 792, the private toll moratorium bill. The Governor's 3 appointees rabidly pushed the MOST expensive option of privatization of our public infrastructure (bringing in the world's top privatization guru, Robert Poole of the Reason Foundation) while the others were consumed with understanding market valuation.

To refresh you memories, TURF fought hard to strip the market valuation language from SB 792. This language never appeared in ANY bill the entire 80th session until Governor Perry got a hold of it (though Committee Chairman Senator John Carona,/span> credited Senator Williams for actually authoring that section). It's a way to skirt around the federal law prohibiting the public sector from competing with the private sector to drive up the price of a public project.

Market valuation REQUIRES BY LAW that all toll projects undergo a determination of how much money the government can make off the road by analyzing the "value" of it the way Wall Street would. It's called asset monetization and it translates into the highest possible toll rates, because instead of keeping the toll as low as possible, they determine how to get a BIG up-front payment just like the private toll roads. They figure out how much additional bond money they can milk out of one set of motorists in order to fund projects for other motorists. It's Robin Hood applied to roads! The very thought of calling the public's highways "assets" for government to sell off on the open market is OFFENSIVE and an economic disaster waiting to happen!

So when you hear a toller call toll taxes a "user fee," think again. It's another deception geared at making you think you're paying a more direct tax tied to your actual usage of something rather than taking from one to give to another (which is EXACTLY what they criticize the gas tax for doing, making one part of the state help fund roads for other parts)! Regardless, this method of tolling is a targeted, discriminatory, purposely bloated tax, designed to be a government cash cow without the private toll road controversy.

Interestingly, one of the authors of the bill actually asked TxDOT (and agency with NO credibility) how market valuation works when he was the one who authored the bill!

Ream the taxpayer

One of the Governor's appointees, former Transportation Commissioner John Johnson, essentially cautioned the 6 legislators on the committee to NOT consider their constituents, but rather to "keep the big picture in mind." What big picture is he referring to? Selling the public's freeways to the highest bidder for maximum profit.

Then, when the conflict with federal law was mentioned, Poole of the Reason Foundation, suggested TxDOT could petition the feds using an "SEP 15" (or special experimental program) process to WAIVE THE LAW allowing public agencies to compete with the private sector (which results in jacking up the cost to motorists)! OUTRAGEOUS! No one even blinked at the suggestion that they try to skirt the LAW!!! Note it was the lobbyist who knew the loopholes, not the policymakers. It further indicates who's writing our laws, doesn't it? We're lambs being led to the slaughter, folks. WAKE-UP!

In addition, Senator Carona said TxDOT had a lot of explaining to do in regards to their admission (thanks to the evidence uncovered in our lawsuit) they broke the law by hiring registered lobbyists, yet didn't breathe a word of it at these hearings. Why? "Because it's pending in court." Someone should have told Commissioner Ted Houghton that before he
admitted it ON CAMERA!

Our government isn't serving us, representing us, nor looking out for the public interest. Our Legislature and Governor are a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Chamber of Commerce crowd, the Reason Foundation, and road contractors.

 Start our taxpayer revolt on March 4. Go to the voting booth and work your way down the list....throw the bums OUT!

Fort Bend residents reject Trans Texas "monstrosity"

Link to blog here.

Residents reject Trans-Texas "monstrosity"
By Zen Zheng
Houston Chronicle blog
January 26, 2008
Finding a spot at the Rosenberg Civic Center's parking lot Thursday night was a challenge.

At least 600 residents packed the main hall to attend the sixth of the 11 town hall meetings the Texas Department of Transportation has been holding in cities in the path of the proposed Interstate 69 route.

The gathering on the controversial I-69 proposal aimed to allow residents to ask questions and get instant responses from state officials. Originally set for 6:30-9 p.m., it dragged for nearly five hours as scores of residents waited for their turns to tell the officials how upset they were with the proposal.

Residents came from several counties including Fort Bend, Wharton and Waller. Some had attended previous public meetings and decided to continue to protest at the meeting Thursday.


Jeff Ritz of Tomball, who attended the forum in Hempstead, reappeared at the Rosenberg Civic Center entrance to hand out anti-Trans-Texas Corridor stickers. He said to me:

I can't give this thing out quick enough.

In the lobby, while state officials laid out tables on one side to register speakers and distribute official literature to promote the project, Hank Gilbert, who formed a Texas Uniting for Reform and Freedom organization opposed to toll roads and the proposed corridor, had a table on the other side to gather signatures for a petition to the state.

Throughout the night, residents' negative sentiment about the project struck me as overwhelming. Officials on the four-person panel including Texas Transportation Commissioner Ned Holmes and TxDOT's Executive Deputy Director Steve Simmons kept their cool as opponents denounced the proposed 1,200-foot wide, 600-mile long toll road as a ``monstrosity.''

Opponents said the proposed corridor would uproot their homes and livelihood and destroy their environment and communities while fattening the pockets of foreign companies and threatening our nation's security with the open corridor that would link Mexico with Canada through the Unites States heartland.

Holmes and Simmons said the project is needed to address population growth that would worsen roadway congestion and to drive economic development.

When asked why the officials were against popular will as no single voice endorsing of the project was heard at the meeting, Simmons said there were people speaking in support of the proposal at other meetings.

Gilbert was quick to point out that those in support were a handful elected officials who failed to represent the people.

Some residents urged a popular vote on the I-69 idea.

Holmes said if it's determined that people don't want I-69, the project could be stopped.

Richard Morrison, a Sugar Land-area attorney, called the statement ``a lie.'' He said the officials' mind was already made up before coming to the meeting.

Following the town hall meetings, a series of formal public hearings will be held, in which the officials will not respond to any questions and comments from the public speakers. While the public comments made at the town hall meetings are not officially documented, those from the public hearings will.

The hearings next month include one to be held at Arabia Shrine Center, 2900 North Braeswood in Houston on Feb. 12, at Rosenberg Civic Center, 3825 Highway 36 South, on Feb. 25, and at Katy High School Performing Arts Center at 6331 Highway Boulevard the next day.

Were you at the Jan. 24 town hall meeting? What do you think about the discussion that night? What do you think about the proposed I-69 and Trans-Texas Corridor?

Hope Andrade of San Antonio to serve as Interim Chair of Commission


Link to news clip courtesy of Sal Costello, Texas Toll Party here.

Hope Andrade Named Interim Chair of TxDOT

Hope Andrade, who has served on the commission since 2003, has been appointed to a term to expire "at the pleasure of the Governor".

According to the Governor's Office, Gov. Rick "39-percent" Perry appointed San Antonio's Hope Andrade as the interim chair of the Texas Transportation Commission today - to replace Ric Williamson who died from a heart attack just weeks ago. Andrade is expected to continue to ignore Texans and the Texas lege, to force freeway to tollway conversions (as well as the TTC land grab) just as Williamson did.
______________________________

To see what a bully Andrade is, go here. She removed a blind, disabled veteran from the San Antonio MPO Board for voting against tolls! How mean!

Drivers to see major toll hikes

Link to article here.

Drivers to See Major Toll Hikes
By Dennis Cauchon
USA Today
01-28-08

(Jan. 28) -- From the Golden Gate Bridge to the New Jersey Turnpike, the nation's toll booths are getting dramatically more expensive to drive through.
The sharp increases come as states endure financially lean times triggered by the housing and credit crunch and struggle to find money to maintain or replace vital infrastructure.

Big toll hikes are planned for most of the nation's signature toll roads, bridges and tunnels. The increases would add dollars, not cents, to the cost of passing through many toll booths.


For example, in March, the toll for cars driving on the George Washington Bridge linking New York and New Jersey — the nation's busiest toll bridge — jumps to $8 from $5 during peak hours. Truckers will pay $35, up from $25.
"People view highways as free, but they're not," says Patrick Jones, chief executive of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association, which represents toll authorities. He says Congress' decision to keep the federal gas tax at 18.4 cents per gallon, unchanged since 1993, has led to a greater reliance on tolls.

Some major toll hikes planned:

California: The Golden Gate Bridge will raise its toll to $6 from $5 if a board approves after public hearings. Separately, San Francisco is considering a new $2 toll when drivers get off the bridge.

Indiana: The cost of driving all 157 miles of the Indiana Toll Road will rise in April to $8 from $4.65 for those paying cash. The price will not change for those with electronic i-Zoom accounts.

Massachusetts: Rates for the Sumner and Ted Williams tunnels in Boston rose to $3.50 from $3 on Jan. 1. The money will help pay for the "Big Dig," a $14.6 billion downtown Boston highway project that was plagued by cost overruns.

New Jersey: Gov. Jon Corzine wants to increase tolls on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway by 50% every four years, starting in 2010, and add an extra adjustment for inflation.
New York: The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will raise tolls on the Holland and Lincoln tunnels and its bridges by $2-$10 per trip on March 2. The state will impose smaller toll increases on nine other New York-area bridges and tunnels on March 16.

Pennsylvania: The state has asked the federal government for permission to add tolls to Interstate 80. The cost of driving the 316-mile road would be $25 for cars and $93 for trucks. The state will increase tolls on the Pennsylvania Turnpike by 25% in 2009, making the cost similar to the proposed I-80 tolls.

"People aren't thrilled by paying tolls, but that's no different than any other form of taxation," says Barry Schoch, a consultant heading Pennsylvania's effort to put toll booths on I-80, which is now free.

"A toll increase is always political melodrama," Port Authority spokesman Marc LaVorgna says. "The decisions are often avoided until the need is desperate."

Perry's corridor a hard-sell; Texans are still saying "NO!"

Jan. 27, 2008, 10:51PM
Perry's Trans-Texas Corridor plan is a hard sell
Officials pitch his proposed road network in packed, skeptical area meetings

By RAD SALLEE and ERIC HANSON
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

Gov. Rick Perry's ambitious Trans-Texas Corridor plan, and his advocacy of toll funding for future roads, hit the skids in a skeptical Legislature last spring. The road shows no signs of getting any smoother as state transportation officials try to sell the plan to Houston-area audiences.

"This will wipe me out," Dee Bond told a panel of corridor advocates at a town hall meeting in Rosenberg last week.

The panel, which included Texas Transportation Commissioner Ned Holmes of Houston and Steve Simmons, deputy executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation, was there to explain and gather comment on a segment of the planned Interstate 69/TTC through Fort Bend County.

"How is this in my best interest?" Bond asked, to a hearty round of applause.

"We don't know where that roadway is going," Simmons replied, adding, "We don't know for sure if that roadway is going to be built."

Diane Coan of Louise, in Wharton County, suggested the decision to build the corridor should be put to the public.

"Why don't we just take a vote? Do we want this road or do we not want this road?" she said.

As proposed, I-69/TTC would run west of U.S. 59 from Texarkana to Corpus Christi, then split and head to the Mexico border at Brownsville and Laredo. Extensions would enter Houston from the north and west to serve the port and area industry.

As envisioned by Perry, the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor would be a network of these broad corridors linking major cities, with toll roads for cars and trucks, rail tracks for freight and passenger trains, and space for pipelines and power lines.

The most advanced of these projects, TTC-35, is projected to run from Oklahoma to Mexico east of Interstate 35, but no construction contracts have been signed for either TTC-35 or I-69/TTC.

Months of hearings to come

TxDOT has designated a consortium led by the Spanish company CINTRA as first in line for TTC-35 work. Two private developer teams are competing for I-69/TTC.At the Rosenberg meeting, another speaker asked if existing highways such as U.S. 59 simply could be widened instead of building the massive superhighway.

Simmons said it is difficult and costly to acquire right of way to expand highways that pass through numerous built-up areas.

"We can't widen 59 without taking a good chunk of the town," he said.

Earlier in the week, similar meetings in Hempstead and Huntsville were jammed with residents and local officials who questioned the need for the project and the motives of its supporters.

The town hall meetings will continue through the month and be followed by two months of formal public hearings on its Draft Environmental Impact Statement.

In Hempstead, corridor opponents reported a crowd of 800, filling the available parking space and the building, causing some residents to be turned away.

The Huntsville meeting drew such an audience that a second meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Walker County Fairgrounds.

The Huntsville Item reported that more than 400 people attended the earlier meeting and that, for safety reasons, some 250 in an atrium could not enter.

At the Rosenberg meeting, which drew about 350 attendees, many wore anti-Trans-Texas Corridor stickers on their shirts or hats. The panel fielded questions from people who had filled out cards before the meeting.

A diverse coalition

Perry, TxDOT and the commissioners say that tolls are the only adequate way to fund most future road projects without increasing motor fuel taxes.Others say that increasing the tax and indexing it to the cost of road building could meet the state's needs indefinitely.

Critics of the idea say that most of the state's highway network is not congested except in cities and that road segments needing relief can be addressed individually.

The first parts to TTC-35 expected to be built are bypasses around Dallas and Austin, both growing urban areas where the interstate is congested.

Besides opponents of tolling, corridor plans have raised hackles with such disparate groups as farmers and ranchers who do not want their land divided, merchants who fear loss of business to new routes and others who oppose trucks from Mexico doing business in the United States, or the long-term leases of U.S. highways to foreign companies.

Developer, not residents, behind push for toll lanes on I-35 in Waco

Link to article here.

Proposal to build new I-35 bridge becomes entangled in toll road debate
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
By David Doerr
Tribune-Herald staff writer

Real-estate developer Rick Sheldon wowed Waco residents in November when he unveiled drawings of an iconic version of the Interstate 35 Brazos River bridge designed to look like the city’s landmark Suspension Bridge.

The new I-35 bridge would serve as a gateway for visitors passing through town and a point of pride for area residents. But after consulting Texas Department of Transportation officials on financing such a project in these lean times for highway expansion, it turns out there is only one way to do it: tolls.

The tolls, which proved to be a point of contention at Tuesday’s Waco City Council meeting, would be used to expand the highway from six to eight lanes between South Loop 340 and Elm Mott. The tolls would be charged only on the added two lanes.

Waco Metropolitan Planning Organization staff proposed the toll lanes in December to address area transportation needs while dealing with significant cuts in state and federal funding. Now it appears the toll lanes will be the linchpin in Sheldon’s effort to update the look of the I-35 bridge over the Brazos.

“There is still a chance that we could do it without the tolls, but it is going to take forever, and I don’t know if I will be real interested in working on it then,” he said. “I’m not going to do it in 10 years.”

Sheldon, a San Antonio native now living in Waco, has proposed developments totaling nearly $1 billion along Lake Brazos, including restaurants, housing, a new near-campus football stadium for Baylor University and a 250- to 300-room hotel. He doesn’t control all of the projects, but he is working to form a partnership to make them happen.

His bridge proposal garnered praise such as “breathtaking” from various civic leaders when it was unveiled. The toll lane proposal initially was met mostly with criticism and derision when it was announced.

But now the two projects are linked together and that could change people’s ideas about both. There won’t be a lot of time to debate their merits if the MPO’s policy board votes Tuesday to remove the toll provision from planning documents it must submit to the federal government in February.

So Sheldon is calling to extend the debate by keeping the toll proposal in the MPO’s plans. The decision whether to go ahead with the projects would be made at a later time.

“I think (the bridge proposal) starts the debate, and that is all I am asking for,” Sheldon said. “Let’s not have the debate for a week, let’s have it for a year. You can always vote to change it (later). All we’re saying is, let’s please don’t preclude this as an option because it really hurts our chances of getting this thing built.”

The rebuilt bridge would not actually be a suspension bridge, but would have beams and cables to suggest the same look, Sheldon said. The aesthetic enhancements would probably cost between $5 million and $10 million, he said.

Richard Skopik, the transportation department’s Waco region engineer, said the only way to finance reconstructing the bridge in the current transportation funding climate would be to add toll lanes. He said the transportation department isn’t planning to replace the nearly 50-year-old bridge unless the toll lane expansion project is approved.

“To add an aesthetic structure, as has been suggested, you could modify the existing bridge, but I think the intent and the vision was to have a brand new bridge that could encompass these concepts,” Skopik said.

However, he emphasized that bridge enhancements would not automatically come with the construction of toll lanes. Funding from other public or private sources would be needed to pay for the features that would make it look like a suspension bridge, he said.

Sheldon suggested that a private company could be found to operate the toll lanes and pay to make the enhancements. However, the Texas Legislature passed a moratorium on such public-private toll projects last year.

Skopik said the proposal is designed for the transportation department to manage tolling operations.

MPO director Chris Evilia has had to cut 13 out of 23 highway projects in McLennan County since transportation officials announced in late September there would be no money to add capacity to the state’s road system after this year.

State transportation officials have blamed the funding crisis on rising construction costs, federal cutbacks and state diversions of declining gas tax revenues.

Even with the deep cuts in the number of local transportation projects, Evilia still is about $11 million short to fund the remaining 10 projects on his list. The projects are designed to expand highway capacity to meet the state’s growing population.

MPO staff estimates tolls would provide up to 40 percent of the funding to expand the highway to eight lanes. Transportation officials indicate state coffers could pay the remaining 60 percent.

Tolls could also generate an additional $5.7 million to $10.9 million that could be used for other transportation projects in McLennan County, according to MPO planning documents.

Sheldon said the paradigm for funding roads in Texas is shifting whether people like it or not.

“For a lot of folks it is wishful thinking,” he said, referring to their aversion to toll projects. “They want things back to how it was in ‘Leave it to Beaver’ time. It ain’t that way anymore. Go look at the Legislature. They haven’t raised gasoline taxes since 1991. Every time it comes up, it’s a nonstarter.”

Frustration with the current transportation funding picture was evident during Tuesday’s Waco City Council meeting in which members were briefed on the issue and the toll road proposal.

Councilman Randy Riggs said it was “almost extortion” to have to choose between adding toll lanes to I-35 and losing funds for other projects in the Waco area. He blamed federal and state lawmakers for not taking action.

“(Expanding I-35) is something that our citizens need and deserve and it should be a state or a federal issue as opposed to a local issue,” Riggs said. “This is just wrong in my mind to say we will help you with your transportation issues if you do what your citizens don’t want done.”

Although most council members expressed frustration about being forced to consider the toll lanes, a majority appeared willing to recommend to the MPO’s policy board to keep the proposal in their planning documents.

City Manager Larry Groth suggested that keeping the toll proposal in the MPO’s plans would allow the transportation department to move ahead with surveying and preparation to expand the highway even if local officials decide against the toll lanes at a later time.

“If we approve this with the tolls in it, we can keep I-35 in the plan,” he said. “That means that the state can continue working on the design, layout and all that other stuff so there is not a delay, and in my mind that means we stay on this track we need to be on.”

Before Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Joe Mashek, MPO policy board chairman and a McLennan County commissioner, said he opposes the toll lanes even though Sheldon’s bridge enhancement project is linked to it.

“They are kind of holding a gun to our head saying ‘If you don’t do this, you aren’t going to get this,’ ” he said. “It’s a no-win situation because most people are against this toll road on I-35.”

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