Larson: Republican Party now the "tolling party" & tolls largest tax increase in TX history!

Bexar County Commissioner Lyle Larson is right about this:
"The Republican Party in Texas will become known as 'the tolling party,' and that image will damage the party's ability to win future elections. "

AND

Tolls are "the Largest Tax Increase in Texas History."

But he's wrong about the battle over toll roads being over if the MPO votes to approve tolls Dec. 3. There's no policy, law, or contract that's approved that cannot also be undone. The taxpayers through our elected officials and at the ballot box ALWAYS have the FINAL say! This is no time to sound defeated!

Larson blasts MPO for 'secrecy,' says battle to stop toll roads in Bexar County is 'probably over.'
By Jim Forsyth
WOAI Radio
11/16/07

Long time toll road opponent Lyle Larson says the proposal that the Metropolitan Planning Organization will vote on next month, to begin the process of building new toll lanes on US Highway 281 north of Loop 1604, amounts to the 'largest tax increase in the history of Texas,' and unlike other tax increases which are approved by elected representatives, because the MPO is unelected, there is nothing Texans can do to stop it, 1200 WOAI news reports.

The Bexar County Commissioner made his comments to the Bexar County Republican Men's Club, and later, to 1200 WOAI news.

"If the vote is successful to use toll equity to build the 281 project, I'm afraid there's nothing we're going to be able to do to stop it," he said.

And if the vote is to give the go-ahead to the 281 tolls, as Larson expects will happen, he warns that is just the beginning.

"Then, God knows what else they're going to toll. There's a lot of projects they're looking at."


Larson expressed a concern that the Republican Party in Texas will become known as 'the tolling party,' and that image will damage the party's ability to win future elections. He says the vast majority of Texans disapprove of the aggressive toll road building policy promoted by Governor Perry and Texas Department of Transportation Chairman Ric Williamson.

He also blasted the MPO for its 'secrecy' and said the unelected agency has a responsibility to lay out for the public the details of the contract agreement on the 281 tolls it will vote on December 3. TxDOT is using a legal ruse to avoid revealing the contents of the contract. It refers to the proposal as a 'draft,' while local officials have said the plan up for a vote next month as 'the final agreement.'

"There's a lot of things that are built into the contracts that we are unaware of, especially when it comes to building other roads that would potentially compete with the toll lanes for capacity," he said.

Larson said if that language is in the 281 toll contract, it could prohibit the state from funding any improvements on Blanco Road, Stone Oak Parkway, of Bulverde Road, allowing those routes to deteriorate to make the toll lanes look more attractive to motorists.

1200 WOAI news revealed exclusively more than a month ago that the contract to build State Highway 130 from Marion to Georgetown allows the state to 'consider' lowing the speed limit on Interstate 35, to encourage more drivers to take the toll road, and fill the pockets of toll road contractor Cintra Zachry.

Larson warns that next month's vote of the unelected MPO is probably the last time toll roads can be avoided.

"The only people then that could stop this would be people at the upper level of state government," Larson said. "I don't see them doing that in the future."

Larson also revealed that in addition to the 17 cent a mile toll on the roughly four mile stretch, it will also cost you 50 cents to drive though the new Loop 1604/US 281 cloverleaf which is part of the project.

© 2007 WOAI.com: www.radio.woai.com

Toll roads require massive tax subsidies…a TRIPLE TAX in the end

Link to article here. As if a new tax on driving while paying $3 at the pump isn't bad enough, this article outlines one of our top complaints...the MASSIVE tax subsidies that will be pumped into these financially risky toll roads. So you've already paid taxes to build 281 & 1604, additional tax money will be dumped into building the toll lanes, and then you'll have to pay a THIRD tax, a toll tax, to drive on it!

Subsidizing toll roads
By Pat Driscoll
Express-News
November 27, 2007
Something that might not get enough attention in the toll-road debate is the matter of public subsidies, so let's take a look.

Tollroads2.jpg
Texas Department of Transportation officials knew years ago that most toll roads wouldn't be able to pay for themselves. To put it in DOT-speak, "Few projects are 100 percent toll viable." To put it in taxpayer terms, public money on top of toll fees is needed to help pay for most of them.

Toll Road Finance 101
Sure enough, in San Antonio where traffic hasn't reached the same frenzied "Where-do-I-pay-to-get-out-of-this?" level seen in Dallas and Houston, none of the 70 miles of planned toll roads are wholly toll viable, early studies show. That includes U.S. 281 and Loop 1604, long viewed as the most lucrative projects.


A 2004 analysis said a then-planned 22-mile startup system is just 28 percent toll viable:

Cover letter
 The local picture changed in 2005 when Cintra of Spain and Zachry Construction Corp. of San Antonio said they could build a 47-mile toll system on U.S. 281 and Loop 1604 without any public funds. Though no details were released, officials said the firms could do what TxDOT couldn't because they had more ready capital to invest.

So TxDOT went ahead and broke ground on a three-mile section of 281, and hoped to get back its $77 million from a private concession deal being negotiated for all 47 miles.

Firm drives for S.A. toll roads
Timber! U.S. 281 on road to tolls
But a lawsuit from critics stopped U.S. 281 work so more environmental study could be done, and before it was finished Senate Bill 792 nixed concession possibilities. Now 281 will be financed publicly rather than privately, a move cemented by local toll officials wanting to apply "reasonable" caps to toll fees.

Big, big news ...
281 toll road hits snag
Mobility authority to control toll lanes
But that means U.S. 281 will have to be subsidized.

The Alamo Regional Mobility Authority, the agency now developing the 281 project, won't release the latest financial model but says $69 million in public funds is needed to help build the first four miles, plus $43 million more is needed for the next four miles and another $83 million for five interchange ramps at Loop 1604.

"There isn't surplus revenue in the case of 281," authority Director Terry Brechtel told her board last month.

Three to bid on U.S. 281 toll road project
To develop all of the U.S. 281 tollway, Brechtel on Monday will ask the Metropolitan Planning Organization to shift around some of the $325 million in public money earmarked for local toll projects.

MPO agenda material
Here's a breakdown on where the subsidies and toll-backed bonds could go:

U.S. 281 from Loop 1604 to Comal County
$112.2 million in Texas Mobility Funds
$363.5 million in toll bonds
Five ramps linking U.S. 281 and Loop 1604

$82.6 million in Texas Mobility Funds
$61.4 million in toll bonds
Loop 1604 from Texas 151 to Northwest I-10

$63.2 million in Texas Mobility Funds
$382.9 million in toll bonds
Loop 1604 between Northwest I-10 and U.S. 281

$67 million in Texas Mobility Funds
$193.9 million in toll bonds

Total

$325 million in Texas Mobility Funds
$1 billion in toll bonds

NE Partnership, small city mayors, against current toll proposals

Link to article here. These comments by the Northeast Mayors (in Bexar, Comal and Guadalupe counties) will be interpreted by TxDOT as an endorsement of the toll roads. TxDOT always claims they're NOT tolling existing roads, yet every single toll lane in the plans for 281/1604 will toll existing lanes/right of way that we drive on today, toll-free. Not even half of the toll roads on 281/1604 have adjacent non-toll expressway lanes, which the mayors said they may support (only about 12 miles of the 47 miles of toll lanes will have a non-toll expressway option). The rest of the project area will only have frontage roads as the non-toll option, clearly NOT an expressway and it can be easily slowed with stoplights.

When I questioned many of the Mayors after the meeting at Retama, they all opposed tolling any existing lanes or right of way already paid for once by the taxpayers indicating they oppose the current toll projects as proposed. Their comments certainly don't qualify as a ringing endorsement of the plans to toll existing FREEways all over Texas. The MOST CRITICAL factor to these smaller cities will be the non-compete clauses in the toll roads which will prohibit expansion of any free roads surrounding the tollways. This could bring their cities to a state of gridlock for the next 30 years! TxDOT is keeping any non-compete provisions SECRET, yet they're asking the MPO, which is being kept in the dark, to cast a final vote to approve the toll projects.

Councilman Weeper is rather disingenuous saying he hasn't received a peep in opposition to the toll roads only 400 in favor. We helped publicize the highway lobby's stealth campaign to lobby for approval of the toll plans. The plan was hatched in a closed-door meeting at Valero October 19. Expressions of support from those who will financially benefit from the toll roads is hardly a legitimate indicator of public support! It's an obvious conflict of interest! Weeper has since received over 900 emails in opposition to toll roads...in case the 2,000+ who turned out in opposition at the public hearings weren't sufficient!

Opposition to toll roads grows in NE Partnership
November 20, 2007
By Edmond Ortiz
Staff Writer
The Herald - News


Link to article here. These comments by the Northeast Mayors will be interpreted by TxDOT as an endorsement of the toll roads. TxDOT always claims they're NOT tolling existing roads, yet every single toll lane in the plans for 281/1604 will toll existing lanes/right of way that we drive on today, toll-free. Not even half of the toll roads on 281/1604 have adjacent non-toll expressway lanes, which the mayors said they may support (only about 12 miles of the 47 miles of toll lanes will have a non-toll expressway option). The rest of the project area will only have frontage roads as the non-toll option, clearly NOT an expressway and it can be easily slowed with stoplights.

When I questioned many of the Mayors after the meeting at Retama, they all opposed tolling any existing lanes or right of way already paid for once by the taxpayers indicating they oppose the current toll projects as proposed. Their comments certainly don't qualify as a ringing endorsement of the plans to toll existing FREEways all over Texas. The MOST CRITICAL factor to these smaller cities will be the non-compete clauses in the toll roads which will prohibit expansion of any free roads surrounding the tollways. This could bring their cities to a state of gridlock for the next 30 years! TxDOT is keeping any non-compete provisions SECRET, yet they're asking the MPO, which is being kept in the dark, to cast a final vote to approve the toll projects.

Councilman Weeper is rather disingenuous saying he hasn't received a peep in opposition to the toll roads only 400 in favor. We helped publicize the highway lobby's stealth campaign to lobby for approval of the toll plans. The plan was hatched in a closed-door meeting at Valero October 19. Expressions of support from those who will financially benefit from the toll roads is hardly a legitimate indicator of public support! It's an obvious conflict of interest! Weeper has since received over 800 emails in opposition to toll roads...in case the 2,000+ who turned out in opposition at the public hearings weren't sufficient!

Opposition to toll roads grows in NE Partnership
November 20, 2007
By Edmond Ortiz
Staff Writer
The Herald - News

The Northeast Partnership for Economic Development is providing its input on toll roads. Judging from comments made by attending elected officials at the partnership’s Nov. 8 meeting at Retama Park, the coalition of Metrocom and Seguin leaders is inclined not to join the toll road bandwagon.

The transportation policy board of the San Antonio-Bexar County Metropolitan Planning Organization will vote Dec. 3 on the toll equity plan that is being developed by the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority.



The equity plan contains financing terms for planned toll road projects that would cover Loop 1604 from Interstate 10 to Texas 151, and U.S. 281 from 1604 to the Comal County line.

Some Metrocom cities had no representation at the Northeast Partnership’s luncheon, but top officials who were there said they and their constituents see toll roads as double taxation.

“I’ve seen over 400 emails in support of the 281 toll, none in opposition. Since I represent over 334,000 residents on the MPO, I felt it’s my duty to encourage citizens to vote their desires,” said Selma City Councilman William Weeper, the partnership’s representative with the planning organization.

Selma Mayor Jim Parma, who chairs the partnership, asked for a roll call of attending mayors to arrive at a consensus. Parma, Al Suarez of Converse, Henry Edwards of Live Oak, Joe Medinger of Universal City and Jay Feibelman of Garden Ridge all expressed concerns with the idea of toll roads.

“I’d support tolls except for any existing roads taxpayers have already paid for,” Feibelman said. “If you want to build two extra lanes on one side of 1604 and two other lanes on the other side and if I have a choice between those toll lanes and the free highway, that’s fine.”

“I’ve heard from some constituents. The Live Oak City Council will consider this issue later, but I can’t see paying for roads twice,” Edwards said.

“I don’t like the concept of toll roads, but I’m with Mayor Feibelman. If I have a choice between those and free highway, that’s good,” Parma said.

“We need to keep free access to certain roads, but you know it’s natural. The minute a freeway opens, it’s clogged,” Medinger said. The Universal City mayor touted methods of alternate travel to help alleviate vehicular/passenger transit such as using mass transportation.

“When I go to meetings in downtown (San Antonio), I take VIA so I don’t hassle with gas or parking. It’s just part of the bigger solution,” he added.

Bexar County Precinct 4 Commissioner Tommy Adkis-son reiterated his general opposition to toll roads.

“I’ll continue to insist we see the best possible proposal,” Adkisson added.

Hollywood Park & other Texas cities have the power to stop toll projects


Margaret Byfield of Stewards of the Range is an expert in using local government to fend off overreaching and overbearing state and federal government. Local government coordination is at the fingertips of ANY local unit of government willing to flex its muscles. For all the cries for local control, this one is a sure-fire way to make it happen....it's the LAW!

Link to article here.

Could Hollywood Park stop the 281 North toll road project?
North Central News
November 19, 2007

Staff WriterSome citizens following toll roads issue have recently claimed, and to some extent proven, that individual cities and groups of cities can stop toll road projects that affect them by demanding to be involved in the process.

The town of Hollywood Park could be the next to try.

“I thought it would be a good idea for her to come out,” said Hollywood Park Mayor Richard McIlveen at a recent city council meeting where he introduced SA Toll Party and Texans United for Reform and Freedom Founder and President Terri Hall. “We need to start thinking ahead.”

Hall attended the meeting at the urging of TURF’s Treasurer, Hollywood Park resident Sudie Sartor.

According to Hall’s presentation, a city—specifically, Hollywood Park—affected by the toll road—specifically, the U.S. Highway 281 North toll road project—could effectively tattle on the Texas Department of Transportation to the federal government and stop the toll process here dead in its tracks.

TxDOT should have included Hollywood Park in its long-completed environmental assessment, Hall said, since the city will likely experience more cut-through traffic, an increase in accidents and lower sales taxes and property taxes.

Moreover, the Texas Statutes Local Government Code, which all local governments follow, encourages coordination and thus provides local governments with armory to attack TxDOT, Hall said.

“If you demand coordination, that will require another study, and that will stop the toll project,” she said. “We have got to stop this now. It really just adds up to more economic damage.”

McIlveen said he isn’t sure what the city council will do with Hall’s information. She advised the body and citizens to write a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which approves environmental assessments on projects like the U.S. 281 toll project, and “include what you thought was inadequate,” said Hall.

“We need to get the city attorney’s interpretation,” McIlveen said. “Obviously, the residents can do whatever they want, but we have to run it through our legal department.”

TxDOT Spokeswoman Laura Lopez said since the project only required an environmental assessment, and not an environmental impact statement, then the coordination clause doesn’t hold true.

“This far in the process, it can’t be stopped that way,” she said.

Stewards of the Range, a group dedicated to legislation on private property rights in America, has determined that the “coordination clause” is valid no matter what the study’s name is.


“The law is really clear, it says that they have to coordinate with the local government,” said Margaret Byfield, Executive Director for Stewards of the Range. “The National Environmental Policy Act is what mandates how environmental assessments and impact statements are done, and that statute says they have to coordinate.”

Byfield’s group has been involved with the city of Bartlett and others’ efforts to stop the Trans-Texas Corridor. Bartlett and others have used the “coordination clause” to stop TxDOT there and demand to be a partner by forming a commission. However, Lopez said the TTC 1-35 project is undergoing an environmental impact statement process, not environmental assessment process.

Moreover, Lopez said Hollywood Park was invited to be involved in the process through quadrant meetings and stakeholder meetings, but added that the city won’t feel impacts from the toll road project that ends at the northern border of the city, Loop 1604.

“They [Hollywood Park] should not be affected by it at all. The purpose of adding capacity is to add more lanes for drivers not to have to go through any shortcuts,” she said, “so there should be no impact whatsoever.”

Hollywood Park already experiences cut-through traffic by drivers who want to avoid the U.S. 281/Loop 1604 interchange. After Hall spoke, council discussed ways to limit cut-through traffic in the city, as a separate agenda item. Further action will be taken in the future.

To solve the interchange issue, the toll road plan will include ramps that will directly connect the two roads, but the ramps won’t be built for years after the toll project begins, and will be tolled.

Byfield said that the skepticism about Hall’s plan is because “local governments haven’t really understood how involved they should be in the process, and TxDOT’s not real happy that some of the local governments are realizing this. They’re going to try to avoid it to the best of their ability.”

The Alamo Regional Mobility Authority is finalizing plans for the 281 North Toll Road project and will seek funding from the Metropolitan Planning Organization on Dec. 3. After that, three bidding teams will prepare entries for the project, and a winner will be selected next spring.

ARMA Spokesman Leroy Alloway said that his organization invited Hollywood Park council members to public meetings and that they were given the opportunity to be involved.

McIlveen said he wasn’t sure if an action item on the subject would be on the agenda for the next council meeting, scheduled for Dec. 18.

Crude oil crisis, peak oil is here


For years, the BIG energy industry giants pooh-poohed claims of the coming peak oil phenomenon and chalked it up to environmental alarmists stirring the pot against BIG oil. Now the Houston Chronicle, Bloomberg, Time, and the Dallas Morning News are all on the same peak oil page and the price of gas isn't lookin' good for the foreseeable future. Now is NOT the time for ubiquitous, ghastly expensive and unsustainable toll projects.

Crude crunch coming
Industry wisdom now recognizes there are practical limits to the world's oil supply
Houston Chronicle
Nov. 20, 2007

The closing price of crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange Tuesday set a record, climbing to three cents above $98 a barrel. Market analysts said speculation that the Federal Reserve Board would lower interest rates a third time this year contributed to a drop in the dollar. The drooping dollar, in turn, made energy futures more attractive to investors as a hedge against inflation.

Another contributing factor was Royal Dutch Shell's report that a tar sands plant in Alberta caught fire Monday. The downed processor could reduce shipments of crude to U.S. refiners.

However, underlying daily developments in the financial markets is a structural limit on supply in a world in which demand for oil is rising. On Nov. 14, the Chronicle stated in an editorial that $100 oil and an energy crunch were inevitable because the supply of crude was vulnerable to weather, shortages of skilled workers, production bottlenecks, political instability and terrorism.


Monday, in a front-page article, The Wall Street Journal reported that many Western oil industry executives have come round to that view. After years of discounting predictions of peak oil production, these industry leaders and some officials of oil producing nations now say oil production will plateau during or before 2012.

According to the Journal, ConocoPhillips chief executive James Mulva told a Wall Street conference, "I don't think we are going to see the supply going over 100 million barrels a day. ... Where is all that going to come from?"

Christophe de Margerie, the Journal reported, head of the French oil company Total, was even less optimistic, saying that daily production in 2030 of even 100 million barrels would be difficult.

Production will reach its limit, current industry wisdom suggests, not because there is insufficient oil in the ground, but because of structural deficits in production, including restricted oil industry access to foreign and offshore reserves and insufficient investment in fields in Iran and Venezuela, both headed by presidents more intent on making trouble for the United States and its allies than in maximizing global supplies of crude oil.

Iraq has huge untapped oil reserves, but lack of security keeps away needed investment. And production of oil from tar sands has proved to be slower and more difficult than first envisioned.

Investment banker Matt Simmons of Houston, a leading proponent of the peak oil theory, notes that discoveries of large oil fields have become rare and that smaller discoveries just won't provide adequate reserves to meet growing demand.

In the face of restricted supply and higher prices, Americans are driving more than ever. This suggests that the market will bear much higher prices at the pump.

Market theory predicts that higher prices will encourage development of supply. This time, the dictators who control much of the world's oil reserves have so much money coming in and so little concern for others that they lack the usual motivation to produce.

No wonder Western energy executives are beginning to worry that demand will soon outpace supply.

Trans Texas Corridor I-69 to takeover EXISTING highway in DOUBLE TAX scheme

Link to article here. Note how the Trans Texas Corridor I-69 project has hijacked a long promised INTERSTATE highway project and turned it into Rick Perry's Trans Texas Corridor that will now gobble up existing state highway 59 and turn it into a DOUBLE TAX scheme to fleece already wounded motorists facing unabated gas price hikes.

Planners narrow proposed I-69 corridor
New road would largely follow the U.S. 59 footprint across the state
By RAD SALLEE
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
Nov. 15, 2007

READ THE REPORT

The draft environmental impact statement can be accessed here.
State highway officials have sharply narrowed the possible route of the Interstate 69/Trans-Texas Corridor, saying they plan to keep it close to U.S. 59 and other existing roads.

The news comes after months of criticism that the planned corridor and its sister project, TTC-35 in Central Texas, could divide farms and ranches and suck motorists' dollars from nearby towns to the projects' developers.

It also comes after the Texas Legislature restricted the Texas Department of Transportation's ability to expand the use of tolls and privatization to pay for new roads.

The revised study area is shown in the federally required Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the I-69/TTC project, a hefty document made public earlier this week.

Through most of its 650 miles from Texarkana to the Mexico border, the corridor under study initially ranged from 20 to 80 miles wide. It has been reduced in the DEIS to between a quarter mile and four miles wide.

The proposed route follows U.S. 59 from Texarkana to Victoria, except through Houston, then splits off to Laredo and the Rio Grande Valley on U.S. 77, U.S. 281 and Texas 44.

A bypass — TxDOT uses the term "relief route" — would skirt west of the Houston area.

Because the corridor's role is to connect urban areas rather than go through their hearts, the identified route generally avoids areas that are built up or expected to grow rapidly.

However, spurs would extend to the Port of Houston from the north and west. Bypasses also are likely around several smaller cities.

Another spur is shown branching off from north of Nacogdoches to the Louisiana state line. Although the Trans-Texas Corridor would stop there, the envisioned Interstate 69 would continue northeast to Detroit and Canada, for a total length of 2,700 miles border to border.

An east-west connection between the Gulf port of Corpus Christi and the inland port of Laredo also is planned, said project spokeswoman Gabriela Garcia of TxDOT.

"One thing we have heard from everybody over several years is to focus on existing corridors and see how we can incorporate them into the project," Garcia said.

Room for toll lanes

Texas Transportation Commissioner Ted Houghton described U.S. 59 as a four-lane divided highway with "a beautiful nice, wide median" where toll lanes dedicated to trucks or cars could be built. In some places, he said, the footprint might need to be widened.
Garcia said the corridor would be "demand-driven" and built in pieces as needed. A TxDOT official also said toll rates and the roadway could vary between segments depending on traffic load and local preferences.

In spring 2008, Houghton said, TxDOT will set up working groups for specific segments of the route "to advise us on what they would like to have."

A separate group would represent ports and another working group for the overall project.

"Each region has its own significant issues," Houghton said.

For instance, he said, "Victoria County has said they want dedicated truck lanes and they are going out to buy right of way."

Residents of the Brazos Valley want an interstate highway to Bryan-College Station, Houghton said. The proposed route west of Houston would pass through Grimes and Walker counties nearby.

For years, towns and cities along U.S. 59 in East and South Texas have sought to have the busy highway upgraded to I-69. After 2002, when Gov. Rick Perry announced his goal of building the Trans-Texas Corridor — a statewide network of roads and rails, pipelines and power lines — the I-69 idea was folded into corridor plans.

But there were changes that troubled longtime supporters: The road would be tolled, probably built and managed privately, and may end up too far from towns for local businesses to attract motorists.

David Stall of Corridor Watch, a citizens group opposed to the corridor concept, said the decision to build close to U.S. 59 or on it is a partial victory.

"I think the state is learning very slowly," Stall said. "Those are huge shifts in direction."

Also pleased was Texans for Safe Reliable Transportation, which advocates tolls and other means of stretching tax dollars for needed highways.

"Using existing right-of-ways means highways can potentially be built faster, more cost effectively and with less impact on property owners," said spokesman Bill Noble in a statement.

Uncontrolled access

It was not clear how the broad corridors that Perry envisioned could be built alongside U.S. 59 in East Texas, where numerous small towns line the highway and there is uncontrolled access from dozens of streets, parking lots and driveways.
In those places, said TxDOT deputy executive director Steve Simmons, "We might have to rebuild the facility so that the existing lanes become more like frontage roads."

Stall said adding lanes to U.S. 59 would be easier in the less populous stretch from the Houston area to Mexico.

"We are talking about something along the model of the interstate system, and the Rio Grande Valley and Polk County have been clamoring for that for years," he said.

Work on the DEIS began in 2004, and it could take at least as long to complete the second phase of environmental studies to determine a detailed route, Garcia said.

She said the process will begin in January with 10 town hall meetings, dates and places to be announced, followed by 46 public hearings in February throughout the corridor.

Tolling Texas smackdown hits D.C.

The tolling of Texas tug-of-war continues
by Gary Martin
San Antonio Express-News
09/08/2007

A Texas proposal to buy back federal interstate highways and levy a toll on those roads ran into a roadblock on Capitol Hill this week.

It was a crash that was heard throughout Congress, and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, was the Jersey wall that stopped the traffic.

The state's senior senator, backed by a bipartisan group of Lone Star lawmakers, put a marker down when Ric Williamson, Texas transportation commissioner, unveiled his plan to lobby Congress to change federal law and toll highways.

When Williamson showed up on Capitol Hill, Hutchison promptly filed a bill to prohibit the tolling of existing federal highways.

"My bill will protect drivers from paying tolls on roads that were already paid for by taxpayers," Hutchison said.

As if to add an exclamation point, Hutchison pointed out she sits on the committee that sets transportation budgets.

Hutchison is eyeing a run for governor. She is also running Williamson out of Washington.

The Texas Department of Transportation and Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, say an $86 billion shortfall is preventing the state from improving highways needed to keep interstate commerce moving.

State officials want to spend $9 million to lobby Congress to buy back those federal highways and turn them over to private entities, which would levy a toll used to improve and expand the infrastructure.

But Perry was told in a May 10 letter that a public-private partnership, or PPP, would be illegal under federal law.

That letter was signed by Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., chairman of the highways subcommittee.

"We strongly caution you against rushing into PPPs that do not fully protect public interest," the letter warned.

Perry, in a responding letter, said, "I would hope that the federal government would encourage innovation and not stifle it."

The governor also described traffic congestion crisis on highways in the state. Anyone driving from San Antonio to Dallas through the bottleneck of Austin, on any given day, can attest to the problem.

But support for Perry's plan in Washington faces opposition.


In addition to Hutchison, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and a bipartisan group of lawmakers oppose any state proposal that would force Texans to pay tolls on highways already built with public funds.

Cornyn said he does not oppose tolling for construction of new roads or highways, but could not support tolling on existing roads for future funds.

"We need to look for other alternatives," Cornyn said.

In South Texas, the entire congressional delegation has registered its opposition: Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio; Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, D-San Antonio; Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo; Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio; and Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi.

"I don't think it's appropriate. I don't think it's ethical," Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez met with Williamson to lodge his complaints. While the congressman said the state has valid concerns about funding, he remains unconvinced that toll roads are the best approach to alleviate the shortfalls.

As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, Rodriguez wants a hearing with witnesses on both sides of the issue so they can make their points about changing federal law.

Rodriguez said the state is in trouble with its infrastructure.

"But the problem is not the state, it's the country as a whole. We have not made the investment in our infrastructure," he said

The Texas proposal has garnered support from Dallas-area lawmakers and other states that share Interstate 35, which runs from Laredo to Duluth, Minn.

Hutchison is less conciliatory.

She said she would work with the congressional delegation and the Texas Legislature "to ensure that Texans are never asked to pay a toll of an existing interstate highway."

Williamson returned to Texas.

The bridge between Washington and Austin looks a bit shaky.

Special interests like TTC 69; taxpayers don’t

Link to article here.

You gotta ask what kind of reporter is this? Do your homework! Texans for Safe Reliable Transportation is Joe Krier and Red McCombs' group pushing this stuff on behalf of road profiteers. How is the passage of Prop 12 an endorsement of tolling existing highways or the Trans Texas Corridor neither of which is mentioned in the amendment? This reads like a press release from TxDOT...Cornyn is officially in hot water with voters with this ringing endorsement of tolling existing roads and the biggest land grabbing boondoggle in Texas history known as the Trans Texas Corridor. The second article shows the opposition is already gathering steam. This road was promised as a FREE interstate, now it's going to be built as a massive tolled trade corridor, likely in the hands of a foreign company. Another bait and switch...

Transportation group applauds TxDOT's I-69/TTC announcement
By GARY WILLMON
The Lufkin Daily News
November 14, 2007
Transportation advocacy groups are applauding Tuesday's announcement of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement released by the Texas Department of Transportation on the I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor highway project and agree with TxDOT officials that using existing road rights of way whenever possible in planning the corridor is the best idea.

"Using existing rights of way means highways can potentially be built faster, more cost effectively and with less impact on property owners," said Bill Noble, spokesman for Texans for Safe Reliable Transportation, a statewide transportation group. "By first considering building along existing roadways, TxDOT will provide better mobility and emergency evacuation for south and east Texas."

TxDOT also announced public hearings on the I-69/TTC project are to begin in January 2008.

"Public involvement is essential to the planning and design process," Noble said. "We believe there is strong public support for the TTC-69 in the counties where the highway could be located."

In last week's statewide constitutional amendment elections, a majority of voters in counties along the proposed I-69/TTC route voted in favor of Proposition 12, authorizing up to $5 billion in state general obligation bonds for transportation improvements. Specifically, 39 of the 44 proposed counties where the highway project could be located passed Proposition 12 by greater than 50 percent, according to election data from the Texas Secretary of State's Web site. Only five counties fell below 50 percent.

Angelina County voters passed the proposition with a 66 percent yes vote.

"The population is expected to grow 65 percent within the next 25 years while road usage is projected to increase 214 percent," said Ted Houghton, a member of the Texas Transportation Commission, at Tuesday's TxDOT press conference.

Noble said the radical shift in thinking toward meeting future transportation needs is a much-needed one. "Unless Texans change their approach to transportation, road capacity will grow by only 6 percent," Noble said. "Experts would say that an expanded transportation system for Texas is not optional; it is a necessity."

Texans for Safe Reliable Transportation is a 501(c)6 public education organization made up of Texas citizens, employers and transportation professionals dedicated to easing traffic gridlock and improving infrastructure to move people and products more efficiently. The group's Web site is www.BetterTexasRoads.org.

Also on Tuesday, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) gave his endorsement of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement announcement. Cornyn, a member of the I-69 Caucus, said the transportation project will relieve congestion as well as boost the Texas economy.

"Progress on the impact statement brings us another step closer to Texas drivers being able to travel on this corridor," Cornyn said in Tuesday's statement. "It is encouraging to see the effort move forward, and I'll continue working to improve transportation in Texas."

_______________________________________

Valley Leaders, Toll Opponents, Blast New Corridor Plan
TexDOT plans 650 mile toll road from Valley to Texarkana
By Jim Forsyth, WOAI Radio
November 14, 2007

With controversy not abating over its existing toll road plans, the Texas Department of Transportation has announced plans for another massive toll project, the 650 mile 'TTC/I-69' road from Laredo, Corpus Christi and the Rio Grande Valley to Texarkana, 1200 WOAI news reports today.

It is the second leg of the ambitious Trans Texas Corridor to be unveiled. Mark Cross of TexDOT says existing roads would be expanded wherever possible, instead of new roads being built.

"US 59 runs all the way from Texarkana to Laredo, so that's the main portion of roadway we'll be looking at," Cross said.

TexDOT had previously unveiled plans to built TTC-35, which will run mainly east of the existing Interstate 35 from south of San Antonio to the Oklahoma border, and may include State Highway 130, which is currently under construction from Marion to Georgetown.

It is State Highway 130 that 1200 WOAI news reported exclusively more than a month ago that TexDOT has agreed to 'consider' cutting the speed limit on Interstate 35 to support. Speed limits on Trans Texas Corridor are allowed by state law to be as high as 85 miles an hour, which would be the highest posted speed limits in the world.

Already there is criticism for the TexDOT plan.

State Senator Eddie Lucio (D-Brownsville), a long time supporter of the "interstate 69" idea, says it's 'not fair' that Rio Grande Valley residents would have to pay a toll to access an Interstate highway. The Valley is the largest area in the country in terms of population without access to a through Interstate highway.

"All the Interstates that were established in Texas, in Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, El Paso, Laredo, all those people can drive on the Interstate for free," Lucio said. "Why should only people in the Valley have to pay a toll?"

Lucio says residents of the Rio Grande Valley pay just as much in gas tax as people everywhere else in Texas, and should not have to pay to use Interstate highways.

Cross says many environmental hearings are necessary and it will be 'many years' before final plans for TTC/I-69 are released.

Pro-toll bootlicker, Mike Krusee, to bolt for cushy job rather than face re-election!


Link to news here. A BIG WIN for the voters...out you go! Rep. Mike Krusee was the House Transportation Chairman who blocked EVERY transportation bill that would have stopped toll roads, who has total contempt for the taxpayers, and after being the highway lobby's biggest bootlicker for years, he gets to sit on the taxpayers' payroll even longer...sickening!

Another Legislator To Move On Down The (Toll) Road

Veteran Williamson County Republican Mike Krusee will reportedly be appointed to a state transportation job before the end of the month, making him ineligible to continue serving in the Texas Legislature.

The Transportation Committee chief has been rumored to be on the retirement treadmill for months, ever since he delivered an emotional diatribe at the close of the legislative session in May that many Capitol observers said sounded like a farewell speech.

Round Rock school board vice president Diana Maldonado, a Democrat, has already announced her plans to run for the seat.

Posted on November 14, 2007 – 3:12 pm     by APR

Environmental study for Trans Texas Corridor 69 released

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TxDOT Contact: Helen Havelka

November 13, 2007

TTC 69 Draft Environmental Study Released Today

Today, Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), in coordination with
the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), released the I-69/TTC Draft
Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS).

The 1,072-page report recommends additional detailed examination and
public comment on a narrower study area to see where I-69/TTC can be
located while minimizing environmental impacts. Using existing highways
will be considered first as state transportation officials continue work
to identify an alignment.

The complete DEIS can be found at www.KeepTexasMoving.com. Printed copies will be available in public libraries within the corridor in the coming weeks, as well as local TxDOT area and district offices.

What’s Next?
TxDOT will begin an unprecedented public involvement effort.
In January, 10 town hall meetings will be held along the corridor to
answer questions about the Trans-Texas Corridor.
Beginning in February, 46 public hearings are scheduled to take public
comment on the DEIS document.

These dates and locations will be released soon.

For more information, you may call the I-69/TTC project office toll
free at 1-866-554-6989.

Your comments about this project are important to us.
To send us your comments on-line, go here.

Ron Paul’s message of limited govt, return to Constitution striking a chord

“Ron Paul’s extraordinary fundraising success is a clear sign that there is a yearning by the Republican grassroots for the party to return to its historic small-government roots. Paul’s message of limited government, free markets and peace obviously has touched a chord. Perhaps the other candidates and the big-government conservatives in Washington should take notice.”
—Michael Tanner

Read about how his grassroots supporters (not his campaign) raised $4.2 million in a SINGLE DAY to assure Ron Paul a place in the top tier and ultimately a place in history if he makes it to the White House.

Ron Paul on the Trans Texas Corridor/NAFTA Superhighways: "The ultimate goal is not simply a superhighway, but an integrated North American Union--complete with a currency, a cross-national bureaucracy, and virtually borderless travel within the Union. Like the European Union, a North American Union would represent another step toward the abolition of national sovereignty altogether." - October 30, 2006

Schlafly: Unfair trade and trade corridors undermine American jobs

Let's Protect American Jobs
November 7, 2007   
by Phyllis Schlafly
Eagle Forum

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" is an old verse that just isn't true. Indeed, words can hurt, break up marriages, destroy careers, and defeat political candidates.

Even words out of one's own mouth can be destructive. We recall such bloopers as presidential candidate George Romney self-destructing his 1968 presidential candidacy with the word "brainwashing," or Gerald Ford losing in 1976 after saying "there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe," or Richard Nixon pleading "I am not a crook."

In the fast-moving battleground of the internet, words used as epithets can be powerful missiles to hurl at an enemy. Among the arrows with poison tips designed to slay a political enemy are the words "racist," "bigot, "fascist," "nativist," and "extremist."

The spin artists, now a fixture in modern politics, tell us what we are supposed to think about what we just saw (such as a presidential debate). They use word power to set the parameters of political debate.

More insidious are the words that are redefined to stifle political discourse. As Humpty Dumpty told Alice in Wonderland, "When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less."


Alice demurred: "The question is whether you can make words mean different things." Humpty Dumpty countered, "The question is which is to be master; that's all."

The word definers who choose to be master frustrate rational debate by redefining good words into bad words, mouthing them with a sneer until they become a smear.

Protect is an obviously good word. The dictionary defines it as preservation from injury or harm. Most of us fervently believe in protecting things that are precious to us.

We all want to protect our homes from being invaded by a robber. Parents want to protect their children from predators in person or on the internet, as well as from immoral curricula in public schools.

We want to protect the institution of marriage so we can have a stable society based on the family, and so children can grow up with a mother and a father. Most of us want to protect innocent unborn babies from the butcher's knife and scissors.

We believe in protecting our country and our flag. Our soldiers fight to protect us from foreign enemies. Our police stand guard to protect us from thugs on the street.

We want to protect our liberties from over-reaching bureaucrats and from supremacist judges who pretend to "evolve" the U.S. Constitution. We want to protect the Pledge of Allegiance and the Ten Commandments from the lawsuits that try to ban them from schools, courthouses and parks.

We want to protect our borders from being invaded by illegals who violate our laws. We want to protect Americans from the illegal drugs that are smuggled across our border.

Protectionism is an acknowledged virtue in all areas of life, except one. It is a semantic curiosity that, somehow, the word protectionism has been placed in the globalists' quiver of arrows to shoot down anyone who tries to protect the good jobs that have enabled millions to rise from poverty into the middle class and live the American dream.

It's time that we denounce the semantic scalpers who have perverted the word protectionism. It's time to say, yes, we do want to protect American jobs and industries from global competition with slave labor, inhumane working conditions, and countries that use the profits on their sales to us to build a military force to threaten us.

Yes, we do want to protect American industries from competition with foreign countries that engage in unfair trade practices, dishonestly manipulate their currency, steal our intellectual property, and then bring their products into our stores without paying the same border fees that U.S. products must pay when we sell to foreign countries.

Yes, we do want to protect American workers against the globalists' effort to locate manufacturing jobs in Asia where people work for 30 cents an hour. Even the Wall Street Journal-NBC poll reports that Republican voters, by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, now believe that free trade is bad for the U.S. economy because it costs jobs.

Yes, we do want to protect Americans from the low-wage, non-English-speaking Mexican truck drivers whom George W. Bush is allowing on our highways. Yes, we do want to protect Americans from the poisonous pet food, seafood, toothpaste, and toys that come from Communist China.

Yes, we do want to protect Americans from the foreign tribunals that rule against us, such as the World Trade Organization that has ruled against the United States in 40 out of 47 cases and now is demanding that we repeal our law against internet gambling. Yes, we do want to protect American sovereignty and wealth from the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea which seeks to control all the seas and the minerals under them.

It's time we reclaim the words protect and protectionism and proudly say, yes, we believe in protecting America and American workers against unfair competition, unfair trade agreements, and unfair foreign tribunals.

Giuliani business interests rife with conflicts of interest, including conflict with Trans Texas Cor

Link to article here.

Giuliani also has massive conflicts of interest through his law firm with the Trans Texas Corridor.

Qatar Contract Offers Glimpse Into Giuliani Firm
Dealings Have Potential For Trouble If Ex-Mayor Receives Nomination
By MARY JACOBY
November 7, 2007

Rudy Giuliani is one of the few candidates ever to pursue the White House while maintaining a high-ranking role in a private-sector firm.

But since he became a candidate for president, the Republican front-runner has rebuffed all calls to disclose details about the clients and dealings of Giuliani Partners, the consulting firm he founded in 2002.

[Rudy Giuliani]

Some of those clients have controversial records. Among those he hasn't disclosed is the government of Qatar, a Persian Gulf state to whom the firm provided security advice, according to the former U.S. ambassador there. Qatar is a strategic U.S. military ally and energy supplier, yet also a country that has been criticized for its conduct toward al Qaeda -- a potential political pitfall for a candidate pitching himself as an uncompromising foe of Islamic terrorism.

Other potentially controversial dealings have been disclosed by the firm or by clients over the years. They include Purdue Pharma, a drug company that hired the firm in 2002 to help with a federal investigation into overdose deaths attributed to the pharmaceutical firm's powerful OxyContin painkiller, and New York nuclear-power-plant operator Entergy Nuclear Northeast.

But more recent Giuliani clients aren't known. Because the firm is closely held, Mr. Giuliani isn't required to disclose much about his income and wealth, other than his holdings in the firm itself, where he remains chairman and chief executive and receives income in the form of guaranteed payments and partnership distributions.


Campaign watchdog groups say that raises some red flags. "Are there folks who might want to have greater influence with a potential President Giuliani? If so, they may be partnering with him now in the hopes of currying favor with him later," says former federal prosecutor Melanie Sloan, head of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonpartisan watchdog group.

Mr. Giuliani so far has fended off all queries. Giuliani campaign spokeswoman Maria Comella said the campaign wouldn't comment on any matters to do with the candidate's business, and said such questions should be answered by Giuliani Partners. A spokeswoman for Giuliani Partners, Sunny Mindel, said in an email: "We do not discuss our clients."

[Giuliani]

Earlier this week, he reiterated that he wouldn't release his client list in an Associated Press interview. "Everything I did with Giuliani Partners has been totally legal, totally ethical," he said. "They are a very ethical and law-abiding business ... There's nothing for me to explain about it. We've acted honorably, decently."

Still, Mr. Giuliani could face questions about his business ties if he wins his party's nomination. The Qatar contract offers a window into the potential complications.

Many details of the deal aren't known, including whether it is still in effect. It was signed with state-run Qatar Petroleum around 2005, according to Chase Untermeyer, who left a three-year term as President Bush's envoy to Qatar in August. It involved a subsidiary, Giuliani Security & Safety LLC, which offered security advice to a giant natural-gas processing facility in Qatar.

Mr. Untermeyer provided the information after The Wall Street Journal asked him about a 2006 speech in which he said Mr. Giuliani's firm had "important contracts" in Qatar.

He is a Republican who says he hasn't endorsed any candidate in the party's nominating contest; he hasn't donated to any campaigns this cycle. A spokeswoman for Giuliani Partners declined to comment on the connection.

While Qatar is a U.S. ally, it has drawn scrutiny for its involvement in the U.S. effort to combat terrorism. In 1996, the Federal Bureau of Investigation went to Qatar to arrest al-Qaeda operative Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, then under indictment in New York for a plot to blow up U.S.-bound jetliners. But Mr. Mohammad slipped away, apparently tipped off by an al-Qaeda sympathizer in the Qatari government, U.S. officials told the bipartisan 9/11 commission. Mr. Mohammad went on to mastermind the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Qatari officials have denied they tipped off Mr. Mohammad, and a State Department report says the country has offered "significant" counterterrorism support to the U.S. since the 2001 attacks.

Phone calls, emails and faxes seeking comment from officials at Qatar Petroleum in Qatar and at the country's embassy in Washington went unanswered.

The emirate also hasn't always followed U.S. wishes in recent years. The Bush administration has pressured Qatar to tone down the anti-American rhetoric of Al-Jazeera, the television station based there. But Qatar rebuffed the request, citing freedom of the press. Qatar also has lagged behind President Bush's ambitious global-democracy agenda. While the emir has made limited moves toward elections, political parties remain banned and proselytizing by non-Muslims is illegal.

The public financial disclosure report Mr. Giuliani filed in May to run for president doesn't require him to disclose such contracts as the one with Qatar. It requires him only to reveal his 30% equity stake in Giuliani & Company LLC, the holding company that is the umbrella corporate structure of Giuliani Partners, Giuliani Security & Safety and other related entities.

Other 2008 presidential hopefuls also have faced scrutiny of their private-sector ties and investments. Democratic hopeful John Edwards worked as a consultant for a private-equity fund before running for the 2008 nomination but has faced questions about his $16 million stake in the firm.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney helped found and run private-equity firm Bain Capital, but he retired from the firm in 1999 before holding public office. He still has stakes in Bain funds but has no say in how Bain makes or disposes of its investments, his financial-disclosure report says.

No candidate's wealth is as closely tied to one entity as Mr. Giuliani's. He earned income of more than $4 million from Giuliani & Company between January 2006 and May 2007, his financial-disclosure report shows. He values his 30% stake in the company at between $5 million and $25 million.

Barring disclosure from Mr. Giuliani, it isn't known how much the consulting contract in Qatar contributed toward his income. In addition, Mr. Giuliani receives $1 million in guaranteed income each year from his law firm, Bracewell & Giuliani, which opened an office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in June.

US Govt intentionally understating inflation...which effects toll rates


Link to article here.

One has to wonder, if proposals to increase toll rates based on inflation and to index the gas tax to inflation which is so overtly manipulated by the government, do we have any business supporting these policies? What will happen to these toll roads propped up with billions in leveraged debt if retirees demand an end to inflation manipulation to steady the dollar and their Social Security paychecks causing massive toll tax or gas tax increases (like the US 281 toll rates tied to the consumer price index or CPI and proposals to index the gas tax to inflation)? We must demand a return to sound financial policy in this country or risk bankrupting us all.

View Congressman and Presidential candidate Ron Paul chiding the Fed for stealing seniors' money on YouTube.

Expert says feds stealing half of seniors' paychecks
Contends government manipulating data to keep cost-of-living index low
November 8, 2007
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

The Social Security payments Americans receive in the mail are roughly half of what they would be if the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the Consumer Price Index honestly, a veteran econometrician told WND.
John Williams contends the U.S. government statistics intentionally understate inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index, or CPI.

By understating CPI data, Williams argued, government officials are able to avoid increases in Social Security payments that are mandated by law as "cost of living adjustments."

Williams maintains a website called Shadow Government Statistics that is dedicated to examine "analysis behind and beyond government economic reporting."


In an analysis of the CPI, Williams contends the index is understated by roughly 7 percent per year by government intentionally manipulating the data.

Many of the CPI manipulations, Williams asserts, were masterminded by Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve chairman from 1987, under President Reagan, to 2006, under President Bush.

Williams points out that one of Greenspan's manipulations of the CPI involved the consideration that when steak got too expensive, the consumer would substitute hamburger for the steak. So, Greenspan argued, the inflation measure should reflect the costs of buying hamburger, not steak.

"Of course, replacing hamburger for steak in the calculations would reduce the inflation rate," Williams commented, "but it represented the rate of inflation in terms of maintaining a declining standard of living. Cost of living was being replaced by the cost of survival."

Williams noted the old system "told you how much you had to increase your income in order to keep buying steak. The new system promised you hamburger and then dog food, perhaps, after that."

Williams concluded Greenspan's arguments violated the "intent and common usage of the inflation index."

"The CPI was considered sacrosanct within the Department of Labor, given the number of contractual relationships that were anchored to it," Williams wrote. "The CPI was one number that never was to be revised, given its widespread usage."

The Consumer Price Index is the central statistic the federal government uses to calculate inflation.

The CPI is a complex government statistic that was introduced in the 1920s to track the market cost of a "basket of goods and services."

Beginning in the Carter administration, federal economists have cleverly redefined the CPI, with the goal of removing from the index expensive items, including food and energy, that would push the it higher.

Today, when setting interest rates, the Federal Reserve focuses on a variation of the CPI that measures "core inflation."

The government's calculation of core inflation now excludes items such as food and energy, because food and energy "face volatile price movements."

In other words, since food and energy prices can spike, as they have this year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates "core inflation" without them. The rationale is that the price shocks are temporary and, therefore, would distort the measurement of underlying long-term inflation.

To a family faced with paying rising food and gas prices, however, "core inflation" at 2 percent does not reflect the cost of living.

Other items also can be thrown out of the CPI market basket if their price spikes under the premise that the big price changes reflect passing market disequilibrium that would distort the measurement of long-term trends.

Williams says the inflation rate is further deflated by changing "weighted factors" used in the index.

He estimates the true inflation rate in the U.S. would be close to 11 or 12 percent if the CPI were not manipulated.

The results of this under-reporting are dramatic, with the compounding effect just since the early 1990s of reducing annual cost-of-living adjustments in Social Security so that today's checks are roughly half what they would be if the CPI were reported honestly, according to the standards of the 1980s.

Greenspan's recently released autobiographical book, "The Age of Turbulence," openly admits the political influences behind the calculation of inflation.

He notes President Richard Nixon imposed wage and price controls in 1971, even though the rate of inflation then was less than 5 percent.

Greenspan argues that the 4.5 percent inflation the U.S. experienced for the half century since abandonment of the gold standard may become the norm, with the consequence that saved dollars will lose half of their purchasing power in about 15 years.

At the height of the gold standard between 1870 and 1913, just prior to World War I, Greenspan correctly notes that the cost of living as calculated by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York rose only 0.2 percent annually.

The dilemma the Fed faces is that under the U.S. fiat currency system, to keep inflation low it must keep interest rates high.

"Yet to keep the inflation rate down to a gold standard level of under 1 percent, or even a less draconian 1 to 2 percent range," Greenspan wrote, "the Fed, given my scenario, would have to constrain monetary expansion so drastically that it could temporarily drive up interest rates into the double-digit range not seen since the days of Paul Volcker."

High interest rates constrict the money supply, make borrowing difficult and generally depress economic growth.

During his term, Greenspan justified 1 percent interest rates, which in 2003 were the lowest rates in 45 years, in a determined plan to keep the economy growing.

Williams argued, however, that the result has been to fuel real inflation.

Paxton and Patrick team up to request formal inquiry into TxDOT's ad campaign

Link to article here.

We welcome Senator Dan Patrick to the growing number of elected officials (read more here) who object to TxDOT using taxpayer money to wage a propaganda campaign to push wildly controversial toll roads and the Trans Texas Corridor. Senator Patrick is also a well-known talk radio show host in Houston who took offense to TxDOT's marketing gurus calling talk show hosts "pigs."

Lawmakers take aim at transportation department's advertising
The Associated Press
Nov. 3, 2007

AUSTIN — Two state lawmakers are requesting formal inquiries into whether the Texas Department of Transportation is improperly spending money on advertising.

Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, and Rep. Ken Paxton, R-McKinney, question whether an estimated $7 million to $9 million TxDOT is spending on its "Keep Texas Moving" campaign is a proper use of resources. The lawmakers have asked Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick look into the matter.

Paxton said he is concerned that the transportation department is spending the money to argue its case before the public in response to lawmakers' questions about projects such as tollways and the Trans-Texas Corridor.

"We are potentially curtailing their ability to do tollways and maybe push forward the Trans-Texas Corridor," Paxton said. "It appears that now they are trying to lobby the public to be favorable towards these particular issues, and I'm not sure that's a really good use of taxpayer money."

A TxDOT spokesman said the advertising campaign is legal and done in response to demands from lawmakers and the public for more information.

"We will not solve the transportation challenges facing Texas without public involvement and public input," spokesman Randall Dillard said.

Patrick said he is worried TxDot has overstepped its role by lobbying for public support.

"My concern is that Texas agencies, including TxDOT, have exceeded the proper role of state government and, potentially, their legal authority provided by state law," Patrick wrote in a letter to Dewhurst.

For fiscal year 2008, state agencies are expected to spend about $100 million for advertising, publications and promotional items, according to the state comptroller's office. All state agencies together spent $97.8 million in 2006 and $93.3 million in 2007.

Congress and Wall Street fear a recession, in part due to high gas prices

Link to article here. Gas prices are cited as part of the reason for less consumer spending. Sen. Sam Brownback had better worry more about billions in bankrupt toll roads instead of another quick fix for the Christmas shopping season.

Fed Chief Warns of Worse Times in the Economy


Doug Mills/ The New York Times

Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke sits at the witness table as he prepares to testify regarding the economic fallout of the subprime mortgage crisis, on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Nov. 8, 2007.

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
New York Times
November 9, 2007

WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 — Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, told Congress on Thursday that the economy was going to get worse before it got better, a message that received a chilly reception from both Wall Street and politicians.

On a day when stock prices swung wildly, the dollar hit another new low against the euro and further signs emerged from retailers that consumers are growing more cautious about spending, Mr. Bernanke warned that the economy was about to “slow noticeably” as the housing market continues to spiral downward and financial institutions tighten up on lending.

But in a disappointment to investors, Mr. Bernanke offered no signal that the central bank might soften the blow by lowering interest rates for a third time this year at its next policy meeting on Dec. 11.


Share prices, which plunged on Wednesday, went on a roller coaster after Mr. Bernanke testified. The Dow Jones industrial average first fell 205 points by midafternoon, but then clawed back most of the way and ended the day at 13,266.29, down just 34 points.

Testifying before the Joint Economic Committee, the Fed chairman said that the two rate cuts in September and October should be enough to keep the economy from slipping into a recession. Without being specific, he reinforced statements by other Fed policy makers that the economy would have to show signs of stalling out entirely before they would reduce rates again.

Asked if he saw any risks of a recession, Mr. Bernanke demurred. “We have not calculated the probability of a recession,” he responded. “Our assessment is for slower growth, but positive.”

The Fed chairman’s stance was similar to that of Henry M. Paulson Jr., the Treasury secretary. In a meeting Thursday with editors and reporters of The New York Times, Mr. Paulson predicted that the crisis in mortgage and credit markets would hurt growth but not lead to a recession.

“I believe we will continue to grow,” Mr. Paulson said. “We have a diversified economy.”

Mr. Bernanke’s message did not sit well with Wall Street analysts, who quickly criticized him for ignoring the real risk of a serious downturn. And at least one Republican, Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, begged him at length to cut rates as soon as possible.

But Fed officials are far from persuaded of the need, even though some now expect economic growth to slow to an annual pace of 1.5 percent or less in the final months of this year — a drastic downshift from the rapid pace of almost 4 percent this summer.

Mr. Bernanke offered a rocky outlook for the months ahead. He said the battered housing market had yet to hit bottom, that delinquencies and foreclosures were likely to rise and that the depression in home-building was “likely to intensify.” He predicted that personal spending would advance more slowly, because consumers were less confident and because of tighter credit conditions.

On top of all that, he said, “further sharp increases in crude oil prices have put renewed upward pressure on inflation and may impose further restraint on economic activity.” Oil traded just above $95 a barrel on Thursday, down slightly from the day before but still near its recent record highs.

Despite all these worrying signs, Mr. Bernanke noted that the economic data since the Fed reduced interest rates last week “continued to suggest that the overall economy remained resilient in recent months.”

“The cumulative easing of policy over the past two months should help forestall some of the adverse effects on the broader economy,” he said.

Wall Street analysts and anxious investors took little comfort in the chairman’s remarks.

“Mr. Bernanke gave no ground to the market’s desire for further easing,” wrote Ian Shepherdson, chief United States economist at High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, N.Y.

But Mr. Shepherdson and a number of other analysts predicted that the economy would slow much more than Mr. Bernanke expects and force the Fed’s hand.

Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics in London, predicted that the economy would be “stagnant at best” in the final quarter of this year.

“The only question is whether there is enough evidence of this slowdown available by mid-December — or whether we will have to wait until January for the next cut,” Mr. Ashworth wrote in a research note.

David Rosenberg, Merrill Lynch’s chief economist for the United States, predicted that the housing market would not hit bottom by the end of next year. Noting that the Fed chairman said he would “act as needed,” Mr. Rosenberg said Mr. Bernanke had left the door open to more rate cuts.

At the hearing, Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, urged Mr. Bernanke to act more aggressively to stimulate the economy. “I’m very concerned that there may be a bigger storm on the horizon,” he said.

But Mr. Bernanke refused to budge. Indeed, he referred first to the Fed’s attention to “price stability” and second to its interest in “sustainable growth.”

That did little to cheer lawmakers. In an early sign of the political pressure that the Fed is likely to face if the economy falters next year, Senator Brownback, who recently abandoned his Republican campaign for president, pleaded with Mr. Bernanke to cut rates in time for the Christmas shopping season.

“It seems to me that now is the time,” Mr. Brownback said. “When those gas prices get up to $3 a gallon, it seems to hit some sort of psychological point in consumer’s mind that ‘I have less to spend,’ and that’s a reality for them.”

Chronicle slams TxDOT’s power to lower speed limits to increase toll traffic

Link to article here.

Toll road 85, free road 50?
By RICK CASEY
Houston Chronicle
Nov. 6, 2007
Today's news is that Harris County toll roads are throwing off so much "profit" that they are paying for $120 million worth of other street and road projects and maintenance.

How would you feel if, in order to make even more "profit," the Harris County Toll Road Authority raised the speed limit on, say, the Hardy Toll Road to 85 mph while lowering the limit on the parallel portion of Interstate 45 to 50 mph?

Then how would you feel if they raised the tolls to reflect the increased demand for the Hardy?

Don't worry. The Harris County Toll Road Authority doesn't have the power to play with speed limits that way.


Speed-limit games

But the state of Texas does.

And buried in the 192-page "concession agreement" between the Texas Department of Transportation — known affectionately as TxDOT — and the private-sector folks who will build and operate Texas 130, one of the first privatized toll roads to be part of Gov. Rick Perry's Trans-Texas, are incentives to play just such speed-limit games.

San Antonio Express-News reporter Pat Driscoll stumbled across this possibility while wading through Page 79 of the densely worded document, trying to figure out a section which provides for penalties should TxDOT build or allow anyone else to build roads that might reduce profits on the toll road.

An unintended side benefit

TxDOT signed the contract with a consortium of the Spanish company Cintra and San Antonio-based Zachry Construction Corp. last spring, at a time when legislators were trying to put a brake on Perry's ambitious privatized toll road system.

The penalties for allowing competition to the toll road can be offset by the amount of profit added to the toll operation by a "decrease in the maximum daytime posted speed limit for passenger vehicles on all or a substantial portion of I-35 where it runs generally parallel" to the toll road.

(An unintended side benefit could be a sharp jump in revenue from speeding tickets.)

Conversely, the contract makes TxDOT pay the consortium if the state raises the speed limit on I-35, leading to a decline of toll road profits.

The contract's incentives for a high speed limit on Texas 130, the first leg of which which will run from north of Austin to Seguin, are more precisely calculated.

If the speed limit is 70 mph, Cintra will pay TxDOT $25 million upfront. At 80 mph, the payment would be $92 million.

And for 85 mph: a cool $125 million.

Or TxDOT could choose a set of profit-share percentages bumped up for higher speed limits.

TxDOT says it would never adjust speed limits to enhance revenues. Speed limits are determined by considerations of highway design, driver habits and safety concerns.

Well, yes, and the state of Texas signed a contract with the donors of the Christmas Mountains saying they would never sell the land to a private owner without the donors' written permission. Now Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson says that promise is "unenforceable."

I'll bet Cintra's lawyers were smart enough that the toll road contract's penalties if TxDOT makes nearby free roads too nice are quite enforceable.

That's one of several problems with privatizing public roads. The public interest can be subordinated to the private interest.

If the public gets angry enough at the Harris County Toll Road Authority, Commissioners Court will slap the agency upside the head and make it behave.,/span>


But Cintra's lawyers have crafted a 50-page contract that largely shields the firm from public passions.

The contract, for example, provides a complex formula that allows the consortium to charge tolls no elected official would vote to approve.

For 50 years.

Like cable TV companies, they will set their rates on what the traffic will bear.

Except that they won't have to worry about satellite competition or AT&T.

How do you feel about that?

Ex-TxDOT commissioner swipes back at Col. Allard’s column asking to rein in TxDOT

Link to Letter to Editor here. TxDOT had to head all the way to Ohio to find an ally willing to attack the intelligence of a distinguished retired Colonel, Ken Allard. There's nothing "snide" about shining some light on the corruption and total mismanagement at TxDOT. When our PUBLIC highway system is being hijacked by the road lobby for private interests at the taxpayers' expense, it's heroic not lacking intelligence, to speak up and demand accountability. Mr. Barnhart isn't pointing out anything that hasn't already been vehemently criticized, the Legislature's raiding of gas tax funds and refusal to properly fund our public highway system.

Comment: Where's the 'intelligence' in attack on TxDOT?
San Antonio Express-News
11/07/2007
The snide commentary on the Texas Department of Transportation by retired Col. Ken Allard, a former army intelligence officer, makes me wonder if those in his former profession were as cavalier in their analyses of the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan as he has been in analyzing the factors leading to the highway funding crisis that Texans face ("Give TxDOT red light before it goes too far," Oct. 18).

If so, it's a wonder our military hasn't been driven from the Middle East already! Thank God he's retired and not directing our government's policies today.

Fact I: In chastising TxDOT for its funding shortfall, I assume Allard feels it's irrelevant that even though state motor fuel taxes generated $3.1 billion this year, the Legislature allowed TxDOT to use only $1.4 billion for road purposes.

Fact II: Apparently this former "intelligence officer" thinks it's not important that despite TxDOT engineers calculating 20 years ago that overweight trucks were annually causing some $450 million in damage to the road system, for 18 years now the Legislature has, by law, required TxDOT to issue permits to truckers that allow them to exceed the legal axle and gross weight limits. That law has added more than $8 billion in damage to the road system, and there's not a darned thing TxDOT or the Department of Public Safety can do to stop issuing those permits until the Legislature repeals that stupid law.

Fact III: The Texas Legislature has for years violated the state constitution (Article 8, Section 7a) by diverting billions of dedicated highway taxes to fund nonhighway projects, but that doesn't seem to matter to Allard.

This year alone, more than $26 million was directed to aviation projects, almost a million to the Intercoastal Canal, more than $30 million for public transportation, $50 million to the Texas Education Association, plus $10 million to Health and Human Services, as well as more than a million to the Commission on Arts.

These are but the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, and the diversions go on and on. The Texas Legislature writes the laws and TxDOT has no choice but to obey them.

Mr. Intelligence Officer, you sure owe TxDOT an apology.

Ray Barnhart, former administrator,

Federal Highway Administration,

former commissioner, Texas Department of Highways and Public Transportation; former member, Texas Turnpike Authority,

St. Clairsville, Ohio

Houston tolls a bait & switch: tolls promised to cease have become an infinity tax

Link to article here.

Toll road profits used on streets
$120 million to be spent on 'connectivity' projects next year
By RAD SALLEE
Houston Chronicle
November 8, 2007
Harris County will spend an unprecedented amount of its toll road profits next year to build and upgrade roads and streets, some of them miles from any toll booth.

Call it the third stage of evolution for the Harris County Toll Road Authority, an evolution driven by the struggle to survive.

When voters and County Judge Jon Lindsay began the toll road system in 1983, the idea was simple: We'll build this road, and when it has paid for itself, we'll make it a freeway.

As other toll roads followed, the tempting revenue stream begat another idea: When these are paid off, we'll keep on tolling them and pool the money to build more toll roads.

Starting in 2001, Commissioners Court set aside $20 million paid by toll road users each year to build and improve roads and streets that connect to the tollway system. These annual allocations have helped build more than 80 such "connectivity" projects.


On Sept. 20, the court quietly boosted the annual connectivity allotment to $120 million — double the previous high of $60 million in 2004, and one-fourth of the tollway system's net revenue.

The increase signals that toll road funds likely will be a major tool for general road building for the foreseeable future.

Despite their name, the funds increasingly have been spent on projects with no connections to toll roads and even on roads that provide an alternative to congested tollways.

A map of connectivity projects to date includes, for instance, improvements to a trucking route between Texas 146 and the Port of Houston docks at Barbour's Cut, about seven miles from the East Sam Houston Tollway.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said a toll road connectivity project on Clay Road will help get people from fast-growing Katy prairie subdivisions to north-south arteries such as Fry Road. These connect to the Katy Freeway, and from there one can reach the tollways.

The county road system as a whole "feeds the toll roads," Emmett said. "This will help complete the grid."

As county Infrastructure Director Art Storey put it, "Today's remote project is right in the middle of things tomorrow."

Architect Christof Spieler of the grass-roots Citizens Transportation Coalition said he has no problem with using money paid by toll road users to build free roads.

But if government is providing new roads to access new subdivisions in the Katy Prairie, he said, it is making that housing artificially cheap.

Seed money

Precinct 3 Commissioner Steve Radack said the money is greatly needed, as is more road capacity near fast-growing subdivisions on the prairie. Clay Road is one of the most congested in his precinct, he said.
Radack noted that connectivity funds also can be used as seed money to attract private investment, as other county dollars were used in an $8 million project to extend Kingsland from the Grand Parkway (Texas 99) to Katy-Fort Bend Road at Katy Mills Mall.

The county is contributing $1.3 million of the Kingsland funding, Radack said. "The rest is private sector."

Spieler said that, although he opposes suburban sprawl, he likes Radack's idea of having developers — and ultimately the homebuyers — take on that cost.

Still, he said he would like to see more of the connectivity money used for "infill" projects in Houston and other municipalities. These retard sprawl, and often are more cost-efficient, he said, since the street, drainage and utility infrastructure already may be in place.

"The county spends hardly any of its road budget inside the city limit, although we in Houston pay the same county taxes," Spieler said.

Emmett and Storey said the big increase in the connectivity budget stems in part from the county's wrangling earlier in the year with the Texas Department of Transportation.

For the first time, TxDOT sought payment from the county for use of state rights of way for toll roads. TxDOT also put the entire state on notice that it lacks money to expand local roads — a situation unlikely to change soon.

"Some of these road projects would have been funded through the state in the past, but the state has told us they're not going to spend any money," Emmett said. "So, rather than us wait around and wring our hands, we said 'nope, we're going to get started.' "

Another reason for the increase, Storey said, was the decision county officials faced in 2005 over whether to sell, lease or hang onto the toll road system. Financial consultants had said it might bring $20 billion if sold.

Fateful decision

Commissioners decided to keep the asset and ensure that its revenues continue to be spent in Harris County. Even with the connectivity budget increase, Storey said, there will be enough revenue left to maintain the existing tollways and fund at least some of the six projects authorized by the Legislature this summer.
These include extending the Sam Houston Tollway from the Eastex Freeway to U.S. 90, extending the Hardy Toll Road from Loop 610 to downtown, building high-occupancy toll lanes along Hempstead Highway and adding toll lanes to Texas 288.

A list of connectivity projects proposed for FY 2008-09, which begins March 1, was not available as Commissioners Court has not decided which will be built or how much each precinct will get.

Electronic tolls are 30% higher than cash tolls

Link to article here.

Technology Eases the Ride To Higher Tolls
By DAVID LEONHARDT
New York Times
July 4, 2007

There is a stretch of the Garden State Parkway that used to feel like the tollbooth capital of America. In a span of 100 miles -- from Pascack Valley, in northern New Jersey, to Barnegat, along the coast -- eight different toll plazas greeted drivers. In much of the rest of the country, you wouldn't find any tolls on a 100-mile stretch.

I spent a good part of my childhood summers at the Jersey Shore, and the tollbooths on the parkway always seemed to be a cruel final obstacle between me and the beach. Every 15 minutes or so, our car would have to stop yet again to drop a measly quarter in a bucket.

The ride is very different today, thanks mostly to the electronic toll system known as E-ZPass. At four of the tolls along the Garden State, the system is so sophisticated that cars barely have to slow down. A little box attached to the car's windshield sends a message to a computer reader looming over the road, and money is then deducted from an electronic account.


I imagine that some of the children being driven to the Jersey Shore today won't even look away from their DVD players as they glide through a toll. And I'm quite certain that very, very few of them will remember, decades from now, how much the Garden State tolls cost back when they were young. As a result of E-ZPass and its ilk, even many adults don't notice the cost of a toll.

Which raises an interesting question: If you don't know how much you're paying for something, will you notice when the price goes up? Or has E-ZPass, for all its benefits, also made it easier for toll collectors to take your money?

A young economist named Amy Finkelstein started thinking about these issues a few years ago when she and her fiancé were driving back and forth between Boston, where they were living, and New York, where they were going to be married. So she collected decades of toll records from around the country and found a clear pattern.

After an electronic system is put in place, tolls start rising sharply. Take two tollbooths that charge the same fee and are in a similar setting -- both on highways leading into a big city, for instance. A decade after one of them gets electronic tolls, it will be about 30 percent more expensive on average than a similar tollbooth without it. There are no shortage of examples: the Golden Gate Bridge, the George Washington Bridge and the Tappan Zee Bridge, among them.

''You may be less aware you're paying the toll,'' said Ms. Finkelstein, now an associate professor at M.I.T., ''but you're paying a higher toll than you used to.''

The implications of this go well beyond highways. We increasingly live in an E-ZPass economy, in which bills are paid online, corporate cafeterias are going cashless and people take along their debit card, instead of cash, when they leave the house. Last year, 55 percent of consumer spending was done electronically, mainly with credit and debit cards, while checks accounted for less than 25 percent and cash only 20 percent, according to Visa. As recently as 2003, only 45 percent of spending was done electronically.

The E-ZPass economy is indisputably more convenient. It saves time and frustration. But the old frustrations that came with cash also brought a hidden benefit: they forced you to notice that you were spending money. With electronic money, it's much easier to be carefree.

Marketers understand this dynamic well, which is a big reason they promote refillable gift cards and other forms of money that don't feel like money. Part of what's so intriguing about Ms. Finkelstein's work is that it suggests that government officials may be coming to understand the dynamic, too.

The idea that hidden taxes -- and tolls are really a kind of tax -- could lead to higher taxes goes back decades. Milton Friedman famously came to regret his role in creating the withholding system for income taxes during World War II, because it eventually made people forget how much they were paying in tax. ''It never occurred to me at the time,'' he wrote in his autobiography, ''that I was helping to develop machinery that would make possible a government that I would come to criticize severely as too large, too intrusive, too destructive of freedom.''

Even economists who don't share Mr. Friedman's political views agree with the larger point that how taxes are collected, and not just the underlying tax rate, matters. ''We need to take seriously the possibility that people are not paying attention to the tax code,'' said Raj Chetty of the University of California, Berkeley, who has been conducting some fascinating experiments on semi-hidden taxes.

Mr. Chetty argues that the complexity of today's tax code ends up aggravating inequality. Both rich and poor families face a dizzying spectrum of tax laws, from carried-interest rules to the earned-income tax credit. But affluent families are better able to navigate the system, often by hiring an accountant. Also, the little day-to-day taxes, like highway tolls, mean a lot more to a moderate-income family.

Ms. Finkelstein obviously can't prove that electronic tolls cause prices to rise by making drivers less aware of them. Neil Gray, the head of government affairs at the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association, disputes her argument and says setting tolls is more complicated than Ms. Finkelstein suggests.

But she makes a spirited case for her conclusion. She has considered a number of alternate explanations for the increases and says the evidence doesn't support them. At the very least, electronic systems do seem to make it easier for toll collectors to increase prices.

There is one notable exception to the trend, though: the good old Garden State. Tolls on the parkway itself have increased only once in the last 50 years, back in 1989, when they were raised to 35 cents. (In the last few years, the price at each tollbooth has doubled, but highway officials have also removed half of the tolls, keeping the effective price unchanged.) Even after E-ZPass, the Garden State Parkway remains a relative bargain.

Of course, Ms. Finkelstein discovered that tolls don't usually rise as soon as an electronic system arrives. The increases tend to come a number of years later, once electronic payment becomes old hat.

On the Garden State, the first E-ZPass system was installed in 1999. And guess what New Jersey's governor, Jon S. Corzine, has recently been talking about? Raising the tolls on the parkway for the first time in almost 20 years.

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