Link to article here.

Alamo planning board hastily obligates Prop 1 money, adopts more toll roads
By Terri Hall
December 9, 2014
Examiner.com

Yesterday, the Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (or AAMPO) voted to adopt its long-range plan, Mobility 2040, that will add 4 new toll projects and 34 other new projects that will obligate ten years of Proposition One money. The AAMPO has long promised that when new funding became available, they would turn previously planned toll lanes back into free lanes on projects like US 281 in San Antonio. Prop 1 passed with 81% of the vote on November 4, and voters overwhelmingly approved the measure precisely because the funds could not be used for toll projects. Now taxpayers are facing still more toll roads.

The betrayal taxpayers feel kicked into high gear when the AAMPO voted to add yet more toll roads to the plan instead of turn toll lanes on existing major corridors back into free lanes as promised. Voters do not get to select which elected officials are appointed to the AAMPO, so there’s no direct accountability.

A Transportation Forum sponsored by the City of Bulverde, the Economic Development Foundation, and the Chamber of Commerce was held at GVTC on October 16. It was a 4-hour marathon brought to you by the same consultants, HNTB, hired by the Bexar County toll authority known as the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority (or RMA).

The HNTB moderator, Tom Wendorf, used to head the Bexar County Public Works Department and actually VOTED to toll US 281 during his entire tenure on the local Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO). The fact that the City of Bulverde hired this company to write its Major Thoroughfare Plan (MTP) for our area is breathtaking. Whom you hire determines the outcome. Bulverde residents have loudly declared they do not want to pay $8/day in tolls to get into San Antonio (as the current proposal would require), nor do we want 12 stop lights added to US 281, as the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is planning to do as presented to an overflow crowd at the public meeting in July at the library.

Link to article here.

Citizens blitz local governments to stop private Blacklands tollway
By Terri Hall
October 16, 2014
Examiner.com

Opposition to the controversial private Blacklands-Northeast Gateway Toll Road from Garland to Greenville east of Dallas kicked into high gear this week when concerned citizens did a full court press to pressure remaining cities and counties to pass resolutions opposing the toll road. Seven cities had already passed resolutions prior to Tuesday. Those cities include Fate, Josephine, Lavon, Nevada, Rockwall, Sasche, and Wylie. The Rockwall County Democratic Party also passed a resolution opposing the tollway.

On ‘Super Tuesday,’ residents blitzed four city council meetings and one county commissioners meetings in one day. The City of Rowlett agreed to pass a resolution and Caddo Mills plans to pass one prior to the next crucial meeting of the Regional Transportation Council (RTC) on November 13, where the board may decide whether or not to adopt the tollway into its short and long-range plans.

UPDATE: After this article stirred up trouble, TxDOT put a promise in writing that no portion of Prop 1 will be used to support toll roads.

Link to article here.

Prop 1 on collision course with taxpayers
By Terri Hall
Examiner.com
October 15, 2014

Though a supermajority of Texas legislators with the help of virtually every Chamber of Commerce are out stumping for Prop 1 in all earnestness, their efforts are starting to fall on deaf ears as more Texans tune in to the persistent problems with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). Prop 1, on the ballot November 4, would take half of the oil and gas severance tax currently collected on oil and gas production (that normally goes to the state’s Rainy Day Fund) and send it to the state highway fund for the next 10 years.

A more in-depth look at the structural road funding shortfall and the pros and cons of Prop 1’s role in it can be found here. Today, the concern isn’t about whether or not Prop 1 is the right approach to address the shortfall, but rather about something that popped up in the Dallas Morning News which said, “A caveat in Proposition 1 forbids the extra funds, which could equal about $1.7 billion a year, from being used on toll projects. But Bill Hale, TxDOT’s engineer operations director for metro districts, said a connection to the Trinity Parkway (toll road) wouldn’t be barred from using the funds because the project itself isn’t tolled.”

TxDOT spokesman Tony Hartzel then quipped: “That’s his take on it.”

The people have spoken and their will is clear - they do not want the proposed private Blacklands Tollway-Northeast Gateway corridor from Garland to Greenville east of Dallas. The Texas Turnpike Corporation has the power of eminent domain and can forcibly confiscate Texans' private property for its own private gain. Nearly 1,500 people packed the public meeting in Rockwall on September 22, 2014 to put their opposition on the record.

VICTORY!
Your letters to the Regional Transportation Council (RTC) made the difference, along with the 8 cities that passed resolutions opposing the tollway. Together, concerned citizens forced the RTC staff to pull its recommendation to include the toll road in its long-range plan! While they still keep the corridor open for further study, this is a MAJOR short-term victory! We need to STAY VIGILANT to ensure they don't sneak the tollway into the plan at a later date, and we need to keep pressing the remaining cities to pass resolutions against it so that NO toll road comes through our communities in the future.

Link to article here.

What they currently don’t want, according to a survey that researchers conduct every two years, is more toll roads, or giving bicyclists a major say in how transportation is planned.

Link to article here.

Private tollway near east Dallas draws ire from record crowd
By Terri Hall
Examiner.com
September 23, 2014

The people have spoken and their will is clear - they do not want the proposed private Blacklands Tollway-Northeast Gateway corridor through Rockwall to Greenville in east Dallas. Last night, a record capacity crowd of nearly 1,500 showed up to get their opposition to the controversial toll project on the record. Landowners and concerned citizens voiced their opinions to the Texas Turnpike Corporation (TTC) and the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) at a public meeting held in Rockwall that lasted until after midnight.

The initial public meeting took place on September 4 in Lavon, but the fire marshal shut it down due an overcapacity crowd. They planned on 250 and 500 showed up. The meeting was rescheduled for last night. So tripling the number of attendees in just a few weeks demonstrates that the public opposition to this private toll project is only gaining steam and showing no signs of petering out.

The overwhelming majority spoke in opposition, primarily because this private corporation can wield the power of eminent domain for its private toll road that company documents show is projected to net $78 million in annual profits by 2035. Yet the company claimed last night that it didn’t know how much profit the toll road was anticipated to make.

Link to article here.

Cintra, Macquarie file bankruptcy on Indiana Toll Road
By Terri Hall
Examiner.com
September 23, 2014

Yesterday, the two private, foreign corporations that tookover the Indiana Toll Road in 2006 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels sold it to Spanish infrastructure company Cintra and Australia-based Macquarie in a $3.8 billion, 75-year lease that raised eyebrows around the world.

Few thought a road could fetch so much money. It set off a chain reaction of state governments clamoring for quick cash to shore-up shrinking highway funding. Indiana used the money to build other highway projects, forcing Indiana Toll Road users to pay for other road expansion they don’t use. The state has long since spent the money in the short-term, but now the tollway is in long-term trouble.

When Cintra and Macquarie acquired the tollway, they immediately doubled the toll rates. The troubled road has failed to attract enough traffic to repay its $5.8 billion in debt still owed on the project. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the road is in bankruptcy when they’ve doubled the cost to use it. In a true market approach, if not enough customers are buying your product, you lower the price, not increase it. The hedge fund and distressed debt investors that now own about 80% of the debt have agreed to allow Cintra and Macquarie to restructure their debt or dupe another company into buying it.

Link to article here. Update: Munoz & team did snag the contract.

Munoz' ties to 281 toll road create trail of corruption
By Terri Hall
Examiner.com
September 17, 2014

The Express-News reported yesterday that Henry Munoz is angling to get a piece of the US 281 toll project in San Antonio by seeking a 5-year engineering contract with the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority (RMA). The trouble stems from his sordid history of buying and manipulating local politicians, and he’s particularly adept at it when it comes to transportation. He's set-up his own company to now profit from the project he helped fashion while a public official.

Munoz is a former member of the Texas Turnpike Authority and a former Texas Transportation Commissioner, who resigned from the agency under a cloud of scandal for his staff abusing the state travel program and for providing inside information to a Mexican construction company in exchange for lavish accommodations, travel, and other personal pay-offs. Nearly a decade later, Munoz was appointed to the Alamo RMA and served as its Finance Committee Chair. He bolted when Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF) successfully sued to halt the US 281 project in 2008. It was just no fun for him to be there anymore. No money to snag for the foreseeable future.

Link to article here.

RMA targets toll opposition in taxpayer-funded PR campaign
By Terri Hall
Examiner.com
September 18, 2014

You’ve probably heard the radio ads with Alamo Regional Mobility Authority (RMA) Chairman John Clamp touting the benefits of the US 281 toll project. If you’re like me, you got steaming mad that a toll authority is using our tax money to convince the public that tolling our existing freeways is a great idea.

I wanted to find out just how much money they’re sinking into this public relations campaign. An open records request revealed that they’ll spend up to $371,294 for radio and television ads, extensive newspaper ads, billboards, and a massive public ‘outreach’ campaign selling their toll road to your homeowners associations, civic groups, churches, chambers of commerce, and anyone that will let them in the door.

The primary contractor, HNTB, hired Trish DeBerry for the task, whose firm previously bid on the 281 toll project as part of a design-build team before her run for Mayor. Ultimately, the RMA has retained her PR services at a cost of $25,000 a month.