San Antonio city council belligerent about installing bike lanes

Link to article here.

Of course the elites that populate the San Antonio City Council know best and the rest of us just need to sit down and shut-up. They want to put us on a 'road diet' and presumably force us out of our cars and into mass transit. Sorry, but I have 9 kids and taking mass transit is not only inconvenient and not stroller or family-friendly, it's way more expensive per person than travel by car. Use our road taxes to expand them, not take away auto lanes and elevate bikes over cars.

City 'Won't Ask Permission" To Reduce Vehicle Lanes for Bikes
Friday, May 30th 2014
By Jim Forsyth
WOAI Radio

Mayor Julian Castro and other members of City Council stress that they are committed to narrowing roadways to create a system of bicycle lanes across the city, and a visibly frustrated Castro said the city will 'not ask permission' from taxpayers before they reduce vehicle lanes from major streets, 1200 WOAI news reports.

"The policy of the City of San Antonio is that we are going to build a strong bike network," Castro said.  "We will not ask permission before taking this action, just like we don't ask permission before we repair roads."

Texans charged twice for highways

Texans charged twice for highways
By Bennie Wilson : May 23, 2014
Express-News

SAN ANTONIO — Please consider the following scenario.

A Bexar County family goes shopping at its favorite grocery store to get biweekly food items and sundries. After awhile, the family checks out at one of the cashier stations.

As the family departs, the manager races out to catch them in the parking lot. The manager is apologetic as she explains that a robbery just occurred at their cashier station, so they must return their purchases since their payment has been stolen. As they look around the parking lot, they see other store employees accosting customers with what appears to be the same confiscation.

Group ranks states friendly to motorists, Texas not among them

Link to article here.

It's shocking Texas didn't make the Top 10 worst list with tolls coming on virtually every highway, but it's certainly not topping the list as a motorist-friendly state either. It won't be long before Texas tops the worst list however - once the toll roads under construction are open to traffic and enough vehicles impounded and car registrations blocked....

Activist Group Ranks States Most Friendly To Motorists
National Motorists Association ranks the top eight worst and best states for drivers.
May 19, 2014
The Newspaper.com

Drivers are happiest in the state of Wyoming and most harassed when traveling through the District of Columbia, according to rankings published Monday by the National Motorists Association (NMA). The drivers' rights group scored each state (and the District) based on five main factors related to how the government interacts with the motoring public.

"Driving in the United States can be hazardous, not only to your health, but to your civil rights and pocket book as well," the group explained. "Because each state treats motorists differently, how well you fare depends on which state you are driving in."

The NMA evaluated the legal protections available to motorists and gave states points based on whether trial by jury is allowed for traffic tickets, whether the case is heard by a real judge and whether the accused has the right of discovery in traffic cases.

"The relationship between state and motorist lies somewhere on the scale between 'to protect and serve' and 'command and control,'" NMA President Gary Biller told TheNewspaper. "It depends greatly on how the fuel tax, tolls and other user fees are collected, how fines are levied, and the degree to which that revenue is used to maintain and improve public roadways (not to mention highway safety) vs. being diverted for use on unrelated projects. We, as the oldest and largest drivers' rights organization in the US, decided to quantify that relationship on a state-by-state basis."

Regulations were evaluated based on whether speed limits were set appropriately, whether police can stop people merely for choosing not to wear a seatbelt, whether cell phone use while driving is banned and whether the state has a tax on license points or "driver responsibility" tax. States lost points for having lots of speed traps and roadblocks, photo enforcement and regular ticket blitzes. The cost of driving, in terms of tolls, taxes, fees and insurance costs were also taken into account. Finally, the rankings took into consideration each state's fiscal responsibility. Jurisdictions that raid gas tax funds for non-motoring projects such as bicycle paths and mass transit lost points.

"The NMA rankings show that all states have much room for improvement in treating motorists as part of the citizenry they answer to rather than as revenue sources to exploit," Biller said. "How else explain tactics such as ticket blitzes and nearly non-existent constitutional rights for defendants in many traffic courts?"

Montana aced the regulations category, while South Dakota and Wyoming were tops in fiscal responsibility. DC scored a zero in legal protection and New Jersey's massive tax regime gave it a miserable 1 out of 15 score in the cost of driving.

Article Excerpt:
Treat Motorists Worst
    1.    District of Columbia
    2.    New York
    3.    Delaware
    4.    New Jersey
    5.    Vermont
    6.    Maryland
    7.    Illinois
    8.    Rhode Island
    9.    Florida

Treat Motorists Best
    1.    Wyoming
    2.    North Dakota
    3.    Utah
    4.    Mississippi
    5.    Montana
    6.    Kansas
    7.    South Dakota
    8.    Wisconsin

Roads alone won’t drive Texas’ future, new TxDOT chief says

Link to article here.

Roads alone won’t drive Texas’ future, new TxDOT chief says
By BRANDON FORMBY
Transportation Writer
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Published: 18 May 2014 10:32 PM

The Texas Department of Transportation’s new executive director says it’s going to take more than new roads to keep Texans traveling smoothly if population growth estimates prove true.

The way Joe Weber sees it, the state transportation agency needs to increase financing for commuter and freight projects if it is to build the infrastructure that Texans are going to want and need in the decades ahead.

“That’s going to be hard to do,” Weber said. “That’s a cultural change.”

Some estimates project the state could double its population to more than 55 million residents in less than 40 years. TxDOT faces inadequate funding to maintain current state roads and build new highways to keep pace.

But one of Weber’s biggest priorities in the short term is going to be reducing the number of traffic fatalities. More than 1,100 people have died in vehicle accidents so far this year.

“That’s embarrassing to me,” Weber said.

The Texas Transportation Commission tapped Weber last month to replace former executive director Phil Wilson, who left to run a Texas water authority. Weber, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant general, last week spoke with The Dallas Morning News about his philosophies on the future of Texas transportation.

Weber was most recently the vice president of student affairs at Texas A&M, his alma mater. Like Wilson, Weber is not an engineer and doesn’t have a transportation-focused background.

But, he said, his 36-year tenure in the Marines included overseeing a host of construction work, military base installations and infrastructure projects.

“So it’s not new to me,” he said.

Weber said that meeting transportation needs isn’t just about making sure Texans get to work. He said the future stability of the state’s economy will rely on businesses, workers and consumers being able to connect through all modes of transport.

“It’s about economic development,” he said. “It’s not just moving around, it’s not just solely congestion.”

Putting more emphasis on transportation modes other than roads isn’t just predicated on a shift in thinking — it’s going to require a change in how the agency spends its money. TxDOT, like most of its counterparts across the country, was born out of a former state highway department. And when it comes to legislative funding and agency spending, those roots are still apparent.

“Funding still primarily revolves around highway construction,” said agency spokesman Bob Kaufman.

Weber said the agency needs to work closely with local authorities — including other transportation agencies — to better plan for future needs and projects. He said the agency will have to continue to explore new ways to finance projects. And emerging technologies such as automated cars could also lead to innovations that relieve congestion in less costly ways to the agency.

“We’re really in a window of opportunity,” Weber said.

Much of Texas drinking water flush with 'potty water'

Link to article here.

No Joke: Most Drinking Supplies Flush With "Potty Water"
by Neena Satija
Texas Tribune
May 14, 2014

Poor old Wichita Falls.

The city of about 105,000 people has become the butt of late-night jokes and the subject of shocked headlines since officials decided to turn to treated sewer water to fill residents' drinking glasses.

Turns out, though, the joke is on just about everybody else. Because for the large chunk of population that lives downstream from a big city and whose water supply flows through a river, more than a few drops of the water in their glasses was probably once in someone else's toilet.

Let’s start with Houston, which, as Texas State University professor Andy Sansom says, “has been drinking Dallas’ crap for decades.” Wastewater from Dallas and Fort Worth is deposited into the Trinity River, where it flows down into the lakes that supply Houston residents. The wastewater is so clean that it’s credited with helping the Trinity River stay strong during recent years of severe drought.

San Antonio’s wastewater — which flows through the city’s famed Riverwalk in times of drought — is considered valuable, too. Recently, the San Antonio Water System applied for a permit to ensure complete ownership over that wastewater, which is currently deposited into the San Antonio River and is so clean that it helped bring back species some thought were gone from the area forever. 

The Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority balked at the application, saying its own customers — farmers, manufacturers and, you guessed it, South Texas city residents — rely on that wastewater. It is so important to the authority that it’s taking legal action against the San Antonio Water System’s permit.

No one involved in the brewing court battle over who owns San Antonio’s wastewater is calling it “potty water," as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram did in a recent story about the Wichita Falls plan.

There are a few other things to be clear about regarding the multimillion-dollar project planned in Wichita Falls. Wastewater reuse in Wichita Falls has been in the works for years and would have happened with or without the drought. It was fast-tracked as the city deals with reservoirs that are only 25 percent full today. In addition, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality — not known for being a particularly strict regulating agency — is currently on the defensive for delaying the city’s project by asking for more testing.

Several other Texas cities — San Antonio, Austin and Fort Worth among them — have been looking at such water reuse projects for decades, and some are hoping the plans might come to fruition in the coming years. Across Texas, treated wastewater is being used for everything from watering golf courses to making silicon chips.

Yet judging by the headlines on news reports about the Wichita Falls project, the city’s residents could be in for some sort of disgusting surprise.

“Brushing Teeth With Sewer Water Next Step as Texas Faces Drought,” read a Bloomberg News headline.

National Public Radio wrote, "Drought-Stricken Texas Town Turns To Toilets For Water." Most recently, NBC’s Today Show tackled the topic, with a reporter noting, “Some residents think it’s just plain gross.”

Bloomberg News noted that many people are concerned about water contamination, comparing the Wichita Falls project to the example of Oregon water officials flushing 38 million gallons from a reservoir after a teenager urinated into it. "We're not drought-stricken Texas," an official there noted.  

On that note, remember all the people guzzling beer and floating in the water out on Lakes Travis and Buchanan, which supply Austin's drinking water. No one is suggesting flushing those bodies of water or implying that residents of the capital city are brushing their teeth with sewer water.

When talking about the yuck factor associated with water reuse projects, people seem to be distraught over the fact that the water would go directly from a sewer treatment plant to the tap. That's the short-term plan in Wichita Falls during this extreme drought. Eventually, the city plans to blend treated sewer water with reservoir water before anyone drinks it — not unlike what happens in other cities.

And the fact is, some of the lakes and rivers that supply water here in the United States can get pretty dirty. The recent horrific spill in the Elk River from the chemical manufacturing company Freedom Industries that had 300,000 West Virginians afraid to take showers is just one example.

A recent New York Times investigation showed that public water supplies nationwide contain everything from arsenic to radium at higher-than-safe levels. In the Rio Grande, which supplies millions of South Texans and farmers with drinking and irrigation water, raw sewage is dumped in the river from Mexico every day — and water treatment plants either deal with it or they don't, as was demonstrated in a small town near Laredo last fall when residents were forced to boil their water for three weeks after getting sick from taking showers.

In fact, an exhaustive National Academy of Sciences study of wastewater reuse concluded that when it comes to potential pathogens that may be in the water, “the risk from potable reuse does not appear to be any higher, and may be orders of magnitude lower, than currently experienced in at least some current (and approved) drinking water treatment systems.”

No wonder so many cities — not just in Texas — are considering direct water reuse as a water supply strategy to quench their thirst.

On The Tonight Show recently, host Jimmy Fallon made a joke that a lot of environmental advocates, water engineers and city planners across the state have said they think asks a good question.

“A town in Texas just announced a controversial plan to recycle toilet water and use it for drinking water. Dog said, ‘How are you only thinking of this now?’"

Austin City Council casts symbolic vote against Texas 45 Southwest

Link to article here.

Austin City Council casts symbolic vote against Texas 45 Southwest
By Lilly Rockwell
American-Statesman Staff
May 16, 2014

In a largely symbolic gesture, the Austin City Council voted 6-1 early Friday morning to declare its opposition to the proposed Texas 45 Southwest toll road, asking the city manager to engage highway decision-makers on various alternatives.

The move is likely futile. Texas 45 Southwest has been lining up the approvals and money it needs to be built. The toll road is controversial because it will be built over environmentally sensitive lands and could direct more traffic on to already-congested MoPac (Loop 1) Boulevard.

This story continues on our new premium website for subscribers, MyStatesman.com. 
Continue reading/get access here.

Gas prices go up, toll revenues drop

Link to article here.

Gas Cost Rises, Toll Road Use Sinks
Gas tax collections faring better than Indiana Toll Road in spite of record high fuel prices.
The Newspaper.com
June 12, 2014

Gasoline prices are at an all time high, and as a result some areas have reported reductions in the average amount vehicle miles traveled as consumers adjust driving habits. A number of influential highway officials have seized upon this news to advocate for a move away from gasoline tax-funded transportation networks to a system dominated by toll roads.

"This latest trend is yet another reason that we need to overhaul the highway financing system," Federal Highway Administration acting head Jim Ray wrote in May. "New funding methods that are not dependent on fuel consumption are needed and needed now."

Poll: Overwhelming opposition to tolls

Link to article here.

Poll Shows Overwhelming Opposition To Tolling
Two out of three reject the administration plan to toll existing interstate freeway lanes in a new Rasmussen Reports poll.
TheNewspaper.com
May 8, 2014

In a nationwide survey of American adults, only 22 percent expressed support for the administration's latest push to allow states to convert existing freeway into toll roads. Rasmussen Reports released the findings Wednesday in the wake of the Transportation Department's presentation of its funding blueprint to Congress.

"A proposal has been made to allow states to put tolls on Interstate highways to help pay for highway and other infrastructure repairs," the pollsters explained to a thousand survey participants. "Do you favor or oppose putting tolls on Interstate highways for infrastructure maintenance?"

Colorado Governor Vetoes Toll Road Accountability Bill

Link to article here.

Just when the grassroots make progress, the special interests swoop down and overturn any effort at transparency and accountability with our tax dollars. The big money wants these P3 rip-offs and they know public scrutiny will KILL them.

Colorado Governor Vetoes Toll Road Accountability Bill
Veto by Colorado governor preserves secrecy when negotiating long-term toll road contracts.
The Newspaper.com
June 9, 2014

Critics of long-term toll road contracts complain that they are often negotiated in secrecy by unaccountable bureaucrats, cutting the public out of the process entirely. Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper (D) is not among those who see any problem with the way things are done. On Wednesday he put his veto pen to Senate Bill 14-197, the Transportation Enterprise Transparency Act, ensuring the status quo.

"We firmly believe that government should always strive to be transparent and accountable," Hickenlooper wrote in his veto message. "Unfortunately, SB 14-197 is not just a transparency bill -- it also inappropriately constrains the business terms of future P3 [public-private partnership] agreements."

Rail not sufficient as transit answer

Link to Letter to Editor here.

May 28, 2014 - Austin American Statesman

Rail not sufficient as transit answer
Re: Re: May 18 commentary, “Choice is clear, rail or fail.”

Mayor Lee Leffingwell’s answer to traffic is always “rail,” which mainly addresses inner city. Where is the relief for Capitol of Texas Highway, which could be accomplished with overpasses at the traffic lights? Where is the relief for U.S. 183 from Northwest Austin to the airport? Again, overpasses at about three stoplights. Where is the relief for RM 620 or Bee Cave Road?

I used to work downtown and would have considered taking the rail to work except that I worked north of the Capitol and would have had a long walk in heels and heat or rain. What happened to the ’Dillo? That was a great way to get around downtown and a way for tourists to see more of Austin.

E. HARRISON, AUSTIN

Wolff, Campbell, partner up to get more non-toll lanes on 281

Judge Wolff and Campbell partner to reduce tolls on U.S. 281
By Vianna Davila : May 20, 2014
Express-News

SAN ANTONIO — Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff and state Sen. Donna Campbell are trying to find a way to reduce the number of toll lanes planned as part of a U.S. 281 expansion project.

The solution might depend on passage of a statewide constitutional amendment in November that could generate $1.4 billion for Texas roads.

Wolff, a Democrat, and Campbell, a Republican, sent a letter to Texas Transportation Commission Chairman Ted Houghton on Monday, asking for money to be allocated to the U.S. 281 project should voters approve the ballot measure.

Read more here.

5 ways privatization is fleecing American taxpayers

Link to article here.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014
5 ways privatization is fleecing American taxpayers
Government outsourcing goes horribly wrong more often than not. Here are a few representative horror stories
Dave Johnson, AlterNet
Salon.com

For decades we’ve been subjected to constant propaganda that government is inefficient, bureaucratic and expensive. We’re told that the answer is to “privatize,” or “outsource” government functions to private businesses and they will do things more efficiently and everyone comes out ahead. As a result we have experienced decades of privatization of government functions.

So how has this wave of privatization worked out? Has privatization saved taxpayers money and improved services to citizens? Simple answer: of course not. If a company can make a profit doing something the government had been doing, it means that we’re losing out one way or another. It’s simple math. And the result of falling for the privatization scam is that taxpayers have been fleeced, services to citizens have been cut way back and communities have been made poorer. But the companies that convinced governments to hand over public functions have gotten rich off of the deal. How is this a surprise?

Here are 5 privatization horror stories, where government outsourcing has gone terribly wrong. (Or maybe you’d say it has gone terribly right if you are one of the companies getting the taxpayer dollars.)

1. Chicago Parking Meters
The mother of all privatization horror stories is what happened with Chicago’s parking meters. In 2008 the city “financialized” its parking meter revenue stream. It leased the rights to collect from parking meters to a consortium led by Wall Street bank Morgan Stanley. The lease is for 75 years.

Right away parking-meter rates went up fourfold and meters stopped working. The city’s residents were unhappy, but there was nothing they could do about it.

But wait, it gets worse. Unsurprisingly, it turns out that the big Wall Street bank was more interested in making money than in giving Chicago the best deal it could. An inspector general looked into the deal and found that the city was shortchanged by at least $974 million. But a 2010 Forbes story says the Morgan Stanley consortium may realize a profit of $9.58 billion after paying Chicago only $1.15 billion.

To top it off, the city not only gave up 75 years of revenue for not nearly enough up-front cash, it had signed a contract prohibiting the city from interfering with Morgan Stanley’s ability to profit from the deal. This means the city can’t build parking structures where they are needed and can’t even give out disabled parking permits. The city can’t even close streets to have street fairs or festivals without paying Morgan Stanley for lost meter profits.

2. Toll Roads
Some states are considering privatizing their roads with “public-private partnerships.” The deal is that private companies maintain the roads and in exchange can charge a toll and make a profit. How is this working out?

In 2006 Indiana privatized I-80, the Indiana Toll Road. For $3.8 billion the state gave a 75-year lease to the Australian company Macquarie Group and Spain’s Cintra. (Goldman Sachs is said to have earned $20 million for brokering the deal.) At the time Washington Post business columnist Jerry Knight wrote that the deal sounded like “tossing the family furniture in the fireplace to keep the house warm.”

Since then tolls have just about doubled. And it’s going to get worse. Dave Jamieson at the Huffington Post explained, “The road’s leaseholders can now raise the toll annually at one of three rates — at a flat two percent, at the percentage increase in the consumer price index or at the percentage increase in gross domestic product — whichever is highest. Over the course of the coming decades, Hoosiers can expect to learn a hard lesson in compound interest, long after Gov. Daniels is gone.”

In 2007 Colorado leased its Northwest Highway to a Portuguese/Brazilian company for 99 years. The company raised tolls 50% and taxpayers have to pay the company if too many carpoolers use the high-occupancy lanes. The contract includes a “non-compete” clause that “requires payments to the foreign corporation if certain roads or facilities are built in the area that would compete with the toll road.” In other words, if traffic gets really bad Colorado is not allowed to do anything to solve the problem for its citizens – mass transit, congestion-relief arteries, etc. — instead forcing citizens to use that highway and pay whatever the toll is. For 99 years.

3. Prisons for Profit
Imagine a system where someone makes a profit if more and more people are put in prison. This is known as a “perverse incentive.” Really, can you think of anything worse than getting a profit to get people put in jail? What you think could go wrong is exactly what does go wrong. These companies want profits, so rehabilitation becomes a “cost.”

These companies push for government policies that put more people into prison for more crimes and for longer sentences. Prison-for-profit companies working with the corporate/right-wing lobbying outfit American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) came up with model legislation pushing things like “three strikes” and “truth in sentencing” which greatly increase the number of prisoners and the amount of time they serve.

But the worst part of prison privatization is companies saving on “costs” by cutting back on staff, food quality and you-name it. A 2013 Palm Beach Post investigation found that “dangerously low numbers of corrections officers — including local guards with criminal backgrounds — and reports of squalor, rape and riots dog corporate prison operators. …Audits, security reports, lawsuits, government records and state and federal investigations in 21 states unveil a startling pattern of murder, riots and sexual assault at private prisons nationwide. Often, those failures stem from not enough guards.”

Nine major riots erupted since 2000. At least 25 inmates died amid claims of mistreatment, inadequate medical care or in riots. Three prisons for teenagers were shuttered between 2000 and 2012 after discoveries of squalor and sex abuse. A women’s prison was emptied after widespread reports of rape by staff.

How does this compare to prisons that are not run by private companies for profit?

At Florida’s state-run prisons in the same 12-year period: No major damage or severe injuries from riots; no closures over squalor; no Justice Department investigations over human rights.

In another example in Mississippi, a private company called the GEO Group ran the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility. The Justice Department spent two years looking into conditions at the facility and issued a report saying the facility engaged in “systemic, egregious and dangerous practices.” A judge wrote the company ”has allowed a cesspool of unconstitutional and inhuman acts and conditions to germinate, the sum of which places the offenders at substantial ongoing risk.”

A recent In the Public Interest report, The Costs of Private Prisons, says “the promised cost savings often fail to materialize.” The report looked at more than 40 studies of private prisons and how this turned out, in five states. They found “no cost advantage” and that for-profit prison companies, “employ questionable methodology when calculating costs of private facilities. This includes finding ways to hide the costs of private prisons, ensuring that increased costs are not apparent until after the initial contract is signed, and using inflated public prison costs during comparisons.”

4. Cost Overruns
Cost overruns are a common scam when governments outsource to private companies.

In 2008 New York City decided to “save money” by contracting out its payroll system. The original estimate to develop the “CityTime” system was $68 million. A little over 10 years later the cost had ballooned to more than $700 million and the system still didn’t work. A recent Daily Kospost descibed what an investigation revealed:
The corrupt contractors lined their pockets with millions of dollars as they accepted kickbacks, funneled huge sums into shell companies, deposited stolen money into overseas accounts, inflated bills and maintained a bloated payroll with excessively paid and even fired employees.

The contractor, Science Applications International Corp. has agreed to pay the city $500 million“under a deferred-prosecution agreement to resolve claims that it conspired to defraud the city.” Three employees were recently sentenced to 20 years each for their roles in the theft and fraud.

5. Any Government “Outsourcing” Anything
If you examine the claim that private companies are always more efficient than government, the argument starts to fall apart. Just how are companies more efficient?

The first way companies are supposed to be better is cost-savings. But just how do they save money? There are two ways a company can save money over what government spends. The first is to reduce what it pays employees and suppliers. The second is to cut back on the amount or quality of the service the company is taking over.

So let’s say a town decides to “save money” by outsourcing its trash collection. The people who were employed by the city to do this are laid off and things are turned over to the company. Typically the company will hire people at as close to minimum wage as possible and likely with no benefits. It will employ fewer managers and pay them less as well. It will cut back on maintenance of the fleet, and it will try to cut back on the pickup service.

Does this actually save government money? If people with OK public-employee jobs are replaced by lower-paid workers the community is poorer in the aggregate. More people will need public “safety-net” services. There will be foreclosures. Tax revenue drops because of lower pay but also because poorer people can’t spend as much in stores. Sales taxes drop as stores face fewer customers able to get by.

Daphne Greenwood of the University of Colorado did a study of privatization titled, The Decision to Contract Out: Understanding the Full Economic and Social Impacts. The study found that the resulting wage and benefit cuts hurt the community at large, including declining retail sales, greater reliance on public assistance and a larger share of at-risk children in low-income families. On a recent phone call discussing the study Greenwood said that when governments outsource, “the availability of middle-class jobs is affected, even upward mobility.” She said, “Contracting to private corps usually means big reductions in worker benefits and benefits,” and “lower wages often mean a shift to less experienced employees.”

In addition, she said, “There are more workers and retirees who end up on public assistance, which means more children in poverty so local schools are dealing with more problems.”

Janice Fine of Rutgers University has also done a study, Overlooking Oversight: A Lack of Oversight in the Garden State is Placing New Jersey Assets and Residents at Risk. She looked at outsourcing in New Jersey and found that a “stunning lack” of government oversight of contractors caused problems for Hurricane Sandy victims as well as greater risk for vulnerable children – and millions in wasted tax dollars in New Jersey.

On the same call as Greenwood, Fine said she found, “a stunning lack of government oversight of contractors,” and that, “oversight shouldn’t be set aside because of cost, it should be an essential part of outsourcing.”

Time To Reassess
Government outsourcing, also known as privatization, has been going on for decades, and now governments are reassessing whether turning public property and services over to private companies has really been a good idea. Story after story has appeared detailing horror stories of corruption, incompetence and general scamming by companies interested only in profit.

Molly Ball reported recently in The Privatization Backlash in the Atlantic, “In states and cities across the country, lawmakers are expressing new skepticism about privatization, imposing new conditions on government contracting, and demanding more oversight. Laws to rein in contractors have been introduced in 18 states this year, and three—Maryland, Oregon and Nebraska—have passed legislation, according to In the Public Interest, a group that advocates what it calls ‘responsible contracting.’”

Other Horror Stories
A report by In the Public Interest titled “Out of Control: The Coast-to-Coast Failures of Outsourcing Public Services to For-Profit Corporations,” highlights several other horror stories that happen when local and state governments privatize public functions to private companies. The report begins,

“Eager for quick cash, state and local governments across America have for decades handed over control of critical public services and assets to corporations that promise to handle them better, faster and cheaper.

Unfortunately for taxpayers, not only has outsourcing these services failed to keep this promise, but too often it undermines transparency, accountability, shared prosperity and competition – the underpinnings of democracy itself.”

The next time someone tells you private companies are always “more efficient” than government, tell them the facts are against them. It has been tried and it didn’t work.

WSJ: Highway Trust Fund Is Running on Fumes

Link to article here.

Highway Trust Fund Is Running on Fumes
By Damian Paletta
Wall Street Journal
May 8, 2014

Sometime this summer, the Transportation Department is expected to begin delaying payments to states for road and bridge projects because the Highway Trust Fund is rapidly exhausting its reserves.

Congress has tackled or punted many of the “must pass” bills of 2014, but evaporating highway money looms like a pothole on the road to the midterm elections. Resolving the issue is important for lawmakers because constituents care about their local roads and bridges–but they also pay close attention to any changes in tax and spending rules.

The highway trust fund’s balance will be just $2 billion at the end of September, because gasoline-tax revenue isn’t keeping up with spending. That figure assumes payments are delayed in the coming months, a prospect that could infuriate governors, mayors and a number of businesses depending on the funds. Much of this money is disbursed by the federal government to states and local governments.

The highway fund provides nearly a quarter of the $216 billion annual total public spending on highway and mass-transit construction, which translates to roughly $1 billion a week funneled to states to pay contractors, Josh Mitchell reports.

Directing money for roads and bridges is a bipartisan pastime, but lawmakers are very divided on how to come up with money to pay for these projects. They could raise taxes, like the 18.4-cent-per-gallon gas tax, a prospect that is considered very unlikely given GOP control of the House. They could redirect money from other government programs, which is what they’ve done before, though options in a tight budget environment are limited. Or, they could cut highway spending, which many Democrats and some Republicans could try to block.

Even with the expected delays, the $7 billion shortfall between trust fund revenues and total spending in 2013 is expected to keep widening because tax revenue will continue falling far short of projected spending levels.
Lawmakers from both parties are flummoxed on how to proceed, particularly during an election year when every vote is viewed under a political microscope.

A number of lawmakers and analysts believe that policy makers will try to come up with a temporary fix that will at least buy Congress time until sometime next year, when they might be able to make more structural changes to put the program on firmer footing. But, as both parties have learned, votes on tax and spending measures are very unpredictable.

“There is not a silver bullet, other than the most obvious (raise the gas tax and index to inflation),” writes Chris Krueger of Guggenheim Securities LLC in a research report. “A temporary extension of the Highway Bill would likely create a headwind for all companies that rely on federal infrastructure investment ” until a new bill is signed into law.

And the longer they wait, the bumpier the road could become.

Pasco officials say DOT ready to scrap private toll road

Link to article here.

Pasco officials say DOT ready to scrap plans for proposed toll road
By Lisa Buie and Rich Shopes,
Times Staff Writers
Wednesday, May 7, 2014

State transportation officials are moving to scrap plans to let a private investor build a toll road across southern Pasco County amid concerns that the project would need tax dollars to be viable.

Florida Transportation Secretary Ananth Prasad "wants to reach out one more time and see if we have the facts straight, but right now it does not look good," department spokeswoman Kris Carson said after a meeting DOT officials had with the group proposing the road.

Last summer, a private consortium called FL Express 54 came forward with an unsolicited proposal to build a toll road along State Road 54 from U.S. 19 to U.S. 301, some of it above existing lanes. The consortium would have leased right of way, shared the toll revenues with the state and paid for construction and the road's operation.

The idea generated support initially because, as pitched, it would have required only private money. But by December, a groundswell of opposition had formed in south Pasco, and several county commissioners were starting to question the proposal.

Commissioner Henry Wilson flat-out rejected the idea, followed by commission Chairman Jack Mariano.

"I'm delighted that the DOT made this decision. I think it's the right decision," Mariano said. "I'm glad they looked at the feasibility of it and reviewed that, but from the overwhelming negative feelings about the plan coming from the community and the objections raised, it was definitely the right decision to make for the people."

Hundreds of residents calling themselves Pasco Fiasco lined up against the road. Rich Connors, the group's founder, called the state's decision "a big victory."

DOT spokesman Dick Kane said Prasad had misgivings after a May 1 videoconference with local DOT officials and FL Express 54. The sides went back and forth about whether to shorten the road to 10 miles from 30 and place more of it at ground level.

"There was a lot of technical information, and the project raised more questions than (it) answered in trying to understand what needs to be done," Kane said.

He added that transportation officials were told initially that the project would be financed through private dollars. Then the group proposed using public funding, as well.

"That was not what we were initially led to believe," Kane said.

He wasn't sure how much state funding FL Express 54 was requesting.

FL Express 54 includes local engineer Gerald Stanley, a New York financier and Spanish road-building company OHL Infrastructure. Calls to Stanley were not returned.

The consortium submitted its proposal to transportation officials unsolicited, withdrew it briefly and resubmitted it in January. Public hearings were expected this summer.

As officials evaluated the plan, support for it in Pasco faltered.

Prasad said from the outset that the project would not proceed if Pasco opposed it. Scores of south county residents sought to capitalize on that promise.

Hundreds started attending town hall meetings organized by the county and writing emails to commissioners. Staff presented the road as an alternative to the massive widening of SR 54 needed to keep pace with growth, but many of the residents complained that the county was resorting to scare tactics to garner support for the road.

Officials got an earful in March when speakers lined up for more than an hour to blast the project as a threat to real estate values, businesses and south Pasco's ambience. Many said the road would divide the community and create noise and pollution.

Then in March, the Urban Land Institute reiterated its findings, noting that many communities with elevated roads were looking to scrap them. It advised Pasco to work with other counties toward regional traffic solutions.
Pasco's planning director, Richard Gehring, supported the road for months, but said the decision to abandon the project was ultimately the state's — though it leaves Pasco in a lurch. The county still needs to fix traffic congestion in south Pasco, he said.

The county's Metropolitan Planning Organization will make recommendations about south Pasco as part of its long-range transportation plan due in December.

Gehring said he viewed the state's rejection as part of "a positive learning experience" after hearing residents demand alternatives. He said county staff are evaluating those alternatives, which include widening the road, adding bus rapid transit, express lanes and other measures.

"I think it was a positive that someone was looking at this idea and responding to it," he said of the DOT. "But there is still a strong demand for solutions for what happens in that corridor. We still need a solution."

Letter to Editor: Stop tolls on 281

Link to editorial here.

Stop toll road plan on U.S. 281
Don Dixon, For the Express-News
May 16, 2014

San Antonio is known as the cradle of Texas liberty. There are no people in Texas who love freedom more than San Antonians. Yet politicians and government could take away part of our freedoms by illegally converting public-road rights of way to double-tax toll roads at an extra confiscatory tax of 17 to 75 cents per mile ($3.50 to $15 per gallon of gas).

When ranchers and landowners donated land or had their land taken by eminent domain for a public road, they intended and contracted that their former land would be forever a public road.

Apparently, San Antonio's spirit of freedom and rule of law mean little to the Texas Transportation Commission. It is hellbent that San Antonio public rights of way be converted to toll roads.

Letter to Editor: Don't take my public roads & turn them into P3 tollways

Link to article here.

Paved with bad intentions?
By Rork Hilford, Calgary Herald May 12, 2014

Re: "High-tech toll roads envisioned," May 7.

Let me get this straight. A self-appointed navel-gazing think tank has decided that it would be a good idea to divide public roads into plebeian and toll lanes.

The trouble is that I've been a land owner and taxpayer all of my adult life. I've paid for those roads to be built and I've amortized all the cost of the bridges. I've been taxed for resurfacing and snow shoveling for almost a half-century. That's why I pay taxes, so that I can use the roads.

Now, this exclusionary group wants to take away my right to use the byways because they would like to play the entitlement card.

Let them pay to build and use toll roads. Let them acquire rights and build an overhead toll road over Macleod Trail from Cranston to City Hall at their expense. Then let them pay $20 a day to use it. Let them pay for a toll road through the Weaselhead, then maintain it.

I can see right through this. I will not allow public property to convert into P3 use.

Is there a Road'n Hood hiding in the concrete forest to stop robbing from the poor to give to the rich?

Obviously, he does not belong to the Manning Foundation!

Rork Hilford
Calgary

Mica flip flops on tolls now that they're coming to a road near him

Link to article here.

This is incredible, Mica never saw a toll road he didn’t like when leader of the House Transportation Subcommittee, now that one has come knocking in his backyard and voters are angry, he says he won’t allow tolls on one inch of interstates. How convenient, after his policies have wreaked havoc on millions of American motorists!

U.S. Rep. Mica: Adding tolls to I-4 would be double-dipping on taxpayers
News 13.com
May 6, 2014

Toll roads could be added to I-4 under a proposed plan, but U.S. Rep. John Mica promises to take on the White House over the issue.

"I will not let them impose tolls in Central Florida or on 1 inch of interstates in America," Mica said.

The White House announced a plan to let states decide whether to turn interstates into toll roads. Toll revenue could be used to repair highways, but Mica said that's essentially double-dipping on taxpayers.

"People have already paid for those roads, and we need to keep it a national interstate system and not a series of toll roads," he said.

The White House's idea is different from a separate plan to add toll lanes to I-4 where drivers would only pay if they drove in those lanes.

However, according to an article from July of 2011, Mica does support that separate plan. He explained back then that the gas tax, which is normally used to pay for roads, is not bringing in enough money to pay for roads across the country.

USA Today: Obama's highway tolls take cash, time and privacy

Link to article here.

Obama's highway tolls take cash, time and privacy: Column
When government success means you pay more taxes.
By Glenn Harlan Reynolds
May 4, 2014
USA Today

It's yet another lesson in the law of unintended consequences — and, as usual, the government wants us to pick up the tab for its poor planning. This time, it's the Obama administration's proposal to allow tolls on interstate highways, where such tolls have been banned since the Eisenhower days.

The problem is that government efforts to discourage driving and to encourage fuel conservation have been successful. With people burning less gas, revenues from the gasoline tax are down.

People burning less gas is what the government wanted. But with gas prices at historically high levels (often over four bucks a gallon), and with trust in government at historic lows, politicians aren't too enthusiastic about taking the obvious step, increasing the gas tax. They don't want to take the heat. Instead, they're looking to increase revenue in other, less obvious ways.

This has led states such as Oregon and New Jersey to propose taxing people for mileage instead of gas, probably using GPS trackers. That approach increases taxes most on gas-sipping hybrids and electric cars, which use no gas at all. (You know, the cars the government has been busy subsidizing because they use less or no gas.) But the idea of having all our movement tracked by government-mandated GPS units hasn't played very well with voters, so those schemes have had trouble getting traction.

Tolls are plan B. But they'll also make the driving experience worse, and less private. If states set up old-fashioned toll booths on the interstate, as a number already have for bridges and tunnels, you'll have to slow down to pay. (Which, ironically, will waste gas.) Politicians will undoubtedly like it, though, because all those toll booth employees will be government employees who can probably be counted on to re-elect incumbents.
Of course, this is the 21st century, so we'll let drivers who opt in use radio frequency chips or bar codes to whiz by sensors that withdraw money from your bank account. But that's not really an improvement because it also means that the government will have a handy computerized record of where you go and when. It might not save time, either, as E-ZPass lanes clog up, too.

One of the nice things about driving in America today is that if you tire of the Big Brother aspects of air travel, you can just get in your car and go. Sensor-equipped tolls will make it easy for a government that already spies on us too much to spy on us some more. Whatever promises are made now, experience shows that's exactly what the government will do.

If the gas tax really isn't raising enough money to fix the roads, then our politicians should man up and increase it or better yet stop spending so much of it on sidewalks, bike lanes and mass transit. The worst possible outcome is tolls that instead of just taking our money like a gas tax, will take our money, waste our time and destroy our privacy.

Glenn Harlan Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor, is the author of The New School: How the Information Age Will Save American Education from Itself.

NTTA sicks DPS on toll violators, to impound cars

Link to article here.

So now we've reduced our Department of Public Safety to little more than glorified meter maids for the toll authority. Really? This is what toll policy has gotten us in Texas under Rick Perry.

NTTA to team up with DPS to catch habitual toll violators
by JOBIN PANICKER
WFAA
May 1, 2014

DALLAS — The North Texas Tollway Authority is taking a bold step to recoup millions in unpaid tolls across North Texas.

Starting in the month of May, NTTA and DPS will team up to begin pulling over habitual toll violators, and in some cases, towing their vehicles.

“People have had every notice," said Michael Rey, of NTTA. "The folks who are in this category are blatantly violating the terms of the roadway."

NTTA’s ban will first start with 500 drivers. And after some time, 500 more. NTTA officials hope to get the attention of 6,000 drivers by the end of the year. Rey says every one of these drivers will be process-served with notices. That notice calls for 10 days to either appeal or pay up.

To make this notorious list, Rey says drivers must have at least 100 outstanding tolls and two NTTA failure to pay notices.

“I was on that list," said Steven Porter, who went to the NTTA Thursday. "I’m not high up on that list, but I’m on that list.

He didn’t disclose how much he has to pay in fines but said it’s more than $5,000.

The list of habitual violators started with 75,000 names and it’s now down to 30,000 in Texas.

If Porter doesn’t pay, DPS will be on him and new license readers will be scanning for his license plates. NTTA has just purchased four new license readers that are mobile and will be placed in different areas of toll roads every day.

“They match them to a list of habitual violators eligible for ban," Rey said. "If they trigger one, the command center will relay that to DPS troopers and they will pull over the vehicle."

NTTA tells us the first time toll violators get pulled over they will get a citation, a fine up to $500 and a Class C Misdemeanor. Rey says if the trooper realizes you have been using the toll roads several times without paying, your car may be impounded. And getting the car returned will require the violator to pay the fines or set up a payment plan.

Washington Post: United States of Toll Roads

Link to article with full charts & graphs here.

The United States of toll roads
By Laris Karklis and Reid Wilson
Washington Post
May 1, 2014

Imagine flying down the open road in Texas, where the speed limit is something like 150 miles an hour. You’ll experience the fresh air, the thrill of the open road — and, if you’re on certain highways, the hassle of slowing down and tossing a handful of quarters at a toll booth.

Texas is one of 29 states that charges drivers money to travel on certain roads. Texans pay for the right to drive on 503 miles of roads, both interstate and non-interstate. Florida drivers pay tolls on 719 miles of roads, while New Yorkers, Pennsylvanians and Oklahomans all fork over money to travel more than 550 miles of roads.

Under a new proposal from the Obama administration, a lot more of us might be paying tolls in the future. Our colleague Ashley Halsey reports the Obama administration’s version of a transportation bill would reverse a long-standing federal prohibition on most interstate tolling.

“We believe that this is an area where the states have to make their own decisions,” said Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “We want to open the aperture, if you will, to allow more states to choose to make broader use of tolling, to have that option available.”

The possibility of more toll roads is emerging as an alternative source of funding for the 46,876-mile interstate system. With more fuel-efficient cars hitting the road, the 18.4-cent federal gas tax no longer provides the revenue necessary to maintain infrastructure.

Toll roads would be a minor part of the new funding structure. The White House proposal relies on funding that would come from a series of corporate tax reforms, most of them one-time revenue sources that would close the highway trust fund deficit and provide an additional $150 billion above gas tax revenue.

Labor and transportation interest groups mostly favor raising the gas tax to cover the expected $63 billion shortfall over the next four years.

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