Shuster: Lawmakers need 'educating' on transportation funding

Link to article here.

This is politican-speak for soliciting the special interests to lobby elected officials to raise taxes and increase spending. No doubt we need to boost transportation funding since the gas tax hasn't been raised in 20 years and not even adjusted for inflation, but when past highway bills contained over 6,000 earmarks for congressional pet projects, and when anywhere from one-third to nearly half of past gas taxes went to transit instead of roads, Congress needs to prioritize existing taxes and properly fund highways or completely devolve the federal program to the states.

Shuster: Lawmakers need 'educating' on transportation funding
By Keith Laing
The Hill
January 24, 2014

The chairman of the House Transportation Committee said Friday that lawmakers in both parties needed to be “educated” on what needs to be included in a new road and transit funding bill. 

Speaking at the U.S. Conference of Mayor’s annual conference, Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) said he needed the help of municipal leaders to convince lawmakers to make compromises that will be necessary to approve a new surface transportation bill.



“We need your help also in educating members of Congress,” Shuster said. “Because there are some members out there, and on both sides of the aisle there's education needed. On my side of the aisle, there's a reluctance to think … the federal government has a role or we shouldn't be spending money, or we shouldn't be spending more money. On the other side of the aisle, we've got, there's a reluctance to streamline things. To make sure we can get these projects … out there in the field and get them done quicker. Time is money.”

Eighty percent of Bosnia's privatizations failed

Bosnia's failed privatizations key cause of unrest
By AIDA CERKEZ
Associated Press
February 12, 2014

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — In the worst unrest since Bosnia's terrible civil war two decades ago, buildings have been set ablaze and the presidency has been put under siege. But the trouble this time is economic — not ethnic.

When Bosnia abandoned communism about two decades ago, officials devised a plan to privatize state-owned companies in a way they hoped would avoid mass layoffs for state workers. It was supposed to be a smooth transition after the 1992-1995 war that left 100,000 dead and devastated the country's infrastructure.
But it has been a disaster for people like Munevera Drugovac, a 58-year-old widow, who works for a company that was bought by a businessman in 2004. She hasn't been paid in 19 months.

"Back then, I didn't have electricity and heating because of the war," she said. "Now, I don't have it because of unpaid bills."

More than 80 percent of privatizations have failed. Many well-connected tycoons have swept into these companies, stripping them of their assets, declaring bankruptcy and leaving thousands without jobs or with minimal pay.



Read more here.

Straus wants tolls, higher taxes, Beebe to keep freeways free

Link to article here.

Straus wants tolls, higher taxes, Beebe to keep freeways free
By Terri Hall
Examiner.com
February 7, 2014

Speaker Joe Straus (R - Dist 121) is a master at kicking the can down the road. After three sessions as Speaker of the Texas House, Straus has failed to properly fund the state highway system. At the commencement of the 83rd regular session last year, he promised to end diversions of the gas tax and to make funding infrastructure - both roads and water - a priority. Neither happened.

Instead, Straus punted the funding of infrastructure to the voters with two constitutional amendment elections. After three expensive special sessions, the Texas legislature finally agreed upon a transportation funding bill that will go to the voters for approval in November. During the second special session, Express-News Austin Bureau Chief Peggy Fikac tweeted that Straus was telling senators he wants a transportation crisis in 2015 to increase pressure for taxes. So crisis creation and crisis management describe Straus’ leadership style.

The Constitutional amendment that passed would divert half of the oil and gas severance tax that funds the state’s emergency fund, or Rainy Day Fund, to roads, giving the highway department a potential boost of $1 billion annually. Lawmakers readily acknowledge it’s a stop gap measure since the agency needs $4 billion more per year.

But didn’t Chan’s company design the SH 130 tollway?

Some question how Elisa Chan could possibly be considered anti-toll when her engineering firm did part of the SH 130 tollway.

First of all, I met with Chan at her company. I’m fully aware of her engineering firm. The segment of SH 130 her firm was involved with was the northern portion that TxDOT operates, not the concession public private partnership that’s operated by Cintra. That portion of the tollway was built before our group even existed or understood the difference between a design build project and the traditional design-bid-build model or before the concession model was utilized,  which is design-build-finance-operate-maintain, or DBFOM, as it later was on the southern segments.

Elisa Chan was not necessisarily anti-toll when we sat down to vet her, other than opposing tolls on existing roads like every candidate will tell you. She knows it’s a big problem in the district and that the people don’t want tolls, and she wanted to understand the deeper problems involved. Once she understood the nuances between traditional turnpikes and the new toll road models with all the trap doors, taxpayer subsidies, loan guarantees, and sweetheart provisions now being utilized across the state, nuances Donna Campbell does not understand, she immediately said no taxpayer money should be going into these deals.

She took copious notes - something Campbell never did in spending hours with her trying to get her to understand the differences between all these things, all the different agencies, how everything is funded, and how it needed to be fixed. Chan's questions were very sharp and demonstrated a level of understanding that’s rare in a public official.

Chan immediately saw the anti-taxpayer and fiscally reckless aspects of these deals and is calling for public protections and proper reforms to be put in place. So she’s not for toll roads the way they’re being done in our state under the current leadership. She’s signed onto our legislative agenda and understands what good public policy looks like as it pertains to transportation.

She’s very smart and understands the level of sophistication involved in these deals. Chan is very technical and her background and her depth of knowledge in the industry may just prove to be a big asset. Most of these Transportation Committee members don’t have a clue what’s involved in these complex contracts. They don’t read the bills they pass, or have the first clue how to protect the public interest, Campbell included.

Campbell also signed onto our legislative goals, but betrayed us. We already know how Campbell will vote on transportation. We’ll also watchdog Chan, and if she doesn’t keep her promises she'll get a poor rating, too. We didn’t choose the candidates in this race. It’s our job to vet them. Of the three, Chan is clearly the sharpest on transportation.

Read more: Campbell’s betrayal on tolls leaves Chan opening to snag senate seat

Wolff: I like tolls, if you won’t carpool or get on a bus, then you oughta pay

Link to article here.

Wolff: I like tolls, if you won’t carpool or get on a bus, then you oughta pay
By Terri Hall
Examiner.com
February 6, 2014

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff wants you to pay up to 50 cents a mile in new toll taxes to drive San Antonio freeways. Tolls will cost the average family $2,000-$4,000 a year in new taxes on driving and Wolff has his fingerprints all over the deals that brought it to San Antonio.

First, Wolff lobbied for a new $10 hike in your vehicle registration fees from the Texas legislature last year - the only local fee hike that didn’t require a public vote first. This money goes directly to the county-run toll authority. Then, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) decided to offload part of the state highway system to local governments.

Rather than tell TxDOT to take a hike, Wolff brokered a back room deal with Transportation Commission Chairman Ted Houghton to takeover some state roads from TxDOT and utilize half of the new fee hike to add toll lanes to I-10 in a financing package that includes tolls on US 281, and in return, TxDOT dropped $70 million in discretionary funds to extend the non-toll expansion on Loop 1604 West. However, all of Loop 1604 is targeted for tolls, too.

Campbell’s betrayal on tolls leaves Chan opening to snag senate seat

Link to article here.

Campbell’s betrayal on tolls leaves Chan opening to snag senate seat
By Terri Hall
Examiner.com
February 1, 2014

How the mighty fall could be the theme of the Texas Senate District 25 race where incumbent Donna Campbell faces a tough fight to hang onto her senate seat. Campbell drew two primary opponents in her re-election bid, one a Chamber of Commerce establishment pick, former County Commissioner Mike Novak, who’s running on giving more money to public schools and raising the gas tax in addition to supporting toll roads (all loser issues in District 25). He’s taken huge sums of money from San Antonio’s major toll road player, Zachry. The other opponent is former City Councilwoman Elisa Chan.

Chan jettisoned to rock star status in conservative circles when she opposed the city’s non-discrimination ordinance that many felt went too far and amounted to making adherence to scripture a crime. Though Chan resigned her seat after the controversy, she’s a perfect fit for District 25 Republican voters. She has both social and fiscal conservative bona fides and is - as anyone who’s met or worked with her will tell you - super sharp.

TxDOT back to its 'toll roads or no roads' agenda

Link to article here.

TxDOT sticks to toll roads or no roads agenda
By Terri Hall
January 7, 2014
Examiner.com

If you tell a lie long enough, it’s eventually accepted as truth. That’s what attendees of the Texas Transportation Forum hosted by the Texas Department of Transportation’s (TxDOT) were expected to buy into at today’s gathering pertaining to the myths of tolling. TxDOT has been criticized by the public over the last decade for promoting its doctrine of toll roads or no roads. After several attempts at re-making the agency and trying to convince a skeptical public that it’s changed, the leopard hasn’t changed his spots and it’s back to its old toll roads mantra at this year’s forum. On the heels of announcing an $825 million toll plan for San Antonio, TxDOT continues to hold road funds hostage to tolling.

SA officials unveil 'congestion' plan, not 'mobility' plan

Link to article here.

SA leaders unveil ‘mobility,’ er, ‘congestion’ plan
By Terri Hall
Examiner.com
January 6, 2014

Today, Texas Transportation Commission Chairman Ted Houghton announced an $825 million ‘5-year Mobility Plan’ for San Antonio’s congested north side freeways that includes toll lanes on US 281 and Interstate 10 and free expansion on Loop 1604 West (for now).

Houghton was joined by Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, Mayor Julian Castro, and officials from Via Metropolitan Transit and the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority (RMA) who stood united in their plans to add toll lanes to much of the north side -- even converting two-four existing free main lanes on US 281 into a toll lanes. This comes on the heels of public meetings to add toll lanes to Interstate 35.

More bike paths? Congressman proposes doubling gas tax to pay for bike trails

Link to article here.

More bike paths? Congressman floats near doubling of federal gas tax
By Terri Hall
Examiner.com
December 5, 2013

Tired of your road taxes disappearing? So is Neil Cavuto, with the Fox Business Network who hosts his own daily show where, yesterday, he unleashed his frustration on U.S. Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) over the congressman’s proposal to hike the federal gas tax by 15 cents. The current federal gas tax is 18.4 per gallon, which has remained unchanged since 1993.
Cavuto asked what many Americans want to know -- where are our road taxes going? Where is the toll money going? Our roads and bridges are crumbling or in perpetual states of construction or reconstruction yet we’re still stuck in traffic. Now congress wants us to pay more and Cavuto asks a legitimate question. Why should we?

Land deals along NTTA tollways draw investigation

Link to article here.

State land deals for North Texas highway construction under scrutiny
By Reese Dunklin
Dallas Morning News
December 19, 2013

Questions are arising again about whether the state overpaid for land to widen a traffic-clogged highway in North Texas.

My colleague Kevin Krause reported Sunday that two businessmen bought right of way along Interstate 35E in Dallas and Denton County. They then sold it to the state within months for a profit. For one tract, the Texas Department of Transportation paid four times the original purchase price.

The businessmen, Kevin Bollman and Wade Blackburn, told Kevin they simply analyzed construction plans to learn where and when to buy. They also hired one of the agency’s former right-of-way officials.

That official, Travis Henderson, said he helps the businessmen only on deals outside the area he once worked. The transportation department, for its part, isn’t talking. It also isn’t releasing documents about the purchases.

One elected official has expressed doubts about the deals. “Transactions like this sure don’t look right to me,” Denton County Commissioner Hugh Coleman said.

That case reminds me of my 2001 reporting on the state’s purchase of State Highway 121 right of way in Denton County.

You may recall the name of the seller. The Maharishi Global Development Fund was affiliated with the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a meditation guru to The Beatles. In 2000, the fund came to The Colony and said it wanted to build the world’s tallest skyscraper.

That plan fizzled. As the fund planned its next move, the state came looking for right of way to widen SH121.

The fund hired the county’s transportation consultant and North Texas Tollway Authority board appointee to help negotiate.

The state offered about $11 million. The price per acre was about two times higher than what the fund paid the year before. But the fund wanted nearly $20 million more.

The sides couldn’t agree. A legal dispute ensued. A special panel eventually ordered the state to double its payout. That ended up being five times what the fund had spent originally.

Road maintenance privatized in TX

Link to story here.

Small highway maintenance jobs to go private, save money says TxDOT
KLBJ Newsroom
12/27/2013

The state is preparing to start 2014 with a new way of taking care of road maintenance.  It's starting right here in Austin.

The $11-million contract was made possible with a state commission action earlier this year.

"It's an effort to operate more efficiently and save money. We're entering more performance-based contracts with private companies to do routine maintenance on our highways," TxDOT's Helena Wright says.

The state is promoting the idea as a 96-million dollar savings to taxpayers over a five-year period.  It will be expanded to include I-35, 45 and 10.

Grand Pkwy Segment E opens in Houston

Link to article here.

This road for Exxon Mobil is a wasteful greenfield project, propped up with taxpayers money and not even o the state's priority list. Yet it is to receive over $400 million in taxpayer subsidies plus an un-Constitutional loan guarantee courtesy of Texas taxpayers. Send a message and boycott it anyway!

Grand Parkway Segment E northwest of Houston opens this weekend - 15 miles more on TX99
December 21, 2013
By Peter Samuel
Toll Road News

The northwest fringe of the Houston area gets new connectivity with the opening Saturday (Dec 21) of Segment E of the Grand Parkway, TX99. 2x2 lanes of toll expressway will open as barrels and barriers are removed.

Last weekend TxDOT sponsored a Party on the Parkway with 1km and 5km runs, bands, barbecues and food.

Construction cost of the 15 miles was $320m. Prime contractor was Williams Bros.

Toll systems are by TransCore. 

Ground was broken on the project Sept 13 2011.

 South-to-North TX99-E goes from I-10 in Katy to US290 in Cypress. The Parkway has spectacular four level interchanges with major intersecting highways at the ends, although some of the ramps remain to be completed. 

There are two gantry toll points on the mainline with $1.40 tolls and some ramp tolls 35c to 70c. 

Segment D about 12 miles south from I-10 to US59S/I-69 is already open, and work is well under way on segments F-1, F-2 and G, a 38 mile stretch from the end of Segment E at US290 east  to US59N/I-69. That’s due to open late 2015 under a design-build-operate,maintain contract for $1.1 billion. 

Most of the pavement and bridge beams are concrete.



Concessioning failed - state takes risk


TxDOT efforts to concession the Grand Parkway have failed and the state is taking the traffic and revenue risk.

Some segments of the Parkway are designed to have untolled frontage roads straddling the tollway and hitting at-grade signalized intersections. In  other places motorists that want to avoid tolls can use ramps to signalized intersections and toll gantries are on mainline overbridges of the intersections.


Clockwise from 8 o’clock

On a clockface the scheduling started  at 8 o’clock and proceeds clockwise.

Part of Segment D from I-10 to the Westpark Tollway used tax money for financing and is untolled, but there are tolls on the portion south of the Westpark to US59.

In the southeastern portion TX99 around Baytown and the port area will use an existing  stretch of TX146, a freeway which is to remain untolled.


There is preliminary work on some stretches of the H and I segments in the north east and east. The southern segments A, B, C will be the last built.

Work was started by a Fort Bend county toll authority but TxDOT has taken over  - being better able to sell needed bonds. Some $2.9 billion have been sold so far.

TX99 when complete at 185 centerline miles will be a third belt route around the Houston area. It will intersect the many radial expressways going in to the center of the region.  It's located at distances varying from 17 miles to 27 miles out from central Houston.

Lawmakers audit automakers over GPS privacy breaches

Link to article here.

Lawmakers Audit Automakers Over GPS Privacy Issue
GAO report investigates privacy protections for in-car navigation devices and apps.
January 16, 2014
The Newspaper.com

Ongoing revelations about the depth of domestic spying by the National Security Agency keeps individual privacy in the spotlight. In a report released last week, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) examined whether automakers and the producers of in-car navigation devices have been adhering to recommended privacy practices. The congressional watchdog agency, for the most part, was satisfied with what it found, though it identified a few areas where improvement was needed.

WASTE: $1 million bus stop halted in Virginia

Link to article here.

Buck halts at $1.1 million bus ‘Super Stop’
January 16, 2014
By Kenric Ward | Watchdog.org Virginia Bureau

ARLINGTON, Va. — Arlington County dubs itself a “world-class” community. Such hubris has led to a $1.1 million bus stop.

The so-called “Super Stop” was to be the first of 24 along the Columbia Pike corridor, but a torrent of bad publicity halted the $24 million program as local officials retrenched.

“Total expenditures, including local funds, are currently being examined,” Arlington spokesman Eric Balliet told Watchdog.org on Tuesday. An independent auditor has been called in to review the program.

The first Super Stop, installed at Columbia Pike and Walter Reed last year, hasn’t fared well.
Last summer’s heat wave fried its electronic schedule board. Open at the back, the shelter allows wind, rain and snow to blow in behind the huddled masses.

By contrast, an older Metro bus stop across the street affords greater protection from the elements, and more seating. And it was constructed for $30,000.

BAD BUSINESS: Transportation Advisory Committee member Joseph Warren calls the Super Stop an “embarrassment.”

“This is such an embarrassment. It’s unbelievably stupid,” said Joseph Warren, a transportation economist and member of Arlington’s Transportation Advisory Committee.

Warren said his panel was initially told the Super Stop, which features a heated sidewalk, would run $500,000. “We were never apprised of the increased price,” he said in an interview with Watchdog.

Before county officials started deflecting blame on their consultants for the cost overruns, Warren said “no one was asking any questions.”

“They had the money,” he said.

But with an estimated $10.8 million sunk into the Super Stop project — and just one shelter to show for it — future funding is problematic.

Taxpayer groups, including Arlingtonians for Sensible Transit, have roundly criticized the program. Further federal and state funding is questionable in the wake of the public mockery.

Arlington Board Chairman Walter Tejada has called the Super Stop an isolated incident.

Balliet said the county spent “approximately $1.5 million in federal funds for planning and preliminary engineering” of new bus stops. The figure includes “fabrication of three stations, and construction of the prototype,” he said.

“The new stations will accommodate growing transit service and ridership on Columbia Pike and also serve a future streetcar line,” Balliet stated.

But the county has yet to account for the whereabouts of the $10.8 million that Warren says has been expended so far.

J.T. Parmalee, who has used the million-dollar bus shelter, calls the Super Stop a poster child for government waste.

Parmalee, a conservative political consultant, said such pricey edifices only fuel a push by state Delegate Ben Cline, R-Richmond, to repeal the multibillion-dollar transportation tax increase passed by the General Assembly last year.

Kenric Ward is chief of Watchdog.org’s Virginia Bureau.

Christie's toll road closures to punish enemies could easily spread

Link to article here.

This shows politics can be played with toll roads and road closures can be used to punch political enemies. When citizen prevailed in their lawsuit against the Texas Department of Transportation in 2006 & 2008 to stop the US 281 toll project, stop light times doubled overnight. No one should have that kind of power of anyone’s freedom to travel and road delays should never be used for political ends. There should be criminal penalties for anyone who attempts to engage in abusing public assets for political gain.

Christie Faces Scandal on Traffic Jam Aides Ordered
By KATE ZERNIKE
JAN. 8, 2014
New York Times

The mystery of who closed two lanes onto the George Washington Bridge — turning the borough of Fort Lee, N.J., into a parking lot for four days in September — exploded into a full-bore political scandal for Gov. Chris Christie on Wednesday. Emails and texts revealed that a top aide had ordered the closings to punish the town’s mayor after he did not endorse the governor for re-election.

“Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” Bridget Anne Kelly, a deputy chief of staff to Mr. Christie, emailed David Wildstein, a high school friend of the governor who worked at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the bridge.

Later text messages mocked concerns that school buses filled with students were stuck in gridlock: “They are the children of Buono voters,” Mr. Wildstein wrote, referring to Mr. Christie’s opponent Barbara Buono.

The emails are striking in their political maneuvering, showing Christie aides gleeful about some of the chaos that resulted. Emergency vehicles were delayed in responding to three people with heart problems and a missing toddler, and commuters were left fuming. One of the governor’s associates refers to the mayor of Fort Lee as “this little Serbian,” and Ms. Kelly exchanges messages about the plan while she is in line to pay her respects at a wake.

Mr. Christie denied knowledge of the emails and said his staff was to blame. The growing scandal threatens to tarnish him at the moment he assumes an even larger position on the national stage, as chairman of the Republican Governors Association and an all-but-certain candidate for his party’s presidential nomination in 2016.

While the emails do not establish that the governor himself called for the lane closings, they show his staff was intimately involved, contrary to Mr. Christie’s repeated avowals that no one in his office or campaign knew about them. In fact, the emails show, several staff members and appointees worked to cover up the scheme under the ruse that it was a traffic study.

The disclosing of the emails will probably intensify an investigation into the lane closing by the Port Authority Inspector General’s office, which opened a formal inquiry in December. At that time, the deputy inspector general, Michael Nestor, confirmed the investigation, and another official said the office was seeking to determine whether there was any abuse of authority or gross mismanagement.

The emails could represent evidence that government resources were used for political purposes, a potential crime. Mr. Nestor did not respond to a telephone message on Wednesday seeking comment.

On Wednesday, the normally voluble Mr. Christie was largely quiet. He and his staff had apparently been caught off-guard by the day’s revelations. He canceled his one scheduled public event, where he was expected to talk about progress in recovering from Hurricane Sandy. Late in the afternoon, he issued a statement saying that he had seen the exchanges “for the first time” and casting blame on his staff for “unacceptable” behavior.

“I am outraged and deeply saddened to learn that not only was I misled by a member of my staff, but this completely inappropriate and unsanctioned conduct was made without my knowledge,” Mr. Christie’s statement said. “One thing is clear: This type of behavior is unacceptable, and I will not tolerate it because the people of New Jersey deserve better. This behavior is not representative of me or my administration in any way, and people will be held responsible for their actions.”

His office did not respond to follow-up inquiries about whether this meant Ms. Kelly, or anyone else, had been fired. Mr. Wildstein, along with Bill Baroni, Mr. Christie’s top appointed staff member at the Port Authority, resigned in December after port officials testified in a legislative hearing that the men had violated protocols and had sought to hide their plans for the lane closings from Fort Lee officials, the police and even other Port Authority officials.

The documents were obtained by The New York Times and other news outlets Wednesday. They are heavily redacted by Mr. Wildstein, who turned them over under a subpoena from Democratic legislators investigating the lane closing, making it hard to determine in some cases who is speaking.

But they indicate that Mr. Christie’s staff, appointees at the Port Authority, and his campaign office were all intimately involved in discussing the growing scandal and how to react to it even as it was unfolding.

After New York appointees at the Port Authority, who had not been warned in advance about the closings, reopened the lanes four days after they were closed, Mr. Wildstein and Ms. Kelly expressed panic, but Mr. Wildstein assured her that David Samson, Mr. Christie’s handpicked chairman of the Port Authority, was “helping us to retaliate.”

When reporters began calling to ask about the lane closings, Mr. Wildstein and Ms. Kelly worked with Michael Drewniak, the governor’s chief spokesman, to fashion a statement saying that the port was “reviewing traffic safety patterns” at the bridge and had been “in contact with Fort Lee police throughout this transition.”

In fact, bridge officials testified in December that Mr. Baroni and Mr. Wildstein instructed them not to tell the Fort Lee police, or anyone else, about the lane closings before they happened. They also testified that they did not believe there had been any traffic study; none were produced after the lane closings, and any study of traffic patterns could have been done using computer models of data routinely collected at the bridge.

Timeline
Bridget Anne Kelly, a deputy chief of staff to Gov. Chris Christie, emails David Wildstein, Mr. Christie’s close friend and appointee at the Port Authority, which controls the bridge. “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” she wrote.

In early October, Mr. Wildstein wrote to Bill Stepien, Mr. Christie’s campaign manager, about an article in The Wall Street Journal about the suspicious lane closings.

“It’s fine,” replied Mr. Stepien, recently named by Mr. Christie to be head of the state Republican party and a top adviser to the Republican Governors Association. “The mayor is an idiot, though.”

He added, with an apparent typo, “When some, lose some.”

“It will be a tough November for this little Serbian,” Mr. Wildstein replied. (The mayor of Fort Lee, Mark Sokolich, at whom that barb was aimed, is actually of Croatian descent.)

After another story a few weeks later, Mr. Stepien assured Mr. Wildstein, “For what it’s worth, I like you more on October 2, 2013 than I did on October 2, 2009.”

Mr. Baroni and Mr. Wildstein resigned their positions in December as the scandal began to cast a shadow over Mr. Christie’s political fortunes.

I'm generally a supporter of Christie, but this type of behavior cannot be tolerated by any elected official. They work for the people they represent, including the ones who didn't vote for or otherwise oppose them.

Assemblyman John S. Wisniewski, a Democrat who has been leading legislative hearings on the closings, said Mr. Christie’s statement on Wednesday suffered from a “credibility gap.” He was skeptical, he said, that Ms. Kelly could sit “three chairs or four chairs away from the governor’s office” and be directing such an operation without his knowledge.

“His front office is not a place where freelancers and independent actors are welcome,” he said. “It’s a tight ship.”

“No matter who’s fired or resigns, we still have questions without answers,” he added.

Mr. Christie was cruising to re-election over Ms. Buono in the fall, but he and his campaign were leaning on local Democratic officials to endorse him so that he could pitch himself to national Republicans as the presidential nominee who could attract broad bipartisan support.

More than 50 local Democrats endorsed Mr. Christie, and some whispered that they feared the governor would withhold state money or favor if they did not go along.

Mr. Sokolich, a Democrat, was among those who did not endorse him.

On Nov. 25th in Trenton, former Port Authority director Bill Baroni defending incident as a traffic study:
The governor’s office dismissed it as routine schedule changes. But the emails that came to light on Wednesday show that Mr. Fulop’s reluctance to endorse the governor did not sit well with the governor’s office. In one exchange, Mr. Christie’s aides and the Port Authority staff talked about how they were ignoring messages from the mayor of Fort Lee, who had called Mr. Baroni to report the lane closings as “urgent matter of public safety.”

“Did he call him back?” Ms. Kelly asked.

“Radio silence,” Mr. Wildstein replied. “His name comes right after Mayor Fulop.”
“TY,” she wrote, using shorthand for thank you.

Mr. Sokolich texted Mr. Baroni, Mr. Christie’s chief appointee at the Port Authority, later in September seeking to understand why the lanes were closed, and said people were saying it was “punishment.”

“Try as I may to dispel these rumors I am having a tough time,” he wrote.

Mr. Sokolich, in an interview on Wednesday, said he found the emails — particularly the one referring to him as “this little Serbian” — “condescending, offensive, insulting and slanderous.”
“How dare you?” he added.

For weeks, Port Authority officials and Mr. Christie’s office declined to address the lane closings. Mr. Baroni told other port officials that they were not to discuss the closings publicly.

After the initial legislative hearings late last year, Mr. Christie mocked the idea that he might have been involved, joking, “I actually was the guy working the cones,” and then adding, “You are not really serious.”

When he announced Mr. Baroni’s resignation in December, he said that he had “made it very clear to everyone on my senior staff that if anyone had any knowledge of this that they need to come forward.”

“They’ve all assured me that they don’t,” he said. “I’ve spoken to Mr. Stepien and he has assured me the same thing.”

Mr. Wildstein is scheduled to testify before the legislative committee on Thursday, but he has filed a motion to quash the subpoena compelling his testimony. A judge is expected to rule on his motion in the morning.

Correction: January 8, 2014
Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Bridget Anne Kelly was texting with David Wildstein about children being late to school as a result of the lane closures. The documents are redacted and who was texting with Mr. Wildstein is not identified. The article also rendered the attribution for the quotes incorrectly. The unidentified person said, “Is it wrong that I am smiling?” And Mr. Wildstein responded, “No,” and then added, “They are the children of Buono voters.”

Correction: January 8, 2014
An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of Mr. Christie’s campaign manager. He is Bill Stepien, not Stepian.

PA tax hikes seen as model for next federal highway bill

Link to analysis here.

Folks, this along with the tax hikes in Virginia are being held up as the model for the next federal highway bill. Con. Bill Shuster from Pennsylvania is a BIG reason this series of tax hikes passed a Republican legislature. Now the special interests are hungry for more at the federal level, using PA as a test case. It’s time to DUMP Shuster, who has drawn an opponent in his primary race.

Pumping out the Pennsylvania gas tax facts
By Liam Migdail-Smith
Reading Eagle
January 21, 2014

There's been a lot of debate over the $2.3 billion boost to transportation funding Gov. Tom Corbett and the Legislature approved in November.

On one hand, it will help Berks County and the rest of the state pay for road and bridge projects, such as widening Route 222 between Reading and Allentown.

On the other hand, drivers will have to pay more.

Texas County Commissioners Vote For Illegal Speed Cameras

Link to article here.

Texas County Commissioners Vote For Illegal Speed Cameras
Denton County, Texas prepares to ignore state ban and allow a private company to install speed cameras.
December 20, 2013
The Newspaper.com

Five years ago, the Texas state legislature cracked down on the cities of Rhome and Marble Falls when they allowed a for-profit company to issue speed camera tickets without the authority of the legislature. Before the programs could get off the ground, lawmakers acted and Governor Rick Perry (R) signed a law banning photo radar in the state. On Tuesday, Denton County Commissioners voted 3 to 1 to move forward on a speed camera program regardless of the law.

"A municipality may not implement or operate an automated traffic control system with respect to a highway under its jurisdiction," Transportation Code Section 542.2035 states. "The attorney general shall enforce this subsection."

Attorney General Greg Abbott (R) has already staked out a campaign platform highly skeptical of the use of red light cameras. He proposes to allow voters to decide whether such programs would continue by referendum. American Traffic Solutions (ATS) insists it has the right to issue photo radar tickets worth $150 each, beginning in school zones because the law prohibits "a municipality" not counties from having speed cameras.

"Texas law addresses speed cameras and prevents their use in cities, but not in counties," ATS wrote.

To bolster the sales pitch, ATS hired former state Supreme Court Justice Thomas R. Phillips to reassure local government officials that the speed camera program is legal. Phillips is now a partner and lobbyist for Baker Botts. Local officials were most concerned about how much money could be generated.

"Let me ask you this," Commissioner Ron Marchant asked. "Since it is a civil (fine), the fine itself and any administrative fees do not go back into the coffers of the state of Texas -- they stay and remain in Denton County. Is that correct?"

ATS has recently begun a campaign to encourage counties to sign up for speed cameras while the state legislature is out of session. So far, no other county in the state has gone along with the plan.

"I don't want to be the canary in the coal mine," Commissioner Hugh Coleman said. "For us to rely on a legal contrivance -- to me, it makes me want to act with trepidation."

Others saw it as an opportunity to open a door to widespread speed camera use throughout the state.

"I have no reluctance at all of being the canary," Marchant said. "I recommend that if we do have some interest that we put some kind of ad hoc committee together to see the feasibility of it, to see exactly what the financial ramifications are... This basically cuts the state out of getting a piece of the pie."

The commissioners court voted to create a study committee that would report back for action on the proposed photo ticketing proposal.

Travel demand forecasts laughable

Link to article here.

The Laughable Fiction of Travel-Demand Forecasts
By James Bacon
Bacon’s Rebellion
December 20, 2013

The Virginia Department of Transportation and regional transportation planning organizations periodically make traffic forecasts for planning purposes. The idea makes sense in the abstract — estimating future volumes of traffic is needed to determine how much, and where, we should invest in new transportation infrastructure. Unfortunately, the process is flawed. Estimates have consistently overshot the mark in recent years, feeding the sense of transportation “crisis,” justifying the construction of uneconomical projects and feeding the clamor for higher taxes.

The problem is hardly unique to Virginia. The U.S. Department of Transportation has been consistently overestimating traffic volumes for years, though rarely so egregiously as in the past  year. In its 2012 Conditions and Performance Report to Congress issued December 2012, USDOT projected that Vehicle Miles Traveled in the U.S. would reach 3.3 billion. Turns out the estimate was about 11% too high. Think about that: Eleven percent off in just one year!

The Frontier Group decided to compare past USDOT projections with real-world performance. The result was the graph shown here. Writes Eric Sunquist with the State Smart Transportation Initiative: “The rolled-up trend estimates show essentially the same slope year after year, indicating that agencies providing [Highway Performance Monitoring System] data generally have not updated their models and assumptions to account for current conditions, as if they expect the year to be 1980 forever.”

Projecting long-term traffic forecasts is bad enough. Acting upon those forecasts is foolhardy. There are just too many unknowns to take the forecasts seriously. Will the price of gasoline go up or down? Will Millennials continue to reside in urban centers, sticking to their buses and bicycles as they get older, or will they move to the ‘burbs and embrace the auto-centric lifestyle? What impact will smart-cities technology have on relieving traffic congestion? Which transportation mode will innovate faster and gain more transportation market share — cars, bicycles or mass transit? How will economic restructuring affect the distribution of jobs? Will new technologies enable more people to work at home? Will driverless cars make long-distance commuting less onerous and more popular? Will developers continue building green-field projects on the metropolitan periphery or will they shift to infill and re-development? We can guess the answers but we cannot know them. And we don’t have a clue how the trends might interact in unexpected ways.

There’s one other reason to regard predictions of infinite increases in traffic and congestion with suspicion. In personal correspondence, Barry Klein, president of the Houston Property Rights Association, invokes the work of transportation theorist Yacov Zahavi to suggest why the traffic modeling systems used in Houston are thoroughly inadequate: When congestion intensifies, people change their behavior. “Travel models,” Klein writes, “historically have not included a ‘feedback loop’ so the reactions by road users when confronted with congestion was not reflected.”

Congestion is a subjective experience and people have different levels of tolerance for it. … When individuals perceive themselves to have an intolerable congestion problem they usually find a way to resolve their problem. This phenomenon is unacknowledged by transportation planners.

Here are three examples of how individuals in different social roles adapt their use of the road network and allow the commute time to stay under half an hour. Workers often-times relocate (not hard for renters), adjust their work hours and even change employers when traffic becomes irritating. Employers will relocate to parts of the region that are less congested or that put them close to the workforce that they desire. Retailers play a role, because of their habit of looking for under-served pockets of consumers and then set up stores in their proximity, which incidentally reduces congestion by giving consumers shorter shopping trips.

All these factors combine to disperse traffic over the road network. They each play a role in the on-going, unplanned but never ceasing trends that mitigate congestion.

People adapt in other ways. As traffic congestion increases, people are more likely to avail themselves of alternatives to the automobile: walking, biking, riding mass transit or working at home. Developers respond to the increased demand for convenience by building housing where more transportation options are available. Employers implement Transportation Demand Management strategies. The list goes on.

Bottom line: Long-term traffic forecasts are a fiction. Rather than spending billions of dollars expanding the transportation network in anticipation of travel demand that may or may not materialize, we should focus short-term on addressing demand that demonstrably exists right now and longer-term on achieving a better balance of land uses that generates fewer and shorter trips.

California county says 'No' to unwanted toll project

Link to article here.

Texas politicians love to slam liberal California for just about everything. But this time they got it right. They actually LISTENED to the PEOPLE and nixed an unpopular toll road in response to public opposition. REFRESHING! Texas could use a lesson from California. The crony capitalists are alive and well and have a choke-hold over Texas. The conversion fo free lanes into toll lanes has alreayd happened in Texas. Mostly because TxDOT LIES to the public until the dirty deed is already done, which is illegal. But none of the GOP politicians with oversight lift a finger to halt it.

California County Says No To Tolling
Orange County, California rejects toll road option in light of overwhelming public opposition.
December 11, 2013
The Newspaper.com

California's busiest stretch of freeway will not be tolled. On Monday, the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) agreed with local politicians and members of the public who expressed opposition to the proposed conversion of existing Interstate 405 lanes into toll lanes.

Macquarie found to commit fraud in misrepresenting traffic forecasts

Link to article here.

Of course, Toll Road News defends toll shysters, Macquarie, but common sense would side with the Judge on this one. It’s FRAUD! Just because wrongdoing has become commonplace doesn’t make it any less FRAUDULENT!

Bankruptcy reorganization for American Roads not as harmonious as seems
July 26, 2013
By Peter Samuel
Toll Road News

2013-07-26: American Roads LLC operator of the Detroit Windsor Tunnel and owner of four toll
bridges in Alabama will be owned by a major creditor Syncora Guarantee Inc if the 'prepackaged agreement' between its current owner Alinda Capital Partners and creditors is accepted by the US Bankruptcy Court. Syncora was one of nine other creditors that filed in favor of the American Roads reorganization plan in US Bankruptcy Court this week. The plan pays off eight of the creditors. And the transfer of ownership to Syncora satisfies Syncora's claims it says in the filings.

Sounds all very harmonious!

Except behind the look of a happily agreed joint filing under Chapter 11 is a fierce legal war that Syncora has been waging against Alinda and Macquarie in the New York state courts. American Roads was originally a creation of Macquarie in October 2006 - the financing which loaded it up with the debt now of $830m it is unable to service.

It was almost immediately spun off to Alinda by Macquarie.

In the little publicized litigation in the State Supreme Court of New York Syncora alleges that the financing and spinoff by Macquarie involved fraud and misrepresentation, in particular that Macquarie had a secret and improper relationship with Australian traffic and revenue forecaster Maunsell Australia Pty Ltd (since absorbed into Aecom) to produce unrealistically high traffic and revenue forecasts.

"Success fees"
Syncora was solicited for insurance for complex borrowing involving interest rate swaps, the insurance being used to get 'Aaa' ratings for $500m of backloaded bonds. Syncora agreed in December 2006 to provide the financing insurance, it claims, on the basis of fraudulent misrepresentations of the objectivity of Maunsell's traffic and revenue forecasts. 

The case is summarized by State Supreme Court judge Melvin Schweitzer in a 29-page judgment filed July 1. It says that an undisclosed scheme of "success fees" from Macquarie to Maunsell incentivized it to boost up traffic forecasts.



Judge Schweitzer's rendering of the allegation: "These under-the-table success fees amounted to additional millions of dollars per transaction, and were paid in connection with the American Roads transaction as well as many others. None of this was disclosed to Syncora which was instead led to believe that Maunsell was an objective adviser on whom it could, and did, rely.

"

The undisclosed under-the-table payments involved "conflicts of interest tainting Maunsell's work," Syncora claimed.

Syncora alleged that Maunsell's forecasts were "specifically engineered to ensure that the Macquarie Group could justify the overpriced bids it placed in acquiring infrastructure assets such as American Roads."



Macquarie responded that the Maunsell forecasts were presented as projections only and that they specifically warned of circumstances in which actuality would be below projection. It was well established in the courts that "speculation and expressions of hope for the future do not constitute actionable representations of fact."



The judge ruled in the case on a motion by Macquarie to dismiss it that Syncora had sufficiently strong arguments and evidence to go to trial. He ruled that Maunsell's erroneous forecasts weren't the heart of the case. That lay in the concealment of compensation arrangements with Maunsell, its conflict of interest and potential bias.



Schweitzer continued: "Syncora argues, and the court agrees, that the undisclosed conflict of interest under which Maunsell operated, in addition to secret success fees that Maunsell was paid... do amount to a material misrepresentation or omission of fact."


"Plainly actionable as fraud" - Judge
This, the judge said, was "plainly actionable as fraud."



Judge Schweitzer says in his ruling that Macquarie is accused by Syncora of "promoting inflated projections that Maunsell had prepared on promise of undisclosed success fees (so) Macquarie could quickly acquire asets around which to build an entire business model that generated a cascade of fees so long as they could keep the assets afloat through the issuance of debt."



Schweizter: "It is the court's opinion that Syncora alleged more than sufficient facts from which to infer that Macquarie acted with knowing fraudulent intent."



Syncora alleged that Macquarie wanted the assets bought at inflated prices so it could move them between funds and earn fees for the various funds on each transfer.
Macquarie argued in rebuttal that Syncora was a sophisticated investor and that it was capable of critically reviewing the Maunsell projections which had described the assumptions and methodology used. 

On the "under-the-table" fees paid to Maunsell, Macquarie acknowledged they that they paid "success fees" to the traffic and revenue forecaster. But they said Syncora never asked about Maunsell's compensation arrangements, so Macquarie could not be accused of any misrepresentation on this score.



Again Judge Schweitzer ruled against Macquarie saying that status and incentives of consultants is customarily covered by the bond prospectus or bond agreement and that Macquarie had a duty to disclose its payment method to Maunsell, and Maunsell's incentives to help close a deal. 

On every point the Judge ruled for Syncora saying it has the basis for a claim of fraud and compensation for damages against Macquarie. 



No comment
We can't get anyone in the case to address the relevance of this to the emergence of the prepackaged deal in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. But the deal looks mightily like a settlement of the NY Supreme Court litigation reached from Syncora's strong bargaining situation after Schweitzer's strong ruling in its favor earlier in the month.

Since Alinda has ceded control of American Roads to Syncora the State Supreme Court case now seems, as the lawyers say, "moot."



COMMENT: We find the notion that Macquarie deliberately and systematically overpriced its bids for greater fees earnings implausible. To the contrary the group as a whole has suffered large losses, and damage to its reputation, from bids that have proven to be over high. Potential losses on the Indiana Toll Road and Dulles Greenway for example would seem to vastly exceed any inflated fees income. But unfortunately for Macquarie its partner in the American Roads financing Syncora came to believe it had been 'had' by Macquarie and seems to be succeeding in persuading the courts of that. It clearly should have disclosed its "success fee" payments to the forecaster. Secrecy of this kind usually proves unwise - editor.

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