TX lawmakers pushed more tolls, debt over cash

Link to article here.

On Roads, Legislature Backed More Tolls, Debt Over Cash
By Aman Batheja
May 30, 2013
Texas Tribune

Texas political leaders entered this legislative session hopeful they might transform the state’s approach to funding transportation. After a decade of relying largely on borrowed money and tolls to expand the state’s highways, finding new revenue made economic sense, many lawmakers said.

But when the regular session ended Monday, the Texas Department of Transportation wound up with a fraction of the additional funding it requested. And legislators passed measures advancing toll projects and making it easier for communities to pay for road work on credit.

Confab in Germany pushes more P3s in U.S.

Read more here.

This shouldn't surprise anyone that the special interests, including foreign interests, are hot to get their mitts on U.S. infrastructure. Most have destroyed their own countries road systems and economies with these public private partnership boondoggles that are now seeking taxpayer bailouts, so naturally they're comin' after America's vast road infrastructure for more. Texans have adamantly opposed P3s and the sale of their public infrastructure since they first got word of it, and they haven't suddenly changed their minds because foreign leaders want a piece of our wallets.

Foreign leaders back private development of transportation projects
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Bb Gordon Dickson
Star Telegram

LEIPZIG, Germany — Ministers from 54 nations last week opened the door to worldwide expanded private development of toll roads, rail lines and other projects.

It’s a potential investment that could amount to several trillion dollars over the next decade or so, several officials said.

But the declaration of support for so-called public-private partnerships also raises many questions about whether corporations will wield too much control over public roads — or whether public entities could be exposed to financial risks in these agreements.

Two state leaders seek oil & gas taxes to fund roads

Link to article here.

These tone-deaf politicians just don't get it. We collect $4 billion in existing road taxes (from gas taxes and vehicles sales tax) that isn't being allocated to roads and is being spent on funding general government. Yet the only options they push involve grabbing new revenues - money Texas needs for a emergencies. Dedicate existing road taxes to roads before we heist more tax money just to placate budget writers who prefer a spending spree...

Senators devise another road-funding plan: use oil and gas taxes
By Kate Alexander and Ben Wear
Austin American Statesman
Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Looking to dredge up more money for transportation, two leading state senators hope to pass a measure that would ask voters to direct close to a billion dollars a year in oil and gas taxes to highways rather than the state’s rainy day fund.

The idea from Sens. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, and Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, first surfaced at the tail end of the regular legislative session, which came to a close Monday. But it was too late to get House buy-in, so the senators are pushing to persuade Gov. Rick Perry to add the issue to the agenda for the newly called special session.

Brawley resigns over concerns with toll roads

Link to article here.

Brawley cites concerns with toll roads as one of the reasons he resigned. Says tolls are another way of taxing and they make consumers pay twice.

Rep. Brawley resigns as Chair of House Finance Committee
by WCNC.com Staff
May 22, 2013
WCNC.com

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Republican House member from Iredell County, Representative Robert Brawley, has resigned as the Chair of the State House Finance Committee.

Representative Brawley resigned as the Chair of the Finance Committee via a letter to Thom Tillis, the Speaker of the House.

Foxx downplays tolling, but fan of P3s

Link to article here.

There's clearly a disconnect here. You can't be a fan of public private partnerships and NOT be a fan of tolling...but we do hope he holds to his word that tolls are antithetical to prosperity and ought not to be the primary means of fixing our congested highways.

DOT appointee Foxx downplays interstate tolling as a funding solution
By David Tanner,
May 22, 2013
Land Line Magazine

President Obama’s choice to lead the U.S. Department of Transportation, Anthony Foxx, says interstate tolling should be used only to add new capacity and should not be viewed as a solution to the shortfalls facing the Highway Trust Fund. Foxx faced questions from a Senate committee on Wednesday, May 22, as part of his confirmation process to become DOT secretary.



The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, led by Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-WV, and ranking member John Thune, R-SD, questioned Foxx about how he would run the DOT and help solve challenges involved with infrastructure funding.

 Foxx told the committee he would rely on his experience as the current mayor of Charlotte, NC, to make difficult choices and be accountable for the tough road ahead. 



N.C. passes road improvement plan

Link to article here.

It's as if South Carolina is channeling the Texas legislature...inaction and taking the short-term easy way out -- more debt -- rather than face the road funding shortfall and properly fund roads with taxes collected.

Road improvement plan approved in S.C. Senate
By Tim Smith
Greenville Online
May 23, 2013

COLUMBIA -- Major bridge and road projects could be funded statewide under a road plan approved by the Senate that could spend $500 million on the state’s crumbling infrastructure.
The plan surfaced Thursday during budget debate and was approved with bi-partisan support as a budget amendment.

The amendment, introduced by Sen. Nikki Setzler, a Lexington County Democrat, would send $50 million via the state Department of Transportation to the State Transportation Infrastructure Bank, which could then issue bonds for as much as $500 million, senators told GreenvilleOnline.com.

MoPac lane closures begin

Link to article here.

MoPac lanes closing nightly to prepare for project to add toll lanes
By Ben Wear
American-Statesman Staff
May 20, 2013

MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) will see the first lane closures beginning this week as part of a two-plus year project to widen the expressway and add a toll lane in each direction between Lady Bird Lake and Parmer Lane.

The work, surveying and soil sampling, will cause rolling lane closures between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m.
The only daytime activity, likely to happen next week, will be some helicopter flyovers at relatively low altitudes that, while potentially distracting to drivers, will not close lanes. Officials with the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, which will build and operate the $200 million express toll lane project, said the flights, part of the surveying work, will be about 500 feet above the road.

CBO: Federal Highway Trust Fund bankrupt in 2015

Link to article here.

The year 2015 looks to be the year of armageddon for road funding at both the federal and state level. Texas lawmakers have been warned for nearly a decade that the state highway fund has NO more money for ANY new capacity beyond 2015. In fact, TxDOT is behind $1 billion/yr just for road maintenance and $3 billion/yr behind for new construction fro a total of $4 billion. There will be no easy way forward to fund roads at the federal or state level when it all hits the fan in 2015, but it won't be from a lack of warnings...our politicians are just plain derelict in their duty to fund this core function of government.

Just how screwed is the Highway Trust Fund?
April 24, 2013
Ryan Holleywell
Governing.com

The Highway Trust Fund won't be able to meet its obligations come 2015, according to a statement by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to the House Budget Committee.
Federal lawmakers, the report says, would have to cut transportation spending by 92 percent or raise the gas tax by more than 50 percent in order to bring revenue and spending in line.

The Highway Trust Fund, which gets its money from taxes on gasoline and motor fuels, is the source of money for federal spending on highways, bridges, roads and transit. The fund has struggled for years to remain in the black -- ever since federal transportation spending started exceeding the dedicated taxes used to pay for it.

Virginians protest tolls on I-395

Link to article here.

Virginia Residents Protest Against Toll Roads
Virginia residents protest latest plan to convert freeway lanes into a toll road.
April 8, 2013
The Newspaper.com

About 100 residents of Alexandria, Virginia gathered Saturday to protest the conversion of the Interstate 395 high occupancy vehicle lanes into a toll road. The Concerned Residents of Landmark, a group representing eight homeowners associations in the area, are concerned that the plan includes building an elevated ramp that will raise freeway traffic up to the level of nearby homes, within 75 feet of some buildings. The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) chose to end the toll road at the Landmark location instead of running the toll lanes all the way to Washington, DC because the city of Arlington filed a lawsuit that blocked the toll road from extending north through the city.

"VDOT has shirked its moral and legal duty to ensure its planned actions cause no harm to surrounding environment," the group explains on its website, Delay the Ramp. "In its rush to build, VDOT arbitrarily and without careful analysis selected the Turkeycock Run location, not because it was the best site, but because it was convenient and VDOT wanted to make up for time lost fighting the Arlington case."

Obama taps former Charlotte Mayor as new head of transportation

Link to article here.

Apparently the only qualifications needed to head the U.S. Department of Transportation is a penchant for ill-conceived, taxpayer-subsidized transit boondoggles. Only 1% of Americans use mass transit to go about daily living. America's highways, used by 99% of Americans for daily living, are not being properly funded. Yet the talk we hear from this new appointee emphasizes transit boondoggles - that usually heist scarce road dollars. The Obama Administration has made it clear it has an anti-car agenda and wishes to engage in social engineering to tax people out of their cars (tolls, carbon taxes, restrict highway expansion) and into mass transit.

Obama taps Charlotte Mayor as Transportation Secretary
By Hazel Trice Edney
May 1, 2013
Houston Forward Times

President Obama has made his first nomination of an African-American to his cabinet this term, winning accolades from some African-American leaders.

Charlotte, N.C. Mayor Anthony Foxx, nominated as Secretary of Transportation this week, will now go under scrutiny by the U. S. Senate, which has to confirm all presidential cabinet members.

Another Aussie toll road goes bankrupt

Link to article here.

Once again, Texas should learn from others' mistakes. Toll roads are unreliable, unaffordable, and unsustainable as a method of road finance. There simply aren't enough people with enough money to pay tolls on a daily basis for basic mobility.

Australia: Another Toll Road Goes Bankrupt
Another Australian toll road joins the worldwide list of failed projects.
May 7, 2013
The Newspaper.com

Transportation officials in the United States and around the world remain fascinated with tolling public-private partnerships as a method of financing roads, but tolling continue to prove itself an unreliable choice. Last week, the Rivercity Motorway Group's bankruptcy administrators began soliciting bids for the Clem7 toll road in Brisbane, Australia.

The 4.2 mile tunnel links five major area roads at a cost of $8.10 per round trip -- a proposition few residents found worthwhile. A bankruptcy judge with the Federal Court of Australia explained the problem.

Traffic cameras turn America into surveillance society

Link to article here.

America’s Roads Have Been Turned Into A Revenue Generating Surveillance Grid
By Michael Snyder
Investment Watch Blog.com
May 9, 2013

What do speed traps, parking tickets, toll roads, speed cameras and red light cameras all have in common?  They are all major revenue sources for state and local governments.  All over America today there are state and local governments that are drowning in debt.  Many have chosen to use “traffic enforcement” as a way to raise desperately needed revenue. 

According to the National Motorist Association, issuing speeding tickets raises somewhere between 4.5 billion and 6 billion dollars in the United States each year.  And the average price of a speeding ticket just keeps going up. 

Today, the national average is about $150, but in many jurisdictions it is far higher.  For example, more than 16 million traffic tickets are issued in the state of California each year, and the average fine is approximately $250.  If you are wealthy that may not be much of a problem, but if you are a family that is barely scraping by every month that can be a major financial setback. 

Meanwhile, America’s roads are also being systematically transformed into a surveillance grid. 

Spanish toll traffic down, calls to suspend all tolls

Link to article here.

Considering Spanish companies dominate public private partnership toll concessions in Texas, shouldn't be learning from the plight of the Spanish people who cannot afford to travel these privatized toll roads and the whole system is in danger of going bankrupt? Who's going to bail it out? Cash-strapped taxpayers and an already struggling government?

JUST ANOTHER TOLL STORY
Mark Nolan / 2013-05-16
TheLeader.com

On numerous occasions in the past, we have reported on the financial state of the companies running the toll roads around Spain, with reductions in use and the subsequent losses incurred, but information released this week shows that the picture is not likely to improve any time soon, with many groups calling for the suspension of all tolls on the Spanish highway network.

Traffic using the toll roads has reduced by 30% in 2012, with 16,631 vehicles using the system, on average, each day, a figure comparable to that of fifteen years ago.

New penalties await toll violators

Link to article here.

New Penalties For Toll Road Violators Await Gov. Perry's Approval
By Shelley Kofler
May 28, 2013
KERA News.org

Thousands of North Texas drivers could have their vehicles impounded or their registration blocked under Senate Bill 1792, legislation Governor Perry is expected to sign.

The North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) says there are at least 75,000 vehicles that have each traveled the area’s toll roads without paying 100 or more times.

That adds up to some real money for the NTTA, about $45 million dollars a year that’s not available to use on road projects or to factor into the rates all toll road users pay.

In the past the NTTA has tried to shame the chronic violators, who they call scofflaws, into paying. They’ve published their names.

Judge in VA rules tolls are taxes

Link to article here.

Virginia judge rules tolls are taxes
By David Tanner
Land Line Magazine
May 2, 2013

A circuit court judge in Virginia has ruled that the state DOT cannot impose tolls on two existing tunnels to pay for construction of a third tunnel or freeway improvements that accompany the Elizabeth River Crossing Project in the Hampton Roads region.



Portsmouth Circuit Court Judge James Cales Jr. ruled in favor of a group of individual plaintiffs on Wednesday, May 1.

The group consists of business owners and area residents, including numerous truckers and small trucking companies who filed a lawsuit in July 2012 against the Virginia Department of Transportation and a contractor hired to complete the Elizabeth River Crossing Project.



Maine may reverse toll road secrecy

Link to article here.

Maine: Legislation Would Reverse Toll Road Secrecy
Maine Joint Transportation Committee votes to make all toll road documents and proposals public.
May 14, 2013
TheNewspaper.com

The Maine state legislature's Joint Transportation Committee on Monday reported a bill that would lift the veil of secrecy from a major toll road project and force private developers to pay for their own feasibility studies. On April 5, 2012 Governor Paul LePage (R) signed a bill ordering the state transportation department to conduct an economic feasibility study of a $2 billion, 220-mile toll road cutting across the state from east to west, connecting the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec. The new bill repeals that provision.

"We should not be using public funds to conduct a study for a private project," state Senator Edward J. Mazurek (D-Knox County), the bill's sponsor, testified. "We have a range of existing state transportation projects waiting for funding, and siphoning limited public funds to private projects is not acceptable."

Toll 'managed lanes' bring greater credit risk

Link to article here.

Toll express lanes can get investment grade ratings but it will be tough - Moody's
May 13, 2013
Toll Road News

The New York investment rater Moody's says in a new report that toll express or managed lane projects can achieve investment grade ratings, but it will be tough. They call the service provided by toll express lanes (TELs) desirable but discretionary and hence difficult to forecast. TELs can be expected to have generally greater risks  than regular toll projects, the rater says.

In their favor TEL projects are generally located in corridors with an established and known traffic demand and performance. And while they cater to a minority of trips they should be able to reach their full potential quite quickly - appealing to those in a traffic stream with low tolerance for delays and unreliable trip times: "Ramp up could be faster due to location next to already existing lanes."

Cintra puts squeeze on DFW commuters, closes one lane

Link to article here.

Anyone who thinks the private toll operators in public private partnerships don't call the shots on PUBLIC mobility and transportation needs, hasn't been paying attention. Spain-based Cintra is clearly in the driver's seat and has closed an existing lane of traffic on LBJ, further congesting one of the most congested roads in the country, before the project even opens!

Lane shift puts the squeeze on LBJ traffic
by JASON WHEELER
WFAA
Posted on May 21, 2013

DALLAS — A huge change is coming to LBJ Freeway at the end of this month. As we first reported, the lack of shoulders in the construction zone has raised safety concerns.

But the fix means that instead of four lanes in each direction, we'll soon have only three.

In much of the Interstate 635 construction zone, there are no emergency shoulders, which leaves no room for error.

"Right now there's no space... there's just no space," said LBJ Express project spokesman Andy Rittler. "If there is an accident — a fender-bender &mdsh; it's a three-hour ordeal."

North Carolina bill would allow tolls on existing roads

Link to article here.

N.C. House passes bill addressing I-95 tolls
The Associated Press
HamptonRoads.com
May 17, 2013

If North Carolina ever puts toll booths on an existing interstate, the House still wants to give motorists the option to drive the route for free.

The chamber voted unanimously Thursday for a measure that targets potential tolling on Interstate 95 but would apply to all current interstates.

The bill says the state can't collect tolls on these interstates unless it maintains the same number of non-toll lanes before the tolling.

Rep. Jeff Collins of Rocky Mount is an I-95 toll critic and bill sponsor. He says the bill envisions toll lanes in which users would pay to drive at a higher speed limit than in non-toll lanes.

The bill now goes to the Senate. The state Department of Transportation is holding public hearings seeking comment upgrades to I-95.
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Link to article here.

Toll road bill survives second vote
By Mark Binker
May 21, 2013
WRAL.com

Raleigh, N.C. — The Department of Transportation would be able to add toll lanes to highways under a bill that cleared the state House Tuesday.

All existing highway lanes would have to remain free under the measure. But if highways were expanded, the department could toll them in order to pay for the construction. In order to entice people to drive on the tolled lanes, the department could offer limited access and higher speed limits.

The measure was thought to have passed the House Thursday. But it is a "roll call" bill, meaning it could potentially raise money. Such bills must be voted on two separate days. So it was back before the House Tuesday.

Texas legislature fails to fund roads despite surplus and 26% spending increase

Link to article here.

It’s a wrap: Legislature drops boom on taxpayers with more tolls, fees
By Terri Hall
May 30, 2013
Examiner.com

Despite high hopes that lawmakers would address the chronic road funding shortfall at the outset of the 83rd session of the Texas legislature, Texas taxpayers only saw $534 million of $1.2 billion in diversions of gas tax returned to roads (for the next two years) with a reliance on more toll roads to fill the remaining $4 billion annual funding gap. That’s only one-eighth of the money needed.

While Texas Governor Rick Perry, Lt. Governor David Dewhurst, and Speaker of the Texas House Joe Straus promised to end gas tax diversions and make transportation funding a priority, the Texas legislature went home without addressing one of the core priorities of state government - funding the Texas state highway system - in spite of an $8 billion surplus heading into the session. Indeed, the legislature spent it all and increased spending 26% for the biennium spurring grassroots watchdog groups like tea parties to ask Perry to veto the budget and supplemental spending bill, HB 1025.

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