Poll: People prefer tolls to taxes...WHAT?

Read it on Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/transportation-policy-in-san-antonio/poll-claiming-preference-for-tolls-over-taxes-a-ruse#print#ixzz1i4UHctQ3

Poll claiming preference for tolls over taxes a ruse

By Terri Hall
Examiner.com
December 29, 2011

The Reason Foundation delivers again. One of the top think tanks that lobbies 24/7 to privatize our public infrastructure through toll roads, known as public private partnerships (or P3s), released a “scientific” poll that claims 55% support P3s and 58% of respondents prefer tolls to gas tax increases to pay for new roads. Guess what, both are tax increases, and most folks hedge their bets thinking they can avoid paying a toll but they can’t avoid a gas tax increase. So since they’d prefer NO tax increase at all, they answer they’d prefer tolls over gas tax increases on a survey where leading questions box you into their pre-determined trap.

Then, the survey specifically asks how to pay for NEW lanes, so it fails to address the problem we have in Texas where the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and local toll authorities are tolling existing highway lanes nor the fact that they’re using gas taxes, public bonds, vehicle registration fees, and even property taxes to build toll roads. Drivers will not be able to access those tax-funded lanes without paying a DOUBLE tax -- a toll, too. It’s taking away our freely accessible public highway system and making those who cannot afford to pay tolls (in addition to gas taxes) second class citizens relegated to stop-light-riddled access roads or surface streets to get around.

The Reason-Rupe poll also lacks a question that shows a comparison of the cost per mile to drive a toll road versus a freeway when gauging preferences for tolls versus gas taxes. It costs 1-2 cents per mile to use a gas tax funded road. Average toll rates for a public toll road in Texas range from 12 cents per mile to 25 cents per mile. When the road is handed over to a private corporation in a P3 like Reason Foundation advocates, toll rates jump up to 75 cents per mile, which is like adding $15 to every gallon of gas you buy. Giving respondents such information that reveals tolls will add $200-$300 PER MONTH or more to your commuting costs versus $100 more PER YEAR (on average) with an increased gas tax would make it a more legitimate measure of the public’s preferences for gas tax funded roads versus toll roads.

Also, 30% of those surveyed DO NOT WORK, they’re either independently wealthy, retired, stay-at-home moms, or unemployed. So naturally, these are NOT the subset of folks who experience a daily commute nor are they the ones stuck in daily congestion since they’re not the ones traveling in congested peak hours. So that significantly skews the data in favor of tolling when 30% of those surveyed will never realistically have to pay those toll tax increases. In addition, 58% of respondents don’t live near a toll road so, again, they’re happy to say they’re for toll roads when they think it doesn’t effect them. Classic divide and conquer politics.
The only questions assume higher taxes are necessary to expand our highways. There’s conveniently no question that says Congress and state legislatures should stop diverting road funds to non-road uses and spend the taxes we already pay to expand our highways without tolls. We’d likely see nearly 100% of Americans answer with a resounding ‘yes’ to that one!

The Reason-Rupe poll also claims 57% of respondents favor the conversion of HOV lanes to HOT lanes. Well, that’s certainly not the case in Georgia where there’s feverish backlash to the conversion of an HOV lane on I-85 that’s resulted in more congestion and toll rates so high ($5.40 one way) that the once full HOV lane is now nearly empty during peak hours (read more here).

When the conversion of HOV lanes occur, few commuters realize that the number of people required per vehicle is usually increased from 2 to 3, bumping 2-person carpoolers into the non-toll lanes actually creating more congestion on the highway than prior to the conversion. Meanwhile, those who can pay the $5-$10 per trip in new toll taxes to access those lanes get to whiz along in near empty lanes while the rest of us are trapped in worsening congestion with no free road expansion in sight.

So increasingly, toll roads are becoming roads for the elite. Guess who gets free toll tags for themselves and their families? Politicians (read about it here). So for them, voting for endless new toll taxes dubbed ‘user fees’ is a win-win -- they don’t have to cast a controversial vote to raise the gas tax and they won’t have to pay that new toll tax since they’ll get a free toll tag.

Path of least resistance
Politicians will always take the path of least resistance. They have no problem increasing taxes, so long as its a hidden tax or they can pass it off as a ‘fee’ (and that’s true of BOTH political parties). They have polls like this one produced by a clearly biased Reason Foundation to put the fear of God in them never to raise the gas tax, turning politicos toward what they consider to be the lesser of the evils -- tolls -- as the way to ‘solve’ road funding woes.

Both the Senate and House versions of the new federal highway bill rely heavily on tolling to expand roadway capacity, both include the authority for states to enter into P3s as well as to continue taxpayer subsidies for those privatized toll roads through the TIFIA loan program. The House version even encourages loans of taxpayer money for toll roads (both public and private) through State Infrastructure Banks.

P3s put that power to tax in the hands of private corporations, leaving politicians the ‘out,’ blaming the private companies for the tax increases, not themselves. P3s, and now many public toll roads, contain non-compete agreements that penalize or prohibit the expansion of free roads surrounding the toll roads, guaranteeing free alternatives remain congested for the life of the contract.

Infrastructure Investor has declared in its Daily Digest today: “There has also been a wholesale movement at the national legislative and regulatory level to support PPP (or P3s) approaches. The rearguard opposition from a few 'anti-privatization' legislators, mostly Democrats in the House, has disappeared. Instead Democrats and Republicans, in Congress and in the Administration, compete in declarations of support for innovative privatization approaches to reduce costs and provide the funding needed for US infrastructure.”

This is according to insider John Schmidt whose firm, Mayer Brown, will personally benefit from such deals, who used the song ‘This land is my land’ to describe how totally the special interests ‘own’ our politicians. It also demonstrates how eager they are to eviscerate the private property rights of Americans by exploiting the governmental powers of eminent domain to steal your land in the name of a ‘public use,’ for a road, and then give that land over to a private corporation in a P3 using taxpayer subsidies in deals that guarantee the private entity’s profits for 50-100 years.

Of course all of these vital details are nowhere to be found in the poll questions by Reason Foundation. They make it sound so rosy as if the private entity is doing us and our cash-strapped government a favor by offering to build or expand our public roads with no cost to taxpayers. When in fact, every P3 so far has included massive amounts of taxpayer subsidies as well as non-compete agreements that manipulate free routes to force motorists onto the private toll roads.

Facing tight budgets, most states are turning to tolling to pay for highways regardless of the status of the federal highway bill. In Texas, nearly ALL new lanes (and even some existing lanes) are slated to be tolled with 500 toll projects currently being contemplated. The same trend is taking hold across the country. This new form of runaway taxation in the hands of UNELECTED boards, will not be avoidable.

The most affordable and most accountable way to fund public roads is the gas tax, bar none. It literally takes an act of Congress (or a state legislature) to raise the gas tax, but it only takes the whim of a bureaucrat to raise a toll. Runaway toll taxes in the hands of unelected toll authority boards, or even worse, private corporations in P3s, whom the taxpayers cannot hold accountable, tramples upon the public interest, threatens our freedom to travel, and puts the ability to drive that much further out of reach for the many Americans struggling to make ends meet.

A healthy dose of truth of taxation is in order for 2012, and the so-called think tanks who produce such biased polls as Reason Foundation does here, are guilty of contributing to the shroud of deception that’s allowing this piracy of the public's assets through tolling and P3s, not unveiling it.

Opsommer blasts RFID exclusive lanes on highways

Michigan State Representative Paul Opsommer gets it - big government attempts to use behavioral economics to manipulate peoples' behavior is greeted with total rejection, like the stiff opposition to the I-85 Atlanta HOV-lane-turned-toll lane project. It's obvious that Americans don't want government-managed highways -- they want their freedom to travel!



OPSOMMER BLASTS HIGH COSTS OF PASSPORTS, SENATOR SCHUMER FOR BORDER PLAN

December 2, 2011


State Rep. Paul Opsommer, Chair of the Michigan House Transportation Committee, today criticized Senator Charles Schumer's recently announced border plan, calling it "more of the same half-baked federal solutions that make the very problems they created even worse."

Opsommer pointed out that it has been roughly five years since the Government Accountability Office issued a scathing report saying that not only could the federal government not justify the high price of passports, but that they didn't even have a process in place to make sure passports hadn't been turned into a profit center.

To add insult to injury, federal passport prices have been increased since that report was released, and Schumer was quoted by WGRZ Channel 2 as saying that the cost of new mobile application centers would not increase prices because "It'll come out of the fee, you pay for the fee, and there's enough money in the fees to pay for these things."

Opsommer said that statement proves that once again they are charging too much.

"If you can start buying and outfitting all these new high tech mobile homes without raising prices because existing fees already cover it, then by definition the fees were too high to begin with," said Opsommer, R-DeWitt. "If the federal government is determined to use behavioral economics to accomplish their goals, if anything they should be making traditional federal passports less expensive and fully tax deductible.  The federal government needs to stop using behavioral economics to try to manipulate people away from traditional federal passports through high costs and unjustifiable delays in processing."

Opsommer also disagreed on the reason why NEXUS cards and Enhanced Driver's Licenses were failing to catch on, and said that the mobile busses would be a waste of time.

"If Schumer wants to use his clout in Washington to help border states such as Michigan, he should be reining in federal bureaucrats who are trying to force citizens to accept long range wireless computer chips in our driver's licenses," said Opsommer. "Those RFID chips are different than the ones used in federal passports, and Schumer's refusal to let states create unobtrusive trusted traveler documents is the real reason why Enhanced Drivers Licenses have been such a dismal failure in New York and Michigan,"

Opsommer also said that creating more RFID only car lanes is just another example of using behavioral economics to manipulate people into courses of action that they otherwise wouldn't take.

"People don't like to feel that they are being pushed around, tracked, and controlled," said Opsommer.  "If Schumer thinks more RFID lanes is the answer, all he has to do is look at how people responded to the new 'High Occupancy Toll' lanes in Georgia.  Trying to make people so miserable to wear them down into compliance won't work in Michigan, and if you look at states or provinces like Arizona and Saskatchewan that have banned these outright I don't think they're going to work elsewhere either."

Opsommer said that despite resolutions passed both in Michigan and with the National Conference of State Legislators that the federal government refuses to attack the real problem at its most basic level.

"We need to be able to come up with a $25 dollar passport, and a passport that only takes a couple of weeks to process.  Instead we're charging through the roof for them and having the chips manufactured overseas. If Schumer agrees that international trade is as important as I do, we need to address this problem at its core and not to use it opportunistically to try to force people into something.  I don't care how many big busses he sends to senior citizen centers or places of employment to try to enroll everyone in his system, it's not going to work."

Opsommer concluded by calling on Congress to take control of the Enhanced Driver's License program away from bureaucrats and to hold the federal Department of State and Department of Homeland Security accountable.

"Let's keep all of this simple," said Opsommer. "Make this a priority by getting your passport house in order and start lowering prices."

City insists no bond money will go to street cars

While the City insists none of the proposed 2012 bond package will go to directly fund the street car project in downtown San Antonio, it says a portion will go to fund reconstruction of downtown streets for multi-modal purposes. Multi-modal is code for mass transit, and in this case, a street car. TURF opposes the street car because it takes over $90 million in ROAD funds from the Advanced Transportation District and uses it to fund a street car downtown. Meanwhile, city, county, state, and federal officials insist there's "no money" to fix our roads without tolls -- of course not when they're raiding our road taxes to spend on street cars to nowhere!

City insists bond money won't go to streetcars
Officials spend day rebutting TV, radio stories.
By Vianna Davila
San Antonio Express-News
Tuesday, December 6, 2011

This week, citizen committees will finalize the list of proposed bond projects they plan to send to the City Council for approval, paving the way for voters to consider a $596 million bond program next May.

But the city spent most of Tuesday discrediting reports about a project that's not on the list of bond initiatives at all: Streetcar.

City officials said a series of television and radio reports on Monday wrongly suggested that 2012 bond dollars could be spent on VIA Metropolitan Transit's planned downtown streetcar.

“It's flat out wrong,” said Carri Baker Wells, a tri-chair for the city's community bond committees.

“Streetcar rail has never been a part of the bond committee,” she said.

Mayor Julián Castro also repeatedly has said that neither 2012 bond dollars, nor any of the city's general fund dollars, will be spent on a streetcar, though the City Council recently voted to support construction of the project and to help pay for several other VIA transit projects.

Various local grass-roots activists, including toll road opponent Terri Hall, spoke to the media about the issue on Monday, raising the possibility that the city was trying to slip the streetcar into the list of street bond projects, even though the money might not go to rail itself.

“I think the whole project ties together,” Hall said. “Whether it's a streetcar, laying down the rail tracks, or reconstructing the streets to make way for the streetcar, it's all part of the same project.”

Read the rest of story here.

Engineering firm, HNTB, under fire for overcharging taxpayers on disaster aid

Link to article here.

What's instructive here is that HNTB is the exclusive "legacy" contractor for nearly every toll authority in the state of Texas. If they'd habitually mismanaged and overcharged taxpayers on disaster relief contracts, it's safe to say they're doing it on the toll authority contracts.

Firm criticized on hurricane grants in line for wildfire work

By Brenda Bell
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Published: 9:56 p.m. Monday, Dec. 5, 2011

While spiraling costs were leading one state agency to cancel an engineering firm's $144 million contract to manage hurricane disaster grants, another agency was arranging to hire the same firm, at the same rates, to provide more disaster services this time in response to the hundreds of wildfires that scorched Texas this year.

Texas Department of Public Safety records obtained by the American-Statesman show it has paid the firm, HNTB, up to five times as much per worker hour as it paid dozens of independent contractors for the same type of work, performing wildfire damage assessments in Bastrop and other counties. The payments were made under a work order authorizing the firm to receive up to $400,000 for wildfire operations, with the potential for more work in the future.

An earlier $2.8 million proposal from HNTB for wildfire services was derailed in September after DPS could not secure the necessary funds. The DPS Office of Emergency Management, which coordinates state and local responses to major emergencies and disasters, is the primary conduit for hundreds of millions in FEMA dollars to Texas, and most of the wildfire response is being reimbursed by the federal agency.

Kansas City-based HNTB, whose disaster-related services have earned the firm more than $65 million from no-bid state contracts in the past three years, remains well-positioned to win more state disaster business despite its recent role in the troubled grant program it administered under the auspices of the recently dissolved Texas Department of Rural Affairs.
In the first round of spending from $1.4 billion in federal infrastructure grants to Texas communities stricken by hurricanes Ike and Dolly, the overhead budget was almost depleted, yet two-thirds of the infrastructure projects remain unbuilt three years after the storms.

The high costs of administration and the slow pace of construction led to warnings from federal officials and the cancellation in August of HNTB's contract to manage the community development block grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

As the American-Statesman has reported, the state also redirected $28.6 million intended for new public works in hurricane-damaged locales to pay HNTB's bills. Meanwhile the firm continues to manage the infrastructure grants under a different contract with the General Land Office, which is now in charge of the HUD disaster relief program in Texas.

It is that agency's contract for engineering and other disaster-related services which the DPS has piggybacked on to pay HNTB for wildfire field work. HNTB was one of 10 engineering services firms that qualified to receive work orders under the contract but has earned 99 percent of the money so far — $4.5 million. It has also qualified as a vendor of engineering services under a new state contract with the land office that is replacing its canceled contract to manage the nonhousing grants.

HNTB is well-connected to Gov. Rick Perry's administration. It was the lead consultant for Perry's proposed (and later canceled) Trans-Texas Corridor toll road project, and Perry's presidential campaign spokesman, Ray Sullivan, lobbied for the firm before joining the governor's office in 2009. HNTB and its executives have donated more than $500,000 to the Republican Governors Association, one of Perry's chief funding sources, and to Perry's campaigns.

Josh Havens, a spokesman for Perry's office, said neither the governor nor his office had any involvement in the interagency contract with HNTB.

Emails and documents obtained by the Statesman under the Texas Public Information Act show that DPS eagerly sought the arrangement with HNTB last summer, "based on the critical need to hire supplemental support for the fire and hurricane season," DPS spokesman Tom Vinger said. Even before the destructive Labor Day wildfires, fires had already scorched 3.5 million acres across the state and destroyed more than 1,000 homes.

The agency planned to issue a request in September for a private firm to provide a roster of 190 subcontractors who would augment the state's emergency personnel when needed, but the move was postponed to pursue the interagency contract with HNTB, which could be consummated more quickly, officials said.

"DPS is still developing its strategy regarding future use of contractors," Vinger said.

Like many other states, Texas already has a roster of individuals — often retired military and government workers with experience in finance, engineering, public assistance, hazard mitigation and the like — who work wildfires, floods and other emergencies under temporary contracts for up to six months. According to DPS records, their billings average about $33 an hour .

Vinger said there are currently about 35 of these reservists on active duty for the state, most of them involved in wildfire recovery efforts. Weekly invoices tracked by the agency show they cost about $310 per day, versus HNTB's average cost of $1,600 per day per worker.

Land office spokesman Jim Suydam cautioned that the company's billing rates, which average $190 an hour with an annual escalator of 4 percent, are subject to negotiation. "These published fees are the most they can charge and simply serve as a starting point for negotiations on each and every work order that is authorized," he said.

Emergency management director Nim Kidd did not respond to the Statesman's request for an interview about HNTB's role in disaster response.

In answer to written questions from the Statesman, Vinger replied by email that "external support contracts, such as with HNTB, are above and beyond the reservist program. They provide additional levels of expertise to assist program staff \u2026 where needs may be greater for specific talents such as \u2026 insurance specialists, hydrologists, mechanical/structural engineers, etc."

However, the work that HNTB has performed for DPS — damage assessments — is identical to the tasks performed by the reservists in Bastrop County, for less money.

The original plan that HNTB submitted to DPS last summer proposed a wide array of wildfire services, from debris removal to reviewing utility projects, costing $2.8 million.

The plan assumed that 90 Texas counties would be declared disaster eligible, though at that time only 45 counties had received the designation from the president. (Since the Labor Day fires, an additional 45 counties have been designated major disaster areas.)

In a July letter to DPS, HNTB Vice President Glenn Gregory Jr. noted that DPS had concerns "about being reimbursed by FEMA for HNTB's services should the additional 45 counties not be declared major disaster areas." He proposed splitting the job into two, so that the first phase would cost only $1.5 million. But the DPS staff questioned the viability of even that scaled-down plan, in the absence of a FEMA obligation to fund it.

On Sept. 12, DPS Procurement and Contract Manager Hank Vice wrote that the agency was still working on how to pay HNTB: "I'm sure, (now) that the important people are involved \u2026 something will happen soon."

The same day, something did. DPS Director Steven McCraw wrote to Milton Rister, director of administration for Perry's office, seeking $4.75 million in emergency funding to assist the agency in responding to wildfires, especially the Labor Day conflagrations that included Bastrop County. The emergency appropriation designated $700,000 for the reservists and $400,000 for preliminary damage assessment contracts.

The request was quickly approved. DPS signed the interagency contract with HNTB on Sept. 14 and on Sept. 16 approved a $400,000 purchase order for HNTB. To date the firm has been paid $90,000, Vinger said.

Asked to explain the preliminary damage assessment process, DPS reservist Richard Boltz called it a "very rough" estimate of the range of damage inflicted on neighborhoods, public facilities, utility systems and the like. It is completed quickly to qualify a county for FEMA assistance.

The next, more lengthy step details specific conditions of each affected property or piece of infrastructure and estimates the cost of removing debris, making repairs and mitigating hazards. Following up how the FEMA money is spent takes longer. "The permanent (state) people will inherit this when our job is complete," Boltz said. "Some of these disasters stay open for five to 10 years."

Perry has been quick to lament perceived slights in federal disaster funding; since the spring he has repeatedly pressed to extend the presidential disaster declaration to more of Texas' 254 counties affected by the wildfires.

Still, like a Panhandle snowstorm, FEMA and HUD disaster relief money has drifted higher and higher in Texas in recent years. Since Hurricane Rita in 2006, the federal outlay has totaled more than $5.3 billion, passed through the DPS, the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs and other state agencies to local governments and individuals who qualified for the assistance. The HUD allocations for Ike and Dolly alone come to $3.1 billion, an amount equivalent to the largest public works project in state history.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; 445-3634

MONEY PAID HNTB THROUGH CONTRACTS WITH STATE OF TEXAS SINCE 2007

Texas Department of Public Safety (2011 wildfire damage assessments) $400,000

Texas Department of Rural Affairs (2009 contracts for hurricane relief project management and damage assessment) $48.9 million

Texas General Land Office (2010 contract for engineering services) $10 million limit

Texas General Land Office (2009 contract for engineering services) $5 million limit

Texas Department of Transportation (Trans-Texas Corridor) $38.5 million

Texas Department of Transportation (highway engineering) $73.3 million

TOTAL $176 Million

MAJOR FEMA DISASTER GRANTS FOR HURRICANES AND WILDFIRES SINCE 2008: $592.9 MILLION

Boxer's bill expands TIFIA program by nearly ten times

Link to article here.

The TIFIA loan program is a shill for private toll road investors looking for taxpayer handouts -- hogs at the trough! It's also squandered by local toll authorities and state departments of transportation to subsidize even public toll projects. It's a DOUBLE TAX to use public money to build the road then charge taxpayers AGAIN to drive on it. It's also a gross misuse of public funds to use taxpayer money to build toll roads and then put them in the hands of unelected bureaucrats at toll authorities, or even worse, private for-profit corporations.

Let's not forget the first TIFIA loan went to a private corporation who grossly overestimated the traffic forecasts on San Diego's Southbay Expressway and it went bankrupt within three years, for which the taxpayers lost nearly $80 million. For lawmakers to expand the program by nearly ten times without one ioda of accountability measures is plain malfeasance!

Barbara Boxer's Transportation Bill Would Drop Environmental Criteria In Much-Touted TIFIA Loan Program
Matt Sledge | Dec 20, 2011 8:15 PM EST
Huffington Post

 
NEW YORK -- A bipartisan transportation bill sponsored by Sen. Barbara Boxer would dramatically expand a federal program that finances "innovative" transportation projects. But in order to secure the expansion of the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA), Boxer had to introduce new rules that would strip away current criteria favoring environmentally sustainable projects, progressive transportation advocates say.

Boxer's transportation bill sailed through the Senate Environment and Public Works committee in an 18-0 bipartisan vote on Nov. 9. But critics say it came at a price for the TIFIA program, which would no longer give environmentally sustainable projects a leg up in the selection process.

"At a time when the nation's transportation system is starved for funds and there is a consensus that dollars need to be spent more wisely, it is outrageous that the one program that would be massively increased would no longer try to deliver the best bang for each buck," said Phineas Baxandall, a senior analyst at US PIRG, a nonprofit public interest advocacy group. TIFIA has recently been touted by both Democrats and Republicans as an example of how to prop up infrastructure financing in a time of budget deficits. About $110 million a year in federal funds is turned into $1.1 billion in federally-supported loans, which then go a third of the way toward leveraging loans from private sources.

Because TIFIA is a loan program, projects have to find some way of paying back the federal government. The revenue stream is most often a toll or other "user fee," but sometimes it's something like Los Angele's 2008 Measure R sales tax. Although TIFIA is run through the Federal Highway Administration, its loans have been used to support everything from toll roads in Texas to light rail in Denver.

The only problem: At a time when private financing is hard to come by, everybody wants in on the action. This year there were 34 requests for $14 billion in loans -- 14 times more than what the program could support. A lot of cities and states wound up empty-handed.

So when the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee met to hammer out a deal on a new transportation bill, consensus was quickly reached on vastly expanding the size of TIFIA's annual funding from $122 million to $1 billion a year. That money could in turn support up to $10 billion in federal loans.

It was something of a breakthrough in the transportation world. For years Congress has patched together short-term extensions of the transportation bill. The EPW proposal sponsored by Boxer offers a way out -- and, she hopes, a way to finance LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's dream of building 30 years of transportation projects in a decade.

But the bipartisan consensus on the transportation bill appears to have come at a price. One apparent sticking point for Senate Republicans, led by outspoken climate change denier James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the ranking member on EPW, was the 20 percent weight TIFIA puts on "the extent to which the project helps maintain or protect the environment."

That criterion, introduced by the Obama administration, gives mass transit a leg up against toll roads and highways. But it's anathema to critics like the libertarian Reason Foundation's Robert Poole, who argued that the emphasis on environmental sustainability "has apparently led to toll projects that add highway capacity getting aced out."

"Senator Boxer's working in an environment where she's got to get support from people on the other side of the aisle, and these are the types of issues she's hammering out," said Raffi Hamparian, director for federal affairs at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Phineas Baxandall, a senior analyst at U.S. PIRG, said he thinks Boxer may have cut a bad deal. He argues that doing away with TIFIA's selection criteria means the U.S. Department of Transportation will be forced to give money to any transportation project that meets bare-bones financial eligibility requirements. Under this rolling selection process, when the $1 billion annual federal credit support is gone, it's gone for the year.

Toll roads, backed by private investors looking to make a buck off of "public-private partnerships," will be first in line, he argued, since they have plans that are "just ready to go off the shelf."

"Those companies are going to likely get the lion's share of TIFIA funds. And those companies have a lot of power on Wall Street and make a lot of campaign donations, and just have a lot of power," he said.

Los Angeles hopes it will get some of that TIFIA money. Not so fast, Baxandall said. "Places like Atlanta and L.A. are hoping that the new bounty of TIFIA will allow them to finance public transit expansions, but they are likely to find the money already claimed by private toll road projects in places like Florida and Texas."

Others aren't so sure that mass transit and toll roads are mutually exclusive. Although the selection criterion will be gone, environmentally friendly transportation secretaries will still find ways to make sure sustainable projects head to the front of the line, they argue.

A spokesperson who is a staff member of the Senate EPW committee said, "This provision continues to enable the secretary to ensure that each project receives careful consideration. We believe that strong projects will succeed in the new program."

Roy Kienitz, who was until recently the Department of Transportation's under secretary for policy, said he thought the program's vastly expanded size might mean there will be plenty of space for all of the projects that meet the eligibility requirements.

Although TIFIA was vastly oversubscribed this year, Kienitz said, not all of the applications were truly eligible. "Of the people who are applying, I would say at least half of them fall into the criteria of either a) they just don't have a realistic idea of a project for a whole host of reasons or b) they may have realistic criteria for a project, but they just haven't done their homework."

Hamparian, of LA's Metro, is sure that his city's project, at the least, will win if TIFIA is expanded.

"We're pretty confident that we're in a good position to present our project for consideration for TIFIA loans," he said. "Our bottom line is that we've worked very closely with Senator Boxer and we're very supportive of the final product."

Boxer's bill is still far from passage. More Senate committees will take a shot at the transportation bill soon, and then the GOP-controlled House will also have its say. Some observers predict the long-awaited arrival of a new transportation bill could simply get pushed off for an additional year in favor of another short-term extension.

Georgia cancels private toll project amidst mounting opposition

Link to article here.

Georgia Backs Off on Tolling
Unpopular HOT lane project forces Georgia officials to pull the plug on efforts to impose tolls on existing freeway lanes.
The Newspaper.com
December 29, 2011

I-85 congestionStung by the unprecedented unpopularity of the Interstate 85 high occupancy toll lanes (HOT lanes) in Gwinett County, Georgia officials announced earlier this month that they canceled a high-priority tolling project. The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) had initially planned on replacing freeway lanes throughout the Atlanta metropolitan area with a $16 billion network of toll gates, but that plan came to a halt as the first phase of the overall strategy fizzled.

"The state of Georgia is canceling the Public Private Partnership (P3) procurement of the West by Northwest Corridor contract to add managed lanes to portions of Interstate Highways 75 and 575 in Cobb and Cherokee counties," Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) Transportation P3 Committee Chairman Brandon Beach said in a December 14 statement.

The Federal Highway Administration had already offered a loan of $275 million in federal dollars raised from the gas tax to underwrite the $1 billion cost of adding tolls. Though Governor Nathan Deal (R) backed the Northwest Corridor and I-85 tolling projects, they were developed by his predecessor. A survey conducted by pollsters at InsiderAdvantage last month found only 4 percent believed the new I-85 HOT lanes were effective (the margin of error for the poll was 5 percent). Many drivers were angered as they found themselves trapped in gridlock in the general purpose lanes on I-85 while the HOT lane, which was previously free to use for anyone driving with a passenger, remained comparatively unused.

Opponents of GDOT's tolling ambitions believe Deal is responsible for preventing the duplication of a project that has no statistically significant support among his constituents. Critics insist the same problems that plagued I-85 would carry over to the I-75 project.

"My take on this is that GDOT has acknowledged that the changes would make matters worse in the general purpose lanes, as well as the goal of the lane was not to ease traffic for all drivers but those willing to pay in times of need," Howard Rodgers wrote on the Stolen Lanes website.

The group's analysis of traffic data show that the HOT lanes made traffic significantly worse in the general purpose freeway lanes, forcing thousands of motorists to adjust their travel schedules to cope with the added congestion. Link to article here.

Georgia shocks investor groups with late stage cancellation of procurement for toll lanes concession on GA/I-75&575


Toll Road News
December 15, 2011
 
Georgia generated shock waves in infrastructure investment circles with an announcement  last night that it was canceling the managed or toll lanes procurement for GA/I-75 and I-575 to the northwest of Atlanta. The project had seemed to be well past the point of no return.

Three finalists for the toll concessions or PPP agreement were well into writing their detailed proposals, the RFP having been issued in September. Environmental permitting (FEIS) was being finalized.

The financing plan was clear, and a large TIFIA loan for nearly a third of the cost of the project had been granted by the USDOT. Rather than have the state DOT or the feds make the TIFIA announcement Governor Nathan Deal broke the news himself at a special full court news conference.  He was a new Governor - sworn in January - but he seemed to be embracing the project and the PPP process.

The news of the killing of the project was given to the three short-listed builder/investor groups at a meeting with Georgia DOT (GDOT) Wednesday night. They were taken completely by surprise. They thought they were at a routine working meeting to discuss the FEIS and to clarify any issues that were arising in their preparation of proposals or bids.

The meeting broke up quickly after the lead GDOT official said the P3 procurement was canceled.

The governing body for transportation policy, the State Transportation Board (STB) had decided on cancellation and would pursue (unspecified) alternative ways of implementing the upgrade of the highway. He couldn't elaborate or discuss the reasons.

Terse statement

A terse statement issued late Thursday in the name of the State Transportation Board and Georgia DOT read:

"Statement Regarding Cancellation of West by Northwest P3 Procurement

"By Transportation P3 Committee Chairman Brandon Beach:

"The State of Georgia is cancelling (their spelling) the Public Private Partnership (P3) procurement of the West by Northwest Corridor contract to add managed lanes to portions of Interstate Highways 75 and 575 in Cobb and Cherokee counties.

"The Transportation Board is examining other available options for the delivery of this project."

It's pretty clear the cancellation was mostly the Governor's doing. A spokesman in his office emailed in answer to a TOLLROADSnews question whether the Governor asked the state transportation Board to cancel the project: "That was a DOT board decision. The governor had publicly expressed concerns about the structure of the P3 agreement. Now, we need to move forward and look at other ways to relieve congestion in that corridor."

Deal's "concerns" were casually mentioned in a  couple of interviews but didn't seem big enough to stop the project at this late stage.

In September he reportedly asked whether the toll lanes P3 would prevent adding free capacity as the RFP was about to be issued. He was apparently satisfied and it was issued.

Then Nov 18 the Governor told a radio interviewer he was "a long way from being convinced" the project was worth a $300m state contribution that had been bandied about. (Whether the bidding groups would offer the state a fee or ask for a subsidy couldn't be known until the bids were in - editor.)

And the Governor said to the radio interviewer there weren't major time savings for motorists in the general purpose lanes from the I-75 project. (Toll lanes projects are primarily about speeding motorists who pay the toll - editor.)

Deal said the state was "a long way from actually finalizing the project: and he hadn't signed off on it. However he said it was "too late" to halt the procurement process.

I-85XLs

The Governor apparently also soured on toll express lanes with the startup days of the I-85 toll Express Lanes October 1.

Toll rates were set too high for the first few days and the express lanes were very empty. The Governor intervened asking the State Road and Toll Authority (SRTA) to lower toll rates. They were doing that of their own accord, it turned out.

A better balance has been achieved on the I-85 in the weeks since and usage has grown toward capacity while being managed for reasonable free flow. But the negative first impression persists.

Being a single managed lane alongside at least five unmanaged lanes, and lacking direct connector ramps, the I-85 HOT lane is limited in the benefits it can confer even with the best management.

I-75/575 much different

The I-75/575 project was much more ambitious and promised much greater benefits. It was mostly two lanes reversible and largely separated from the unmanaged traffic. 29.7 miles, 47km long it extended from just inside the I-285 belt route northwest splitting into a 'Y' the right arm of which is I-575. It would be 16.8 miles on I-75 and 11.3 miles on I-575 and a shorter segment of ramps on I-285.

The FEIS document suggests large travel times savings for the toll managed lanes (see tables nearby) and hence good potential for toll revenues and management of traffic - a much different project than the limited I-85 Express Lanes (a simple conversion of single HOV lanes.)

Other available options?

It is unclear what "other available options" there are.

There was talk that Gena Evans of SRTA had been saying the state toller could do more express lanes, but she wasn't involved in the decision to can the I-75/575 P3. We're told SRTA officials were just as surprised by the STB/GDOT announcement as everyone else.

There's no tax money for adding general purpose lanes, either at the state or federal level. Gov Deal and the state assembly are both unlikely to propose raising gas taxes. Also in the environmental permitting process (toll) managed lanes were found to be superior to adding unmanaged free lanes. The state can't very well restart a five year permitting process on the basis that the inferior alternative of the previous EIS has somehow become the preferred one.

Followers of these projects we contacted were unanimous that the cancellation of the I-75/575 P3 was a terrible mistake and that there are no viable alternatives or other options.

Sheer capriciousness

They also say the sheer capriciousness will kill the opportunity for Georgia to get serious investor proposals for many years to come.

The state has spent over $50m on the project in planning and procurement and the three teams asked to submit P3 proposals have each spent several million each. All that is wasted.

Worse Georgia now has the reputation for flakiness and unreliability, a highly risky place to try to do business in infrastructure.

Bob Poole of Reason and longtime proponent of toll lanes says it's "a very big setback" for Georgia and "very unfortunate for congestion relief in Atlanta."

"They had three world-class well qualified teams that were willing to do a lot of work to come up with financeable proposals. It’s hard to see that happening easily again after this. This stamps Georgia as a place with high political risk."


Brian Chase a P3 consultant in Washington DC said: "This is the third time GDOT has fallen down on implementing their P3 program. I think they have now destroyed what little credibility they had left with potential private investors."

Rick Geddes, a Cornell University transportation policy told us the Georgia decision was regrettable because it imposed serious costs on bidders who see no return on their time and money, adding: "It increases uncertainty surrounding future private investment in U.S. infrastructure at a time when America needs every dime of investment it can get."

Why not a freeze for an expert review panel?

Another said that if the Governor was concerned about the project then the sensible thing to do was to follow New Jersey Gov Chris Christie's approach to the Hudson River rail tunnel ARC and call a three or six month 'freeze' on the procurement while he got an expert report on options. Then depending on the report of his experts he could cancel or carry on with the project.

"To just can the project at this late stage in a procurement without any expert advice and without any notion of what the alternatives are is pathetic in its incompetence," another told us. "Who wants to waste time with a flaky government like that."

It is the second GA/I-75 P3 to collapse. A 2005 project adding truck lanes as well as toll lanes was ridiculously over-ambitious and expensive at $3b to $4b and couldn't attract viable proposals. By contrast this latest proposal was costed at around $1b and considered viable by the three bidders.

BACKGROUND: GDOT issued an RFQ for the project in February 2010 for the toll concession on nearly 30 miles of managed lanes along I-75 and I-575 in Cobb and Cherokee counties, but the project also called for a pre-development agreement for an additional 27 mile of toll-managed lanes along I-285 West and I-20 West.

Three teams were shortlisted in June 2010:

-  Georgia Mobility Partners: Cintra (equity), Meridiam Infrastructure (equity), Soares da Costa, Ferrovial, Prince Contracting and AECOM

- Northwest Atlanta Development Group: ACS Infrastructure Development (equity), Dragados USA, CW Matthews Contracting and Atkins

- Northwest Development Partners: Vinci (equity), OHL (equity), Archer Western Contractors, Hubbard Construction Company, OHL USA and Parsons Transportation Group

RFPs were issued in September for submission by January.

Odd setup of GDOT

Georgia DOT is an odd departure from the normal American division between executive and legislative arms of government.  GDOT is officially "governed" by the 13-member State Transportation Board (STB) which according to law "exercises general control and supervision of the department." One member from each of 13 congressional districts is elected by the majority General Assembly caucus for a 5 year term at the STB.

The leading executive of GDOT, titled Commissioner is Keith Golden, a low profile engineer, not a policy type. The Commissioner of GDOT serves at the pleasure not of the Governor but of the politically appointed State Transportation Board (STB.)

________________________________________________________________________________

Link to article here.

DOT pulls plug on $1 billion I-75/I-575 project

By Ariel Hart
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

11:43 a.m. Thursday, December 15, 2011
In a dramatic blow to the state's transportation plan for metro Atlanta, the Georgia Department of Transportation on Wednesday pulled the plug on its most significant project, a historic $1 billion effort to add optional toll lanes alongside I-75 and I-575 in Cobb and Cherokee counties with private investment.

Board member Brandon Beach said the department would look at other methods for building the project besides private funding. But a spokesman for Gov. Nathan Deal would not confirm that the project as currently drawn should ever be built, saying only that “congestion in the corridor" remained a top priority.

"We just have to be sure to do it in a way that protects taxpayers," said the spokesman, Brian Robinson. More than 200,000 people a day drive that corridor, which is one of the region's most congested. Even with private funding, a public subsidy of up to $300 million would have been required.

The abrupt decision raised questions about the viability of DOT's program to draw private financing into public toll roads, a key initiative in the state since 2003, and to spread optional toll lanes along every major highway in the metro area.

The network of toll lanes became DOT's only plan for major congestion relief along metro Atlanta's interstates after officials realized it was unlikely there would ever be enough money to sufficiently widen the highways traditionally. "We don't have a massive freeway expansion program," Todd Long, the state's transportation planning director, said of the network, before the announcement. "This is it."

Beach insisted the I-75 project was still in the works and the program would go forward.

"We think it’s a good project," said Beach, who chairs the DOT committee that oversees toll roads, "but we think there are some questions that have been brought up and we need to re-examine and refocus." He stressed, for example, that the department would continue to seek private investment in the passenger terminal it is developing downtown as a real estate project. In addition, the DOT is continuing work on an optional toll lane along I-75 in Henry and Clayton counties with state money.

The state has been trying to build some variant of the I-75/I-575 project since at least 2005, and has spent more than $54 million on it so far. The latest version of the project was already out to bid, with three teams of international road builders likely spending millions of dollars to put together proposals, due Feb. 17. It was to be the state’s maiden venture into private financing for public toll roads.

The project would have built two reversible toll lanes alongside I-75 from I-285 to I-575, and one reversible toll lane each along I-75 up to Hickory Grove Road and along I-575 up to Sixes Road. The toll price was to rise and fall with congestion in the main lanes in order to keep the toll lane free-flowing. Unlike the HOT lane on I-85, it was to be financed and built by private companies trying to make a profit. They would lease the road and be repaid by toll revenues.

"Holy smokes," said Bob Poole, a founder of the Reason Foundation credited with inventing the idea of optional toll lanes. "That’s a big setback and very unfortunate for congestion relief in Atlanta."

It represents at least the second time Georgia has canceled and restarted the project, after a variant to add eight lanes was found to be too expensive.

"I’m mystified by why they would do that at this point," Poole said, noting that it would cement Georgia's "checkered history" into an unfortunate reputation.

"They obviously had three world-class qualified teams that were willing to do a lot of work to come up with financeable proposals. ... It’s hard to see that happening easily again," Poole said. "This kind of an action will create an impression that Georgia’s a place with political risk."

Problems in Georgia's public-private road program have arisen with projects such as this one and one on Ga. 400 when a plan developed after months or years of intense work at DOT arrived on the desk of a governor, who took a different view.

"It’s been five, six, seven years that Georgia’s been every year, here’s Georgia, a big newcomer state that might be a big market," Poole said. "It never seems to materialize."

Deal had raised concerns about the I-75/I-575 project following reporting by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Primary control of the project rests with DOT, but Deal heads the state agencies that control part of its financing. Both DOT and the governor agreed it was DOT's decision.

In September, Deal delayed putting the project out to bid by a couple of days over questions about whether the contract would prevent government from building roads in the corridor. But he approved it in the end, and it went out to bid.

Then last month, the AJC reported that traffic predictions showed the project was expected to make commutes slightly worse for some drivers, and would not provide major congestion relief for most in the main lanes -- although it would dramatically help those who chose to pay the toll.

DOT responded that the goal of the project was not to ease traffic for all drivers, but to provide an option for all drivers in times of need. Should they choose the toll lane, a state study showed, their commutes would be more than twice as fast.

Beach said that in addition to the news stories, there were concerns about the $300 million public subsidy that could be required for the project -- which the bidders said should be higher, perhaps $450 million. The project may qualify for federal loans.

"There gets a point where if you’re going to do that much public participation, you may want to look at doing the project yourself," Beach said. But where that cash would come from was not clear. "That’s what we’re going to look at in the next few months," Beach said, though he said he did not currently have any ideas.

The whole project is estimated to cost about $1 billion. Toll revenues could pay part of the cost of building it, but not all.  That cost would far exceed DOT's entire statewide annual road-widening budget.  If the state did attempt to front the investment to be repaid by tolls, there's no telling how much traffic and toll revenue would materialize, Poole noted. That financial risk "would be entirely on the state’s back," he said.

Residents of the area were absorbing the news.

"I would hope that the project is not completely dead because I think the project does have merit," said Cobb County homeowner activist Ron Sifen.

Others were glad to see it go, saying there hadn't been enough publicity about the project, although DOT has held public meetings.

"That was a lot of the problem with the toll lanes in Gwinnett," said Brett Bittner, vice president of the Cobb Taxpayers Association. "The people who would be affected by it in this area haven't been given the full explanation of what would happen. Overall the idea is a good one, but the implementation has been poor."

The three bidding teams did not respond to requests for comment.

Staff writer Janel Davis contributed to this article.

Story so far

2003: State law first allows private investment in public toll roads. The legislation is rewritten, then later replaced.

2005: The Georgia Department of Transportation signs its first partnership to develop toll lanes along I-75 and I-575. The original plan is to add eight lanes, but the estimates skyrocket from about $2 billion to $4 billion.

2009: DOT abandons partnership on the project, scales it back.

September 2011: The latest I-75/I-575 project -- with 29 miles of reversible toll lanes on I-75 and I-575 -- goes out to bid. The $1 billion project is the largest transportation contract in state history. Tolls and private investors would pay the majority of the cost, but the project also is expected to require a public subsidy of up to $300 million.

Oct. 1, 2011: An HOV lane on 16 miles of I-85 in Gwinnett and DeKalb counties becomes a toll lane, leading to an outcry from drivers facing longer wait times in the regular lanes.

Dec. 14, 2011: The state DOT pulls the plug on the current project but says it will look at other ways to build it.

Denton officials pushed into tolling and privatizing I-35

Link to article here.

This is how the bureaucrats win the day time and again...they control the information the elected officials have. They constantly claim "we're out of money" so that they can continue to push toll taxes upon Texans. We don't elect the bureaucrats, yet they wield the power to increase taxes and control access to our own public roads. Read the article below carefully, they're revealing that taxpayer money will build this project yet those same taxpayers will not be allowed to drive on it without paying a toll to a private entity who will control the toll rates and our public infrastructure for the next half century!


Members focus on finding funding
Committee trying to get more financial partners on board for I-35E project

01:29 AM CST on Sunday, December 11, 2011

By Bj Lewis / Staff Writer
Denton Record Chronicle

LEWISVILLE — The 1420 Committee met again Friday afternoon to continue discussion on the massive project that will expand the often-congested Interstate 35E.

During the meeting, members of the committee said progress was being made as they look to secure more financial partners for the project.

The meeting at Lewisville City Hall was delayed about 15 minutes as some committee members were held up in traffic on I-35E.

Michael Morris, committee chairman and director of transportation for the North Central Texas Council of Governments, took the opportunity to stress that accidents like the one that delayed his fellow committee members were one of the driving forces behind their work.

The committee is a requirement of Senate Bill 1420, which authorizes the use of public-private partnerships to fund the expansion of the highway.

Once assembled, the committee moved swiftly through the agenda items, which included discussion on policy when the I-35E expansion project receives funding in the future. The committee laid out guidelines for the Regional Transportation Council to give the state on how to use the funds.

The guidelines are being locked into place now. Once the project moves forward, the 1420 Committee will be dissolved. All future work will be done within the parameters the committee is currently establishing.

John Polster, transportation consultant for Denton County and a 1420 Committee member, said the guidelines inform the RTC that a balance between toll and non-toll lanes is sought for any new construction.

Committee members also raised the subject of alternatives to the toll lanes, but the conversation was short, since there are no other options right now.

“The next alternative we will look at is based on what additional partnership developments we have,” Polster said.

Members talked about new financial partnerships, including contributions from the city of Denton and from Dallas County. Alberta Blair, director of public works for Dallas County and a 1420 Committee member, said county officials had submitted a letter to Bill Meadows with the Texas Transportation Commission pledging to be a financial partner in the I-35E project.

Denton Mayor Pro Tem Pete Kamp, another committee member, said the city of Denton had found some funds to contribute to the project as well.

Polster said later that officials with the Texas Department of Transportation have told the committee they need time to get their proposal together, and the RTC is looking at ways to add to the funding as well.

The committee’s final meeting of the year will be at 10 a.m. Dec. 19 in Carrollton. The location is still being determined.

At that meeting, committee members are expected to approve the guideline principles for the Regional Transportation Council and to start the process of hiring an engineering firm. The process begins by sending a request for qualifications to each firm. After the RFQs are returned, firms would report to the committee on how much the job would cost. The process of hiring an engineering firm is expected to last into next year.

NYT: Perry survived TTC, but his plan failed

Link to article here.

This article seems to glorify some of the worst players in the battle to defeat the Trans Texas Corridor and almost makes Perry appear a sympathetic figure -- as if Texans just misunderstood his kind intentions. But let's be clear...Rick Perry still brags about the Trans Texas Corridor vision on his presidential campaign web site and only when he was facing litigation and re-election did he back-off (and not even then, since his minions made clear only the TTC name was dead, not the project nor the foreign ownership of our public infrastructure!). Well, the project is now officially repealed from state statute despite Perry clinging to his dead horse, but remnants remain alive through public private partnerships. He'll build a much smaller version and piece by piece without the toxic name attached.

December 9, 2011

Perry Survived Even as His Big Plan for Texas Failed

By DEBORAH SONTAG

New York Times

AUSTIN, Tex. — In the bachelor-style apartment of his legislative years, where Rick Perry liked “to kick back and watch football with a cold one,” the future Texas governor forged a lasting bond with a hard-charging roommate who preferred smoking a pipe, studying flip charts and strategizing.

Over time, that friend, Ric Williamson, an oilman known as Nitro, would become “the intellectual guru of Team Perry,” as one colleague put it, and steward of the governor’s boldest initiative and biggest failure, the $175 billion Trans-Texas Corridor.

Unveiled by Mr. Perry in early 2002, the public-private transit project was intended as a centerpiece of his governorship, “a plan as big as Texas and as ambitious as our people,” he said, to create 4,000 miles of road, rail and utility corridors each as wide as four football fields.

But neither Mr. Perry nor Mr. Williamson anticipated just how politically toxic the mammoth toll road plan would become or envisioned tractors advancing on the Capitol with signs like “Rick & Ric, Our Land is Not Your Land.”

When Mr. Williamson died suddenly in late 2007, their venture all but died with him. Shortly before announcing his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination this summer, Mr. Perry quietly signed a bill erasing all mention of the Trans-Texas Corridor from Texas statute.
“He had to bury his own baby,” said Paul Burka, senior executive editor of The Texas Monthly.

For many here, the epic battle over the corridor epitomizes how Mr. Perry operates — from his self-image as a business visionary and his hands-off management style to his interdependent relationship with an insular cadre of old friends and what critics call the pay-to-play culture of his administration.

It also shows his ability to weather controversy. Whether by political calculation or deference, Mr. Perry’s designation of Mr. Williamson as the point man for this project helped him avoid repercussions at the polls. “He’s a Teflon governor, I guess,” said Dick Kallerman, a Texas environmentalist.

By the end, opposition to the project had united environmentalists and ranchers, big cities and small towns, Democrats and even Mr. Perry’s own Republican Party.

For conservatives, the plan, which would have required vast land seizures, represented a political misfire akin to his executive order mandating the HPV vaccine for girls. They saw both as government overreach — trampling parental rights with the vaccine and property rights with the corridor.

“Perry speaks about getting government out of our lives but that’s not what he has practiced,” said Ken Emanuelson, a Tea Party organizer in Dallas. “We usually say it as a metaphor that the state of Texas is for sale, but with respect to the Trans-Texas Corridor the ground was literally for sale.”

Transportation industry executives say Texas was singularly aggressive in pursuit of private financing of public projects. At meetings where firms were courted, state officials draped a big banner, “Texas: Open for Business,” and some were urged to support the governor with more than just business proposals.

“You’d get hit up by the state at the same time as they were trying to bid out public assets,” said a consultant who represents a European company and spoke on condition of anonymity to protect his client.

The consultant said Mr. Perry’s representatives solicited a $100,000 contribution to a group called Texans for Safe Reliable Transportation, saying, “It will be good for the governor and good for you.”

“My client was aghast,” he said.

Ray Sullivan, a campaign spokesman for Mr. Perry who was involved with the corridor advocacy group, said, “I don’t believe those conversations ever took place.”

Mr. Sullivan acknowledged that the group, headed by a former senior adviser to Governor Perry named Bill Noble, courted “those interested in infrastructure development.” But, he said, “Neither myself nor anyone who made those pitches were involved in procurement.”

The transportation group, established to promote “market-based transportation solutions,” reported $345,590 in membership dues in 2006, its first year. Mr. Noble said that members paid $2,500 to $25,000, and that Cintra, the Spanish firm that won the initial corridor contract, was “at a higher level of membership but not our largest contributor.”

“The characterization that there was some sort of quid pro quo or pay-to-play is not accurate,” he said.

A Grand Vision

When Mr. Perry inherited the governorship from President-elect George W. Bush in late 2000, many considered him an accidental governor. Some believed that the Trans-Texas Corridor was born of his desire to lay claim to an issue, as his predecessor had done with education.

Even before becoming governor, Mr. Perry had discussed the state’s aging roads as a hindrance to economic development with Mr. Williamson and State Representative Mike Krusee. They debated how to finance new highways without raising the gas tax.

“Williamson lived in the world of ideas and he wasn’t happy unless dreaming up new ones,” said Mr. Krusee, now a lobbyist. “Perry wasn’t like that. But Perry was a better implementer. So Williamson became like the intellectual guru of Team Perry.”

In 2001, Mr. Perry appointed Mr. Williamson to the Transportation Commission, later naming him chairman. The two friends were also financially entwined. Mr. Perry owned, and still owns, a working interest in Mr. Williamson’s MKS Natural Gas Company (which his widow, Mary Ann, also a governor’s appointee as Lottery Commission chairwoman, now runs).

The following year, Mr. Perry introduced the outsize corridor idea during his first run for governor; it presaged his predilection as a presidential candidate for tossing out radical proposals, like making Congress part-time.

Few Texans took the Trans-Texas Corridor seriously. But Mr. Williamson, and the Transportation Department, ran with it, developing a detailed plan to get private companies to finance and build a spider web of transportation corridors in exchange for long-term operating leases and future toll revenues.

In 2003, after Republicans gained control of the Texas House for the first time since Reconstruction, Mr. Krusee became chairman of the Transportation Committee and set about designing the complex legislation.

Mr. Williamson suggested an omnibus transportation bill to avoid having each of the many statutory changes required “die the death of a thousand cuts,” said John Langmore, a lawyer hired to draft the bill.

“Every move was his,” Mr. Langmore said. “Perry just turned Ric Williamson loose and gave the nod.”

The 2003 legislative session during which Mr. Krusee introduced the corridor blueprint was tumultuous because of a Republican-drawn Congressional redistricting plan that prompted scores of Democratic legislators to decamp temporarily to Oklahoma.

Eventually, the bill passed — unanimously. But it was 350 pages long, few legislators had read it thoroughly, and many said later they felt deceived by its scope.

“We were bamboozled,” said State Representative Garnet F. Coleman, a Democrat. “Members always support transportation. What they didn’t realize was that this was a total redo of the system and mostly about privatization. It was a money-making operation for Perry’s friends in perpetuity.”

Roadblocks

In mid-2002, in their farmhouse in Fayette County, Linda and David Stall, small-town Republicans, were probably among the first Texans to read the original corridor plan, “Crossroads of the Americas.”

Among other things, what truly horrified them was the realization that the corridors were going to rip through the heart of rural Texas and require 146 acres of right of way for every mile of road — or 584,000 acres total.

“I flipped,” Mrs. Stall said. “I looked out my window and saw people going about their lives who had no idea what Rick Perry had in store for them.”

She and her husband created a Web site, Corridor Watch. They bird-dogged public hearings and visited Chambers of Commerce and Lions and Rotary Clubs, putting 200,000 miles on their truck.

One of their most effective propaganda tools came from the state Transportation Department — an illustration of a quarter-mile-wide corridor with 10 highway lanes adjacent to six rail lines and dedicated utility zones.

“That rendering freaked everybody out,” Mr. Krusee said.

Mr. Langmore said, “All of us were like, ‘What on earth are they doing showing that?’ Can you imagine a farmer sitting on his ranch thinking of a 1,200-foot-wide corridor hacked through the middle of it?”

Scott Ging sat on his century-old family ranch in Williamson County and thought about just that. He imagined the corridor splitting his land, with no crossings “and for no good reason.”

“Traffic is not that bad in Texas; if we have to wait 10 or 15 seconds to get on the highway, that’s a traffic jam,” Mr. Ging said. “The idea that they would take our land and give it to somebody else to make a profit on it — I don’t know how Perry thought that would ever fly.”

While anti-toll road groups sprang up and environmentalists forged alliances of convenience with landowners, the governor and his advisers consistently misread and underestimated the opposition.

Mr. Kallerman, of the Sierra Club, said that Mr. Williamson had summoned environmentalists to convince them that the project, with its trains, was environmentally friendly.

“We just kind of sat there stunned,” Mr. Kallerman said. “I mean, it was going to eat up huge amounts of the best growing land in Texas, go right through habitats and over aquifers, encourage more rubber-tire travel, foster urban sprawl and make our air quality even worse. We shook our heads and said, ‘This is total madness.’ ”

By June 2004, Mr. Perry’s own Republican Party had called for the repeal of the Trans-Texas Corridor. In early December that year, the Texas Farm Bureau, his longtime ally, voted to oppose it at its convention while Mr. Perry, anticipating a different outcome, waited in the wings to speak.

A Project Is Stopped

Still, Mr. Perry was ebullient in mid-December when Texas accepted a proposal from a consortium led by the Spanish firm Cintra to start work on the project. He proclaimed it “one of the most significant days in the history of transportation” and said future generations would appreciate “what a visionary group of people were leading this state.”

Then Time magazine ran an article under the headline: “The Next Wave in Superhighways or A Big Fat Texas Boondoggle?”

And local newspapers soon revealed that Mr. Perry’s legislative director, Dan Shelley, had worked for Cintra until three months before the firm was selected. (Mr. Shelley, as a lobbyist, also worked for the company after leaving the governor’s office.)

Mr. Williamson said at the time that Cintra got no special preference. Clearly, though, the universe was a close-knit one.

Rossanna Salazar, a spokeswoman for Mr. Perry as agriculture commissioner, became Cintra’s spokeswoman in Texas; Mr. Langmore, a Democrat who drafted the corridor legislation, helped Cintra prepare its bid proposal.

The contract gave $3.5 million to Cintra and a local partner, Zachry Construction Company, to create a master development plan. They would also get first negotiating rights on up to $400 million in toll road work once the master plan was approved.

In 2005, the Texas Legislature, which meets every two years, reconvened and members tried but failed to scale back the project. It was, however, the beginning of the unraveling.

The next year, when Mr. Perry found himself in essentially a four-way battle for re-election, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, the Republican comptroller who ran against him as an independent (and as “one tough grandma”), repeatedly railed against “the largest land grab in Texas history.” It had an impact; Mr. Perry won but with only 39 percent of the vote.

During the 2007 legislative session, rallies brought protesting farmers to the Capitol and raucous environmental impact hearings drew hundreds. The filmmaker William H. Molina tracked the opposition for his documentary “Truth Be Tolled,” and Johnny Tex and the Texicans recorded the rollicking “Trans-Texas Corridor Blues,” crooning about “the greedy politicians” who want to “line their pockets.”

Mr. Perry, like other politicians in Texas and elsewhere, has long received campaign contributions from transportation-related businesses. Cintra, as a foreign firm, cannot make direct contributions; Zachry donated $125,000 from 2003 to 2008 when bids were sought on corridor projects, according to Texans for Public Justice, a watchdog group.

Other contractors involved in the consortium contributed, too, and Mr. Perry netted $354,450 all told, the group said.

In the State Capitol, legislators began pushing back, voting overwhelmingly for a moratorium on public-private toll road projects.

Excoriating the Legislature, Mr. Perry vetoed the moratorium, and a weaker version was then passed, exempting projects already under way. Those included a 41-mile stretch of State Highway 130 southeast of Austin that Cintra and Zachry had won the right to build and collect tolls on for 50 years (a continuing $1.35 billion project large in its own right but dwarfed by Mr. Perry’s original plan).

But the deep unpopularity of the project had become clear to all.

“The Trans-Texas Corridor became almost like a Rorschach test for statewide politics,” said Chris Steinbach, chief of staff for Representative Lois W. Kolkhorst, a Republican and a leading opponent. “People saw in it what they wanted — property rights violations, cronyism. Opponents of Nafta viewed it as an artery into the interior of Mexico. There was also a nationalist view about a foreign company being allowed to control our land.”

On Dec. 30, 2007, Mr. Williamson, having already suffered two heart attacks,, suffered a fatal one at 55. Mr. Perry had relied on him to wage the battle, not only because he trusted him but because Mr. Williamson guarded the governor against political splatter.

“Now, nobody else was going to go out and spread the gospel and face the hostility, so it kind of ended,” Mr. Burka said.

In 2009, the Transportation Department director acknowledged that the project once declared unstoppable had been stopped. Texas formally notified the federal highway department, and on that day, Mr. Perry tersely offered his own remarks on his grand plan’s demise during a visit to Brownsville.

“If anybody has any new ways to build roads, any ways to fund them, we’d love to hear them,” he said, with a tight laugh. “I think we know there is not an asphalt fairy that will come in the middle of the night and” — he paused, signaling Poof! — “roads will appear.”

Emily Ramshaw contributed reporting from Austin, and Jim Rutenberg from New York.

Toll opposition grows in Virginia

Link to article here.

Portsmouth leaders, residents rally against toll project
The Virginian Pilot
December 8, 2011

PORTSMOUTH - Now that state officials have finalized a deal to build another Midtown Tunnel, the reality of tolls has sparked a protest from Portsmouth residents and second-guessing among some city officials.

Portsmouth Mayor Kenny Wright told a crowd outside City Hall on Wednesday that his city would lead a charge to beat back the size of the tolls. He said every other South Hampton Roads community should join the effort because of the adverse impact that tolls will have on the region economically.

"This thing is far from over," Wright said.

The project, which includes other road improvements, also was the subject of scrutiny at events in Norfolk. Mayor Paul Fraim told a gathering of downtown business leaders that while he supports it, he questioned some of the costs feeding its toll levels - the profit for the private companies and paying for overdue maintenance on both the Midtown and Downtown tunnels.

Tolls initially would be $1.59 for off-peak hours and $1.84 during peak hours for cars, and $4.77 for off-peak hours and $7.36 during peak hours for trucks using the Downtown and Midtown tunnels. Tolls on an extension of the Martin Luther King Freeway to Interstate 264 would be $1, or 50 cents for cars that used either of the tunnels.

Tolling is expected to begin in the fall through the E-ZPass electronic system, eliminating the need for toll booths.
Virginia Department of Transportation Commissioner Greg Whirley said he's surprised by the backlash. State officials were told by local leaders that a $1.50 toll would be tolerable, he said, so the state negotiated with the private companies and pitched in $362 million to bring the tolls down from an original $3 proposal.

"We tried to find a balance and hit that target number," Whirley said. "It was hard getting to that number, because the overall numbers are just so large."

The $2.1 billion project includes a second Midtown tube, improvements to the Downtown and Midtown tunnels, extending the Martin Luther King Freeway plus operating and maintenance for 58 years.

Whirley said bringing down the toll by a penny would cost the state $10 million to $13 million.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Steering Committee, an influential group of local black leaders, organized the Portsmouth rally as a signed contract appeared imminent. The Rev. Melvin O. Marriner, president of the committee, told a crowd of about 100 people that the tolls will place too large a burden on the city's working class, students, the elderly and businesses.

"I believe it is never too late, even with a signed contract, to negotiate how the tolls will be implemented," he said.

Five City Council members, among other local elected officials, stood with the speakers, but not all were united in their message. Councilman Bill Moody Jr. handed out written statements criticizing Wright for coming out against the project so strongly now rather than months ago.

"Instead of being a leader on the subject of tolls Mayor Wright has been silent on the sidelines," Moody wrote.

Wright said he had written to VDOT officials in January and was monitoring the project, but state officials were not releasing enough details to protest it. Councilman Steve Heretick backed him, saying Wright had been working through the city attorney and city manager for months to find out how the deal was being structured.

"He's been completely shut out of those conversations, but not for any lack of trying on his part," Heretick said by email.

Whirley said he had met with Hampton Roads officials, including Wright, during the project's planning stages and that VDOT had shared everything that was not proprietary or confidential.

VDOT also has been holding public meetings detailing the project and its tolls throughout Portsmouth and Norfolk for much of the past year.

The city managers from Portsmouth and Norfolk also were part of a 15-member review panel that was formed in 2009 by the state's secretary of transportation that evaluated and endorsed the project proposal.

China seeks to takeover U.S. roads, infrastructure


Link to article here.

China keen to invest in US infrastructure: Commerce Minister Chen Deming

Economic Times
December 4, 2011

BEIJING: Seeking to defuse fears that it might use its massive USD 3.2 trillion in foreign reserves as a "political weapon", China today said it is willing to turn some of its holdings of US debt into investment in America to improve its infrastructure.

"China is willing to turn some of our holdings of your debt into investment in the United States, hoping to create jobs for the United States," Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming said.

Such investments would tie China more closely to Western economies and might help defuse their fears China might use its USD 3.2 trillion in foreign reserves as a "political weapon."

China has about USD 1.15 trillion of Treasury and other US government debt.

Beijing now wants to invest its over USD 3.2 trillion of US debt into renovating America's ageing infrastructure.

However, it has also asked Washington to relax restrictions on exports of dual use technologies to increase US exports to the country.

Chen said his country wants closer cooperation with the US in infrastructure, clean energy and technology.

"We hope to achieve cooperation in the area of infrastructure," Chen told members of the American Chamber of Commerce in China observing that much American famed infrastructure like railways and port needed renovation.

Chen said China wants to see Chinese and US companies cooperate more closely on clean energy, environmental and energy-saving technology, information technology, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and medical devices. _______________________________________________________________________________
Link to article here.

Foreigners want America’s public assets
Reuters
Dec 5, 2011 10:33 EST

It seems like foreign governments and corporations are craving U.S. public assets like toll roads, electrical grids and railways. In the case of our largest creditor, the Chinese government, they don’t want any more U.S. Treasuries, but they do want to own the hard assets that comprise our nation’s infrastructure.

Reuters Beijing bureau reported:

China may channel part of its huge pool of foreign exchange reserves into investment in U.S. infrastructure, including rail and transportation networks, Commerce Minister Chen Deming said on Friday.

“China is unwilling to take on too much U.S. government debt. We are willing to turn that money into investment,” he told U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke and U.S. businessmen.

Chen did not elaborate on how China might channel some of the country’s war chest of $3.2 trillion foreign currency reserves to invest in U.S. infrastructure, such as rail and transportation systems.


What the Reuters reporter didn’t mention was that the Obama administration has been urging such investment on the part of the Chinese since their state visit last January, if not before. From the Wall Street Journal:

Key Chinese companies are considering stepped-up investment in the U.S., particularly in infrastructure, and the White House is encouraging them to move ahead.

The prospects for fresh Chinese investment were discussed at a meeting last week between Chinese business leaders and the American and Chinese presidents during a state visit to Washington.

At the meeting, President Barack Obama and the head of China’s Investment Corp. [CIC], the country’s $300 billion sovereign-wealth fund, talked about the Chinese investing in infrastructure projects in the U.S.

“The United States is open for investment and would welcome it,” Mr. Obama told the group, which included four Chinese CEOs, 14 American CEOs and Chinese President Hu Jintao.

[..]

Last fall, a CIC official said the fund would be interested in financing U.S. infrastructure projects as a passive investor, not as a majority owner.

“We are advocating that the U.S. government start a program to invest a massive amount of equity, in the form of public and private-equity partnership, in U.S. infrastructure,” Zhou Yuan, head of asset allocation at CIC, said at a conference in New York in October.

It’s a good stance for our President to encourage foreign investment. But is it such a great idea for foreign firms to own our most vital infrastructure? In 2006 an enormous controversy rocked Washington when a private firm from Dubai was negotiating a deal simply to operate 22 U.S. ports. A bipartisan opposition centering on national security eventually emerged and killed the arrangement.

If the Chinese government wants to invest in U.S. infrastructure, the best place for them to do so is the municipal or corporate bond market where they can buy bonds in water and sewer systems, among other infrastructure assets. Direct ownership, even through public/private partnerships, shouldn’t be allowed. Again, national security concerns must be paramount when it comes to our infrastructure.

China has a massive trade surplus with the U.S., and many corporations and investors around the world want to own our public assets. Because there is so much interest, we can choose how we structure their participation in our system. Generally, it should be as limited as possible, and certainly foreigners should never be allowed to participate in any form of national infrastructure bank scheme. If they want to invest here, they must bear the risk of that choice.

Brownsville mulls West Parkway toll project

Link to article here.

Group mulls toll road project’s future

By STEVE CLARK/The Brownsville Herald
2011-12-07 21:55:13

The Brownsville Metropolitan Planning Organization is inviting the public to offer comments on the proposed West Parkway project at a meeting set for Dec. 14 on the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College campus.

Specifically, the meeting will address whether to remove the $176 million toll road project from the MPO’s long-range Metropolitan Transportation Plan. The West Parkway would run along what is now Union Pacific railroad right-of-way from the B&M International Bridge to U.S. Expressway 77/83 near the Union Pacific overpass. The route would also run through West Brownsville, a fact that stirred up opposition from many of the neighborhood’s residents soon after the city first revealed the plan in the mid-1990s.

The parkway would feature two lanes and overpasses and, as with all toll roads, limited access. The Cameron County Regional Mobility Authority, which was created in 2004, has championed the project in recent years as necessary to handle higher traffic volume in coming decades and also as a source of funds — an estimated $400 million — for future, non-toll road projects.

The CCRMA proposed to pay for construction mostly through toll revenue bonds but also with private investment, since no money is available from the state or federal government for the project.

Despite the city’s initial enthusiasm and CCRMA’s later efforts to move the project forward, official support has waned. In 2009, the city commission passed a resolution opposing the parkway. More recently, Brownsville Mayor Tony Martinez contacted MPO Director Mark Lund, suggesting that his organization look at dropping the project from the long-range plan all together.

“It was his suggestion,” Lund said. “He wrote me a letter saying let’s discuss that and put it up for a vote.”

Opponents of the West Parkway worry it would be a stake in the heart for West Brownsville revitalization.
“Nobody wants that toll road,” Martinez said. “We don’t want it. We don’t need it. I’m sure that (the CCRMA) is well intentioned. The problem is, some of these ideas of progress, they fail to see how it really affects the community. Quite frankly, West Brownsville needs to be restored. To me, it’s a travesty not to preserve it.”

With the Dec. 14 meeting requesting public input on the subject of “deletion of the project” from MPO plan, Martinez got what he asked for. Lund noted that the CCRMA lacks a Comprehensive Development Agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation for the project, which precludes revenue-sharing agreements with private investors — something the CCRMA had been interested in as a funding option to help build the parkway. CCRMA does have two Comprehensive Development Agreements, which are authorized by the Legislature, for two other projects: a second causeway to South Padre Island, and the Outer Parkway, which would connect the causeway with U.S. Expressway 77 north of Harlingen.

Cameron County deputy administrator and CCRMA assistant coordinator David Garcia said the lack of a development agreement on the West Parkway closes off one funding avenue but leaves several others open.

“We don’t have the revenue-sharing type arrangement for the West Parkway, but what we do have is what is called design-build finance agreements that can be executed for large projects like the West Parkway,” he said.

Meanwhile, the CCRMA is trying to get an environmental study done on the project, Garcia said.

“The most important thing is to try to get some sort of environmental document finished,” he said. “If you don’t do that you basically can’t do anything else.”

However, the project may not get to that stage if the MPO’s policy board decides to drop the parkway project from its long-range plan. Then the city will be stuck with the expense of redeveloping the corridor, Garcia said.

“If that happens, it will be very difficult to move the project forward,” he said. “The question that should be asked is, OK, what’s going to happen to that corridor? Is it going to remain a corridor that is not going to be properly maintained and properly developed?”

Aside from the parkway, different people have different ideas on what should be done with the right-of-way once the rails are eventually pulled out. The public will be asked to weigh in on these ideas as well at the Dec. 14 meeting.

Included on the meeting agenda are projects the MPO is proposing be added to the long-range plan. These include the West Loop, a different creature than the West Parkway in that it’s not a toll road but rather a two-lane, at-grade roadway with signals at major intersections and an estimated cost of $20 million to $24 million. Another proposal, for a three- or four-lane version of the West Loop, has a projected price tag of $24 million to $34 million. Yet another proposal, West Loop Trails, calls for hike-and-bike trails along the rail corridor as opposed to a new road. The estimate for the hike-and-bike project is $8 million to $12 million.

Lund said that for a project to be on the MPO’s long-range plan it has to meet a certain standard of financial feasibility, adding that he hadn’t yet seen CCRMA’s new design-build plan.

“Whatever they propose, the MPO’s plan is not like a wish list,” he said. “It can’t be pie in the sky. We act as a gatekeeper. In that sense we have a federal mandate that when we put together our plan we develop reasonable assumptions. We take that aspect seriously. You don’t get into our plan just because you hope something will happen.”

The Dec. 14 MPO public meeting will take place at 10 a.m. in the boardroom of Gorgas Hall on May Drive on the Fort Brown campus. The public may also submit comments to the MPO in writing, though all comments must be submitted no later than Dec. 27. The MPO policy board will hold a vote on the West Parkway and other agenda items in January. For more information call Mark Lund, MPO director, at 548-6150.

Dallas transportation growth came with pains in 2011

Link to article here.

Dallas area’s transportation growth in 2011 came with many pains
MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER
Dallas Morning News
December 25, 2011

Dallas anchors the fastest-growing major metropolitan area in America, so it’s no surprise that transportation politics and policy figured large in North Texas’ top news stories of 2011.

It was the first full year of operations for DART’s 28-mile Green Line, a major expansion of its rail system, and the continued construction of the Orange Line, scheduled to open by 2013. The North Texas Tollway Authority will complete the eastern extension of the Bush Turnpike this month, even as it borrowed big to get its first toll road in Tarrant County under way this year, too.

The Texas Department of Transportation and the city of Dallas scored big this year, too, as they teamed with regional planners to craft an $800 million deal to build two new bridges over the Trinity River to complement the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, whose graceful white suspension cables have been teasing Dallas drivers for months as it nears completion in early 2012. New riders joined the DART system with the opening of the Green Line, but ridership elsewhere fell, as did the use of its buses. Crime jumped up on DART rail lines and buses, as well.

But amid all those developments, there have been five moments where all the tension and pressure of maintaining such fast-growing infrastructure have come together to reveal cracks in the foundation.

Ice storm and DART
On the morning of Feb. 3, a wicked combination of fast-falling temperatures and a thick blanket of ice made most of North Texas’ highways impassable. It became a worst-case scenario for planners who had spent months preparing for the hoopla around that Sunday’s Super Bowl.

The storm’s impact on DART made huge headlines and left hard feelings.

DART trains were knocked out entirely that first day, giving the system its first-ever complete shutdown. By Wednesday, half of the trains couldn’t be deployed, and fresh storms in the following days kept the agency underperforming and continued to leave passengers stranded for hours on platforms without any meaningful contact from officials.

DART’s lack of preparation and inability to communicate with passengers horrified board Chairman Bill Velasco. When another board member asked why the agency hadn’t dispatched police officers to tell passengers freezing on the platforms that trains were not coming, DART President Gary Thomas memorably replied that it had been too cold. Velasco scolded DART management and was quickly rebuked by fellow board members.

DART had trouble again in June when hundreds of thousands of Dallas Mavericks fans headed downtown to celebrate their world championship. One train got stuck in a tunnel between Cityplace and Mockingbird Station, and passengers were left in the dark, literally, without any word about when the train might get moving again. Dozens got scared and hiked through the tunnel to the next station. DART scolded them as lawbreakers — a stance that put the agency under withering criticism.

Thomas apologized, but some passengers said they would never ride again.

Since then, DART has tried to become better prepared for the next storm or other breakdown. While officials rebuffed suggestions that it could better equip its trains and tracks to withstand the cold, DART began installing devices at stations to better communicate with passengers during an emergency.

NTTA scrutiny
On Feb. 22, the deeply insular NTTA board of directors was served notice that other powers in Texas no longer trusted them to run NTTA without oversight. Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, filed a bill to subject NTTA to the sunset process. The Texas Sunset Advisory Commission reviews all state agencies at regular intervals to determine whether they are run in the best interest of the state, whether they should continue, and what changes they need.

NTTA and its cadre of lobbyists fought off that effort, but only by promising to allow the county judges in Collin, Dallas, Tarrant and Denton counties to conduct a review, which was concluded in October. It included deep criticism of NTTA’s management, governance, and ethics policies — even as it endorsed its road-building and other core operations as excellent.

The scrutiny continues, however, as NTTA revealed just days after that report that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has interviewed its officials about possible conflicts of interest among current and former board members.

Trinity toll hurdles
On June 5, The Dallas Morning News reported on thousands of documents released by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers after a two-year struggle to obtain them under the federal Freedom of Information Act. Those records revealed that during the 2007 Trinity River toll road referendum, the city had kept mum about serious reservations about the viability of the “squirrelly project” raised by the corps and other federal officials.

Federal officials repeatedly told the city that the project was possible, but its many caveats were downplayed. Needless to say, the hurdles the city would face on a project that had never been tried before weren’t part of the public relations campaign tightly coordinated between city officials, Trinity River project backers and the NTTA.

Most of those hurdles involved the corps’ worry that placing the toll road between the levees would weaken their ability to withstand historic floods. In the years since, the toll road has been put on deep hiatus as mounting problems with the levees have surfaced. Another complication arose when NTTA said it will have no money to bridge the billion-dollar gap between the amount it could borrow against future tolls on the road and what it would cost to build it.

LBJ construction
On Sept. 1, the newspaper carried an unusual warning on its front page: Stay off LBJ Freeway, no matter what you do. The dire message came as the teams rebuilding LBJ between I-35E and Central Expressway warned that traffic disruptions were unavoidable in the weeks to come as they demolished several bridges. The weekends of work came and went, and tie-ups snarled traffic anyway. But it was just a taste of what’s to come as work continues on the massive, five-year project to rebuild LBJ’s eight main lanes, add continuous frontage roads and dig a path for six new tolled lanes that will run underneath the existing highway.

And for commuters coming from northeast Tarrant County, it is just more of the same. Traffic has been snarled — and traffic accidents up — in Grapevine at the airport for more than a year as crews rush through the massive DFW Connector project.

With another major project in Tarrant County, the North Tarrant Express, and new toll roads by NTTA throughout the region, the Dallas area is home to nearly $10 billion worth of highway improvement. New bridges and new rail lines are under way, too.

Unfortunately, by coming all at once, traffic is snarled everywhere you turn.

The good news? It will all be over by 2015 or so.

Shake-up in NTTA
On Oct. 14, just days after the county judges issued their report, Allen Clemson was forced to resign as NTTA’s executive director. He was the third executive to be ousted. John Dahill, the general counsel, was forced to resign earlier this year. And a month later, Victor Vandergriff announced he no longer had the support to remain board chairman.

All three had a desire to ease the NTTA’s reliance on so-called legacy firms that had served as outside lawyers, engineers and financial advisors for decades. Records produced by NTTA show that dissatisfaction with Clemson had been mounting for months, and a majority of board members had deeply resented the way Vandergriff had run the agency’s negotiations over an external audit overseen by four area county judges.

New chairman Kenneth Barr has vowed to move quickly on reforms recommended by the external auditors, and new ethics rules are in the works. Meanwhile, NTTA’s new interim boss is Gerry Kerrigan, a former executive with the HNTB engineering firm who was critical of staff’s recommendation to fire HNTB last year.

Toll hikes on Dulles to pay for rail project

Link to article here.

This is what happens when we open the door to unaccountable toll roads in the hands of unelected bureaucrats...toll rate hikes to pay for projects the toll payers will likely never use. It's a targeted tax on motorists in certain corridors to pay for completely unrelated political pet projects. The fraud is unbelievable!

Questions answered about Dulles Toll Road

By Dana Hedgpeth, Published: December 6

Users of the Dulles Toll Road will see an increase in rates starting Jan. 1, money that is pledged to go in part to maintain the roadway and in part to fund the new Metrorail line that will extend eventually to Dulles International Airport and Loudoun County.

Rates at the main plaza will go up 25 cents next year. There is no change to the rates at the ramps.

On Tuesday evening, about three dozen people went to a Reston high school to ask questions of staff members of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which oversees Dulles and Reagan National airports and the construction of the Dulles rail line.

At two dozen informational displays, authority staff members answered questions about improvements — including more overhead lighting, new guardrails and repaired toll booths — that have been made to the toll road. They also were asked about the increased toll rates and how the second phase of the Dulles rail line will be funded.

Some toll road users and watchdog groups are concerned that even higher rates will be imposed eventually — perhaps as much as $17 per round trip — to help pay for the 23-mile, $6 billion Dulles Metrorail line, known as the Silver Line.

Bert Hackney, 42, who lives in Vienna, had one big question about the second phase of the Dulles rail project: “When is it going to start?”

Answer: Construction on Phase 2 is likely to start in 2013.

He also wanted to know which of the six stations on the second phase of the project will have parking. The answer: Four will have parking; only the Reston Parkway and Dulles Airport stations will not.

Jack Boese, a retired lawyer who lives in Reston, said he is concerned that as toll rates rise, fewer people will take the road and more will clog other roads such as routes 50 and 7.

“They’re going to end up raising the toll rates to the point where the well-off business commuter whose time is really money will be the only one using the toll road and anyone with an option won’t,” Boese said. “Route 7 and Route 50 are going to become parking lots.”

The toll increases were agreed to years ago.

In 2009, the airports authority decided to raise toll rates in three stages. The first increase was in 2010, and another took effect this year. The 2012 increase will be the third.

Construction of the first phase of the Dulles project, which runs through Tysons Corner to Reston, is underway and is expected to be completed late next year.

Until recently, it was not clear how the second phase of the Dulles rail project, from Wiehle Avenue to Dulles Airport and Loudoun County, would be paid for. Last month, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood helped broker a deal on financing the estimated $2.8 billion Phase 2 project.

Nearly 54 percent of the cost of the entire project is expected to come from Dulles Toll Road users. An additional 16 percent is to come from federal grants, 4.9 percent from Virginia, 4.1 percent from the airports authority, and the rest from Loudoun and Fairfax counties.

The counties have said they are trying to pursue public-private partnerships to help pay for stations and parking garages.

Phase 2 of the rail project became embroiled in controversy over whether to place the station at Dulles Airport aboveground or underground. Eventually, the authority’s board agreed that the station would go aboveground, the less costly option.

NTTA board members want taxpayers to foot legal bills for FBI investigation


Link to article here.

This article says it all...corruption from top to bottom at these unelected, unaccountable toll authority boards. Now they want the taxpayers to pay for their personal legal bills for the FBI investigation into their conflicts of interest!

NTTA agenda item seeks legal payments for board members
MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER
Dallas Morning News
December 17, 2011

At least one North Texas Tollway Authority board member is asking his colleagues to agree to spend public money on his legal fees in an ongoing matter.

The revelation came late Friday in a board agenda published in advance of the final meeting for 2011, scheduled for next Wednesday.

The one-line mention, agenda item 31, is posted for discussion in open session. It reads: “briefing and possible approval of a director’s request for indemnification under 366.258.”

That number refers to a section of Texas law that says an authority “may indemnify one or more of its directors or officers for necessary expenses and costs, including attorney’s fees, incurred by the directors or officers …” The request isn’t spelled out, but there is an ongoing FBI investigation of possible conflicts of interest among current and former board members. That investigation was revealed in October, buried deep in a bond-sale disclosure.

NTTA spokesman Michael Rey said he doesn’t know which director is asking for the money. NTTA board chairman Kenneth Barr did not respond to interview requests Saturday.

The legal-fees request was not in the meeting agenda initially sent out by NTTA to the public and the media at 9 a.m. Friday. It was added late Friday afternoon, but the revamped agenda was not sent out in the same way.
Rey said that as jampacked as the agenda is, he didn’t think it was necessary to send another public notice. He also said that the change is on the NTTA website.

Also on Thursday’s agenda is a closed-session board briefing on the FBI investigation and “any other legal developments” that happen between now and Wednesday.

Other items on the agenda:

The NTTA board is being asked to extend contracts through 2012 for the legacy firms. The companies, including engineering firm HNTB and the law firm Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell, have long done much of the authority’s work.

NTTA staff members, led by former HNTB executive Gerry Carrigan, have asked the board to approve contracts that will allow the agency to pay HNTB $10.4 million in 2012 for general engineering consultant services.
Locke Lord would get an extension as NTTA’s outside law firm, a role it has had since 1953. McCall Parkhurst & Horton LLP will get an extension as bond counsel. Their contracts apparently don’t have maximum amounts associated with them.

There’s a briefing and possible action for setting a new schedule for when the legacy firms will have to compete for their long-held places. Barr has vowed that a new procurement schedule will be put in place soon, and that all the contracts could be bid before the end of next year.

Rey said late Friday that the details of the briefing materials on staff proposals for procurement schedules were still in the works and will be available next week.
--------------------------------  
The board could take action on a resolution changing the toll-rate schedule on the Bush Turnpike Eastern Extension, which is set to open this month.

Driving in decline, toll roads aren't viable


Link to article here.

Driving remains in decline in America, so how exactly will toll roads, that require an ever increasing number of cars on the road paying that toll in order to stay financially solvent, solve congestion or road funding woes? They won't. It's a failed policy in search of massive taxpayer bailouts when they all go belly-up...

Economy, gas prices make Americans drive less
By Larry Copeland and Paul Overberg, USA TODAY

Updated 12/8/2011 11:21 AM
Americans have been driving fewer miles every month since March, a decline fueled by factors ranging from the weak economy to high gas prices to aging boomers and teens driving less.

The economy and gas prices are factors in the driving decline, but there are larger trends at work, too.

The economy and gas prices are factors in the driving decline, but there are larger trends at work, too.

It's the first time the nation has seen six consecutive monthly decreases since October of 2008.

A USA TODAY analysis of data from the Federal Highway Administration shows the miles driven during the year that ended in September were down 1% from a similar measure from February.

"With the number of Americans unemployed or underemployed, you have a reduction in disposable income, fewer commutes, fewer shopping trips and leisure trips," says Troy Green of auto club AAA. "And we are on pace to set a new record for the average annual price of gasoline."
Americans have been driving fewer miles every month since March, a decline fueled by factors ranging from the weak economy to high gas prices to aging boomers and teens driving less.

The economy and gas prices are factors in the driving decline, but there are larger trends at work, too.

The economy and gas prices are factors in the driving decline, but there are larger trends at work, too.

It's the first time the nation has seen six consecutive monthly decreases since October of 2008.

A USA TODAY analysis of data from the Federal Highway Administration shows the miles driven during the year that ended in September were down 1% from a similar measure from February.

"With the number of Americans unemployed or underemployed, you have a reduction in disposable income, fewer commutes, fewer shopping trips and leisure trips," says Troy Green of auto club AAA. "And we are on pace to set a new record for the average annual price of gasoline." In 2008, the price for a gallon of self-serve, regular unleaded gasoline hit a record $4.11. "Everybody remembers that," Green says. "We had some tremendous peaks and some pretty low valleys that year, and by Dec. 31, 2008, it was down to $1.62 a gallon. The annual average for 2008 was $3.25.
Mileage logged

Number of miles driven in the USA in the 12-month periods ending Sept. 30 (in trillions):

Source: Federal Highway Administration

"We haven't had the valleys this year. It's been above $3 all year. The annual average this year is $3.53, and it's going to end the year above $3.50, which is more expensive than any other year."

The autumn of 2011 saw the poorest gasoline demand since 2000, says Tom Kloza, chief analyst at the Oil Price Information Service. "There's a little bit of driving fatigue," he says. "There was a hunker-down mentality, especially in the fall. People realized they had spent as much money on fuel by Columbus Day as they had for the whole year the year before."

The economy and gas prices are factors in the driving decline, but there are larger trends at work, too, says Robert Puentes, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program.

"For years and years, people just drove more and more, and we got used to this increase in driving every single year," he says. The rising numbers were related to societal shifts such as women joining the workforce, minorities moving to the suburbs and sprawling metropolitan growth. "But those macro trends have started to become less intense," he says.

Among the other likely factors contributing to the driving drop:

•The 78 million aging baby boomers driving less. "The biggest factor is boomers are no longer raising children," says Jana Lynott, AARP's transportation expert. "Raising children in the suburbs, which is where the majority of boomers live, is one of the great generators of driving trips. Kids in the suburbs are very active and involved, and parents are generally taking them to and from places."

•More people taking public transportation. Ridership on public transit increased 2% in July, August and September compared to the same period last year, according to the American Public Transportation Association.

•Teenagers driving less. A study in August by researchers at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute found that, over the past 25 years, there has been a significant decrease in the percentage of young people with a driver's license. In 2008, 31% of 16-year-olds had a license, compared with 46% in 1983, according to Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle.

More states implementing phased-in driving licensing for novice drivers, which means they're licensed later, and higher teen unemployment might also be factors.

Contributing: Marisol Bello

Cisneros firm to invest in more toll roads

AE Capital Advisers is the U.S. subsidiary of an Australian company that teamed-up with CityView (which employs former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros), who's announced it will continue investing in toll roads. Note the first such deal for CityView includes profit guarantees, which puts TAXPAYERS, not the foreign investors on the hook for the losses.


CityView diversifies to ensure growth
Cisneros' firm targets rental units, toll roads.
By Jennifer Hiller, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Updated 10:46 p.m., Friday, November 25, 2011

For more than a decade, Henry Cisneros' CityView, a growing investment and development firm, quietly has invested $800 million in urban residential and mixed-use properties for institutional clients.

Now Los Angeles-based CityView is diversifying, looking to invest more in multifamily rental and in infrastructure projects such as toll roads and bridges.

In the wake of the housing and stocks crash of a few years ago, more people are switching from buying to renting, few new real estate projects are moving forward and the need to replace aging roadways, pipelines and the like continues to grow.

So this year, CityView teamed with AE Capital Advisers, the U.S. subsidiary of an Australian company, to invest in infrastructure projects. An Austin-area toll road that will open in the spring is one of the first projects it helped finance.

“There was so much press about the need for infrastructure,” said Cisneros, former San Antonio mayor and the secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Bill Clinton. “This gives CityView its infrastructure component.”

The Central Texas Mobility Authority sold $95 million on the traditional municipal bond market, but it wasn't enough to pay for the entire cost of the five-mile northern extension of the 183A Toll Road, which runs through Austin, Cedar Park and Leander. AE Capital Advisers and CityView provided another $45 million in subordinate financing. The Central Texas Mobility Authority retains government ownership of the road, but there are protective covenants to ensure AE Capital and CityView are paid over time.

Read the rest of the story here.

TxDOT bait & switch: Yanks free lanes from toll plan

Link to article here.

When will lawmakers learn they can't trust TxDOT nor take it at its word. They're snake oil salesmen and will do a bait and switch EVERY time. They'll tell lawmakers one thing to get the project in the bill and to win enough votes for passage, and then when legislators have gone home, they'll renege as they've done here. The Texas Legislature had the chance to gut and reform TxDOT for two sessions, but they blew it and caved to Rick Perry's cronyism. Lawmakers, many of them bought-off by the road lobby themselves, left Perry's pet agency alone despite mounds of scathing reports and audits revealing how dysfunctional it is.

Officials want more free lanes on I-35E

Groups talk about drawbacks of scaling back expansion project

07:34 AM CST on Wednesday, November 23, 2011

By Bj Lewis / Staff Writer

LEWISVILLE — As talk of the expansion of Interstate 35E continues, area elected officials want to be certain project planners are adding free lanes alongside any projected toll lanes.

Representatives from the committee charged with deciding how the massive expansion project will be funded and delivered met Tuesday in Lewisville. Committee members further expanded on a handful of building options and heard feedback from county and state officials who are unwavering on their desire for free lanes.

“I hope they are able to obtain additional financing to provide what was promised during public meetings by TxDOT,” Denton County Commissioner Hugh Coleman said. “I will be watching the proceedings carefully to ensure we don’t get sold down the river.

“I’m still very concerned the committee is proceeding with its plan to only provide managed lanes without providing any additional free lanes,” he added.

The 1420 Committee is a requirement of Senate Bill 1420, which authorizes the use of public-private partnerships to fund the expansion of a 28-mile stretch of I-35E, from Denton to Dallas.
The current highway has four to six regular lanes and four lanes of frontage roads.

The project would expand the highway to eight regular lanes, four tolled HOV lanes and four to six frontage lanes, depending on the need. The project’s current estimated cost is $3.3 billion in construction, $1.2 billion to purchase right of way and $800 million for operations.

Early Tuesday morning in Commissioners Court, Coleman broached the idea of commissioners’ rescinding the resolution supporting the expansion project and the commitment of county dollars — the only tangible money in the project right now, based on what he perceived to be a bait and switch by the Texas Department of Transportation.

While support for the idea went nowhere, it at least spurred discussion on Coleman’s big concern on the project — free general-purpose lanes.

At the last 1420 Committee meeting on Nov. 10, TxDOT officials made it known they lacked the funding to complete the scope of the expansion project as presented to the public. To that end, they proposed a handful of scenarios that included building a managed toll lane.

Coleman wants a free lane for each toll lane and — after a round of spirited discussion among county commissioners — they seemed to be on the same page with Coleman going into the meeting Tuesday afternoon.

Attending the meeting in addition to County Judge Mary Horn, Commissioner Andy Eads and Commissioner Bobbie Mitchell were state Rep. Myra Crownover, R-Denton, Rep. Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound, a representative from the office of Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, Corinth Mayor Paul Ruggiere and Denton Mayor Mark Burroughs.

TxDOT officials presented updates on their expansion ideas that included the toll lanes in various forms and changes to the width of bridges, sidewalks and frontage roads, with the assurance that they were not committed to any particular plan.

When the forum opened for comment, much of the discussion was on the need for free lanes.

Burroughs stressed the need to get the expansion done right, whatever path was taken to deliver it. He also said that because of Denton’s growth, it would be a mistake to not address the need for a connection to U.S. Highway 380, even if it meant acquiring the right of way now and then pushing forward when the money was there in the future.

Crownover told the committee the big picture was that I-35E was not just a road for Denton County, but a major artery for the United States.

“This is a one-time shot,” she said. “We cannot cut this short; we cannot get it wrong.”

Crownover expressed concern over the pace of the project and its effect on the University of North Texas.

“There is no easy answer here, but this is something we have to get right,” she said.

Ruggiere, Corinth’s mayor, noted a few concerns for the public, suggesting that the committee make it clear to the public that any money generated by a toll lane in the I-35E corridor would stay in the corridor. He also said that if TxDOT is changing how it will approach the project, more public meetings would be held to let residents know about the change and to see if the support is still there.

Nelson’s representative read a letter from the longtime senator in which she stated her stance against anything less than what was initially proposed by TxDOT.

Horn read from a letter she drafted and signed along with Eads to send to the Texas Transportation Commission asking for financial help and stressing the importance of the project and the ability to get things done by working together.

She stressed to those at the meeting that the project scope she has in mind has not changed from when she was proposing the project in public meetings months ago. She said it would have to be done in stages and that there was no clear idea of how much money would be needed for the project.

“[But] my scope of work hasn’t changed — I am not backing off for an instant,” she said.

Michael Morris, chairman of the 1420 Committee and director of transportation for the North Central Texas Council of Governments, said the committee would look at how to meet the desire for free general-purpose lanes financially.

He said that while the committee does not want to move too fast, “at the same time, people are dying on I-35. This committee needs to strike the correct balance on how we get back to the commission and bring some relief to the corridor.”

The committee’s next meeting is set for 9 a.m. Nov. 30 in the boardroom of the Denton County Transportation Authority, 1660 S. I-35E, Suite 250, in Lewisville.

Horseshoe project goes to bid using controversial contracts

Link to article here.

Design build contracts are code for taxpayer rip-off. They are not competitively bid contracts and have a track record of costing taxpayers more by outsourcing design and engineering work to high-priced consultants -- work tat can and should be done in-house at TxDOT at a lower cost to the public.

Infra Insight Blog

Posted at 4:33 PM on November 15, 2011 by Linda Cunningham

Texas Transportation Commission Authorizes RFQ for Horseshoe Project

At its October 27 meeting, the Texas Transportation Commission approved the issuance of a request for qualifications for the Horseshoe Project in Dallas County.  The project will be the first under new design-build legislation passed by the Texas legislature during the 2011 session.  Subchapter F, Chapter 223, of the Transportation Code prescribes the process by which the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) may enter into a design-build contract with a private entity that provides for the design, construction, expansion, extension, related capital maintenance, rehabilitation, alteration, or repair of a highway project. Transportation Code §223.242 authorizes TxDOT to enter into, in each fiscal year, up to three design-build contracts for highway projects with estimated construction costs of $50 million or more.

The Horseshoe Project is part of the larger Project Pegasus, a $2.1 billion (construction only) project in downtown Dallas on two major interstates, I-35E and I-30.   All four legs of Project Pegasus are on the list of 2011 Top 100 Most Congested Roadways in the State of Texas.  The Horseshoe Project will replace two key bridges and connecting roadways crossing the Trinity River at I-30 and I-35E, as well as upgrading outdated roadway geometry.  The estimated construction cost of the Horseshoe Project is $800 million.

The Horseshoe Project is one of several major new design-build projects in the United States, including the Gerald Desmond Bridge replacement project in Long Beach, Calif., VTA’s BART Berryessa extension project in the Silicon Valley, and New York's Tappan Zee Bridge replacement project, which is one of 14 projects chosen by the Obama administration for expedited federal review and approval.

Perry's stubborn insistence on Trans Texas Corridor costly

Link to article here.

Perry's leadership style is sometimes costly

The failure of the Texas governor's vast transit project, a 4,000-mile-long network for cars and trains, can be attributed in part to his inattention to detail and his insularity with a small number of advisors, observers say, problems that also have hindered his presidential campaign.

By Paul West, Washington Bureau

Los Angeles Times

November 21, 2011

Reporting from Austin, Texas

 
Rick Perry launched his Texas gubernatorial campaign in 2002 with an idea that he hoped would become his legacy: a 4,000-mile-long, 21st century transit network on which motorists would drive 90 mph on toll roads 10 lanes wide, high-speed trains would hum alongside, and there would be room for electric power lines, broadband fiber and pipes to pump oil, natural gas and water to a rapidly growing state.

Perry called it the Trans-Texas Corridor, and advertised his blueprint as "bold" and "visionary" — a "plan as big as Texas and as ambitious as our people."


And it would all be done without raising taxes, thanks to partnerships with the private sector. The entire venture, priced at more than $200 billion in today's dollars, would leave the old interstate highways in the dust and provide, in Perry's view, a model for the nation.


FOR THE RECORD:
Rick Perry: A Nov. 21 article in Section A about Texas Gov. Rick Perry's failed plan in 2002 to create a massive transit system said the Texas Farm Bureau had "endorsed his previous campaigns." While the bureau had endorsed Perry in most of his races, it backed his opponent in the 1998 election for lieutenant governor. —


Then "they rolled the thing out and it just blew up," said Bill Allaway of the Texas Taxpayers and Research Assn., a pro-business think tank in Austin. "The Trans-Texas Corridor turned out to be a political disaster for him."

What happened to the most controversial initiative of his 11 years as governor provides a window into a style of management that doomed not only the transit corridor but has contributed to the severe turbulence that has wracked his presidential candidacy. It is the sometimes lethal combination of inattention to detail and an insularity that blunts opposing views until it's too late.

Unlike many governors, Perry has generally declined to involve himself in the day-to-day particulars of managing government, say those who have worked for or watched him over the years.

At the same time, he has surrounded himself with a small number of advisors who have remained by his side for many years, from before his election as lieutenant governor in the 1990s to his current foray as a Republican presidential candidate.

Few in his kitchen cabinet were closer to Perry than Ric Williamson, who roomed with him when they were both state representatives in the 1980s. Shortly after Perry became governor — rising from his lieutenant governor post after George W. Bush was elected president — he installed Williamson on the state Transportation Commission.

The transit corridor appealed to Perry and Williamson because it would address many of the state's biggest challenges: relieving urban traffic congestion, keeping hazardous cargo out of populated areas, speeding freight north from the Mexican border and improving air quality, while creating, by their estimate, more than 2 million jobs.

And yet, the futuristic plan was really a throwback: the old idea of state government as a driver of economic growth.

"You'd be very hard-pressed to get Rick Perry to say that Washington will have a good effect on people's lives," said Chris Lippincott, a former official with the Texas Department of Transportation. "But his career is full of examples that government can have a positive effect on people."

In sketching out their grand concept, Perry and Williamson bypassed former colleagues in the state Legislature who dealt with transportation on a daily basis, an omission that loomed large as details of the plan became known and it became obvious that the governor and his advisors had failed to think through the politics of their idea.

The vastness of the corridors — nearly a quarter-mile wide — meant that Perry's plan could eat up more than 500,000 acres of private property. The biggest land grab in state history, opponents said.

Conservative property rights advocates were outraged. Rural landowners, who had supported Perry, a fellow rancher, ever since his 1990 election as state agriculture commissioner, exploded. The state's largest farm organization, the Texas Farm Bureau, which had endorsed his previous campaigns, lobbied to block the plan. Even the state Republican Party, driven by conservative anger over the looming "confiscation of private land," went on record in favor of killing it.

Perry failed, as well, to anticipate the opposition of vested interests — like those tied to existing toll road authorities in Dallas and Houston — who feared they would be left out once the project took off.

Those worries appeared to be justified when the Perry administration, in late 2004, gave a Spanish construction firm, Cintra, the lead role in building the system. The governor called it "one of the most significant days in the history of transportation." But the decision merely intensified the opposition. It fed nativist fears, which had been stirred by descriptions of the plan as a "NAFTA superhighway," a reference to the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The governor's project, to some, conjured up dark visions of Mexican trucks, loaded with foreign freight, barreling unchecked into Texas as part of a vague conspiracy to undermine U.S. sovereignty.

In late 2004, Perry began scaling back his grand vision. He quietly dropped the idea of building rail lines and highways side by side, shrinking the amount of private land that would be required. The governor "did a very effective job over time in backing away in steps from that idea, while keeping the concept alive," said Allaway, who calls it one of the hallmarks of Perry's style. "He makes a decision and he will back it until he can't any longer."

Mike Krusee, a former Republican state lawmaker, drew a comparison with Perry's ill-fated executive order in 2007 that required girls in Texas to be vaccinated against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus. The mandate, which has backfired on Perry in the presidential race, was blocked by the Legislature after blindsided opponents rebelled.

"Again, he talks to people who are close to him — whether it's his wife or others — he had a vision and put it out and then got push-back from the Legislature," said Krusee, now a lobbyist in Austin.

Ray Sullivan, a Perry campaign spokesman and onetime chief of staff to the governor, acknowledged that in presenting the transit project, "we could have used more coalition-building and communications with citizens, elected officials, legislators and stakeholders prior to that major policy announcement being launched."

He added that while it is "wonderful to live in a conservative state" like Texas, "it's important to remember as well that conservatives can be as resistant to change as anybody else." The governor, who according to the aide has never spoken at length about what went wrong, declined an interview request, as did several others who were top advisors at the time.

By 2007, it was clear that the Republican-dominated Legislature, which initially authorized the ambitious project, wanted nothing more to do with it. Lawmakers overwhelmingly voted to curb new public-private toll road deals.

Williamson, the man who conceived the plan and spearheaded the drive to build it, told Reason magazine in fall 2007 that the "retrenchment" would be temporary. Three months later, not long after being described by Texas Monthly as the "most hated person in Texas," Williamson was dead of a heart attack.

A year after that, following a series of noisy public hearings around the state, his brainchild was gone too.

"The name Trans-Texas Corridor is over with," said Perry in January 2009, as state transportation officials announced they were dropping the plan.

Sullivan points out that Texas is still building toll roads through public-private partnerships. "So even if one argued that the original plan was unsuccessful, the thrust and goals of the public policy have been achieved in a different way," he said.

Still, even the wariest opponents say the governor's dream is dead. Conservatives cheered last spring when the Legislature unanimously approved a measure expunging all references to the Trans-Texas Corridor from state statutes. On June 17, Perry signed it into law, effective immediately.

Lawmakers try to fool taxpayers with tax cloaked as 'fee'

Link to article here.

Trying disguise a tax as a 'fee' may be an old trick utilized by politicians through the centuries, but it doesn't work anymore. Ben Wear gets it right: "But it might be good to remember that a $50 fee and a $50 tax look pretty similar coming out of the wallet."

 
A fee by any name smells sweeter than a gas tax

Ben Wear, Getting There

Austin American Statesman
Published: 7:21 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13, 2011

Give state Sen. Tommy Williams credit, at the very least, for actually trying to address the problem.

The problem, in this case, is the diminishing purchasing power of Texas' 20-cents-a-gallon gasoline tax, which the Legislature hasn't increased since 1991. Revenue from the tax has stalled out in the past three years and, given the effects of inflation and ever-improving vehicle fuel efficiency, is headed in the wrong direction.

Mind you, the Republican from The Woodlands isn't talking about increasing that tax.

The last chairman of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee who advocated publicly for doing that (repeatedly) is no longer the chairman of that committee. Williams is, and he'd probably like to keep that influential gig for a while. And calling for increasing a tax, any tax, is not exactly a career builder for a Texas Republican politician.

No, what Williams suggested last week was increasing the vehicle registration fee on the state's 21 million cars and trucks by about $50 each. That would raise about $1.2 billion each year, according to Texas Transportation Institute figures provided by Williams' office.

Sell bonds and use this extra registration fee revenue to pay them back over 30 years, the Texas A&M-based think tank estimates, and the Texas Department of Transportation could borrow more than $16 billion to spend on roads and bridges now.

This would allow TxDOT, and the Legislature, to once again forestall a day of reckoning that has been threatening to arrive for several years now. TxDOT since 2005 has already borrowed, or been authorized to borrow, about $19 billion, money that has more than made up for the gas tax's losing battle with inflation.

The Legislature, in fact, bestowed a beefy $4 billion increase on TxDOT's two-year budget this spring even as the rest of the state budget was put on a liquid diet. But that hike was possible only because of that borrowing mentioned above, not new tax or fee revenue, and that cupboard is about to get bare.

So, Williams is floating the idea of that $50 registration fee increase. Always better to raise a fee than a tax, right?

Here's where it gets interesting.

If you drive 12,000 miles a year and get 25 miles per gallon, you'll use 480 gallons in a year. So, in this case, to generate an extra $50 in gas taxes over a year, the Legislature would have to increase the gas tax by just over 10 cents a gallon. Or, in other words, by 50 percent.

Whoa! The Legislature, asked a couple of sessions ago to index the gas tax to inflation, said no way. Which means that they weren't willing to countenance a 2 percent or 3 percent annual increase.

But wait: Williams, remember, is suggesting is a fee, not a tax, which presumably makes it ... different, more palatable.

But the gas tax, in fact, is a user fee. The more you use (meaning the more you drive or if you drive with a car that gets poor gas mileage), the more you pay.

The vehicle registration fee, on the other hand, is a kind of a flat tax. As of Sept. 1, all Texas vehicles under 6,000 pounds pay $52.75 a year, and it doesn't matter if it's a Mercedes or a Taurus, or how old the car is. The fee is the same whether the owner drives the wheels off, or parks it in the garage indefinitely. And you pay it all at once, not a little bit at a time like the gas tax.

A registration fee increase, Williams' staff points out, has at least one (apolitical) advantage over a gas tax increase. The revenue won't decrease over time as vehicles move toward the federally mandated average fuel efficiency of more than 50 miles per gallon. And that's true.

Again, kudos to Williams for openly acknowledging that the Legislature, one way or the other, is going to have raise revenue for transportation in the 2013 session. But it might be good to remember that a $50 fee and a $50 tax look pretty similar coming out of the wallet.

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