Did you know roads are ‘racist' to our Secretary of Transportation?
Buttigieg: 'Roads are racist' plan to use road funding to make amends for past
Remote kill switches really about taking your car
Biden’s Move to Put Kill Switches in Cars Tied to Global Agenda
Journalist spends more time charging EV than sleeping
Anti-car policy is now in fashion with policymakers, but not with most drivers, especially not this journalist...
Mileage tax means tracking your every move, using carbon footprint against you
How a mileage tax in the Biden federal highway bill could mean tracking your every move, not to mention the equivalent of a toll for every mile you drive.

Cintra

  • Burkett wants highest possible toll taxes for constituents
    By Terri Hall
    November 9, 2017

    With Cindy Burkett throwing her hat in the ring in an attempt to unseat grassroots conservative stalwart Senator Bob Hall, the voters of Texas Senate District 2 need to know about her record. Burkett was quick to support selling off Interstate 635 E to the highest bidder using a controversial toll contract known in Texas as a comprehensive development agreement (or CDA) that gives control of our public roads to private toll companies.

    Interstate 635 toll lanes from I-35E to the Dallas North Tollway are already operated by Spain-based Cintra. Commuters in the Metroplex face paying upwards of $24/day in tolls to this foreign corporation just to get to work, and no elected official has any control over how high those toll rates can go. Burkett wants that tax burden to extend to commuters in her own district from US 75 to I-30.
  • Link to article here.

    Lack of accountability plagues fatal Fort Worth 2021 pileup

    After three years, crash survivors and families of those who died wonder if they will ever have closure. TxDOT and the private toll operator say they are not responsible.

  • Zero: Money owed taxpayers for SH 130 toll road erased by bankruptcy court
    By Terri Hall
    July 8, 2017

    The defunct SH 130 tollway just emerged from bankruptcy court and the news isn’t good for taxpayers. In 2007, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) entered into a Comprehensive Development Agreement, or public private partnership, with SH 130 Concession Company, a subsidiary of Spain-based Cintra and Zachry Toll Road 56, which had ownership dispersed among Australian and many other foreign entities. The 41-mile southern stretch of SH 130 opened in November 2012, designed to be a bypass around congested downtown Austin. But the traffic never materialized and the private concession company sought bankruptcy protection in March 2016. According to the terms that emerged from bankruptcy court, all of the private entity’s $1.4 billion debt was wiped away, leaving federal taxpayers left holding the bag for the $430 million federally-backed Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan given to the private entities.

    Texas taxpayers feel betrayed. Former Texas Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson swore under oath before the Senate Transportation Committee on March 1, 2007, that if the private entities went bankrupt, the Texas taxpayers would get the road back free and clear of any debt. Free and clear means no debt obligations, and therefore no need to continue to charge tolls for usage. However, that didn’t happen. Instead, new owners were brought in, Strategic Value Partners, $260 million in new debt was issued, and the new private company will continue to charge tolls until the contract is up in 2062 — for a road that now owes virtually no debt compared to its original $1.4 billion.
  • Coming soon to a theater near you...