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Follow TURFMcCombs takes swipe at citizen voice on Express-News blog
Pro-toll Terrell McCombs, who is paid to lobby for toll roads by those who will profit off of them, opines that the Express-News asked concerned citizen and San Antonio Toll Party and Texas TURF Founder, Terri Hall, to do a blog for their paper. The BIG MONEY can't handle losing its monopoly on the discussion. McCombs is also clearly in the dark on the facts, fails to mention how we've "misrepresented the facts" (while he's made a profession out of misrepresenting the facts and stooping to what seems like endless personal attacks) and our policy positions. Check out the blog here.
06/25/2009
Why not substance on new lanes?
Editorial by Terrell McCombs
Express-News
The San Antonio Express-News' ability to engage people at the citizen level is remarkable, and I applaud your encouragement of ordinary Texans to make their voices heard. A new perspective on local issues and public policy is always refreshing to hear, so long as it is an informed one.
For this reason I must question your recent decision to allow a citizen activist from outside of San Antonio to publish a regular blog on the Express-News' Web site.
Terri Hall has misrepresented facts to support her arguments in the past. I hope she will use this new-found prominence to make her arguments based on substance and fact rather than one-sided opinions.
You and your readers must hold her accountable for the accuracy of what she says.
Hall does not represent the voice of all Texans. She represents a small group of followers who are apparently pro-gridlock, given their lawsuits to block additional lanes, which would relieve congestion on U.S. 281 North. Their voices may be loud, but they are misguided and use misinformation and scare tactics to block possibilities for new or innovative transportation finance options.
Instead, Hall clings to an old, indirect, and increasingly ineffective model for building new transportation infrastructure: the gas tax.
Now, don't get me wrong, the gas tax can work. However, we would be looking at an increase of more than $1.25 per gallon to begin to seriously address our huge transportation infrastructure deficit. An increase of that magnitude is politically unacceptable to state policymakers.
Frankly, many Texans and Texas businesses oppose dramatically raising the gas tax in challenging economic times and welcome the idea of private funding and user fees as ways to lower traffic congestion and improve our quality of life.
I hope Hall's Express-News blog will cause other readers who are frustrated with traffic congestion to speak up rather than allow her to tell the story for all of us.
Terrell McCombs is chairman of the San Antonio Mobility Coalition.