Like TURF
Follow TURFHave politicians gotten the message?
Vigilance required
By Terri Hall
San Antonio Express-News / Houston Examiner
January 4, 2011
The voters sent a clear message in November: cut and control government spending, lower our taxes, and overall shrink government (get its boot off our necks!). The question that remains -- did politicians get the message and will anything truly change? With the recent tax cut compromise and the massive proposed spending bill in Washington, it's obvious that our elected representatives continue on business as usual doling out freebies to all sorts of lobbyists and pet industries at the expense of the middle class. Indeed, our politicians are more like unsupervised children, and it's time we the people kick it up a notch!
Every new year brings with it new opportunities, and in 2011, the greatest opportunity in a generation is for taxpayers to watchdog their government at a whole new level and insist upon accountability and sustainability. Take nothing for granted, trust no one, and take no prisoners. We absolutely cannot allow business as usual to continue. Our children and grandchildren are already suffocating under a mountain of debt at both the state and federal levels (to say nothing of local government debt), and the current cavalier borrow and spend mentality gripping our Texas State Legislature in the name of no new taxes is worse than an outright tax increase.
No more borrow and spend
For just the first $6 billion in state borrowing for roads (the vast majority of which went to subsidize loser toll projects at EVERY Texan's expense) will cost Texans $21 BILLION (that's billion with a "B") to pay back with interest. According to the Texas Department of Transportation's financial statements as reported in the Austin American Statesman December 22, not one of Austin's new fangled toll projects will be in the black for a generation. You read that right, NONE of those projects will be paid off for a GENERATION! And that's not counting the heap of other toll projects around the state like the $6-7 billion of debt in Dallas/Fort Worth alone.
If there's one thing our generation needs to learn from the previous one, it's that paying cash for something is far less costly than borrowing and debt. All Texans are now on the hook to guarantee the North Texas Tollway Authority's debt with approximately $8 billion in gas taxes over the next 36 years for a toll road that primarily benefits the Dallas Cowboys. That $8 billion is equivalent to the entire construction budget at TxDOT for a whole year! Such reckless financial decisions must NEVER happen again.
What's in store?
With the Texas Legislature convening on January 11, the road lobby is rabidly pushing them to re-authorize certain contracts called Comprehensive Development Agreements (CDAs) that effectively sell-off our Texas roads to private corporations in 52 year, monopolistic sweetheart deals. In 2009, Governor Perry called a special session to get these CDAs re-authorized.
Ultimately, the two-day session ended with the CDA bill lacking the votes to even get out of committee! That was our biggest victory to date, for without these deals, most of the planned toll roads will face certain death for lack of financing.
Not only the road lobby, but also many local elected officials are pushing for a litany of new taxes for transportation in addition to CDAs. They all think that raising the gas tax is politically radioactive (especially as gas prices rise -- though it's by far the most affordable and fair way to fund roads). But they're convinced they can fool you into thinking tolls and fee increases aren't tax increases or that you can somehow game the system and avoid paying them. The whole "those who don't use the road won't pay for the road" mantra is no longer even remotely true -- ALL Texans are paying BILLIONS in subsidies for these toll projects they may never be able to afford to use.
They plan to raid pension funds for toll roads, expand local government's authority to raise your property taxes to pay for roads (called Transportation Reinvestment Zones, how quaint), to possibly charge you a tax for every mile you drive, to increase your registration "fee," and try to impose a host of other taxes (on things like parking spaces or a commuter tax on out of area commuters) or to install invasive technologies that wreak of big daddy government with toll gantry cameras and toll tags, red light cameras, cameras monitoring ALL our state highways, banning texting while driving, banning the use of cell phones while driving, and the like.
They think we need to be monitored as our freedom of travel gets trampled upon (like the naked body scanners at airports). They think you're not paying enough to keep their gravy train going. This is what we can expect, if we let it happen! Since those who wish to rob us of our freedoms never sleep, neither can we.
Now more than ever, we the people need to demonstrate to our politicians that ignoring the public outcry against tolling our existing freeways, the Trans Texas Corridor, and the sale of our Texas roads to foreign companies who then charge 75 cents PER MILE to drive our PUBLIC roads, will bring wrath at the ballot box, and perhaps even result in a grassroots people's candidate running against them.
In the 2010 midterm elections, we saw a house cleaning of sorts. The taxpayers have had enough, they're watching their representatives' every move like hawks, and they're not going to fall for rhetoric or dirty tricks (like slipping bad stuff in a mega bill that no one reads, and giving taxpayers' hard-earned money away in freebies for industries with the most effective lobbyists).
TURF has been the vanguard, faithfully standing watch on the front lines while educating and rallying their fellow citizens since 2007. You can count on us to keep you apprised of all things transportation this session. Remember knowledge (and taking action) is power. So get informed or get run over. Our next meeting is January 20 at 6:00 PM at Longhorn Cafe off Blanco Rd. (inside 1604). See you there!