Like TURF
Follow TURFFoes threaten legal action to stop streetcar
By Viana Davila, Express-News
February 1, 2012
Opponents of the planned downtown streetcar system said Tuesday that county officials broke a promise with voters when they agreed to use advanced transportation district funds to help fund the project.
The group contends that multiple pieces of campaign literature used to promote the ATD tax in 2004 explicitly stated the money would not go toward light rail or toll roads.
A streetcar, they said, is light rail by another name.
“I think the average person would say this is light rail,” said Jeff Judson, an Olmos Park city councilman, senior fellow with the Heartland Institute and former president of the Texas Public Policy Network, a conservative think tank that played a large role in the defeat of a 2000 tax increase that would have funded a 53-mile light rail system here.
Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Foes-threaten-legal-action-to-derail-transit-2884177.php#ixzz1lNzslC5T
_______________________________________________________________
Mr. Rodriguez is correct: using ATD funds for streetcars (light rail by another name) breaks a promise to voters, but it also breaches the trust with taxpayers in another way -- it raids 10 years worth of ATD ROAD funds to pay for a transit project that only services downtown, where there's NO congestion. Meanwhile, the northside remains locked in the congestion torture chamber known as 281 & 1604 being scolded with this propaganda -- "There's no money to fix those roads without tolls." Baloney! The PEOPLE had better wise-up and throw these tone-deaf, irresponsible, drunk-with-their-own-power, sold-out-to-special-interests politicians out of office!
Using ATD Funds for Streetcars Breaks Promise
By George Rodriguez
Op/Ed
San Antonio Express-News
Sunday, January 29, 2012
The liberal majority on the San Antonio City Council and Bexar County Commissioners Court have a habit of ignoring the views of citizens in order to subsidize elite slivers of the population. The San Antonio Tea Party’s objective is to challenge this habit, and ensure every citizen understands how elected officials, local as well as federal, spend our money.
VIA’s streetcar project is a classic study of government arrogance and waste. In voting down a one-fourth-cent sales tax by a 70/30 margin, citizens made clear in 2000 they did not want money wasted on rail transit. Showing they will support transportation improvements that relieve congestion, in 2004, voters approved a one-fourth-cent sales tax for an Advanced Transportation District (ATD) to improve mobility.
Now comes the bait and switch.
The liberal majority, led by County Judge Nelson Wolff and Mayor Julián Castro, quietly laid the groundwork to build the light-rail system that is their obsession. They decided to bypass local voters by committing existing funds to build the first phase of their light-rail system. Such a move will ostensibly improve their chances of getting federal grants for a larger light-rail system. Phase One is a streetcar system, a smaller, slower form of light rail that travels in the streets and operates at average speeds of under 10 mph. Knowing voters would not approve tax or bond funding, VIA, the city and the county miraculously “found” more than $200 million in their budgets, despite many other pressing needs for those funds, not least of which are growing congestion problems in many key corridors into our city.
VIA cannibalized bus replacement accounts and the city took “unused” bond proceeds from streets projects. Most egregious, with the tacit approval of the Texas Department of Transportation, the county committed the next 10 years of TxDOT’s ATD sales tax revenues for this single rail project — funds voters in 2004 were explicitly told would not be spent on light rail and that would have otherwise been available for adding roadway capacity in parts of the city with real congestion problems.
Who will benefit from less than five miles of downtown streetcar lines costing (before inevitable overruns) $239 million? Certainly not the majority of citizens driving through the congestion on I-10, I-35, U.S. 281 and Loop 1604 or navigating the clogged streets that feed these major commuter roads. The city and county claim benefits for downtown revitalization. But why should the many pay to reward a few property owners, including those along the Broadway streetcar line already awarded multimillion-dollar city subsidies for their developments? How many subsidies are necessary for these projects to be viable? The Tea Party asks: Is this treating all citizens equally?
(Article reprinted from http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/commentary/article/Using-ATD-funds-for-streetcars-breaks-promise-2733871.php)