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Follow TURFChristian brushes aside toll tax/PPP concerns
Much of what Christian is WRONG. They ARE tolling existing free lanes all over this state (281, 290, 183, MoPac, I-35, I-10 to name a few...the law he's referring to is rife with loopholes). They're taking our free lanes and downgrading them to FRONTAGE ROADS. That's HIGHWAY ROBBERY and a DOUBLE TAX! They are also selling Texas highways to FOREIGN companies; the majority are NOT American companies! Cintra of Spain (read more here) and ACS of Spain are the two who have secured all the PPPs so far in Texas. Not ONE American company has secured a PPP, and there is no guarantee they'll hire Texans to do the job either. Christian wants to make the battle about Republican control versus Democrat control, and shove these very crucial issues (that affect every mile we drive) aside for POLITICS!
They could have and should have passed the bill to KILL the Trans Texas Corridor EARLY in the session, but didn't. In fact, that bill had NO co-sponsors, including him, other than the author for the majority of the session and it NEVER even made it out of COMMITTEE! For him to blame Democrats for he and the Republicans' (who are the majority in the House) FAILURE to get the job done is totally a falsehood. Please read <a href="http://texasturf.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=836&Itemid=2">this article</a> on precisely how the TTC is still alive despite these repeated claims by politicians to the contrary.
He's also playing rural against urban. Guess what, we're all paying DEARLY for those toll roads in Houston and Dallas through public debt and subsidies. He and other lawmakers know the most affordable and simplest solution is to raise the gas tax (less than a cent per mile) NOT to sell our roads to foreign companies who then charge 75 cents a MILE to take our PUBLIC roads. The Republicans have also overseen the state budget since under Rick Perry, and they're responsible for continuing a host of diversions from the gas tax (starving our road money for non-road purposes) and for allocating BILLIONS in our vehicle sales taxes to non-road uses every year. That's why there's "no money" for roads so they can continue their excuse for EXTREMELY high toll taxes in place of affordable transportation.
Christian and the majority in the Texas Legislature continue to vote FOR all these anti-taxpayer initiatives, and he along with many rural reps are more than happy to tax the living daylights out of urban areas in exchange for getting all the remaining gas tax monies for their districts. Not a single one of the managed toll lane projects around the state is financially viable and is already being bailed out by ALL of us! But the reality is, these roads are debt bombs that are affecting ALL of us and raiding teacher pension and public pension funds along with it and who will have to bail them all out? You and I.
The video is very instructive of the mentality in Austin.