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Follow TURFTell your State Rep. to Vote No on HB 1951
Texans overwhelmingly OPPOSE foreign-owned toll roads. That's why both party platforms oppose them!
TAKE ACTION IMMEDIATELY!
Find out who your STATE representative is here.
Call the capitol switchboard 512-463-4630, ask for your state rep.'s office and to tell them to vote 'No' on HB 1951!
Tell them: Vote 'No' on HB 1951. Say 'No' to corporate welfare and foreign-owned toll roads. Gov. Abbott promised no more, and HB 1951 would open the door to these corporate toll roads FOREVER without any expiration! CDAs are the worst, most expensive kind of toll roads that can cost $30-$40/day! Do not vote for this. A vote for HB 1951 is a tax hike, an abuse of eminent domain, against both party platforms, and represents broken promises.
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HB 1951 (Krause) - This FAKE 'Toll Payer Protection Act' undermines promises made to Texans by Gov. Abbott and Lt. Gov. Patrick for NO MORE toll roads. This bad bill authorizes controversial corporate welfare Comprehensive Development Agreement (CDA) toll projects (crony public private partnerships). No CDA bill has ever passed on Gov. Greg Abbott's watch and for good reason. He twice campaigned on the promise to fix Texas roads 'without raising taxes, fees, tolls, or debt.'
HB 1951 is a virtual blank check granting TxDOT the ability to enter into up to two CDA toll projects per year FOREVER(with NO EXPIRATION DATE). This opens the gate for transportation bureaucrats, local officials, and special interests to combine projects to reach the $1 billion threshold.
Here's why we CANNOT allow CDAs to be authorized...
BOTH PARTIES OPPOSE CDAs & SO DO TEXAS GRASSROOTS LEADERS
Both party platforms oppose such foreign-owned toll roads. A vote for HB 1951 is a lose-lose regardless of one's political party. The Texas House voted down the attempt to approve CDAs last session, deeming it too toxic with voters (record vote). A coalition of over 100 independent groups sent a letter to Transportation Committee members, the Governor, Lt Gov, and Speaker early in the session asking them NOT to increase the tax burden on Texas drivers by keeping Gov. Abbott's ban on CDAs and toll roads. We expect them to keep this promise.
5 Quick Facts About How This Corporate Welfare Scheme Works
1) CDAs are foreign-owned toll roads: The state of Texas may technically own the projects,, but because a private corporation gets to depreciate the asset on their corporate taxes like an asset, they are goven 52-year monopoly over our public highways -- that confers effective ownership. At that point, the public and their elected officials have lost control of that roadway for generations.
2) CDAS are secret contracts: Taxpayers lose control over PUBLIC highways and are bound to a contract with a PRIVATE consortium negotiated in secret and unseen by the public and their elected officials (aside from the Attorney General who merely reviews CDAs for legal sufficiency) before it's signed. Taxpayers will have no control over how high the toll rates get regardless of any public vote on the project. Unelected private interests will have the power to tax YOU – toll taxation with NO representation! 3) CDAs lack oversight: Federal regulators recently found that public private partnership toll projects, including I-35W as part of the North Tarrant Express CDA, lacked proper federal oversight, that such contracts didn't follow agency guidelines, and were approved without adequate assessment of whether or not the projected toll revenues by the private firms were viable or realistic.
A news article on the U.S. Inspector General report noted:
"Agency officials insisted that they are understaffed and unable to meet the oversight demands. This caused major problems with the SH 130 toll road in Texas, which was bankrolled with a $430 million federal loan. The deal went bankrupt when the traffic and toll revenue forecasts proved wildly optimistic.
"Agency officials insisted that they are understaffed and unable to meet the oversight demands. This caused major problems with the SH 130 toll road in Texas, which was bankrolled with a $430 million federal loan. The deal went bankrupt when the traffic and toll revenue forecasts proved wildly optimistic.
'As a result of these issues, the federal government is now the part owner of a state highway, a role that the federal government typically does not play, and FHWA is taking on an enhanced oversight role,' DeWeese wrote.
4) CDAs cost taxpayers more: "As the inspector general noted in a 2011 financial audit, use of public-private partnerships to build or manage roads is far more expensive than traditional public financing methods (view report here). Public financing carries tax benefits that do not apply to private bonds, raising the cost of debt for partnerships. Toll road companies offset this disadvantage by hiking tolls far higher than any publicly accountable official would be willing to approve.
'PPPs are not likely to significantly reduce the infrastructure funding gap because they change the timing with which funds become available, but generally do not increase overall funding levels,' the inspector general concluded in 2011."
4) CDAs cost taxpayers more: "As the inspector general noted in a 2011 financial audit, use of public-private partnerships to build or manage roads is far more expensive than traditional public financing methods (view report here). Public financing carries tax benefits that do not apply to private bonds, raising the cost of debt for partnerships. Toll road companies offset this disadvantage by hiking tolls far higher than any publicly accountable official would be willing to approve.
'PPPs are not likely to significantly reduce the infrastructure funding gap because they change the timing with which funds become available, but generally do not increase overall funding levels,' the inspector general concluded in 2011."
5) CDAs have a track record of failure: Bankruptcies include - the Greenville Southern Connector in South Carolina, South Bay Expressway in San Diego (in less than 3 years), Pocahontas Parkway in Virginia (went bankrupt twice), SH 130 segments 5 & 6 (in less than 3 years), the Indiana Toll Road (despite doubling the tolls), and the Detroit Windsor Tunnel. Then there are those in financial trouble like TransUrban's Capital Beltway in Virginia.
FAKE 'REFORMS' ARE DESIGNED TO TRICK LEGISLATORS & VOTERS: No amount of toll collection reform is worth the cost of unlimited foreign-owned toll projects. We're not falling for the public vote trick either. This is how politicians break their promises to us – by giving themselves a “get out of jail free card.” Kicking the decision to voters is like holding a gun to their heads. TxDOT will basically pose a lose-lose proposition: vote to allow foreign corporations to gouge you with punitively high tolls for your lifetime or we won't fix your road for 20+ years if you 'wait for traditional funding.'
The Special Interest Lobbyists from the cities, counties, and road construction contractors will spend millions to pass the public vote.
* Hands control of our PUBLIC infrastructure to PRIVATE companies voters cannot hold accountable.
Call your State Representative NOW, tell them to vote 'NO' on Krause's HB 1951
* Gives private, foreign corporations power to tax.
* It's the most expensive way to build roads, with tolls that can exceed $30-$40/day (on I-66 in Virginia, tolls can top $44 ONE WAY)!
* Taxpayers guarantee profits of private firms with BILLIONS in public money. Corporate welfare! (See the list of Texas CDAs signed and where the money came from).
* Gives these private consortiums government-sanctioned monopolies for 52 years!* Limits construction and expansion of our free lanes, and lowers speed limits on and adds stop lights to our free routes.
* Allows eminent domain for private gain. * Hands control of our PUBLIC infrastructure to PRIVATE companies voters cannot hold accountable.
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