New MPO Chair: “I will leverage heaven and earth” to fix 281 & 1604


Link to article here.

07/28/2009

MPO boss' power remains intact

By Josh Baugh - Express-News

Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson, a toll-road opponent and environmentalist, took over as chairman of the Metropolitan Planning Organization on Monday and dodged an attempt to dilute his agenda-setting authority.

Adkisson was in line for the chairmanship two years ago but lost the position to then-City Councilwoman Sheila McNeil. The MPO vote that installed McNeil broke the organization's long-standing tradition of rotating the leadership role between city and county leaders.

Because of his toll-road opposition, Adkisson lost the chairmanship in 2007, when one MPO board member said the organization didn't want its image tarnished by electing a toll critic to be its leader.

The MPO oversees about $200 million in federal transportation funding and must approve most transportation projects within the county.


On Monday, Adkisson said he would “leverage heaven and earth” to fix congestion at U.S. 281 and Loop 1604 on the city's North Side and prioritize mass transit. He fell short of saying he would quash toll roads during his term but said he doesn't think they work well.

“All the toll-road arrangements I'm seeing around the country are losing money and traffic,” he said. “And if you can imagine when you have an economy like this, and you have extrapolated into the future a revenue stream that depends on people supporting it, I think you have to be very careful.”

Though Adkisson and Councilman John Clamp were unanimously elected chairman and vice chairman, the board split on a vote on whether to take up the issue of agenda-setting authority. In the MPO's three decades of existence, the board chairman always has set the agenda for the organization's monthly meetings. It became an issue during McNeil's term because she removed an item that state Rep. David Leibowitz, D-San Antonio, had placed on the agenda, declaring that as chairwoman she had absolute authority to do so.

County Commissioner Kevin Wolff recommended Monday that the board vote to give the agenda-setting power to the MPO's executive committee, composed of the board chairman and board members representing the city, the county, the Texas Department of Transportation and VIA Metropolitan Transit.

Leibowitz floated a motion to vote only on the nominations and leave the agenda-setting discussion for another day. Initially, the board vote was a tie, but Councilwoman Jennifer Ramos later changed her vote, tipping the count in favor of Leibowitz's plan.

Whether the policy change will be placed on an agenda remains to be seen. Adkisson, who currently has sole authority over the agenda, said he has no problem letting the full board take up the issue. At the same time, he sees no reason to change things.

“This MPO has been around since the early '70s, and it's never had an executive committee,” he said. “(Agenda-setting) has been within the sole province of the chairman. So it's really fixing something that isn't broken.”

Terri Hall, founder of Texans United for Reform and Freedom, said she and her supporters were gravely concerned with giving the power to a committee with a large contingent of non-elected members. She also said Monday's meeting would have violated the Texas Open Meetings Act if the board had voted to begin the process of shifting the power away from Adkisson because the issue wasn't properly announced on the MPO agenda.

Wolff, who says toll roads are a tool to ease congestion, disagreed. He said proper notice was given. More importantly, he said, the authority should be spread over an entire committee regardless of who happens to be chairman. Wolff said he would continue to push for the policy amendment.

But Hall said toll-road advocates are “trying to change the rules in the middle of the game.” Still, she was thrilled with Adkisson's victory.

“This is a breath of fresh air for everybody in San Antonio,” she said.

Power grab at MPO...AGAIN! Plot to neuter toll opponent, Adkisson

07/25/2009

Toll-road opponent set to lead MPO

By Josh Baugh - Express-News

Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson, a toll-road critic and environmentalist, is poised to lead San Antonio's Metropolitan Planning Organization, the agency that oversees how $200 million in federal transportation funds are spent in Bexar County.

Whether Adkisson's leadership will change the MPO's bearings, however, remains an open question. He didn't lay out an agenda for his term as chairman, but he made clear that mass transit is one of his priorities.

“I think one of the things that's painfully evident to me is that our mass transit, especially light rail, needs to be fast-forwarded,” he said.

On Monday, the MPO board is expected to elect Adkisson. His two-year term likely will get under way with the toll-road debate on low heat. That wasn't the case in 2007, when Adkisson was expected to be elected chairman but ultimately lost to then-Councilwoman Sheila McNeil.

Though it's not written in MPO policy, there's been a gentlemen's agreement that chairmanship of the board rotates between Bexar County and the city. But that's not how it played out two years ago, after then-City Councilman Richard Perez left the board, which has 19 voting members that include elected and appointed officials and government staffers.

Back then, council members argued that Perez, a strong toll advocate, would have maintained the chairmanship if it weren't for the City Council's term limits. The council members on the MPO stacked the nominating committee and then chose one of their own to serve as chairwoman. They blocked Adkisson reportedly because of his opposition to toll roads.

Before Perez, the county and city had each had four-year stints in the chairman's seat.

The MPO chairman doesn't just run meetings. The chair traditionally has set the MPO's meeting agendas, a powerful tool in deciding what does — and doesn't — get done.

But that power is likely to be diluted at the same time Adkisson is nominated for the chairmanship.

County Commissioner Kevin Wolff, who serves on the MPO's nominating committee, said he assumed the organization's executive committee set the agenda.

“It turns out I was wrong,” he said. “A lot of it's set by what's actually required under state law, but the rest was just kind of arbitrary on behalf of the chair. Well, I see that as a huge problem, regardless of who's the chair.”

Wolff said the nominating committee's recommendation on Monday would be to elect Adkisson chairman and City Councilman John Clamp vice chairman, and leave agenda-setting to the four-member executive committee. Representatives from the Texas Department of Transportation and VIA Metropolitan Transit make up half the committee.

Toll critic Terri Hall, who balked at handing that much authority to non-elected officials, said she believes Adkisson's would-be power is being slashed because of his toll opposition.

“That's what they want — they want to dilute Tommy's power,” she said. “They only think that having all the power in one person is suitable when they're in charge. But when they're not in charge, well, by golly, ‘We better diffuse that power because we don't want someone like that running the board.'”

Clamp shrugged off the contention that Adkisson's authority would be diluted because of his politics. “I just think the body should really help set the agenda — not just one person.”


Find this article at:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/traffic/Toll-road_opponent_set_to_lead_MPO.html

Foreign-owned toll roads not dead yet...lawmakers vow to resurrect

Link to article here.

Mr. "Pro-Toll Tax" and lobbyist-in-chief, Bill Noble, needs to do a simple glance at our web site to see we're all about non-toll solutions and have offered them for years. They don't like our solutions, so they dismiss them. However, the taxpayers deserve the most affordable transportation solutions, not the most expensive one that he and Rep. Larry Phillips are advocating: foreign-owned toll roads.

CDAs ‘not dead yet’ opponents, supporters say
by Andy Hogue
Sun, Jul 12, 2009
Dallas Morning News blog

Two billion dollars and another two years of life isn’t a bad deal for the Texas Department of Transportation, is it?

It depends on with whom you speak.

Besides losing the ability to continue transportation comprehensive development agreements (CDAs), the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and the Perry administration also lost a great deal of political capital and bargaining power after the special legislative session.

The Legislature renewed TxDOT without much in terms of reforms, but did not approve a bill continuing a list of 13 CDAs — effectively calling a time-out on a six-year expansion of toll roads.

This raises a few questions as to where things are going next with transportation.

Surely, $2 billion in recently released Proposition 12 funds won’t last forever in building freeways. So the next two-to-four years are still anyone’s game, and both sides in the toll road debate agree that CDAs aren’t dead — nor is TxDOT giving in.

What projects were stopped?

At least two CDA toll projects will be preserved through 2011 under SB 792 from the 80th session — Highway 161 in Dallas and the Grand Parkway loop around Houston. While forging a deal on those projects may continue, most other CDAs will expire Sept. 1.

A lifeline was cast to 13 projects during the special session as part of SB 3, which would have extended their CDAs on a project-by-project basis. There was not enough legislative will to see the whole list through (LSR, July 3), but members attempted to compromise with a short list — only those projects already agreed to by the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA), namely managed lanes on I-35 East, Highway 183 and I-30 in the DFW area.

Bill Noble, executive director of the pro-CDA Texans for Safe and Reliable Transportation, said CDAs made Highway 130 bypass around Austin possible, for example. Projects like I-69 were casualties.

There were 87 toll road projects implemented in Texas, per discussion during the 80th legislative session in 2007. According to committee testimony during the 80th interim, about 400 toll projects were being considered. So is it possible that, by the Legislature’s not continuing CDAs, that nearly 300 would-be toll roads were prevented? Terri Hall of Texans United for Reform and Freedom (TURF), a TxDOT watchdog, thinks so (at least for now).

"I do think that they [toll road lobbyists] are going to keep trying to bring CDAs back up, as there’s so much money behind them. So it’s up to the taxpayers to remain vigilant," she said. "CDAs are the more expensive tool in the toolbox. But that’s the one they keep reaching for."

Does TxDOT have any clout left?

Hall claims the support of a large movement of taxpayers who oppose the expansion of toll roads and accumulation of debt from CDA agreements. Noble said he’s certain toll roads remain a popular transportation option among voters as a "tool" in the aforementioned toolbox.

"We want all the tools — and that includes gas tax and indexing," Noble said. "But we don’t believe that a massive gas tax would be politically viable, and that’s what would be required if you didn’t have the option of toll roads."

Hall said allowing international conglomerates (such as Cintra of Spain) to own and manage toll roads in private, behind-closed-doors contracts is less politically viable than proposing upping the gas tax.

TxDOT declined to comment.

Rep. Larry Phillips (R-Sherman) thinks there’s plenty of room left for TxDOT to negotiate its future — as well as an extra session in which to debate meaty issues.

"We will need to build roads in the future, and I think that will be the debate over the next two sessions on how we build those roads," Phillips said.

One option to continue CDAs in the future is to give the Legislature oversight over each individual project — a method Phillips said might prove burdensome.

Phillips called for a greater role of toll authorities, such as NTTA and the Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA), in the approval process, as a check on TxDOT.

"Conventional wisdom is that projects may be approved on a case-by-case basis rather than a blanket authority through TxDOT," Noble said. "But that’s a cumbersome process … at the end of the day, Texans are going to realize that roads are not going to get better unless all options are on the table, including toll roads."

Noble said TxDOT’s overall standing has been lowered since mid-decade, but there has been some rebound under the leadership of TTC Chair Deirdre Delisi.

"We did some polling when I first got involved, and back then TxDOT was a highly credible entity. And Texans really had a high opinion — far greater than lawmakers,’" Noble said. "And some of that has come down, especially with leadership. But under the leadership of Delisi and Amadeo Saenz, we’ve seen a sea change — that being, they appreciate the openness, the responsiveness, and the efforts to work with Legislature to find solutions. And you look at it in what the Legislature could have done as far as radical changes in Sunset, all that really didn’t happen."

At least until 2011, TxDOT continues to have a friend in the Governor—most recently exemplified by a veto of HB 2142, which would have prevented TxDOT from advertising the use of toll roads.

"Marketing toll roads as a user-fee-based alternative to congested highways is important to relieving congestion on other state roads and keeping Texas moving," Gov. Rick Perry said in his veto proclamation, echoing TxDOT’s ad campaign slogan "Keep Texas Moving."

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, likely Perry’s biggest major challenger in the GOP primary for Texas Governor, called for federal legislation to ban tolls on federally owned roadways — a sign that transportation will be a key issue in the 2010 gubernatorial campaign.

Will anti-toll road movements keep on?

Noble said anti-toll-road activists, now that they have their way for at least another two years, are going to have to provide solutions — solutions that may not prove popular with their own volunteers. "The only other way to relieve congestion is a massive gas tax increase," he said. "Opponents of toll roads are slowly beginning to trickle out when faced with the question of ‘what’s your answer?’"

Many conservative opponents of toll roads were leery of Sen. John Carona’s (R-Dallas) solution in the form of the Local Option Transportation Plan – most vocal were concerns that the gas tax would be raised in large communities.

True, a motor fuels tax increase (or index to inflation) won’t be popular with some conservatives, Hall said. But there are more issues at stake in her organization than just the CDAs vs. the gas tax debate, such as transparency in contracts.

"Our legislators often don’t have a clue what’s in these contracts — they have no idea what they’re selling off," Hall said, noting that a Cintra contract for the North Tarrant Express near Fort Worth had a charge of 75 cents per mile at peak hours.

"We’re all in favor of a motor fuels tax increase," she said. "But you have to end [Fund 6] diversions before we give you more money. Also, we’ve got to reform TxDOT — getting into the books, looking into the finances, and basically gutting the agency … Until they change the culture at TxDOT, they will continue to have problems and blowback from the public."

What message was sent by the 81st?

A simple message was sent by the refusal of the Legislature to approve CDAs in the 81st regular and special sessions: CDAs are still highly suspect. Whether or not the Legislature’s inaction on CDAs was a referendum on their viability as a transportation solution is debatable.

"I don’t think the special session was specifically that," Phillips said. "I think that referendum occurred during the regular session on the Sunset bill. And it’s pretty clear that the Legislature wants us to have a transparent process, and that it becomes understandable to the public on how roads are being built … and how MPOs interact with the state, environmental studies are conducted, etc. … It’s fairly difficult in such a short time frame to hash these things out and discuss them [CDAs]. The question was in 2007 can we slow down and take some time in the interim to look at it. So tapping on the brake is not such a bad thing for now."

Noble, who said there has been a "thoroughly inadequate hearing on CDAs" in recent sessions, agreed there is room to haggle. "I think it’s a clean slate for us — we know where we stand now, and for a few years," Noble said.

"I don’t see that CDAs are dead," Phillips said, "as long as we make sure they’re approved by a local community."

Nichols deliberately misleads about ties to TTC lobbyist to protect private toll operators

Link to story and to view the two-part news video, go here.

This CBS News expose of Senator Robert Nichols' efforts to protect private toll road investors instead of taxpayers is spot-on. However, Senator Kevin Eltife says he's against foreign-owned toll roads on camera, but he voted FOR every bill and amendment that would hand our public roads to private toll operators on the floor of the Texas Senate. Why won't politicians tell the truth and defend the taxpayers over the special interests? We MUST hold them accountable! To read more specifics about how Nichols brokered this deal with a lobbyist, go here.

Senator Robert Nichols and Toll Roads
By Roger Gray

In the last legislative session, the future of toll roads was on the line.

But one area state senator was more involved than most. In fact some critics say the fix was in.

"You can't do toll roads in rural Texas. It won't work," says State Senator Kevin Eltife.

Yes, the original Trans Texas Corridors were huge, and controversial.

Whitehouse rancher and toll road critic Hank Gilbert called it, "the largest land grab in the history of the U.S."

Senator Eltife agreed. "It's a total property right's mess."

Gilbert added, "I don't think the people of Texas, rural and urban, are going to allow that to happen."

And Austin seemed to get the message.

"I think there's no question, the Trans Texas corridor is dead," Eltife concluded.

But some advocates clung to the idea of foreign companies building and running toll roads as private enterprises.

Eltife is an opponent. "They should never be owned by a private company, ever. That's a gold mine for the state."

As is Gilbert, of Texans United for Reform and Freedom. "Comprehensive Development Agreements that would allow private investors to come in, plan, build, operate, maintain, the whole nine yards."

Eltife agreed, "The state ought to own them. They ought to be a small piece of the puzzle."

State Senator Robert Nichols "seemed" to agree when we spoke to him by phone during the session.

"The people of East Texas are clear," he said. "They do not want the East Texas Corridor. But they do want to develop Interstate 69."

But did Sen. Nichols want to insure that private toll road contracts were a part of that I-69 development? He added an amendment to his transportation bill that seems to guarantee a contractor couldn't lose money.

Gilbert explained, "You have one of our own East Texas Republican senators is offering an amendment to his own bill which would guarantee a profit. To me that kind of goes against capitalism."

Nichols, though, disagreed. "There is language related to buy backs, but there is absolutely no guarantee whatever that anybody will ever get any of their debt back."

But, we have a copy of an e-mail sent out by toll road lobbyist Gary Bushell, and it says,

"...we have reached an agreement with Senator Nichols on a buyout provision...that provides protection of their position in the event they find themselves upside down on their debt to fair market value...I want to thank Senator Robert Nichols and his chief of staff Steven Albright for making this outcome possible."

Nichols doesn't think that's what he did. "Well, it's incorrect, because that's not true."

Gilbert concluded, "That's not very free market."

So, according to one lobbyist, Senator Robert Nichols went to bat for private toll road contractors.

"That's crazy," he protested. "No. I don't know who told you that, but that's nuts."

I responded, "Well, I've got an email from a lobbyist who says that's exactly what you did."

Nichols again disagreed, "Well, it's incorrect, because that's not true."

"So this lobbyist is wrong," I replied.

"If that's your interpretation of what he says," Nichols responded. "I'm not looking at whatever it is you're reading."

"I read you exactly what he said, " I said. "that provides protection of their position in the event they find themselves upside down on their debt to fair market value.'"

"Ok, I did not write that." He concluded.

Toll road critic Hank Gilbert is skeptical.

"At any point in time, this developer comes to the realization that they're not getting the return on investment they anticipated from this road, they can sell it back to the state at that time and with this amendment, they're guaranteed not to lose money."

Nichols again protested, "If you're saying the State of Texas or any entity is going to guarantee an investor his money back, no. Not correct."

But we have a copy of the amendment and it says.

".the fair market value of the private entity's interest...is not less than the (entity's) outstanding debt at that time plus other reasonable costs."

In short, they get out at least what they've put in.

So why would Nichols continue beating the toll road drum? The explanation may lie in his contributor list.

His top donor by far, James Pitcock of Williams Brothers Construction of Houston, the second largest TxDOT contractor for toll roads.

But Nichols still insists toll roads aren't a certainty.

"So, it's your contention that even though these CDA's, comprehensive development agreements are in HB300," I asked, "we're not talking toll roads for East Texas."

"Well, now, that's a different question." He replied. "You have toll roads in Tyler."

And Robert Nichol's tried to push these CDA's again in the special session last week. He didn't succeed.

Apparently, as long as the political money is there, toll road advocates will keep pitching.

Toll authority approves immediate 32% rate hike, automatic hikes every two years!

Link to article here.

The North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) is literally drowning in debt and can't make it's debt service payments without raising toll rates 32% in a down economy, yet it's hard to feel sorry for them when they acted like high rollers on the taxpayers dime with its $42,000 junket to Austria.

The NTTA wouldn't be in this mess were it not for being forced to bid against Spain-based, Cintra, in order to keep Hwy 121 in public hands. They had to come up with an up front "balloon" payment of over $3 billion and now it's coming home to roost. Regardless of who got the rights to what was once called the "crown jewel" of toll projects, it's the taxpayers who are on the hook to pay the tolls. The tolls would be even higher were Cintra in charge. Read about the coming 75 cent per mile toll Cintra will bleed out of motorists on LBJ and I-820 here. Add to that the fact Senator Robert Nichols added an amendment to his bill to GUARANTEE when a public road is sold to a private toll operator that the corporation NEVER LOSES money on the deal, you see how severely our politicians have sold out the taxpayers!

North Texas Tollway Authority OKs rate hike
Thursday, July 16, 2009
By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER / The Dallas Morning News


Tolls will jump about 32 percent on North Texas Tollway Authority toll roads Sept. 1, thanks to a 8-1 vote this morning by board members.

The new rates will be about 14.5 cents per mile on the President George Bush Turnpike, State Highway 121, now known as the Sam Rayburn Tollway, and the Dallas North Tollway.

In imposing the increase, the board turned aside, by a 7-2 vote, a proposal by board member Bob Day, a Dallas County appointee. Day wanted the increase to be phased in over time. Day voted against the increase.

The new rates will boost NTTA revenues about $14 million this year, and $43.5 million in 2010, and a steadily rising amount in every year beyond.

Director Dave Denison said he was concerned that the rate was in response to temporary conditions caused by the current recession, and will bring in more than is necessary to meet the agency's obligations.

"I'm not absolutely fully convinced" that the 14.5 cent rate is necessary, Denison said.

"If we come out of the recession and are going great guns we may not need all this money," he said.

Some board members also initially seemed opposed to wording in the new rate policy that nows sets an automatic toll rate increase every two years. Every two years from now on, rates will jump nearly 6 percent, without the need for a board vote.

The increase is necessary, CFO Janice Davis said, because NTTA's revenues are no longer enough to meet obligations to creditors to whom NTTA owes about $6 billion. Bond convenants require NTTA revenues to be at least 1.5 times its debt payments. Without the increases, the agency would likely not meet that obligation in the next couple years.

The automatic increases are necessary, too, or else NTTA's ability to borrow more money to build new roads will be constrained, staff and financial advisors said. Previously, toll rates were reviewed only every five years.

NTTA's financial squeeze is due to a combination of factors: while total traffic numbers are up, they are lower than expected; collections from drivers without toll tags have been less successful than expected; and fewer drivers on the new Sam Rayburn Tollway have signed up for toll tags.

TxDOT to forgive toll fines...but just this once

Link to article here.

This is a one-sided, TxDOT slanted story. When TxDOT isn't sending the toll bills to the right address, when they send you to collections after the first notice, when they fine the owners of the vehicles and not the actual driver's who commit the offense, and when they refuse to negotiate down any of the fines even in the case of mistakes, it's high time TxDOT do something to remedy the highway robbery. This is the testimony we've heard from dozens of Texas motorists who are experiencing nothing short of usury from our highway department. Read this story about a woman who racked up $11,000 in fines.

TxDOT may forgive tens of millions in toll fines
Proposed 'amnesty' would offer forgiveness of most accummulated fees and fines, but scofflaws would have to pay the overdue tolls and get a TxTag.
By Ben Wear
AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Central Texas toll scofflaws could get a pass on paying much of $56.1 million in late fees and fines under a still-in-the-works "amnesty" policy set for a vote July 30 by the Texas Transportation Commission.

The partial break on the surcharges, which can reach almost $450 per toll, probably would be tied to nonpayers' signing up for a TxTag, the electronic device affixed to windshields that allows a motorist to be charged instantly for tolls. The tardy tolls would still be due in full.

On Monday, Texas Department of Transportation officials were not yet ready to reveal the exact extent of the fine discounts under the amnesty.


Mark Tomlinson, TxDOT's turnpike division director, said that nonpayers would be asked to pay only a "small percentage" of the accumulated fees and fines. Experience with other toll agencies has shown that it takes a substantial reduction to entice violators to come forward, Tomlinson said. And he said the agency already offers nonpayers 50 percent off fees if they pay their tolls in full and sign up for a TxTag.

The amnesty period, which would apply to TxDOT's four Austin tollways and one in Tyler, would last one to two months, officials said.

According to TxDOT, 140,000 "accounts" — individual vehicle owners — have failed to pay 2.1 million toll charges, for a total of $3.2 million in unpaid tolls. The potential fees and fines associated with those charges, the amount subject to the amnesty: $58.4 million.

Those figures include the Tyler toll road, which has about $60,000 of unpaid tolls and $2.3 million in pending fees and fines.

TxDOT's uncollected money is overwhelmingly from the Central Texas toll roads.

Tomlinson said the agency probably would begin referring some of the cases, those involving chronic nonpayers, to local justice of the peace courts shortly after the amnesty period ends. What about people who might assume that yet another amnesty is down the road and continue to ignore toll bills?

"It would be an absolute mistake for anyone to think in those terms," Tomlinson said. "Our administration has made it absolutely clear that this will be a one-time offer."

The first three of TxDOT's four Austin-area toll roads — Loop 1, Texas 45 North and Texas 130 — opened in November 2006, and the agency began charging motorists in January 2007. The first violators were eligible for referral to court almost two years ago.

TxDOT's other area road, Texas 45 Southeast, which opened this spring, began charging customers only last month and thus would not yet have any violators teed up for a court appearance.

The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, which opened Austin's fifth toll road, 183-A, in March 2007, began justice of the peace referrals in January and so far has taken 47 of its worst offenders to court.

Why has it taken so long for TxDOT to begin using the court system for unpaid tolls? Spokeswoman Karen Amacker said the agency focused initially on its invoicing and collections efforts, which are handled by an outside contractor, the Washington Group, and then on helping the mobility authority begin referring toll cases to court. In addition, she said, TxDOT has to work with several justice of the peace offices — rather than just one, as the mobility authority does — because its 66 miles of Central Texas toll roads extend over a much larger area.

In addition, Tomlinson said, "We've tried to operate with the philosophy of making good toll-paying customers, and we've tried to avoid having to take big violation fees. Certainly, taking people to court is the last resort."

TxDOT's turnpike division has fewer than 40 employees and has seen significant turnover at the top over the past year or so. Tomlinson replaced longtime tollway chief Phil Russell about a year ago at roughly the same time as toll operations director David Powell left for a private sector job. Powell's position has not been filled.

In addition, TxDOT has undergone a tumultuous two years because of a $1.1 billion accounting error and opposition to its use of private toll road leases, creating an inauspicious political environment for taking citizens to court over unpaid tolls.

The fees and fines for a single toll can be substantial.

People who go through a tolling point on a TxDOT road without a TxTag or without stopping to pay with cash would get two invoices within 45 days, each carrying a $1 administrative fee. Failure to pay after 75 days raises the fee to $5. Then at day 112 the unpaid toll goes to a collection agency, and the fee jumps to $25.

Going to a justice of the peace court, which would occur at the 200-day mark when TxDOT begins to refer unpaid tolls, could cost a nonpayer almost $450 for each toll.

Plane lands on EMPTY toll road!

Link to article here.

Laughing out loud...the SH 130 toll road is SO EMPTY during rush hour traffic that a plane can land on it, sit there all day while it gets repaired and take off later that evening! Something is seriously wrong when we're building billions of dollars of toll roads scarcely a soul can afford to drive. SH 130 was supposed to take the trucks off I-35. I still sit bumper to bumper with nothing but trucks the whole way from San Antonio to Austin on I-35. What a flop! Enough of the multi-billion-dollar grand experiments...toll roads don't solve congestion!

Plane takes off after emergency landing on toll road near Hutto
CBS 42 Reporter: Stephanie Serna
June 30, 2009

Late Tuesday afternoon a plane took off from the SH 130 toll road near Hutto where it had to make an emergency landing in the morning.

It landed just south of Highway 79 around 8:30 a.m.

The pilot, 24-year-old Lindsey Moreland, told investigators she took off from an airstrip at Austin-Bergstrom Airport and was headed to Georgetown when she had engine trouble.

The toll road was closed while crews moved the single engine Cessna to the shoulder of the southbound lane.

At 4:30 p.m. the highway was shut down again so the plane's owner could take off and fly to Temple.

The landing damaged a couple of road signs that will cost about $1,000 to repair. But TxDOT says her insurance will pay for it.

Government could "deactivate" your vehicle for failure to pay road taxes

Link to article here.
This sobering and frightening scenario is just over the horizon unless citizens wake-up and put a stop to it!

Government control goes that extra mile
By Henry Lamb
World Net Daily
July 11, 2009

Sara was late for work. The alarm clock didn't alarm, the kids were unusually slow getting ready for school, and nothing went right. She finally got to her car – a brand new 2020 Chevy Adventure. She touched the finger-print secured start button. Nothing. It wouldn't start. She touched it again. Nothing. Furious, she banged the steering wheel with her fist. Then she noticed the paper hanging from the receipt printer on the dash.

"Your designated visa account rejected your Road Use Tax in the amount of $87.32 for the month of June, 2020. You must insert a valid account card to activate your automobile."

It's coming. With a $16 million grant from the federal government, the University of Iowa is developing a Global Positioning Satellite system that can measure the mileage, apply a variable tax rate that will increase during rush hours and in high-traffic areas, calculate the total, charge a designated account card, and shut down your automobile if unpaid when due. Some 2,700 automobiles in five states will be used in the test.

The system has been under development for more than a decade. The concept was proven in a similar, but smaller test in Oregon two years ago. The new tax system is being designed to replace the outdated by-the-gallon tax. Government mandated higher-mileage requirements result in less tax revenue for all governments. Hybrid and all-electric cars contribute little or nothing to road tax revenues.

The new by-the-mile tax system will give government much more than a new tax collection mechanism; it will give government much greater control over everyone.

The new GM – Government Motors – can install this new system in all of its vehicles. All that's needed is an instruction from the car czar. Automakers that have not yet been taken over by the government can be required to install the system quite easily, by regulation or legislation. With such a system in every vehicle, the government can have virtual control over the population.

Purchase of a vehicle will give the government a database containing the name and residence location of every automobile owner. Since the system has the ability to record and track the geographic location of the vehicle at every moment of the day or night – only for the purpose of applying the correct tax rate, of course – government can know where your vehicle is at any moment.

Frightened yet? This is not hocus-pocus conspiracy-theory nonsense. The National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission has unanimously endorsed the scheme. A past president of the Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials says several states have considered not waiting for the federal government and will implement this system within their states. It is on the horizon and currently targeted for implementation by 2020.

This system will give the government the power to know your every movement. Where does the Constitution authorize the government to exercise this power? How does the exercise of this power square with the Constitution's Fourth Amendment guarantee of a right to privacy? Does anybody care?

Privacy concerns have kept the project out of the public spotlight, but not out of the lab. As the project matures, there will be the obligatory lip-service to "prohibiting" the government from using the capability to invade individual privacy. "Assurances" will be mouthed, from both the administration and the Congress, that the rights of individuals will be protected. And the program will move forward.

Imagine this scenario: a police station in Podunk, New Jersey gets a silent alarm that a bank robbery is in progress at the corner of 4th Avenue and Main Street. The chief radios the regional Road Tax Monitoring Center, and immediately, every vehicle in the vicinity is disabled. The police arrive at the scene to find the robbers sitting in their vehicle banging on the steering wheel of an automobile that won't start. The press lauds this wonderful new technology.

Now imagine this scenario: a detective knocks on your door. "Your vehicle was parked on 2nd Avenue Saturday evening between 10:32 and 11:15 pm. Why?"

"It's none of your business," you protest.

You are informed that there was a crime committed in the neighborhood and until you can explain why you were there, you are a suspect. You are in the position of having to prove your innocence rather than the state having to prove your guilt.

There is no end to the mischief that government can impose upon the people with this system. Government could control when and where people go simply by adjusting the tax rate. Government could force people to use public transportation, by adjusting the tax rate. Government could deactivate vehicles as a form of punishment for unpaid speeding or parking tickets. Government could easily dictate the type of vehicle you drive, simply by adjusting the tax rate on GM vehicles.

Those who think these scenarios are far-fetched have not been watching what the federal government has been doing, especially since the new Democratic socialists have taken control of Washington. It's going to take more than tea parties to prevent this "change" that is being imposed. It's going to take a determined electorate to throw the bums out!

Road privatization dies for now, Carona promises to resurrect


Link to blog here.

Senate leaders: Private toll-road bill DOA
By Mike Ward | Thursday, July 2, 2009, 02:43 PM
Austin American Statesman

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Senate leaders just announced publicly what senators had confirmed an hour ago: A bill to continue to allow more privately built toll roads to be constructed is dead in the special legislative session.

And lawmakers plan to finish their other business — approving the issuance of $2 billion in road-building bonds and continuing the operations of five state agencies — and then go home later today.

Dewhurst said attempts for a compromise on the toll-road bills — Senate Bill 3 and House Bill 3 — failed amid growing questions about whether any action on the matter was needed before the Legislature convenes in regular session again in January 2011.

State Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, chairman of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee, said the urgency of the matter waned after local and state transportation assured legislative leaders that no projects would be killed or delayed by the lack of a vote.

“If it was a critical issue, we’re here to deal with it,” Corona said. “But we have been assured … that no major project is going to be left behind … We will take this (issue) up in 2011.”

Gov. Rick Perry had called lawmakers back into special session to address three issues: The bonds, to continue the operations of the five agencies that otherwise would have shut down, and to give the authority of the Texas Department of Transportation continued authority to contract for the privately built toll roads — through deals called “comprehensive development agreements.”

Dewhurst said Perry’s reaction to let the third issue on the agenda die without action was: “roads need to get built.”

“They will,” Corona said. “It would be a mistake to do away with CDAs. But we need to take some time to look at this issue, and we can do that in 2011 without any impact on projects.”

So with the controversial issue off the table, here’s what the schedule for the rest of the special session looks like:

At 3:30 p.m., the Senate Finance Committee is expected to approve House Bill 1 (bonds). It will then go to the full Senate for a vote, probably about 5 p.m.

The House earlier today approved Senate Bill 2 (continuation of the agencies, also called the safety-net bill).

Adjournment of both the Senate and the House is expected by early this evening.

Help us STOP foreign-owned toll roads = $13 a DAY in NEW taxes!

Help us STOP foreign-owned toll roads = $13 a DAY in NEW
taxes! Public pension funds at risk, too!

URGENT ACTION ITEM
Texans need to DEFEAT CDAs & protect public pension funds this week!

Call your STATE legislators in Austin today and tell them to vote NO on CDAs and NO to the Revolving Fund that raids gas taxes and public pension funds for risky toll roads!

CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES:

Find out who represents you here.
 
You may also contact each representative by calling the Capitol switchboard: (512) 463-4630.

CDAs mean foreign corporations have the power to
control EVERY MILE WE DRIVE for a half century at a
time!


So the Legislature didn't pass bills to end gas tax diversions, restrain toll taxation for every new lane of highway, prevent the conversion of FREEways to tollways, finally repeal the Trans Texas Corridor or pass a STRONG eminent domain bill, but they're spending millions for a special session to sell-out Texans to benefit private road lobbyists drinking from the public trough!

These private toll contracts, called Comprehensive Development Agreements or CDAS, are sweetheart deals that will charge the traveling public 75 cents a mile to use our PUBLIC roadways. That's $13 bucks a DAY and more than $3,000 a year PER COMMUTER on average.


CDAs also eat-up virtually ALL of our available gas taxes and other highway funds to prop-up toll projects that aren't even toll viable (can't work without subsidizing them). Read about the deals in North Texas that use $1 billion dollars of EVERYONE's gas taxes and public funds, but you won't be able to use it without paying $13 a DAY in homage to Spain here.

They tell us the private operators are bringing all the money to the table so it's okay to sell-out the taxpayers in sweetheart deals (like non-compete agreements that prohibit ANY new lanes or NEW roads from being built that would "compete" with the private operators toll cash cow as a way to GUARANTEE congestion on free roads). But the FACT is our GAS TAXES and other PUBLIC money are going into these deals, in some cases more public cash than private. CDAs also mean massive multi-generational DEBT!

Toll authority to raise toll rates 32% because BURIED in debt it can't repay
Read about it here.

This is an ALL-OUT ASSAULT on our freedom to travel!

For more info on how just how bad these private toll contracts are for the taxpayers, read more here.
___________________________________________________

SB 1 to raid public employee pension funds & teacher retirement funds


In another bill for the special session, SB 1, lawmakers resurrect Sen. John Carona's SB 1350 that will set-up a Transportation Bank as a private corporation (controlled by the Governor's political appointees, the Texas Transportation Commission) in order to raid teacher retirement funds and public employee pension funds to invest in these risky toll road schemes that are failing all over the country.

"The revolving fund could provide a vehicle for the Texas Retirement System and Employee Retirement System to invest in state infrastructure, a policy (Sen. Steve) Ogden supports." - Texas Monthly, April 28, 2009

This idea is designed to set-up a "Revolving Fund" to finance toll projects they can't find private investors to bankroll. The Revolving Fund is another way to divert MORE gas taxes to toll roads (gas tax can be deposited into the Revolving Fund and recycled to fund toll roads that aren't viable/100% self-sustaining).

Take action right away (see URGENT action item above) to protect the integrity of public employee retirement funds.

Connecting the dots...
Perry, Dewhurst backroom deal to raid funds.

Texas Monthly calls raiding pension funds "irresponsible" and "immoral" here.

Perry calls special session, wants to sell TX roads to foreign toll operators

It shouldn't surprise anyone that Rick Perry wants to try and force the Legislature to continue to give his highway department the authority to sell-off Texas roads to private, foreign toll operators which will charge Texans 75 cents a mile to access PUBLIC roads. This from a so-called conservative who sent out his minions to quash a 10 cent gas tax hike that pales in comparison to $3,000 a YEAR per commuter in NEW toll taxes. What hypocrisy!

When the Texas Attorney General refuses to sign the contracts (called CDAs) that would privatize public freeways I-820 and I-635 (LBJ) because they're so egregiously costly and fiscally irresponsible, what politician in his/her right mind (especially House members who all face re-election next year) would re-authorize these taxpayer rip-offs that will en debt generations with oppressively high, unsustainable toll taxes to benefit Perry's cronies? Sadly, we're about to find out. Killing CDAs = killing the Trans Texas Corridor & the vast majority of the toll roads! Call your STATE legislators today and tell them to vote NO on CDAs!

Link to Governor's call here.

Gov. Perry Calls A Special Session for July 1, 2009
June 25, 2009

TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME:
WHEREAS, the legislature adjourned the 81st Regular Legislative Session without enacting sunset legislation for several state agencies that were subject to sunset review by the 81st Legislature; and

WHEREAS, without legislative action, the state's Sunset Act, Chapter 325, Government Code, in conjunction with statutory law applicable to those agencies, abolishes the agencies on September 1, 2009, and requires each of the agencies to begin on that date a wind-down process that will culminate in the termination and cessation of all activities of each agency on September 1, 2010; and

WHEREAS, the Sunset Advisory Commission, in its report presented to the legislature and the governor at the 81st Regular Legislative Session, recommended that the agencies be continued in existence; and

WHEREAS, the continuation of the existence of the agencies is crucial for the operation of state governmental activities; and

WHEREAS, passage of enabling legislation to implement the authority granted in Article III, Section 49-p, of the Texas Constitution to issue general obligation bonds for highway improvement projects is necessary to assist in providing adequate financing for future transportation infrastructure; and

WHEREAS, the general statutory authority to enter into comprehensive development agreements expires in August 2009, and, with limited means of funding transportation projects, comprehensive development agreements are a necessary tool for providing financing for future transportation infrastructure; and

WHEREAS, the people have placed the constitutional power to call and convene the legislature into special session in the hands of the Chief Executive Officer of the State;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, RICK PERRY, GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF TEXAS, by the authority vested in me by Article IV, Section 8, of the Texas Constitution, do hereby call an extraordinary session of the 81st Legislature, to be convened in the City of Austin, commencing at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, the 1st day of July 2009, for the following purposes:

To consider legislation that provides for extending the existence of several state agencies that were subject to sunset review by the 81st Legislature and will be abolished without legislative action under the state's Sunset Act, that changes the review schedule for certain state agencies to balance the workload of the Sunset Advisory Commission.

To consider legislation relating to the issuance by the Texas Transportation Commission, pursuant to Article III, Section 49-p, of the Texas Constitution, of general obligation bonds for highway improvement projects, and to the creation, administration, financing and use of a Texas Transportation Revolving Fund to provide financial assistance for transportation projects.

To consider legislation relating to the date on which the authority of the Texas Department of Transportation and a regional mobility authority to enter into a comprehensive development agreement expires.

The Secretary of State will take notice of this action and will notify the members of the legislature of my action.

IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I have signed my name officially and caused the Seal of the State to be affixed hereto at Austin, this the 19th day of June, 2009.

RICK PERRY
Governor of Texas

ATTESTED BY:
COBY SHORTER, III
Deputy Secretary of State

McCombs 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.

Hutchison: Forget Instituting Double Toll Taxes, Create Fair Highway-Funding

Link to article here.

Hutchison: Forget Instituting Double Toll Taxes, Create Fair Highway-Funding
Texas Insider
June 17, 2009

U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison

“Taxpayers Shouldn’t Be Charged Time and Time Again to Drive on Roads They Already Paid For”

Maintaining and improving our nation’s vast surface transportation network has become nearly as daunting as negotiating the gridlocked roads of many American cities at rush hour.More... Communities across Texas and throughout America have fast-growing populations, but face crumbling and overstressed highways and consistent funding shortfalls. Clearly, something needs to change, but we should not sacrifice the quality of our roads — nor fairness to American taxpayers.

As we work to meet our transportation needs, we must think broadly and avoid Band-Aid solutions that will ultimately exacerbate the problem.

Some believe tolling existing highway infrastructure will alleviate these challenges. But tolling roads that have already been built and paid for with tax dollars amounts to nothing more than double taxation for the same asset; this is a practice that is fundamentally unfair. Consequently, I oppose any effort to place tolls on existing interstate highways.

Double taxation is not the only concern. Overemphasis on tolling has serious implications for community safety and local infrastructure. Studies show that motorists will change their driving patterns to bypass the tolls. This will redirect traffic from our highways to remaining free roads, and, in turn, congest our local streets, compromise neighborhood safety, and overburden small-capacity infrastructure.

Furthermore, tolls on existing interstates will divert truck traffic to other roads. A recent study predicted that a 25-cent-per-mile toll on an interstate highway would cause nearly half the trucks to divert to other routes. Many of the communities that would be impacted are not equipped to handle heavy commercial traffic, and the safety of local drivers could be put at risk by the increased presence of trucks on small roads.

I recently introduced legislation to prevent tolling of existing free federal highways, bridges, or tunnels built with federal funding, so that taxpayers are not taxed to use a road for which they’ve already paid. I’m for more highways and even tolls, when proposed the right way. The legislation does not prohibit tolls on new construction. If local communities and states want to cooperatively construct a toll road, they should be able to do so. If a state or community wants to expand its highways and toll for building new lanes, it can choose that alternative. In these situations, the taxpayers know exactly what they are getting. Many times a vote is required to approve these projects, but in any case, the taxpayers can hold the relevant officials accountable.

The debate on tolling illuminates the broader need to reform the federal highway program. Its antiquated funding formula — which has turned Texas, Florida, Arizona and others into donor states — is no longer serving the best interests of each state and its motorists. The inequity is compounded by the fact that many of the states donating the most gas-tax dollars also have some of the fastest-growing populations and the most congested cities, highways and freight routes. Our national transportation mission should evolve from constructing the federal-aid highway system to maintaining and improving infrastructure. This will help ensure that these penalized states don’t resort to Band-Aid solutions, such as tolling existing freeways.

In April, I introduced a bill that would permit states to opt out of this federal highway program and instead be rebated federal fuel taxes collected within their borders. Texas, for example, receives back 92 cents for every dollar sent to Washington. My bill would allow Texas and other states that are currently being shortchanged to finally see 100 percent of their gas-tax dollars from the highway account, and ensure that all of our funds could be used to improve transportation in Texas.

Washington shouldn’t take one state’s tax dollars and send them to other states. Likewise, American taxpayers shouldn’t be charged time and time again to drive on roads they already paid for with their hard-earned tax dollars.

North Texas agency eyes raising toll rates 32%

Link to article here.

The North Texas Tollway Authority is drowning in a sea of debt. Toll road ridership is down, so they're at risk of not being able to make bond payments, so they're looking to raise toll rates, which will in turn make ever fewer people able to afford to take the tollways. It's a cat and mouse boondoggle that will come back and haunt us all once their debt service payments balloon to half a billion PER YEAR in 2020. We need to abandon this reliance on toll taxes, fix the gas tax (end diversions, do a top to bottom review of TxDOT's books and eliminate the waste, fraud and abuse, and then if we need more funding for roads, modestly raise the gas tax), and return to affordable transportation policies.

Dallas-area toll agency delays vote on plan to raise rates
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER / The Dallas Morning News

The North Texas Tollway Authority finance committee heard – but did not approve – a staff recommendation Tuesday to increase toll rates throughout its growing network of toll roads.

After lengthy discussion, the committee decided against voting on the proposal to raise rates on toll roads by 32 percent, from 11 cents per mile to 14.5 cents, effective Sept. 1.

The committee will meet twice more to discuss the proposal, including at a meeting next week. The full nine-member board will vote on the hike in July.

But an increase appears certain. NTTA staff and its financial advisers said failure to raise the rates significantly could make it difficult, or even impossible, to issue new debt to complete work on already promised toll roads.

Still, board member Bob Day, a former Garland mayor, wants his colleagues to phase in the increases, waiting till 2010 to impose the full increase.

He also proposed making tolls twice as expensive for those who do not get a TollTag, though some steps would be made to help low-income drivers who do not have credit or debit cards avoid the surcharge. Drivers have been slower to get the tags than NTTA expected, making it more expensive to collect tolls.

"Let's face it, this is kind of a tax on transportation," Day said.

A delay might not be possible, however.

Talk of higher tolls comes as NTTA seeks to reassure bondholders, who hold $6.1 billion in NTTA debt, that a steep decline in traffic on NTTA's toll roads does not threaten the authority's solvency. Its trust agreement with major lenders requires that NTTA take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that enough revenue comes in to cover debt payments.

Those annual debt payments are already far more than the authority's approximately $92 million annual operating budget, and are projected to get steeper every year. Debt payments will equal nearly $140 million in 2009, and will be $300 million by 2012. By 2020, the figure will likely be a half-billion dollars, advisers said Tuesday.

Those big debt payments are a legacy of the big bet NTTA, and by extension the region, made on the State Highway 121 toll contract, which was awarded to NTTA after fierce political skirmishing in 2007. NTTA won the 52-year contract after promising to build the road and pay $3.2 billion upfront with money it borrowed against future tolls.

A private company had offered to pay nearly as much, and take the risk that traffic – and therefore revenue – would meet projections.

But regional officials decided to bet on the record-breaking population growth in North Texas, and chose NTTA, which unlike a private company will reinvest any profits on future transportation projects.

But the recession has slowed the Dallas-Fort Worth area's population growth, though it is still fast by national standards. Traffic also has decreased as drivers seek to minimize transportation costs, including spending money on tolls.

"My wife and I ... both drive 121 every day, now spending $160 a month in tolls," said Walter Lowe of McKinney. "If you raise the tolls, we will be forced to abandon the tollway completely. We just can't afford it anymore."

______________________________________________________

Link to article here.

Big upfront deal for Highway 121 toll road weighs on NTTA officials
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER / The Dallas Morning News
Was $3.2 billion too much to pay for the State Highway 121 toll road?

That's a question top officials of the North Texas Tollway Authority are asking themselves as they consider a staff proposal to send tolls soaring on all of its highways by Sept. 1.

It's a question that was asked two years ago, too, when state and local officials awarded NTTA the rights to the richest new toll road contract in American history. But it wasn't one that officials in North Texas asked for long.

With every dollar of the massive payment, made in cash by NTTA and reserved for roads, rail and bike trails in North Texas, officials were eager to spend the badly needed money. Scrambling to a get a piece of the Highway 121 pie, local governments submitted hundreds of transportation project proposals worth more than $8 billion.

"This is about the future," Richardson City Council member John Murphy said just after casting his vote on the Regional Transportation Council in favor of awarding the project to NTTA. "Not long ago, we were at a point where we were saying, 'Oh my gosh, where are we going to get the money to build roads?' Now, we're saying instead, 'Show us the money.' "

With resources tight everywhere, the deal was more than just a way to advance a needed highway. It was seen as a harbinger of a new way to pay for roads in Texas, where raising taxes to build them the old-fashioned way had long since run out of favor.

But just two years later, that future has turned out different from what anyone foresaw. Traffic is slowing across the NTTA toll system, where revenue is down, too. On Highway 121 itself, now known as the Sam Rayburn Tollway, traffic is nearly 20 percent below levels projected two years ago.

As a result, drivers will soon be paying more, much more, to drive on NTTA toll roads. The money from higher rates is badly needed to satisfy creditors, who are owed more than $6.1 billion.

Did NTTA simply pay too much for the toll contract? Did the Regional Transportation Council demand too steep a price?

"Yes, it did," said NTTA vice chairman Victor Vandergriff. "Both in what it paid and in the way it was paid."

Paul Wageman, the hard-fighting NTTA chairman who had led the authority in its campaign to wrest the project away from its private-sector competitor in 2007, said it's too early to tell whether NTTA made a good deal with the 52-year contract. Time (and a better economy) may ease many worries, he said.

Still, hindsight makes the decision to pay so much money upfront, leveraged against future tolls, look shortsighted on the part of the agency and the Regional Transportation Council, which insisted on the payments if NTTA was to win the contract over Spanish toll road firm Cintra, he and Vandergriff said.

But if the RTC was pushing too hard, it was doing so out of well-earned frustration, even desperation.

For years, North Texas leaders had looked at the area's worsening traffic and increasing air pollution and seen a ticking time bomb capable of blowing apart the region's powerhouse economic growth.

State and federal gas taxes had been frozen since the early 1990s. Area roads got older, more expensive to maintain, and increasingly crowded. Meanwhile, every six or so years, the region said hello to a million new faces.

So it was hardly Murphy alone who looked at the 26-mile toll road running through some of America's fastest-growing communities and had a Jerry Maguire moment.

Wageman still sees the Highway 121 project as a good investment. The economy will rebound, and not even higher rates will persuade Dallas drivers en masse to trust their commutes to the region's jammed free roads. But he worries that too much is being expected from toll roads, and from tolling in general.

"There is a high level of receptivity to tolling in North Texas, especially on the eastern side of the region," Wageman said. "But TxDOT has run out of money, and now we look at a regional transportation plan that is replete with tollways. Add to that a new wave of managed lanes, a concept that is completely untested in Dallas, which will have toll rates that are incredibly high.

"My concern is that the elected officials really need to be talking to the citizens about what's coming down the pike. Sure, we're all glad there is going to be added mobility, but there is a cost associated with that."

Drivers could one day soon realize they are being tolled every which way, and decide they don't like it. "That receptivity will be gone," he said.

But if too much is being asked of toll roads, it's not because local leaders haven't tried to find other answers.

A Dallas senator led efforts to raise the gas tax in Austin this year, but failed. Local efforts to get permission to ask voters to pay more taxes and fees for roads and rail also died in Austin.

Even private toll roads, the model NTTA managed to beat out in 2007, is under a cloud in Austin, where a legal tussle over the constitutionality of long-term contracts with private toll operators has stalled two major North Texas projects.

By 2012, the Texas Department of Transportation will be out of money for new construction, officials there have said. And in Washington, the highway trust fund is running out of money, too.

"I am an NTTA board member, and I hate tolls," Vandergriff said. But for now, he and others say, it's the only option on the table.

But as tolls soar later this year, it won't just be the drivers who are paying more. If they are angry enough, or simply too strapped, they may decide to avoid them altogether, traffic jams or no.

That's when North Texas will find itself right back where it started, before Highway 121: bad air, more traffic, and fast running out of options.

Rick Perry exploits the sacred Alamo for political grandstanding

Link to article here.

There's scarcely more sacred ground in Texas than the Alamo, and Rick Perry trampled on it Monday when he faked signing a bill that was really a constitutional amendment that didn't need his signature. Even worse, the amendment that was already headed to the voters was personally watered down by Perry's goons that police the Legislature, reducing the measure to nothing more than window dressing for his election year politicking. This after Perry VETOED real eminent domain reform, HB 2006, last session. Anyone with a pulse ought to see this flip flopping grandstanding for what it is. Perry is no more for meaningful eminent domain reform than he is for affordable transportation.
Genuine protection from the Supreme Court's eminent domain Kelo case would torpedo Perry's plans to sell Texas highways to private corporations in a scheme to forcibly take Texans land, pay them next to nothing for it, and hand it foreign toll operators for private profits. He's made it his mission to prevent Texans from gaining private property protections that more than half the states have secured for their citizens since the Kelo decision. His motto: name your price and I'll sell you Texas.

Insiders at the Legislature said Perry was holding the eminent domain bill hostage until lawmakers capitulated to re-authorizing the private toll contracts (called public private partnerships or CDAs in Texas) that essentially sell Texas highways to Spain. Due to the infighting over the local option gas tax at the end of the session, Perry didn't get his private toll contracts, and the citizens of Texas didn't get genuine eminent domain reform.

The fact that the Express-News took Perry's bait and made him appear the hero to Texas landowners rubs salt in the wound. We give the paper kudos for acknowledging its mistake and attempting to correct it.

Setting It Straight: 'Eminent domain fight'

San Antonio Express-News
06/16/2009

Gov. Rick Perry signed something in front of the Alamo Monday, but, it turns out, it wasn’t a bill to allow Texas voters to decide a constitutional amendment restricting eminent domain because the governor doesn’t figure in that process and doesn’t sign anything approving it.

The Express-News’ coverage resulted in an inaccurate story Tuesday that editors learned of late Tuesday.

The event, on a sunny Monday morning, with the Shrine of Texas Liberty in the background, did, however, garner news attention. The Express-News report was printed on the front of the Business section beneath a headline, “Eminent domain fight,” and a sub-headline: “Perry signs bill allowing vote on constitutional amendment limiting its use.”


Staff writer Jennifer Hiller described the event as Perry signing a bill “that would send the property rights decision to voters ...”

A June 12 media advisory from Perry’s office promised he “will sign legislation to allow Texans to vote on a constitutional amendment to increase property owners’ rights.” And a story on the governor’s Web site Monday was headlined: “Gov. Perry signs legislation protecting Texas property owners.”

Unfortunately, with that kind of help from the governor’s office, the Express-News got the story wrong. While it requires two-thirds approval by both houses of the Legislature, a constitutional amendment does not require the governor’s approval to be put on the ballot.

A Perry spokeswoman, Allison Castle, told the Express-News via e-mail: “It was a ceremonial signing as the governor has done numerous times before to highlight priority issues,” citing events in 2007, 2005, 2003 and 2001.

However, the ceremony was unnecessary to the amendment process or to whether it goes to voters, and for erroneously explaining that process, the Express-News apologizes to its readers.

Story as it was published: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/Gov_Perry_takes_a_swing_at_eminent_domain.html

Bob Richter is the Express-News public editor. Contact him at brichter@express

Drive to privatize a fad that’s fading fast

Link to article here.

Politics and the Financial Crisis Slow the Drive to Privatize

A deal to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike, left, failed last year. Private operation of Chicago parking meters has run into criticism.
By LESLIE WAYNE
New York Times
June 4, 2009

It was hailed as a win-win for Main Street and Wall Street — a way for states and cities, along with financiers, to make some money.

But now privatization, the selling of public airports, bridges, roads and the like to private investors, looks like a boom that wasn’t. Deals are collapsing. Airy hopes of quick profits are vanishing. And what was celebrated as a new wave in finance is, for the moment, barely making a ripple.

What happened? The financial crisis, for starters. The easy money that Wall Street was counting on to finance its purchases has largely disappeared. Then the Obama administration unintentionally damped interest with its $787 billion economic stimulus package, a windfall that local governments are now racing to spend.

Bankers concede they got a bit ahead of themselves. When times were good, investment banks and private investment funds raised billions of dollars in hopes of buying infrastructure. But many state and local governments resisted selling because of money, politics or both.

Some deals turned out to be less lucrative than these would-be sellers had hoped. Government officials also began questioning whether taxpayers would be better off if infrastructure were in private hands. After Chicago sold its parking system to a private operator, for instance, drivers had to feed meters with as many as 28 quarters to park for two hours.

“We will see a few transactions,” said Fred Pollock, a vice president at Morgan Stanley Infrastructure, a private equity fund. “But we know what we won’t see — a tidal wave of projects.”

Some big names still want to enter this business, among them Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. Such investors have raised about $180 billion for global infrastructure projects. Large funds have also been established in Australia, Britain and Bahrain, where such public-private partnerships are more common. More than 20 states enacted legislation in recent years to allow some form of private-sector investment that would help fill budget gaps and repair crumbling roads, bridges and even airports.

But now the deals are falling apart. In April, a much-anticipated $2.5 billion plan to privatize Midway Airport in Chicago collapsed after a group of investors was unable to obtain debt financing. The deal, which had been in the works for four years, was to have been the first in a Federal Aviation Administration project that would have allowed up to five major airports to move into private hands.

Midway was just the latest setback. The biggest was the failure last fall of the largest deal proposed to date — a $12.8 billion lease of the Pennsylvania Turnpike to an investor group headed by Citigroup and a Spanish investment firm. Postmortems into that failed effort show that privatization advocates vastly underestimated the political opposition the deal would stir up in the Pennsylvania legislature.

Late last month plans to privatize “Alligator Alley,” a 78-mile stretch of Florida highway that connects Fort Lauderdale with Naples, collapsed when no bidders showed up. The failure has had a ripple effect — in Mississippi, state officials have pushed back the bidding schedule for a new 12-mile toll road.

Then there is the $1.2 billion privatization of 36,000 parking meters in Chicago. In the five months since the deal took effect, widespread complaints about poor service and rising parking rates have created a political firestorm for the Chicago City Council. Public opposition was so strong that on Wednesday the council approved a delay in voting on any future asset sales.

Chicago public officials have called the work of the private operator, Chicago Parking Meters L.L.C., “simply unacceptable.” For its part, the operator has apologized and announced it would delay price increases at the meters.

Proponents of public-to-private asset sales point to the $1.8 billion lease of the 7.8-mile Chicago Skyway in 2004 and the $3.8 billion raised by Indiana through a 75-year lease of its toll road in 2006 as successful pioneering efforts.

In Indiana, the money went to pay for a 10-year highway infrastructure program, and Gov. Mitch Daniels was re-elected last year promoting the lease, despite bumper stickers that read “Keep the Toll Road, Lease Mitch.”

The stimulus money, as well as other infrastructure money promised by Congress, has provided temporary relief for cash-poor municipalities. But this situation will not last forever.

“They still have expenses, and revenues will not keep up,” Scott Pattison, executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers, said of state and local governments. “Some states will have to look at asset sales and decide. Once we step back from this crisis mode, I think they will be looked at again.”

If the market revives, the problems that scuttled recent deals may provide some lessons. In the case of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, politics clearly played a role in the deal’s collapse. A study by the Pew Center on the States found that proponents of the deal had overpromised what the turnpike could fetch and had failed to make it clear where the money would go.

After indicating that the turnpike might be valued at as much as $26 billion, when the winning $12.8 billion bid came in lawmakers felt it looked too small. Even more, there was concern that the money would be squandered and that the state was putting a valuable asset into foreign hands, since the top bidder included a Spanish company.

“It simply wasn’t a sufficient bid by a long shot,” said Joseph F. Markosek, a state legislator and head of the Pennsylvania House Transportation Committee.

Similar sentiments are coming into play in Florida, where few had expected Alligator Alley to be leased. “I believe the private partnership is like fool’s gold,” said David Aronberg, a state senator in south Florida who has led the fight against privatization. “It only looks good from afar.”

AG refuses to sign-off on toll deals with Cintra

Link to article here.

Senator Robert Nichols removed the State Auditor from oversight over these private toll rip-offs, called CDAs, in his bill SB 1669 (which didn't pass), so he is likely the one who removed the Attorney General from any oversight in the TxDOT sunset bill, HB 300 (which also didn't pass). Nichols knew what none of us did yet, that Attorney General Greg Abbott was holding up the two big North TX CDAs. Guess the BIG MONEY got  to Nichols and/or the senators who were members of the HB 300 conference committee, Nichols, Glenn Hegar, Juan Hinojosa, Kirk Watson, and John Carona.

Taxpayer advocate and private property rights hero Rep. Lois Kolkhorst's big contribution to the original sunset bill (that got stripped in the senate) was to have the Attorney General and Comptroller certify every CDA with their own signature on the dotted line. She instinctively knew that any politician who aspires to higher office would never sign their own name to such a taxpayer rip-off. She was right. We must insist her provision stays in ANY bill addressing CDAs. However, we predict this move by Abbott will be the death-knell for CDAs for good. FYI, the Legislature DID NOT re-authorize CDAs so they are set to sunset August 31. Let's see if Perry addresses that in the call for the anticipated special session...

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott refuses to OK North Texas tollway contract
Friday, June 12, 2009
By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER / The Dallas Morning News

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has refused to sign off on the first of two major private toll road projects approved for North Texas earlier this year.

Abbott said provisions in the contract with the Spanish firm Cintra, which is slated to build the North Tarrant Express in Fort Worth and the mid-cities, violate the Texas Constitution and must be amended.
 

State law gives Abbott the power to hold up the contracts indefinitely if they are not "legally sufficient."

Negotiations between his office and the department have already extended for weeks beyond an initial 60-day deadline.

Cintra has agreed to spend billions in North Texas to build the North Tarrant Express toll road and to rebuild the LBJ Freeway.

But in return, the state department of transportation has pledged more than $1 billion in tax dollars toward the projects. As a result, main lanes on both highways will be free, but Cintra will collect tolls for 52 years on adjacent lanes.

The LBJ Freeway contract has not yet been reviewed, but it is likely to be saddled with the same legal issues.

Abbott said the department's contract for the North Tarrant Express obligates the state to pay $740 million over several years to Cintra.

"The Texas Constitution says that one Legislature cannot financially bind a future Legislature," he said.

The contract must be amended to reflect that any promises for payment are subject to discretion of future sessions of the Legislature, Abbott said.

Any provision that leaves payments from the state subject to future action by the Legislature could give Cintra pause.

TxDOT continues to work to meet Abbott's objections and to settle on terms agreeable to Cintra, spokesman Chris Lippincott said.

Sine Die...81st Legislative session over!

WE DID IT!

HB 300 IS DEAD!

It was messy, and full of drama, but the grassroots, with the help of infighting among lawmakers over the "local option" gas tax hike, managed to slay a beast of a bill that would have unleashed horrific provisions upon Texans for GENERATIONS to come.
Thank you for all the phone calls and emails to your legislators, and for your support and sacrifices to come to Austin to give testimony to these committees and hung in there when it felt like they weren't listening and would NEVER do right by the PEOPLE of this great State.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for sticking with us through these 5 months of hard-fought battles during the session and for many of us, years of uphill struggles to bring accountability and fix transportation policies that are outright rip-offs. Without this grassroots army, the train wreck would have continued unabated with untold damage.

Play by play...
The final version of the bill from conference committee wasn't even posted until 11:40 PM Saturday night. We had 24 hours to read a 1,000 page bill....IMPOSSIBLE! I was able to get a side by side report of the actual, final changes in text (that report was 178 pages!) and managed to inform lawmakers of the horrible provisions still left in HB 300 to give us ammo to KILL HB 300. Read them here.

We put out a call for supporters to meet us at the Capitol yesterday for a last push to prevent lawmakers from selling off Texas highways to foreign corporations and KILL HB 300. When we arrived, word got out that Senator John Carona announced he was going to filibuster HB 300 because his "local option" 10 cent gas tax hike was taken out of the bill.

Support in the House started to waiver as it appeared HB 300 was going down in the Senate. The House bill wasn't eligible for a vote until 11:40 PM, just 20 minutes before the clock ran out. If they couldn't pass it, they still had to pass the safety net bill before the stroke of midnight. It was going to be tricky!

An added wrinkle...
We found out about some chicanery with the safety net bill (after hearing we were trying to kill the sunset bill and push TxDOT's sunset to next session). HB 300 author Carl Isett magically changed TxDOT's sunset date in the safety net bill to 4 years instead of the 2 years as it was originally written. Apparently this was a move to force lawmakers to choke down his anti-taxpayer, anti-reform HB 300 under the guise that it was better than nothing. But rather it smacked of dirty politics to try and say, "you take our bill or get no change at TxDOT for 4 years."

After we made the rounds and staffers were tight-lipped about their reps position for or against the bill, Rep. Vicki Truitt threatened to filibuster HB 300 in the House (following Carona's footsteps, she wanted the 10 cent gas tax hike and was willing to KILL the bill over it).

Then, House Transportation Chairman Joe Pickett at one point threatened to "release the conferees" and call up the senate bill for a vote instead of the House bill hoping to vote it down handily to send a message to the Senate that the House didn't want their bill. School children behave better than these people. The Senate version was chalk full of the WORST provisions imaginable (worst case scenario), including the 10 cent gas tax hike. So I didn't find the move particularly funny. It was an awful scare until I figured out what Pickett was doing.

By the time the dust settled, it was 11:40 PM and they never called up HB 300 (already declaring it DEAD, for all the wrong reasons, but dead nonetheless) and went straight to the safety bill. Now the safety net bill, having been hijacked and no way to change it since all the final version of bills had to have been filed by midnight Saturday, needed to DIE. We couldn't let TxDOT off the hook for another 4 years. But if the safety net bill didn't pass, TxDOT would be dissolved (many would cheer such a scenario, but not lawmakers who live and die by getting road projects built for their districts).

So Rep., David Leibowitz led the charge and stalled passage of the bill and midnight came and went and NO HB 300 and NO safety bill passed.

TxDOT ABOLISHED (for a few hours)
For about 16 hours, TxDOT was officially ABOLISHED! Oh, I slept well last night...

Today, the House was only to do technical changes (like remove conflicts within bills, mismarked section numbers and the like), but they AGAIN broke their own rules and managed to extend TxDOT for another 2 years (which was the original plan, just a lot more messy!) through a resolution. Lawmakers would do anything to avoid a special session, so they snuck the continuation of TxDOT into a resolution on stimulus funds (and where to deposit them).

The House officially adjourned, sine die only moments ago. While we didn't reform the agency and get the GOOD provisions passed, we averted diaster and CDAs, that sell our highways to foreign companies, sunset August 31. If CDAs die, TTC-35 dies with it. The TTC-69 was excepted OUT of the moratorium bill last session (which we vehemently opposed), so CDA contracts for that corridor can continue until 2011.

The local government 391 commissions we've been forming all over the state will now be the only thing (aside from litigation) standing between East Texas and a possible 1,200 foot wide Trans Texas Corridor!

CDAs may have been snuck into another bill somewhere...
With the "chubbing" over Voter ID, many bills died in the House. So the Senate started attaching their bills to House bills and there were a flurry of conference committee reports filed at midnight Saturday with no way to read them all to see if CDAs got snuck into a bill. Considering the House arrived at sine die before the senate today, and since both chambers routinely suspend their own rules, the Senate may have slipped CDAs into a bill today AFTER knwoing for certain that CDAs will sunset this summer absent the passage of HB 300.

What's also uncertain is what happens to the bills that gave RMAs the authority to enter into CDAs if CDAs are going to sunset? Which law will take precedence over the other? So there are many open questions and disaster may be lurking around the corner. But for today, we can enjoy a BIG VICTORY #2!

NO DEAL! KILL HB 300!

NO DEAL!

KILL HB 300

PASS SAFETY NET BILL, HB 1959

Many changes are outside the scope of conference committee guidelines, and will go “outside the bounds.” In many respects, the conference committee is re-writing parts of this monster bill on the fly…can ANYONE with confidence say they’ve read this bill and know what’s in it?

The anti-taxpayer, anti-reform TxDOT Sunset Bill contains:

- NO Elected leadership at TxDOT (Sec 1.52) - Sunset committee recommendation bites the dust
- Governor can still have commissioners serve in expired terms and skirt advice & consent of Senate
- No Inspector General!
- Removes prohibition on tolling existing highways
- Expands TxDOTs lobbying to allow them to actually lobby for and against specific legislation in direct conflict with Texas Govt Code Chapter 556 anti-lobbying provisions, keeps TxDOT’s STATE level lobbying cloaked as “reports to Legislature and recommended statutory changes”
- KEEPS TRANS TEXAS CORRIDOR ALIVE - Allows TTC-35 & TTC-69 CDAs to remain in effect attempts restrictions to highways and rail, which will still turn Hwy 77 & Hwy 59 into foreign-owned toll roads (moved from Chapter 227 into Chapter 223 of code), excepts out SH 130 from all restrictions (see specifics below)
- ENDS the private toll moratorium & sells our highways to foreign toll operators (CDAs), SB 17 language in the bill, still contains WAIVER so can jump into CDA without following the steps, excepts out a whole list of projects excluded from the new restrictions, including 281
- Contains controversial Revolving Fund (stated intent to raid public employee pension funds to invest in these risky CDA deals). Allows Texas Mobility Funds to be put in Revolving Fund to loan & invest money in toll roads (instead of freeways)
-Allows an increase in speed limits UP TO 85 MPH on the TTC & toll roads (with the intent to lower speed limits on competing free roads like the SH 130 CDA)
- Removes toll entities from ANY restrictions on CDAs that apply to TxDOT, sky’s the limit (p. 16 of side by side)
- Removes many good provisions to prevent conflicts of interest with lobbyists/contractors influencing TxDOT/toll entities and elected officials who appoint the boards of these entities for things they have financial interest in (like disclosing political contributions that may curry favor for a contractor seeking a contract)
- Removed ESSENTIAL funding formula restrictions (201.668) that would take the CLUB out of TxDOT’s hands (replaces with watered down Senate version, Sec. 201.988)
- Weakened the Legislative Oversight Committee (LOC), nixes requirement to move GPA division under LOC - Sunset committee recommendation bites the dust
- Weakens outside management audit, not under control of LOC
- TxDOT’s research program still under its control not under Legislature so any research conducted by TxDOT will be biased in favor of what TxDOT wants it to say - Sunset committee recommendation bites the dust
- Can use Prop 12 bonds for Revolving Fund that grants loans for toll projects!!!! (Raid public pension funds), changes to Subsections (g) and (h), Section 222.005, Transportation Code.
- Expands best value bidding to non-tolled projects meaning taxpayers will NOT pay the lowest price for highways!
- Allows payments to losing bidders to continue (caps at 1/2 percent of total bid (SECTION 4.05.  Section 223.203(m))
 
- Waters down requirement to certify CDAs, no AG signature, removes review by State Auditor! Excepts out some CDAs in progress.
- Removes provisions to reinstate TxDOT to contracts to be investigated by Auditor
- Waters down non-compete prohibition (Sec 1.43)
- Removes 75% elected official mandate for MPOs! Removes requirement that MPOs adopt an ethics policy
- Makes Transportation a utility by municipalities (SECTION 1.24.  Subchapter Z, Chapter 311)
- Allows TxDOT to pay for expedited environmental clearance, biases agency w/ oversight in favor of granting clearance
- Removes provision to make TxDOT assess pavement condition and share with planning orgs
- TRZ allows property tax to be used to build roads
- Took out liquidated damages amendment for damage to businesses if extended delay due to construction
- Repeals requirement of public hearing if project goes through a municipality (Sec 3.04, Chapter 203 subchapter B repealed)
- Allows permanent tax increase on vehicle registration imposed in the valley w/o requirement of annual renewal, increase up to $50!
- Creates rail division when can’t even afford to build roads, and prior to statewide rail study being conducted
- Allows TxDOT to spend money on roads NOT on the state hwy system! (SECTION 1.13.  Section 201.703) How much sense does this make when we don’t have the money to build the roads that ARE on the state hwy system???

TRANS TEXAS CORRIDOR CDAs KEEP IT ALIVE (move to new chapter, call it I-69)
Tweaks but doesn't KILL the TTC...

SECTION 2.__.  Section 227.034(a), Transportation Code, is amended to read as follows:
(a)  A contract for the acquisition, construction, maintenance, or operation of a facility on the Trans-Texas Corridor may not contain a provision that limits or prohibits construction or operation of a highway or other transportation project that is:
(1)  included in the project development program, or its successor document, [unified transportation program] of the department in effect at the time the contract is executed;
(2) a project of a local government; or
(3) constructed or operated for the safety of pedestrian or vehicular traffic.

SECTION 2.23.  (a)  The changes in law made by Section 371.151, Transportation Code, as amended by this Article, and Section 371.105, Transportation Code, as added by this Article, apply only to a comprehensive development agreement entered into on or after the effective date of this Act.
(b) A comprehensive development agreement entered into before the effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the day the agreement was finalized, and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.

All projects in the valley, first leg of TTC-69 still move forward under old code (Sec 26.07)

P. 73 of side by side -
Same as Senate version, but in SECTION 4.03, delete the reference to Section 227.001 in Subsection (2) and add the following language as the last Subsection of Section 223.201, Transportation Code:
(___) Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary,
(1) the department's authority to enter into a comprehensive development agreement and any related facility agreement, whether under this section or any other law, shall be limited to highway, road and rail projects, and in no event shall be deemed to extend to projects involving public utilities or any other facility that is not a highway, road or rail facility; and (2) except in connection with any existing rights granted to a private party with respect to the SH 130 project, the department may not charge any fee or grant to a private entity the right to charge or collect any fee in connection with a comprehensive development agreement or any related agreement pursuant to Chapter 227 or any successor law in connection with any facility that is not a highway, road or rail facility, including a public utility facility.

SECTION 4.11.  The changes in law made by this Act to Sections 223.201(a), 223.208(e), and 223.208(f), Transportation Code, do not apply to the State Highway 130, Segments 5 and 6 project.  An agreement entered into for that project is governed by the law in effect on the date the agreement was entered into, and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.

SECTION 19.__.  The changes in law made by this Act to Sections 11.11(j), 25.06(c)(1), and 25.07(c)(1), Tax Code, do not apply to any portion of a facility owned by the Texas Department of Transportation that is part of the SH 130, Segments 5 and 6 project, or to a leasehold or other possessory interest in a facility owned by the Texas Department of Transportation that is part of the SH 130, Segments 5 and 6 project.  Those sections, as they existed immediately before the effective date of this Act, are continued in effect for those purposes.

1. Replace SECTION 23.17 with the following language:
SECTION 23.17.  Section 370.040, Transportation Code, as added by this Act, does not apply to any segment, extension or expansion of the I-35/SH 130 project within the previously designated Interstate 35 corridor, a segment, extension or expansion of the I-69/US 77 project within the previously designated Interstate 69 corridor, or any project for which the Texas Department of Transportation has entered into a contract to construct the project prior to the effective date of this Act.  Such a project, segment, extension or expansion is governed by the law as it existed immediately before the effective date of this Act, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.  Notwithstanding the foregoing, if there is, pursuant to a contract entered into after the effective date of this Act, a transfer of a leasehold interest in, or right to operate and retain revenues from, a project that is not a segment, extension or expansion of the I-35/SH 130 project within the previously designated Interstate 35 corridor or a segment, extension or expansion of the I-69/US 77 project within the previously designated Interstate 69 corridor, and the department does not continue to provide tolling services for the project, Section 370.040 shall apply.

Contact Info: Terri Hall, (210) 275-0640, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Hank Gilbert, 903-570-3613, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
 
TEXAS TURF is a non-partisan grassroots group of 100,000 Texans defending citizens’ concerns about toll road policy and the Trans Texas Corridor. TURF promotes non-toll transportation solutions.
 

Lawmakers at odds over TxDOT Sunset bill

Senate bill merges variety of transportation proposals
Monday, May 25, 2009
By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER / The Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN – Two years of planning, positioning and politicking over the multibillion-dollar business of building roads in Texas will come down to a single bill in the Senate as soon as today, when members will spend hours arguing over how to build more roads for more people without spending much more money.

The Senate bill is a witches' brew of proposals, from gas tax schemes to toll road dreams, that would further Gov. Rick Perry's pursuit of private toll roads, give lawmakers more direct oversight of the Texas Department of Transportation and let North Texas counties ask voters to raise their own taxes to build more roads and, perhaps, more rail lines.

But the one thing it would not do is radically prune the power of the Texas Department of Transportation, and that might just be enough to kill it altogether. A version that passed the House this month would be far stricter with the 14,000-employee agency and would give local planning councils the upper hand in making decisions about roads and bridges.

Whatever the Senate approves some time early this week would head to a conference committee, where five members from each chamber will try to settle on a version. If they can't agree, every significant idea for changing transportation policy this year would be in jeopardy.

The chambers have two enormous differences: First, the House's determination to rein in the transportation department and with it the governor's power to set transportation policy for Texas. The Senate approach is milder. Second, and perhaps more significant, is the desire by North Texas officials to be able to raise taxes to fund road and rail projects, with voters' approval.

"Many of my friends in the House and the public just want to start over with the agency, rather than fix it," said Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who presides over the Senate. "But I am not sure that is possible, or very practical. There are great people on the [Texas Transportation] Commission who really have in their hearts the best interests of Texas. So I want to help this agency and want to help turn it around."

Pickett's argument
Weakening the department is essential, argued House transportation chairman Joe Pickett, D-El Paso. For years, he has said, the department has played the role of "the heavy" throughout Texas, often forcing projects and approaches to projects on communities that ought to have the final say themselves.

He said he isn't surprised the agency has found such strong allies late in the legislative session.

"TxDOT has a lot of influence and unfortunately the culture is such that they believe they are sole dictators instead of being our partners," he said.

His views may clash with the Senate's, but they have support from members of the public still seething over Perry's vision for the Trans Texas Corridor, a massive private toll plan that is dead in theory but lives on in the rapidly expanding network of toll roads in places like Dallas. Nor is Pickett entirely alone in the House, where "TxDOT" has been considered a bad word for years.

Transportation committee member Rep. Linda Harper-Brown, R-Irving, said she'd rather see the session end with no transportation reform at all than with the mild changes envisioned by the Senate.

"I would not say that coming out of the session with nothing is a success," she said Saturday. "But it is far more important to come out with a bill that brings substantive change in the way TxDOT operates."

Perry may have the decisive influence on these issues. Senate transportation chairman John Carona, R-Dallas, predicted the governor would not accept any bill that greatly diminishes the role of the agency or removes his influence on what Perry has called his signature issue.

Local-option taxes
But even more of a possible deal-breaker is the proposal that means the most to North Texas, where local officials are nearly frantic as they await the result of six years of lobbying to win the authority to call tax elections for transportation projects.

Carona calls that provision – the "local-option tax bill" – his single biggest priority.

"I can tell you this: I am not going to budge on the local-option bill," he said. "I simply won't accept a bill that comes out of the conference committee that does not include it."

The measure would let counties ask voters to accept a menu of tax increases including up to 10 cents per gallon of fuel. It could raise more than $500 million a year for North Texas alone, depending on which counties participate. Most North Texas counties want to use the money for rail projects, but that would require voters' approval of a constitutional amendment.

Other senators also strongly support it. Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, said it's all but certain that the majority of senators on the conference committee will insist that the bill include the local-option tax proposal.

But Pickett and others in the House said if Carona digs his heels in over the local-option provision, the transportation bill could die altogether.

"His priority may be local option, but I do not believe that is the House's priority," Pickett said.

He said he also supported a bill that would have incrementally raised gas taxes statewide to keep up with inflation, but it died because the full House would not support it. "Local option is probably similar," he said.

Some conservative House members endorse the local-option measure as a last-ditch effort to give Dallas the tools it needs to remain economically competitive.

"The last thing I want to do is support a tax," said Rep. Angie Chen Button, R-Garland. "But I do support this."

House members are already irked that the Senate weakened the changes to the transportation department, and they were irked again when Carona slid the local-option tax proposal onto the Senate version, in part to avoid a House debate.

If no bill at all passes, the transportation department could go out of business, since the agency is subject to the "sunset" process, a periodic review of agencies that determines their effectiveness and necessity. Perry could call a special session to focus on transportation to avoid that, but it's more likely that lawmakers would give the agency a two-year extension, starting the fight over again in anticipation of a 2011 showdown.

For the department and its supporters, that would be fine. And even its harshest critics would rather hold out for more sweeping changes.

"TxDOT needs a complete overhaul, and it may not happen for another two to four years," Pickett said. "Both bills have so much additional baggage at this point, we will have to see. Anything is possible."

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