Presidential candidates back federal toll road bank

Link to article here.

Meanwhile, another toll tunnel in Australia financially collapses...These deals are a House of Cards and now the government wants to invest PUBLIC PENSION funds into these things. This could turn out to be an even bigger disaster than the mortgage crisis. These government brokered toll roads deals are the big dig, savings and loan, Enron, and mortgage crises on steriods!


Presidential Candidates Endorse Toll Road Bank
Democratic presidential candidates endorse $60 billion federal bureaucracy charged with funding new toll road projects.
The Newspaper.com
March 26, 2008

Senators Clinton and ObamaTaking a page from the New Deal, Senators Hillary Clinton (D-New York) and Barack Obama (D-Illinois) have signed on to a measure that would create a public-private partnership agency tasked with expanding the role of the federal government in creating massive public works projects. As cosponsors of legislation introduced by Senator Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut), himself a former presidential candidate, the senators would create a National Infrastructure Bank to fund large federal projects with "a preference for projects which leverage private financing, including public-private partnerships." In other words, toll roads.

By its charter, the proposed bank would administer direct subsidies and issue bonds with terms of up to fifty years to promote mass transit, public housing, toll roads and toll bridges or wastewater treatment systems. The bank would encourage local public agencies to "partner" with private for-profit entities to develop these massive projects which must be worth at least $75 million each to qualify for funding.



"The bank does not displace existing formula grants and earmarks for infrastructure," Senator Dodd explained. "It targets specifically large capacity-building projects that are not adequately served by current financing mechanisms. The proposed Infrastructure Bank Act also will increase the ability of the private sector to play a central role in infrastructure provision."

The idea for the bank was first proposed by the Center for Strategic and International Studies Commission on Public Infrastructure. In a 2006 report, the group cited the London Mayor Ken Livingstone's congestion tax as a prime example of the successful execution of an infrastructure concept.
"Technology creates new opportunities for project design, capacity expansion, user cost recovery, and peak-load management," the CSIS report explained "For example, advanced video and computer technology support congestion pricing systems that have reduced automobile traffic in London by a third."

The US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs held a hearing to promote the legislation on March 11. Representatives from CSIS, the American Society of Civil Engineers, Goldman Sachs and the AFL-CIO all testified in favor of the idea. A copy of the prosed legislation is available in a 90k PDF file at the source link below.

Source: S. 1926 (Congress of the United States, 8/1/2007)

Farm Bureau says TxDOT’s TTC-69 study failed to follow the law

Link to article here.

We agree wholeheartedly with the Farm Bureau's assessment of TxDOT's woefully inadequate DEIS for TTC-69. In fact, TURF's comments are very similar. TxDOT's failure to study ANY cumulative impacts of this massive corridor across the state is not only irresponsible, it's ILLEGAL! If 391 commissions don't stop it, looks like both TURF and the Farm Bureau will haul TxDOT into court to force them to comply with the law.

Texas Farm Bureau: “TxDOT’s Draft Environmental Impact Study will not withstand judicial scrutiny”
Southwest Farm Press
Mar 19, 2008
In comments filed with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the Texas Farm Bureau said the Draft Environmental Impact Study (DEIS) for the proposed I-69 corridor “would not withstand judicial scrutiny.”

Under the terms of the National Environmental Policy Act, these detailed environmental studies are conducted under rules developed by the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ).


According to the farm organization’s comments, the failure of the DEIS to consider the environmental impact of using existing rights-of-way–rather than a single minded focus on building a completely new route–means the study could not hold up in court. Current law and actual practice in the only other state, Indiana, to file a DEIS on the massive interstate project dictate that existing rights-of-way be considered. Indiana’s DEIS did, in fact, consider existing rights-of-way.

“The completely new route, of course, would be the most disruptive in terms of displacing families and impacting the environment,” said Kenneth Dierschke, president of Texas Farm Bureau. “Once again, it seems that TxDOT is trying to influence policy rather than implementing it, this time by pretending that there is only one way to build the Texas portion of I-69.”

Another problem, according to the document submitted by TFB, is the insistence by TxDOT and FHWA that I-69 be “multimodal,” complete with space for separate truck lanes, rail and a multi-purpose utility corridor. The Farm Bureau charges that the two agencies have failed to demonstrate the need for this kind of space-eating approach.

“I-69, as proposed, will pass through seven states. Of these, Texas is the only one to mention, let alone require, a multimodal corridor in connection with I-69,” Dierschke said.

Dierschke said the state needs additional highways but Farm Bureau is concerned about the lost farm and ranch land along the proposed route. That, he said, is another flaw in the DEIS. According to the TFB document, farmland loss was not considered in the DEIS, as required by federal law.

“There doesn’t appear to be any effort to minimize the loss of farm and ranch lands or the productive capacity that might be lost,” Dierschke said.

The Farm Bureau document suggests that many problems arise from the intent to include I-69–not only in the federal corridor that includes seven states–but in the controversial Trans-Texas Corridor as well. The TTC is most often described as multimodal, requiring more space.

“We have to wonder if the rest of the TTC is getting this kind of half-hearted scrutiny,” Dierschke said. “We hope TxDOT and FHWA are approaching this planning phase with an open mind, but their efforts suggest otherwise.”

Ogden wants to invest public pension funds in toll roads


Link to article here.

This is called a bad case of making one bad decision turn into two. The citizens' concerns with toll roads don't stop with foreign or private management of our public infrastructure, it's this concept of government making a profit off our public roadways PERIOD! Not only are these toll roads financially risky (a house of cards), they're controversial, extort large amounts of tax money from the public for daily living (just about equivalent to taxing the air we breathe), and constitute massive eminent domain abuse forcibly taking private property not for public use, but for government profiteering!

This is a method of co-opting government employees/retirees into supporting toll roads. When they become the investors making billions off their fellow commuters, politicians think all the objections will disappear due to good ol' fashioned GREED!

OTHER TAKES
Ogden: Texas can solve the problem of financing road construction
State Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, TEXAS SENATE
Austin American Statesman
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Recently, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), in its effort to address the highway construction needs of our state, alarmed many in the Legislature and many more in my district. This is counter-productive and unnecessary. I want to report to you what can be done to get things back on track.

TxDOT is not "out of money" and can lift its current moratorium on new construction by selling $1.5 billion of voter-approved bonds. Concerns have been raised on repayment of this large sum of money. In response, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, House Speaker Tom Craddick, House Appropriations Chairman Warren Chisum, and myself as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee recently wrote a letter to TxDOT Chairwoman Hope Andrade. We informed her that $300 million has been appropriated to TxDOT for debt service and committed to increase funding for TxDOT in the next biennial budget.


Last November, Texans overwhelmingly approved another $5 billion in general obligation bonds for highway improvements. During the next session, which begins in January, the Legislature will pass a bill authorizing TxDOT to sell these bonds and use the proceeds for new road construction.

Later this month, the Senate Finance Committee will examine additional financing methods. Specifically, I want to explore the possibility of investing a portion of our state's trust funds (i.e., Employees Retirement System, Teachers Retirement System, Permanent School Fund, Permanent University Fund) in TxDOT toll projects. The argument for this is straightforward. If it is such a great idea for foreign companies to invest in and profit from our roads, why isn't it a good idea for our retired teachers and state employees to invest their trust funds in and profit from these roads?

These same trust funds currently make large investments in real estate and infrastructure outside of Texas. I think some of this money should be invested in Texas and that this would be a "win-win-win" situation. Roads will be built, the trust funds will get a guaranteed return on their investment, and the toll revenue would benefit public education in Texas.

The problem of financing the construction of Texas roadways can be solved. The solutions that I propose do not require new taxes, sales to private concerns, or destruction of the countryside with Trans-Texas Corridors a thousand feet wide. Let's stop arguing and get to work on solutions that Texans will support.

Ogden is the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

Lawmakers get glimpse of big city traffic

Link to article here

Influential lawmakers see area traffic for themselves
By GORDON DICKSON
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
March 26, 2008

FORT WORTH -- A pair of powerful rural lawmakers got a dose of big-city traffic problems Tuesday.

North Texas officials visited with state Reps. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, and Carl Isett, R-Lubbock, for about two hours.

Chisum is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, which controls the purse strings for state agencies. Isett is chairman of the Sunset Advisory Commission, which is studying ways to revamp the Texas Department of Transportation.


The meeting and brief tour of Alliance Airport and surrounding roads was hosted by state Rep. Vicki Truitt, R-Keller, who wants to ensure that plans to improve traffic flow in the western Metroplex aren't hurt by any statewide changes in highway funding.

"Perspective is really important," Truitt said, "and the transportation issues we have in North Texas are vastly different than what exists in West Texas or the Panhandle."

Transportation Department officials have come under fire recently for overestimating available highway funding by $1 billion, proceeding to plan the controversial Trans-Texas Corridor and attempting to lease toll road projects to private, foreign-owned companies.

But in the Fort Worth area, tolls and other alternative funding sources have been embraced on projects such as:

Proposed new toll and nontoll lanes on Interstate 35W in Fort Worth, and Loop 820, Airport Freeway and Texas 114/121 in Northeast Tarrant County.

The planned Southwest Parkway toll road from downtown to southwest Fort Worth and eventually Cleburne.

A proposal to relieve train traffic at the congested Tower 55 railroad intersection near downtown Fort Worth.

Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief and Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley were among 30 or so people who greeted the lawmakers.

Chisum applauded them for working together and said: "The Legislature itself is incapable of solving the problem without your support. We need you to come to us with the solutions, and we'll assist you in changing the law."

TxDOT mismanagement mind boggling

KSAT.com
TxDOT's Money Management Mind Boggling
February 29, 2008

SAN ANTONIO -- TxDOT has big problems managing public money, and their latest accounting errors really leave us wondering who's minding the store over there.First, TxDOT found an $80 billion shortfall because they projected 2006 needs based on 2004 costs.Now, they've counted bond money twice, amounting to another $1.1 billion accounting error.TxDOT is crying poor, but they can't even keep track of the money they have.To add insult to injury, they still ask for even more money with toll roads.They say they've put internal changes in place to solve the problem, but what they really need is more external oversight and serious accountability.TxDOT is still going to get nearly $17 billion in funding for the next two years.Let's make sure they don't mismanage it.I'm Jim Joslyn, that's what we think. Let's hear from you.

Petition the government and go to jail? OK arrests petitioners

Link to article here.

Tax-Control Advocates May Go to Jail in Oklahoma
By Pete Winn, CNS News.com Senior Writer
March 20, 2008

(CNSNews.com) - A veteran activist for taxpayer ballot initiatives and two associates could face up to 10 years in prison in Oklahoma for exercising what libertarians say is a basic constitutional right: circulating petitions to get an initiative on the state ballot.

Activist Paul Jacob appeared in court in Oklahoma City on March 14 alongside two co-defendants - Susan Johnson and Rick Carpenter - in connection with felony charges that they violated an Oklahoma law that requires everyone who circulates petitions to be a resident of the state.

"I happen to think that the prosecution is 100 percent politically motivated," Jacob told Cybercast News Service. "It's an attempt to frighten, intimidate, and silence not only myself and the other two individuals, but really every person in Oklahoma who might dare to do a petition drive to reform the government."


The trio, dubbed "The Oklahoma 3," were first indicted last October, then re-indicted in January on the charges, which were brought by Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson. A trial date, expected to be July 23, has not yet been formally set. Edmondson alleges that the three "defrauded" the state by hiring non-Oklahoma signature-gatherers for a 2006 ballot initiative to create a taxpayer bill of rights (TABOR) in Oklahoma. If convicted, they could each face a maximum of 10 years in jail and a $25,000 fine.

TABOR initiatives essentially control the growth of state revenue (taxes) by tying it to the inflation rate and the population growth, and they mandate that state budget surpluses be refunded to the taxpayers. Jacob, who led the term limits movement of the 1990s as head of US Term Limits, is president of the Virginia-based ballot-initiative group Citizens in Charge. Johnson is president of a Michigan-based petition firm, National Voter Outreach. Carpenter, who headed the initiative group Oklahomans in Action, is a Tulsa resident. All three have pleaded not guilty.

Jacob said his role was only as an advisor to the campaign. The charges, he said, stem from the fact that a number of people associated with the campaign moved to Oklahoma during the course of the petition drive - something that has happened in petition drives in Oklahoma in the past without incident.

"The petition company and folks that were working on the ground in Oklahoma had talked with state officials and asked specifically what constitutes a resident and could people move to Oklahoma and collect signatures," Jacob said. "They were told that, indeed, they could. Under Oklahoma law people can immediately register to vote and immediately begin collecting signatures when they move to the state and declare themselves a resident. That's what happened," he added. "The charge itself is bogus,"

Jacob said. David Dunn, legislative director for the Oklahoma Family Policy Council, called the prosecution "a witch hunt." "Oklahoma has a long history of citizen initiatives to put things on the ballot before the people," Dunn told Cybercast News Service. "For whatever reason, our state is trying to prosecute these people simply because some officeholders don't like the issue that Mr. Jacob was trying to put on the ballot."

Brandon Dutcher, vice president of the conservative Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, agreed, saying the prosecution appears to have been personally instigated by Edmondson, a Democrat who Dutcher said may have been motivated by his opposition to the now-defunct TABOR initiative. "Drew Edmondson is very liberal," Dutcher said.

"One can only speculate that he is trying to send a message to conservatives: 'How dare you try to limit the size of government!'" Edmondson, whose office did not respond to an interview request from Cybercast News Service before press time, defended his actions in a Nov. 24, 2007, letter to The Wall Street Journal. "(T)hrough their allegedly illegal actions, Carpenter, Jacob, and Johnson silenced the voices of the Oklahoma voters who signed the initiative petition," Edmondson wrote. "This scheme to circumvent Oklahoma's residency requirement caused the entire petition to be scrapped," he said.

"The accused are not the victims. The victims are those Oklahomans who signed a petition that has been thrown out because of fraud. If you don't like this particular statute, go to the legislature and change it."

Oklahoma State Sen. Randy Brogdon (R-Owasso), however, strongly attacked Edmondson for the prosecution and warned that what was happening was a travesty of justice.

"Everyone should be deeply concerned about this," Brogdon said. "If this shameful political assault succeeds, everyone is at risk. It is an outrage."

Pat McGuigan, an Oklahoma City journalist who used to work for the conservative Free Congress Foundation and the Heritage Foundation, said that the statute itself is questionable - what he called "a jump-ball."

It's perfectly reasonable, McGuigan said, to require that everyone who signs a petition in the Sooner State be an Oklahoma resident and that only Oklahomans can vote on initiatives. But to require that everyone who circulates a petition is an Oklahoman and then to threaten someone with a prison term is a "massive overreaction," he said. "It was unwarranted for (Jacob) to be led away in handcuffs and face a possible prison term over what is essentially a procedural matter," McGuigan told Cybercast News Service.

A lawsuit challenging the Oklahoma statute itself is set to go to the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver in April.

Congressman wants 50 cent gas tax hike


Link to article here.

Michigan Congressman Wants 50-Cent Tax Hike on Every Gallon of Gas
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Fox News
A Michigan congressman wants to put a 50-cent tax on every gallon of gasoline to try to cut back on Americans' consumption.

Polls show that a majority of Americans support policies that would reduce greenhouse gases. But when it comes to paying for it, it's a different story.

Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., wants to help cut consumption with a gas tax but some don't agree with the idea, according to a new poll by the National Center for Public Policy Research.

The poll, scheduled to be released on Thursday, shows 48 percent don't support paying even a penny more, 28 percent would pay up to 50 cents more, 10 percent would pay more than 50 cents and 8 percent would pay more than a dollar.

"I don't want to pay more, I don't think anyone wants to," said Karen Deacon, a motorist.


"I think that wouldn't make any sense," said Frankie Hoe, a motorist. "Ugh ... who's making the money from all this and where is that money going? Is it going to go green? I don't see any green things anywhere."

The automobile is the nation's biggest polluter; Americans use more gas than the next 20 countries combined.

Some environmentalists and economists say pain at the pump may be bad for Americans, but good medicine for a sick planet.

But others say it wouldn't change much. Even if Americans abandoned their cars, global emissions would fall by less than one percent.

"A tax on gas is a way to reduce dependence on import oil, reduce traffic congrestion and reduce carbon emissions," said Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute.

The Earth Policy Institute proposes raising the gas tax 30 cents per gallon each year over a decade and offset with a reduction of income taxes, Brown said.

David Ridenour, vice president of the National Center for Public Policy Research, said the proposal wouldn't help long term.

"I think when you are talking about raising gas prices, there may be short-term reduction, put off vacations, but bottom line is over long term, that isn't going to have much of an effect," Ridenour said.

While Dingell's idea will likely lie dormant until after the 2008 election, the idea of carbon taxes is not. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain all support some type of system that either directly or indirectly will raise prices to penalize polluters.

FOX News' William La Jeunesse contributed to this report.

TxDOT Announces Extended Comment Period for I-69/TTC

AUSTIN – The Texas Department of Transportation today announced that its request for a 30-
day extension of the public comment period for the Interstate-69/Trans-Texas Corridor Tier One
Draft Environmental Impact Statement has been granted. The request was approved by the
Federal Highway Administration which oversees the environmental review process for
transportation projects.

"Public comment plays a significant role in shaping the outcome projects like I-69/TTC," said
TxDOT Executive Director Amadeo Saenz. "The Trans-Texas Corridor is the most scrutinized
infrastructure project in history." Saenz noted that TxDOT has held over 500 meetings on the
TTC including 254 county meetings, 95 environmental meetings and hearings on I-69/TTC, 171
environmental meetings and hearings on TTC-35, and 12 town hall meetings.

"TxDOT's request results in a 30-day extension beyond the original closing date of March 19th.
The public comment period opened in December, and an extension through April 18th allows
more citizens the opportunity to express their views regarding I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor," said
Saenz. "We have already received over 14,000 comments regarding I-69/TTC, and although an
extension may affect the project’s schedule, we are committed to public awareness and public
involvement."

Although no additional public hearings are scheduled for I-69/TTC, interested Texans can
submit comments online at keeptexasmoving.com or mail them to I-69/TTC, P.O. Box 14428,
Austin, TX 78761.

NAFTA transportation network alive and well

Link to article here.

PREMEDITATED MERGER
Mexican official says NAFTA includes superhighways
'Transportation linking the United States, Mexico and Canada is key to the future'
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
March 18, 2008

While President Bush and other U.S. officials have derided fears of a NAFTA superhighway as merely conspiracy theory, a Mexican transportation expert contends the trade agreement includes plans for a network of international ship, rail and truck connections to deliver consumer goods from China and the Far East to Mexico, the U.S. and Canada.

"Transportation linking the United States, Mexico and Canada is key to the future of NAFTA," Eduardo Aspero, president of the Mexican Intermodal Association, told a recent luncheon sponsored by the Free Trade Alliance San Antonio.

In transportation economics, the term "intermodal" refers to the ability to move a container by crane to different modes of transportation, including ship, truck and railroad, without having to unpack or repack the container.

"It was interesting how the NAFTA transportation network so vehemently denied by the U.S. government was alive and well in Aspero's speech and openly discussed in San Antonio," said Terri Hall, founder of the San Antonio Toll Party.


WND reported President Bush, while attending the third annual summit of the Security and Prosperity Partnership meeting in Quebec last August said in an internationally televised press conference that those who believe the SPP might lead to NAFTA superhighways or a North American Union are "conspiracy theorists."

Hall, who attended Aspero's San Antonio speech, is a political activist whose website, TexasTurf.org, is dedicated to fighting the Trans-Texas Corridor and the expansion of toll roads in the state.

Aspero focused on plans by the Chinese firm of Hutchison Ports Holdings to develop the deep-water Mexican ports of Lazaro Cardenas and Manzanillo, on the Pacific Ocean south of Texas, to bring containers from China into North America.

As WND has reported, Hutchison Ports Holdings is paying billions of dollars to deepen Mexican ports such as Lazaro Cardenas and Manzanillo in anticipation of the arrival of post-Pamamex mega-ships capable of holding up to 12,500 containers currently being built for Chinese shipping lines.

WND also has reported how the U.S. southern border is being blurred for the benefit of global trade, with the official website of the Mexican northeastern state of Nuevo Leon disclosing plans to extend the Trans-Texas Corridor south through Monterrey to connect with Pacific ports in Mexico.

Aspero noted that currently 400,000 containers a year are being transported by truck and rail from Mexican ports on the Pacific into the U.S.

"The purpose of ports such as Lazaro Cardenas is to facilitate the cost-efficient transportation of container goods from Asia into the United States," he explained.

"Lazaro Cardenas is the new hope for intermodalism in Mexico," Aspero said, noting that Lazaro Cardenas is Mexico's deepest port at 49 feet, capable of accepting virtually any cargo ship in the world.

"Aspero noted that the largest markets for the Chinese-manufactured goods are at the center of the United States and in the Northeast," Hall said.

"He was trying to explain why multi-national corporations engaged in global trade continue to pressure the Bush administration," she continued. "Their goal is to cut loose American longshoremen on the West Coast in favor of the cheaper Mexican labor that can get goods into the interior of the United States through the southern route from these Mexican ports on the Pacific."

Aspero also argued the Automated Manifest System (AMS) put in place by U.S. Customs in 2002 is a key development in North American intermodal transportation.

"AMS allows cargo from Asia to go through Mexican ports virtually without any physical inspection," he explained. "AMS pre-clears cargo at the point of origin, not at the border when the container enters the United States."

Lufkin workshop showed local government how to STOP the TTC


Link to article here.

Road bloc: Anti-corridor groups apprise locals of ways to 'jut say no to TTC'
By STEVEN ALFORD
The Lufkin Daily News
Monday, March 17, 2008

Plots by Communists to infiltrate America. The disintegration of borders and rural areas. Citizens mobilizing and rising up against government agencies and big business.

It all sounds like the plot for a summer blockbuster, but those were some of the topics addressed in a "How to Fight the TTC Workshop" held Monday at the Pitser Garrison Civic Center in Lufkin. The conference focused on informing citizens and local government officials how they can unite in trying to stop the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor 69 project.

 
Andy Adams/The Lufkin Daily News
(ENLARGE)
Reuben Grassl of Shiro, Texas, asks a question during a 'How to Fight the Trans-Texas Corridor' workshop held Monday at Pitser Garrison Civic Center in Lufkin.
The TTC, a new grid of superhighway being proposed by the Texas Department of Transportation, would crisscross the state and connect Texas with the rest of the nation in a thoroughfare that would take large trucks and heavy traffic off of local roads and place them into one, fast-moving highway. But with a budget at an estimated $145 billion to $183 billion, many organizations are questioning if the money could be spent elsewhere. The potential confiscation of 584,000 acres of privately owned Texas land doesn't have environmentalists too pleased, either.

"There is a rogue agency out there that isn't listening to you and what you have to say," said Dan Byfield, president of the American Land Foundation, one of the hosts of Monday's workshop. "If you form your own committees, you can force TxDOT to work with you and let them know how you feel." Byfield gave a step-by-step process on how activists could form a sub-regional planning commission and circumvent local government committees altogether in a continued grass-roots effort to stop the TTC.

The conference was hosted by the American Land Foundation, the Stewards of the Range, and Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, with the heads of all the organizations giving seminars on topics ranging from community coordination and organization, to detailed legalities that groups can utilize to fight TxDOT and possibly stop the construction of the Trans-Texas Corridor.

"This plan has not considered the environmental impacts on our communities," said Hank Gilbert, director for TURF, and the program's moderator. "The more community involvement, the louder the community voice, and the more the state government will be forced to take notice."

One of the bigger underlying issues at hand was that the TTC would be the first step toward a unification of Canada, America and Mexico in an effort to create a "North American Union" similar to the European Union, which could even maintain its own currency, the Amero. In its final realization, the highway would begin in Chinese-controlled ports in Mexico and run all the way up through Canada, basically dissolving any ideas of borders or searchable cargo.

Standing Ground, a newsletter printed by the ALF that was distributed at the conference, touched deeper on the subject: "This treatise is the blueprint for the North American Union... which would signal the destruction of America as we know it by merging the United States, Canada and Mexico into a single economic and political entity... Once only considered a conspiracy theory, the NAU is dangerously close to reality, with timetables set for partial completion in this decade."

Attempts to reach a TxDOT official for comment Monday afternoon were unsuccessful, but TxDOT's Web site, www.keeptexasmoving.com, states that because of the corridor, "drivers will face less congestion, businesses will have more reliable transportation networks, users will have more choices, including rail and transit, and more job opportunities will arise due to new and improved trade and transport corridors." All of that sounds good on paper, opponents said Monday, but it remains fishy in the eyes of the various organizations gathered at Monday's meeting.

With the deadline for proposals from developers to orchestrate the project being pushed back to March 26, there is still time for advocacy groups to let TxDOT know how they feel. Opinions may vary about the TTC, but one Texan landowner who asked not to be named said, "If TxDOT tries to come and take my land, they'll find me waiting on the porch with a loaded gun."

On the Web: www.amland.us, www.stewards.us and www.texasturf.org.

Spanish firm using loan from U.S. to build segments of Texas toll road

Link to article here.

Spanish firm using loan from U.S. to build segments of Texas toll road
By David Tanner
Landline Magazine
March 13, 2008
Officials with the Spanish toll road operator Cintra have announced that the company has secured $430 million in loans from the U.S. government to build and operate two segments of a toll road in central Texas.

Cintra officials announced the company’s financial plan for the $1.36 billion Highway 130 segments on Monday, March 10.

OOIDA Senior Government Affairs Representative Mike Joyce told Land Line that the Association does raise red flags when federal dollars are used to subsidize private investors. Officials with the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association are not, however, categorically opposed to a state using future toll revenue to pay off bonds.

“I’m skeptical of any funding schemes that involve the private sector,” Joyce said.

Truck tolls on Segment 5 and Segment 6 of Highway 130 are contracted to be 50 cents per mile when the road opens. The 50-year contract includes a formula for increases. Tolls for cars will start at 12.5 cents per mile.

Cintra and its partner in the project, Texas-based Zachry American Infrastructure, signed a contract a year ago to design and build a 40-mile portion of Texas Highway 130, a tolled bypass of Austin running parallel to Interstate 35 in the Austin-San Antonio corridor.

The first four segments of the Highway 130 project, totaling about 50 miles, are part of the Central Texas Turnpike System constructed from 2002 through early 2008 with bonds issued through the Texas Transportation Commission. Tolls on those sections are being used to pay the bonds on the first four segments.

The Cintry-Zachry consortium, formed in 2005, expects to begin construction next year on Segment 5 and Segment 6 of Highway 130 on rights of way leased from the Texas Department of Transportation. The 40-mile section is scheduled to open in 2012.

A similar Cintra-Zachry partnership is designing the first leg of the Trans-Texas Corridor, a proposed 4,000-mile network of toll roads and railway lines to increase the flow of freight and people from South Texas to the U.S. heartland.

Cintra also has a 55-percent share of the lease for the Indiana Toll Road and a 50-percent share of the Chicago Skyway lease. The company partnered with companies affiliated with Macquarie Bank of Australia for those deals.

For the Highway 130 segments being built by Cintra-Zachry, TxDOT has agreed to provide and pay for “back office” functions including toll collectors, other staff, call center, equipment, transponders and maintenance for the roadway.

Cintra’s financing will come from a 35-year, $430 million loan from the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 1998 – a U.S. Department of Transportation program for jump-starting construction – along with a $686 million private bank loan and $197 million in shareholder equity. Cintra will also draw on other equity accounts, officials stated in a press release.

The TIFI Act program is designed to match a certain percentage of the cost for a road built using private sector money. U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters stated in a press release that the TIFI Act loan will give Highway 130 “the push it needs.”

OOIDA’s Joyce points to the comparison between Cintra’s 35-year loan from the federal TIFI Act program and the 50-year concession agreement for Segments 5 and 6.

“We know that they’re looking to turn a profit,” he said.

Click here to read some quick facts and figures posted by Cintra about Highway 130.

Click here to read contractual documents on the project posted by the Texas Department of Transportation.

How to Stop the TTC Workshop


Local control is alive and well in Texas.

At least that is the case in the jurisdiction of the Eastern Central Texas Sub-Regional Planning Commission (ECTSRPC), where the four towns and school districts have used Chapter 391 of the Local Government Code to put a major roadblock in the Trans Texas Corridor I-35 segment.

On Monday, March 17, 2008, from 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., in Lufkin, Texas, the strategy used by the ECTSRPC will be taught to others within the path of the TTC.

The workshop is sponsored by the American Land Foundation, Stewards of the Range and TURF, all of which have been actively fighting the corridor since it first took hold in Texas.

But it wasn’t until attorney and president of Stewards of the Range, Fred Grant, found a key provision in Chapter 391 of the Local Government Code, which requires state agencies to coordinate projects such as the TTC with local governments, that they had a way to stop the TTC.

“Forming a commission is a very simple procedure that took the ECTSRPC less than a month to complete,” commented Dan Byfield.  Byfield is president of the American Land Foundation and will be showing the step-by-step process needed to form a 391 Commission at the March 17th workshop.  He, along with his wife, Margaret Byfield, executive director of Stewards, have been helping direct the Commission’s formation and coordination efforts.

Once a Commission is formed, it is a political subdivision of the state and TXDOT has to coordinate the TTC with them.  This gives local governments and citizens a meaningful opportunity to ensure TXDOT addresses the local impact and come up with either alternatives or solutions.

But while the ECTSRPC is in a good position to protect its citizens, until other communities take this same step, they will continue to be ignored by TXDOT and will have no way to prevent the TTC from coming through their area.

“We can’t count on the legislature to do the right thing.  They have already had three chances to stop the largest land grab in the state of Texas, and have failed,” commented Byfield.  “But we’ve seen what local governments can do through the 391 Commission, and how effective they can insist the local priorities and way of life are respected and protected.”
 
Time is of the essence on the I-69 Corridor.  TXDOT only allowed less than four months of public comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) and appears to have it on the fast track for final approval.
 
It may even be finalized before the I-35 Corridor, which has been delayed ever sense the ECTSRPC began insisting on coordination meetings with TXDOT and the Region 6 EPA office. TXDOT now says it will be June before they can send the DEIS 35 for final review to the Federal Highway Administration, when in October they informed the Commission their target date for final environmental clearance was January.

“The Commissions that are established now have a chance to insert themselves into the process and require the same accountability to their local issues as the ECTSRPC,” commented Margaret Byfield.  At the workshop she will discuss the opportunities that local governments have to challenge the DEIS through the coordination process, which has been a key strategy used by the ECTSRPC.
 
“If we can get Commissions established up and down the I-69 Corridor we have a real shot at stopping this monster,” commented Hank Gilbert, Director of TURF, who will also be speaking at the workshop.

You can register today by calling 1-800-452-6389, or click here to reserve your seat on-line.  Registration is $20 through Friday March 14th, and $30 at the door.  A workbook and barbeque lunch will be provided.

Click here to read more about 391 Commissions, including the latest paper by Fred Grant titled “The Creation of the Eastern Central Texas Sub Regional Planning Commission.”

EPA tightens air quality standards...not the time to build toll roads

Link to article here. Considering most toll roads in Texas are taking twice the footprint as keeping them freeways, now is not the time to build excessively large, more expensive toll roads that fewer and fewer people can afford.

EPA Corrective Action: Limit transportation projects to those that don't create more pollution.

Solution: No 20 lane MEGA toll road on 281 (or elsewhere) that will only increase car and truck emissions.

Knowing TXDOT, it will promote the TTC and toll roads as the Holy Grail to relieve congestion and pollution...not so! Take a look at TxDOT's vision of congestion relief. Toll roads DO NOT solve congestion.

Air rules cloud future for S.A.
03/13/2008
By Anton Caputo
Express-News

Federal regulators strengthened the nation's air quality regulations Wednesday, likely putting hundreds of new communities including San Antonio on the nation's bad air list, but falling short of what environmental groups and the federal government's own scientific advisers wanted.The long-awaited decision by the Environmental Protection Agency tightened ground-level ozone pollution standards from 84 parts per billion to 75 parts per billion. The change means communities like San Antonio, which has had average ozone readings of 82 parts per billion over the past three years, will have to come up with plans to control pollution or face federal measures.

Local and state officials had been lobbying hard against the change, arguing the medical science behind the stronger standard was not justified. They also contend communities like San Antonio will have a hard time determining their own destiny because pollution often is blown in from other parts of the state and country.

"First of all, I think we're the only major American city that is meeting the 84 standard," Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said. "I don't know how they expect us to meet 75. I'm just real concerned that it's a big overreaction that is really not going to do anything for anybody other than cause an economic hardship."

The federal government won't compile its new list of failing counties until 2010. At that time, local leaders will have three years to formulate a plan to lower pollution.

Communities that fail are required to take pollution-control steps such as vehicle-emission testing and installing vapor recovery systems at gas stations.


Many also have been required to institute a pollution program that makes it difficult for industry to expand. Road projects can be affected because local transportation planners have to prove the projects won't create more pollution before spending federal highway funds.

Peter Bella of the Alamo Area Council of Governments said he would continue to work with area cement companies and other industry to voluntarily reduce pollution. But he said it was unlikely that voluntary measures would net the kind of improvements needed.

"It's going to be real challenging," he said. "There are no two ways about it."

Joe Stanko, a Washington-based attorney who represents the power industry, said Wednesday's decision probably will set off a flurry of lawsuits.

"Various industries are likely to sue because they believe the standards are too stringent," he said. "The environmental community may sue because it was looking for the standards to be even lower."

Ground-level ozone, the main component of smog, is formed when pollutants from vehicles, industrial plants and other sources bake in the hot sun.

It's a lung irritant that has been linked to asthma attacks, reduced lung function and other ailments.

The EPA's own scientific advisory board had recommended setting the standard at 70 parts per billion or lower, a recommendation shared by a federal advisory panel on children's health. But EPA administrator Stephen Johnson, who said he also was bombarded by politicians and industry representatives asking for no change at all, decided on the 75 parts per billion.

"It doesn't make anybody happy," former EPA administrator Jeff Holmstead said. "He was trying to thread the needle between what the environmental groups wanted and what the business community was hoping for."

Regulators estimate as many as 345 counties nationally will fail to meet the new standard when the federal agency compiles its official list in 2010. The San Antonio region includes Bexar, Comal and Guadalupe counties.

Federal regulators believe that by 2020, the number of failing counties will fall to 28.

They expect the health benefit of the new standard to be substantial. Based on a number of studies, the EPA reports, the new standards will help avoid as many as 2,300 premature deaths, 380 cases of chronic bronchitis, 6,100 cases of aggravated asthma and 750,000 days missed from school or work a year by 2020.

The new rules will cost an estimated $7.6 billion to $8.5 billion a year to implement by 2020, but will save $2 billion to $19 billion a year in health costs and other benefits.

Johnson said he didn't take into account the cost analysis or the ability to implement the plan when making a decision because the Clean Air Act precludes him from doing so. But the nation's top environmental regulator also said Wednesday that he wanted to change the landmark environmental law so things like cost and feasibility can be used in determining future regulations.

Any such move is likely to be met with strong opposition in Congress. Health experts and environmentalists view the setting of health standards without consideration of cost as essential for assuring public health.

Such changes "would gut the Clean Air Act, which has saved countless lives and protected the health of millions of Americans for more than 35 years," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Dewhurst/Craddick want TxDOT to use the bonds available & get the show on the road

Link to article here.

After pushing for $5 billion more in bonds with Prop 12 last November, TxDOT now pretends to have an aversion to bond debt? Convenient! By the time the Governor and his Transportation Commission are finished playing politics with our roads, they won't be able to sell bonds because lending conditions are souring every day, and congestion will be eliminated by the high price of gas.

Borrow more for roads, legislators urge transportation department
Perry rejects Dewhurst/Craddick suggestion as a 'two-year stopgap.'
By Ben Wear
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Go borrow some money and build some things, legislative leaders told the Texas Department of Transportation in a letter Tuesday.

The short letter — signed by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, House Speaker Tom Craddick, Senate Finance Chairman Steve Ogden and House Appropriations Chairman Warren Chisum — recommends that TxDOT borrow another $1.5 billion against future gas tax revenue to bridge a temporary financial tight spot. The Legislature, the letter promises, will make sure that some of the gas tax money now diverted to other, nonhighway-construction needs will be returned to the agency to back the bonds.

TxDOT issued a statement that in effect punted the ball to Gov. Rick Perry's office. Spokesman Robert Black said Perry has no interest, at least for now, in more debt of this kind.


"What this letter is asking TxDOT to do is a two-year stopgap, two years of going further into debt," Black said. "A long-term solution comes first. Last year the Legislature came in and all they did was say 'no.' With the rate this state is growing and the needs and challenges we have in transportation, we can't afford to say 'no' anymore."

The Legislature has authorized TxDOT to borrow up to $6 billion against the gas tax; the agency so far has issued just $2.9 billion. Agency officials and Perry, citing slowing gas tax revenue, have resisted issuing more bonds backed by gas taxes.

The state budget for the 2008-09 biennium, according to TxDOT's count, uses almost $1.6 billion from gas taxes and vehicle fees for agencies other than TxDOT. About three-fourths of that, $1.25 billion, pays for operations of the Department of Public Safety and the state troopers who patrol the state highway system.

The agency has said it ceased pursuing many new construction projects as of Feb. 1 because it wouldn't have the money in later years to pay for them. So, if the agency in the current fiscal year spent the $1.5 billion suggested by Tuesday's letter to begin a series of projects, it could have trouble paying the rest later on.

But the legislative letter to Hope Andrade, Texas Transportation Commission chairwoman, says TxDOT should expect more help from the Legislature.

"This action will allow transportation construction to return to reasonable levels in the short-term, but this is just the beginning of the conversation," the letter says.

In Central Texas, where this year's engineering budget was cut from $45.2 million to $19.6 million, road projects were put on hold or became candidates for local funding. Those projects included adding lanes to MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) and the widening of FM 1460 between Round Rock and Georgetown, RM 2338 in Williamson County, and Texas 195, which runs from Interstate 35 in Williamson County to Killeen.

It also forced Central Texas' local toll authority to carry more of the cost of the design and construction of a second wave of toll roads approved in October

TxDOT had announced the construction slowdown in November, citing inflation in construction costs and cutbacks in federal grants. In early February, at a hearing called by two Senate committees, TxDOT revealed that it had double-counted $1.1 billion in scheduling construction projects. That mistake, officials said at the time, had a lot to do with the crunch.

The state auditor is now looking at TxDOT's finances.

U.S. DOT violating the law by continuing Mexican trucking program

Link to article here.

It shouldn't surprise any of us that those eroding our sovereignty and those who care more about NAFTA than they do their own country's citizens think they're above the law. Here, here, Senator Dorgan. There had better be a consequence for such a flagrant violation of the law by President Bush and Secretary of Transportation Peters!

Senator questions allowing Mexican trucks in U.S.
Associated Press / USA Today
March 11, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) — A senator wants Congress' investigative arm to determine whether the Transportation Department has broken the law by spending federal money on a program allowing Mexican trucks on U.S. roads.
Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., called for the investigation by the Government Accountability Office a few hours after Transportation Secretary Mary Peters warned of economic losses if Mexican trucks are prohibited from driving deep into the U.S.

Peters has been fighting in court to prevent the program's end. But Dorgan and others say Congress prohibited spending money on the program last year.


"When Congress passes a law that says no funds can be used for this program, we mean no funds can be used for this program," Dorgan said in a news release. "The Department of Transportation cannot simply pick and choose which laws they want to follow and which laws they want to break."

Dorgan said the agency is violating the Anti-deficiency Act, which prohibits spending federal money that has not been authorized or appropriated.

The North American Free Trade Agreement gave Mexican trucks greater access to U.S. roads beginning in 1995. But the U.S. only opened the roads to a few trucks when the pilot program began last September.

Long-standing opposition from labor and safety groups had kept the trucks off most U.S. roads. Without the program, Mexican trucks are confined to about 25 miles beyond the border, where goods they bring are picked up by U.S. truck drivers.

Peters said Monday the agency is not violating the law. The law prohibits using funds to establish the program, she said, but the money is being used on the existing program. The agency has made similar arguments in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is considering an appeal by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to stop the program.

The action was a prelude to a potentially bitter Senate committee hearing on the program planned for Tuesday, with Peters scheduled to testify.

Earlier Monday, Peters said U.S. business would suffer if the trucking program is stopped.

"Should Congress ... end the cross-border trucking, Mexico has every right to impose fees and tariffs on the very goods we see before us this morning and many more," Peters told a news conference. Before her were tables loaded with apples, ham, soybeans, rice, eggs, canned chili and meat, beef, milk, whiskey and other products.

Todd Spencer, vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, called Peters' claims "economic fear-mongering."

"The program is supposed to work both ways across the border, and yet there are very few signing up on either side," Spencer said in a statement. "Big businesses want the cheap labor, but for a number of reasons trucking companies on both sides of the border don't want to get involved."

The latest numbers from the Transportation Department show 18 Mexican carriers with 62 trucks and six U.S. carriers with 46 trucks are participating in the program. Up to 500 trucks from 100 Mexican carriers can participate.

Mexican trucks have made 322 crossings into the U.S., while U.S. trucking companies have made 683 crossings into Mexico.

James Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, said he does not buy Peters' argument that Mexico will sanction U.S. goods with higher tariffs in retaliation. Mexico has a $70 billion trade surplus because of NAFTA and "they'd be foolish to do it," Hoffa said.

Ricardo Alday, spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington, said Mexico is keeping its options open.

Feds give Cintra-Zachry taxpayer-backed, low interest loan for private gain

Link to release here.
.
Read about the public-private partnership the State of Texas inked with Cintra, a Spanish company, and Zachry, a San Antonio Construction Company, here. The low interest loan mentioned below is backed by the U.S. taxpayers and represents about a third of the cash brought to the table for the SH 130/TTC-35 project. It also exploits the taxpayers in order to benefit a private, for-profit company!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, March 10, 2008
Contact: Nancy Singer
(202) 366-0660
FHWA 06-08

U.S. Department of Transportation Approves $430 Million Loan to Complete New Alternative to Congested I-35

WASHINGTON, DC - A $430 million loan from the U.S. Department of Transportation will give Texas the financial push it needs to help complete a new north-south highway as an alternative to the congested I-35 from Austin to San Antonio, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters announced today.

"We're helping give this project the push it needs so commuters can experience less congestion, shippers less delays and the region less headaches," Secretary Peters said.


The new southern portion of the four-lane highway is scheduled to link to the already opened northern one in 2012. When complete, the 91-mile SH 130 corridor will be entirely tolled and provide a new route to take traffic off the most congested section of I-35 in the central United States.

Cintra and Zachry American Infrastructure will finance the $1.36 billion project through the USDOT loan, bank loans and investor capital. Electronic tolling will make it possible for drivers to pay the toll without having to use cash at a tollbooth.

The loan was made possible through the Department's innovative Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan program which encourages private sector participation in the financing of highway projects with flexible repayment terms.

Secretary Peters added that the Texas project was another example of the private sector's readiness to invest in U.S. transportation infrastructure and of an evolving federal approach to financing major capacity improvements.
# # #

First highway under foreign control, TxDOT inks deal for 1st leg of Trans Texas Corridor


Link to article here.

It's referred to as SH 130 in this story, but it's also the first leg of Trans Texas Corridor TTC-35. Anyone who still thinks privatized toll roads speed up construction and save us money needs to look no further than the third paragraph of this story which states: "Hundreds of documents and over 20 lawyers were involved last week representing TxDOT, private equity people, banks, mostly European, the TIFIA loan group from FHWA (Federal Highway Administration), and Cintra and Zachry."

Twenty lawyers? The waste of taxpayer money and the time it takes to negotiate these contracts is OUTRAGEOUS! TxDOT first announced Cintra-Zachry was being awarded the SH 130 contract in March of 2007. Here it is a year later and they're just now inking the deal?

Cintra/Zachry complete legal work on $1.36 billion financial close with TxDOT on SH 130
Toll Road News
March 10, 2008

SH 130 Concession Company LLC finalized the legal details of a financial close with Texas DOT on a $1,360m toll concession to build SH130 segments 5&6 Thursday and Friday last week in bankers' offices in New York City - at Orrick, 666 Fifth Avenue. The actual money flows should occur on Thursday or Friday (Mar 13 or 14) this week, Jose Maria Lopez de Fuentes, president of Cintra North America, told us this morning.

Hundreds of documents and over 20 lawyers were involved last week representing TxDOT, private equity people, banks, mostly European, the TIFIA loan group from FHWA, and Cintra and Zachry. SH 130 Concession Company LLC is the special purpose company is owned 65% Cintra, 35% Zachry.

Lopez told us: "The details were all done and the champagne was brought out (by Friday afternoon). It was hard work. But it was good. Everyone was there wanting to be helpful. There are now two or three business days for due diligence (before the money moves)."

Despite "constriction" in financial markets

In a statement Lopez is quoted: "This is an exciting milestone in the development of a much-needed roadway in Central Texas. This financial achievement on the part of our team is especially noteworthy given the current constriction in the financial markets. We now look forward to developing a state-of-the-art expressway system that will provide drivers congestion relief and greater safety."

 The concession contract was signed in June 2006. However it could not be brought to financial close until permitting was complete.

The concession company has paid TxDOT the $25.8m upfront concession fee for the right to collect tolls on the new road for 50 years. It has a contract with associated companies Ferrovial Agroman and Zachry Construction for construction of the 40 mile (64km) 2x2 lane expressway which will extend the TxDOT constructed SH130 segments 1 thru 4 from the the interchange with TX45 South, on southeast edge of Austin to I-10 at Seguin. Seguin is not far outside San Antonio in a northeasterly direction.

Final design and land acquisition is under way and construction work should start early 2009, Cintra says. Completion should be by 2012 or earlier.

The road will be an all electronic tollroad - no cash collected.

On completion segments 5 and 6 will turn SH130 into an alternative route to I-35 for traffic between Georgetown and San Antonio - constituting a bypass of the Austin metro area and many other settlements that have clustered along the old interstate.

Cintra says the new expressway will "serve not only regional traffic but also offer an alternative to Interstate Highway 35 (I-35) between San Antonio and north Austin, making it possible for medium- and long-distance drivers to avoid the bottlenecks that are becoming increasingly common in Central Texas. This new high-capacity expressway will also help absorb existing and expected growth in long-distance truck traffic, further relieving congestion on I-35, Texas’ primary north-south route."

Skeptics say the new tollroad will not even attract 5-digit - let alone viable 25k+ - daily traffic volumes for many years and that it is too dependent on congestion on I-35 and on development occurring close-by it. Only on the northern end of the new tollroad will there be much local traffic oriented for trips into the rest of the Austin region and that traffic will have free alternates.

The road does seem to make most sense as part of a longer route from the Dallas area to San Antonio and beyond - to the Trans Texas Corridor 35 (TTC35). In any case the investors are putting their money, as the saying goes, where their mouth is. Central Texas gets a valuable new highway without expense to taxpayers.

Speed/concession fee tradeoff

An innovative aspect of the TX130/5&6 concession is the arrangement for higher concession payments if higher posted speeds are approved by the legislature. Details of the concession were posted in these articles:

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/3433

and http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/1535

Concessions may follow from TTC master contract

Cintra has a right of first refusal to negotiate any new concessions for Trans Texas Corridor 35 (TTC35) from near Georgetown north into the Dallas area and onto the border. Cintra was selected in December 2004 to work toward concessions on 509km (316mi) of TTC35 tollway that was said to involve a possible $6 billion worth of work. This was called a Master Development comprehensive development agreement (CDA). CDA is the unique TxDOT umbrella term for a variety of contracts that range from small consulting jobs through design-build, project development work and large multistage concessions.

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/953

The TTC35 Master Development CDA was only firmed up into a < $10m project development contract with TxDOT for studies and planning of the first part of TTC35 extending from the Oklahoma border through Dallas area to San Antonio, though it gives Cintra a kind of right-of-first-refusal to negotiate actual concessions.

SH130 is not formally part of TTC35 yet, but it is logically part of it, and noone has suggested any separate road would be viable.

BACKGROUND: Cintra, one of the world's largest private-sector transportation infrastructure developers, is a publicly traded company whose majority stockholder is the 100k employee Ferrovial Group. Cintra manages and operates more than 2,800km (1740 miles) of toll road, which represents a managed investment of more than $24 billion. With this project, Cintra will have a stake in companies managing 23 toll roads, in Spain (7), Ireland (2), Greece (2), Portugal (3), Chile (5), Canada (1) and the United States (3). Additionally, Cintra is Spain's leading parking lot operator and manages more than 266k parking spaces, a Cintra statement says.

Gas prices sucking U.S. economy dry, tolls exacerbate the problem

Link to article here. The price of gas is quickly becoming the number one economic concern among voters, and considering even a 20 cent per mile toll is like adding $5 to every gallon of gas you buy (if your vehicle gets 20 MPG), who are the tollers kidding? The average American cannot afford tolls and even TxDOT's own studies show toll roads aren't financially viable once gas hits $3 a gallon...now there's talk of it hitting $4 a gallon unabated!

So why are the tollers still pushing a system they know will financially fail? Rather than discard the toll plans, they subsidize them. That's right, expect to see more and more of our gas taxes and public funds subsidize what government already knows is a financial sinkhole for taxpayers! They now represent and care more about road contractors who fund their campaigns than they do the taxpayers footing the bill.

Fuel Prices Siphoning Money From U.S. Economy
Cheney Visit to Saudi Arabia May Include Plea on Oil Output
By Steven Mufson Washington Post Staff Writer
March 11, 2008

Crude oil prices continued a record-breaking climb today that pushed it past $109 a barrel, while the price of regular unleaded gasoline at the pump came within half a cent of its all-time high.

A White House announcement that Vice President Cheney would probably ask Saudi Arabia to boost oil output during a trip to the Middle East next week did nothing to blunt a run-up in prices that yesterday added $3 to the cost of a barrel.


As the rising cost of crude oil trickles down to the gasoline pump, fuel prices are siphoning cash away from other consumer spending, making it harder to revive the flagging U.S. economy and putting pressure on the Bush administration. It also siphoned more money out of the country: The Commerce Department reported today that the U.S. trade deficit jumped in January to $58.2 billion, compared to $57.9 billion in December, as a record, $27.1 billion monthly bill for imported crude helped offset an increase in U.S. exports.

According to the auto club AAA, the price of gasoline climbed to $3.222 a gallon yesterday, just shy of the $3.227 record set May 24.

"We're hurting in this thing, and it doesn't look like there's any end of it," said Ralph Bombardiere, executive director of the New York State Association of Service Stations and Repair Shops. "It looks like it's heading to $4" a gallon.

Bombardiere, who said members of his group of small service stations were having trouble raising pump prices fast enough to keep up with rising wholesale costs, added: "As the price goes up, it becomes a concern for us. We're the last line. We're the guys you face."

An opinion poll conducted in early February by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press showed that 35 percent of Americans named the rising price of gasoline as the economic issue that worried them most. In the same poll, 60 percent of those surveyed said it was "difficult" for their families to afford gasoline. Since the poll was completed, retail gasoline prices have risen 24.7 cents a gallon.

The prices of other petroleum products are also soaring. Diesel fuel, usually cheaper than gasoline, is now more expensive. The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said the average U.S. price of diesel was $3.819 a gallon in the week ending yesterday, up 53.9 cents in just four weeks. Heating-oil prices are also at all-time highs, up more than a dollar a gallon over the past year.

Cheney is scheduled to meet Saudi King Abdullah during a trip that starts Sunday. Discussions are expected to deal with oil and the security situation in Iraq.

Saudi Arabia is the world's biggest oil exporter and has more excess production capacity than any other member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. However, despite President Bush's entreaties, Saudi officials have asserted that oil markets have adequate supplies.

"I'm sure that energy issues will come up there," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. "Certainly the position of the United States and the president is that we believe that more supplies should be out there on the market. And the president does want OPEC to take into consideration that its biggest customer, the United States, that our economy is weakened, and part of the reason is because of higher oil prices; we think that more supply would help."

Democrats seized on the price increases to hammer Bush for his threat to veto an energy tax bill that would eliminate a tax break for the five biggest oil companies and extend tax breaks for solar and wind projects.

"How many records does the price of oil have to set and surpass before President Bush stands up for hardworking American families and stops taxpayer giveaways to Big Oil?" House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) asked in a statement.

Analysts blamed the relentless increase in petroleum prices on an influx of investors fleeing sinking and unsteady financial markets and those searching for hedges against inflation. Unlike most other days recently, however, prices of other commodities -- including gold, copper and platinum -- fell while oil prices rose again.

While there are signs that U.S. gasoline consumption has flattened or declined slightly in the past few weeks, traders and investors still expect world demand for oil to remain strong. China's crude oil imports grew 18 percent last month, according to Bloomberg News.

Last week, Goldman Sachs raised its forecast for 2009 U.S. crude prices to $105 a barrel from $90 a barrel. Lehman Brothers has also raised its first-quarter forecast for crude prices, and today the Energy Information Administration is expected to increase its short-term oil price forecast. Its last forecast, issued only a month ago, had predicted oil prices of just $88 a barrel for March.

Gasoline prices are rising as crude costs grow. Tancred Lidderdale, an analyst with the EIA, said gasoline prices rise about 2.4 cents a gallon for every $1-per-barrel increase in crude oil.

Lidderdale said an additional factor in rising gasoline prices was the annual switch of refineries to make summer-grade gasoline, a more expensive form designed to minimize the evaporation of fuel in the summer heat.

Congress gets courted by the pro-privatization lobby

Link to article here. Let's remember that the Minnesota bridge collapse was deemed an engineering flaw not a result of age. Having a public bank get cozy with private hogs at the trough sends up a flurry of red flags. Follow the money and campaign accounts...Dodd and Hagel are far too willing to sell out the public interest.

If the federal government would stop diverting 40% of our federal gas taxes away from roads, and if it would stop loading up spending bills with more than 6,000 earmarks like it did on the last federal highway bill, there would be PLENTY of money for the nation's infrastructure. They know it; however, they'd rather spew the pro-toll propaganda that creates an artificial "crisis" that only the hogs at the trough can solve!

CQ TODAY MIDDAY UPDATE
March 11, 2008
Senate Panel Considers Public-Private Partnership for Infrastructure Funding
The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee held a hearing Tuesday on legislation to create a public-private partnership to finance needed improvements in the nation’s infrastructure.

The bill, sponsored by Chairman Christopher J. Dodd , D-Conn., and Chuck Hagel , R-Neb., was introduced Aug. 1, the same day an Interstate highway bridge collapsed in Minneapolis, killing 13.

“Some might say that our legislation is ‘too expensive,’ or that ‘we can’t afford to implement such a policy.’ I say we can’t afford not to.” Dodd said.


Hagel said the national infrastructure bank envisioned in the bill would be able to leverage private capital to supplement the current levels of public spending.

“The federal government does not have and will not have the resources to appropriate the required funding necessary to meet our future national infrastructure goals,” he said.

All sides agree that the nation’s transportation infrastructure — especially highways and bridges — needs help if it is to survive projected surges in population, freight traffic and trade. But everyone seems to have a different plan to generate the necessary revenue.

A Jan. 15 report by the 12-member National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission recommended raising the 18.4-cents-a-gallon federal gasoline tax to 40 cents a gallon over five years to help raise at least $225 billion a year for transportation improvements. The commission also urged the federal government to assume more of the financing burden from states.

The federal government currently covers about 40 percent of the nation’s transportation costs. President Bush’s fiscal 2009 budget request proposes $57.1 billion for the Transportation Department, a 10 percent cut from fiscal 2008. Of that total, $39.4 billion would go to highways, about $1.8 billion less than Congress appropriated in fiscal 2008.

San Antonio airport officially port of entry, cargo doesn't clear customs until SA

Link to article here.

S.A. airport finally gets port of entry status
By Sean M. Wood
Express-News Business Writer
03/04/2008

Private aircraft inbound from foreign countries no longer will have to stop in Laredo or other locations before continuing to San Antonio.The Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection will designate San Antonio International Airport permanently as an "airport of first landing" for private aircraft. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff signed the order, and it was sent Tuesday to the Federal Register.

The order is expected to take effect in about 30 days.

"This is very exciting news," Aviation Director Mark Webb said. "This is something that has been worked on for almost 10 years by a number of staff members and congressional delegations."

U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, has been one of those at the front of the campaign for the permanent change.


"This designation will significantly enhance business, commerce and trade relationships throughout Mexico," Smith said in a statement. "The city of San Antonio will benefit from this greatly."

Temporary legislation had granted the airport the designation, which is sometimes called "port of entry." Airport officials reported an increase in general aviation traffic while the legislation was in effect during two 24-month periods.

"In 2000, when there was no port-of-entry status, we saw 841 private aircraft," airport spokesman David Hebert said. "In 2006, we had it and it expired in November. So for 11 months, we saw 2,237."

San Antonio International made the request Dec. 12, 2006, for permanent port-of-entry status.

Permanent status means private aircraft arriving in the United States from foreign countries can come straight to San Antonio International Airport to clear customs. Without that status, private aircraft were going elsewhere, like Laredo.

Smith and local officials argued that situation cost travelers time and the city money. The airport generates fuel fees from these aircraft, but Webb said those extra revenues are not the main benefit.

"This is more about our place as an economic engine in San Antonio," he said. "The H-E-Bs, the AT&Ts, the Valeros, the corporate community in town flying back and forth from Mexico can do it on a much easier basis."

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