Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69 comment period extended to April 18

Link to PDF of TTC-69 FACT SHEET outlining what TTC-69 is and why the state is building it here.

Link to PDF of TTC-69 PUBLIC COMMENT GUIDE with suggestions for public comment on the project here. The comment period has been extended to April 18, 2008. TxDOT has made it clear ONLY comments specific to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) will become part of the OFFICIAL LEGAL record. So knowing the areas appropriate for public comment are VITAL!

You do NOT need to live in the path of TTC-69 to submit comments. It effects ALL Texans!

Submit comments to www.keeptexasmoving.com or mail them to I-69/TTC, P.O. Box 14428, Austin, TX 78761.

Evidence shows TxDOT lobbied; TxDOT calls it "outreach"...you decide!

Link to article here. TxDOT's spin doctors are spinning alright, and Mr. Wear seems to be buying it. The statute says a state agency cannot hire a registered lobbyist, it doesn't matter how TxDOT defines that lobbyist's activities, or if they are federal lobbyists or not (there's a federal law forbidding it as well), just "taking notes" or otherwise, it's abundantly clear what a registered lobbyist does....LOBBY! That's why the statute forbids them from hiring one. They did. They broke the law. No amount of spin can change it.

Getting There: Ben Wear
Is TxDOT illegally lobbying? No, it's 'outreach'
Anti-toll groups say agency flouting state prohibition on agencies paying to influence lawmakers.
Austin American Statesman
Monday, February 4, 2008
But the question is: Did TxDOT break the law by lobbying? The answer, despite toll opponents' certitude, is not so clear.

The hubbub began Jan. 22, when Texas Transportation Commissioner Ted Houghton took the mike at a public hearing in Hempstead (about TxDOT's proposed super-tollway, TTC-69, from Brownsville to Texarkana) to answer a question. The moment, inevitably, is now on YouTube.

Yes, Houghton said, "we hire lobbyists up there (in Washington) to represent the interests of the State of Texas."

Aha, Comal County tollway opponent Terri Hall said in a news release titled "Smoking gun," Houghton "admits TxDOT violated the law!" Houghton, of course, confessed to no such thing.


Hall was depending on state law that bars state agencies from spending money to "employ, as a regular full-time or part-time or contract employee, a person who is required by Chapter 305 to register as a lobbyist."

If you read Chapter 305 of the state Government Code, it basically refers to lobbying the Legislature and the executive branch of Texas government. The four lobbyists named by TxDOT in response to a lawsuit filed by Hall's Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom — including former Land Commissioner Garry Mauro — work their magic in Washington, not Austin. None are registered lobbyists in Texas.

Now, TxDOT did pay the Rodman Group at least $65,000 to have Gary Bushell, a registered Texas lobbyist last year, spend much of the first half of 2007 talking to local elected officials along the Interstate 35 and Interstate 69 corridors. This was right when the Legislature was considering banning private toll road contracts of the type TxDOT wants to use to build TTC-69. A bunch of TTC-69 local folks came to Austin about that time, asking that their road be exempt. They got what they and TxDOT wanted.

Was Bushell lobbying for TxDOT? No, he was doing "outreach," spokesman Chris Lippincott and Bushell say, taking notes about the local folks' concerns and answering questions. If he had, Lippincott said, "we would have fired his (behind) on the spot."

Lobbying or not, TxDOT has certainly been an active political player the past few years. The late Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson at times last year seemed to be a 182nd legislator. He and Houghton, usually accompanied by TxDOT's entire senior executive team, were all over the Capitol last spring. TxDOT's efforts to overturn that session's adverse results (from its point of view) have taken a variety of forms since.

Williamson is gone now, and TxDOT faces a battery of legislative committees looking to tame it, starting with two hearings Tuesday. Lobbying charges may soon be the least of TxDOT's problems.

TxDOT's own $1 billion error caused statewide frenzy & sparked an audit

Link to article here.
Getting an "earful" is putting it mildly...TxDOT had a public flogging. However, actions speak louder than words. Will these senators have the spine to take on this Governor in May of 2009 as the next legislative session winds down and he dishes more threats and ultimatums? Will these same legislators GUT the Texas Department of Transportation and enact REAL reforms, or was yesterday's hearing all hot air? What will likely determine that is the grassroots revolt now underway. The Lege is either with us, or they're with the lobbyists and the Governor. There is no in between.

TxDOT gets earful at Senate hearing
02/05/2008
By Patrick Driscoll
Express-News

AUSTIN — There was plenty of blame to go around but little trust Tuesday as Texas senators probed Texas Department of Transportation finances, promises and actions — scrutiny that could last another year.Lawmakers, trying to figure out why the department this year suddenly faces funding shortfalls, didn't like what they heard at a joint hearing of the Senate finance and transportation committees.

Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, after listening to state auditors and budget officials describe the agency's bookkeeping, jumped the gate before TxDOT even got a word out.

"It doesn't matter what they come up and tell us, if they have poor internal controls," he told his colleagues. "I don't have a lot of confidence with what's coming out of that shop over there."


More than half a dozen senators took turns slinging similar barbs. The sharpest accusation, verbalized by a few, was that TxDOT may have created a funding crisis after the Legislature last spring put a leash on private financing of toll roads and tasked another committee to study the merits.

"There are many, many people, myself included, who believe this is a ploy to pressure us to go back to toll roads," said Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo.

Last July, after state lawmakers went home, the agency took another look at its finances. There were federal cutbacks, more state diversions, inflation and some expected drying up of private toll investments to deal with.

Bottom line: TxDOT was headed into the red — $3.6 billion by 2015. The agency said it would have to slice out $1.1 billion in projects this fiscal year, on top of $900 million pushed back months before because projections had been too optimistic. That left just $3.1 billion for construction, way down from $5 billion in 2006, dubbed the "go-go year."

But what wasn't widely known, until Tuesday, was that the $1.1 billion was an accounting error. That money was never there to begin with — some bean counters or planners had tallied some bond proceeds twice.

"Let me state right off that we should have done a better job of anticipating this state of affairs," TxDOT Director Amadeo Saenz said in a written statement to senators.

Senators were aghast.

"You've got to be kidding," said Sen. Kip Averitt, R-Waco.

Zaffirini said TxDOT officials should have pointed the finger at themselves months ago instead of blaming lawmakers for their woes. She said a Dec. 5 talking-points paper, just handed to her, never mentions the agency's own goofs.

Saenz, pointing to a Dec. 10 talking-points paper in front of him, said it does mention the inflated projections.

They literally were on different pages.

Meanwhile, Saenz recently reorganized staff so that planners, schedulers and bill payers will all report to the finance director.

"We have a system and that system needs to be improved," he told the senators. "We're working on that."

Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, said something definitely needs to change. While holding a TxDOT balance sheet, he said he knows how to do a cash-flow statement and what he was looking at wasn't that.

"I mean, this is screwed up," he said. "This is bad."

The other big questions of the day had to do with why TxDOT won't use $2.9 billion in available bonds, or include another $5 billion approved by voters in November in financial projections.

Transportation officials said it's because they don't know if legislators will pay debt service on the $2.9 billion. Otherwise, some road maintenance would have to be deferred.

And as far as the $5 billion, which would be paid back with an infusion of general funds rather that relying on existing flows of gas taxes and other driver fees, the Legislature still has to make that appropriation, which could happen next year.

"We want to make sure that we do not leave this agency in debt," said Hope Andrade, chairwoman of the Texas Transportation Commission, which oversees TxDOT. "As long as we can work together on how we can pay the debt, we will be open to any option."

Trust us, senators replied. But, they added, with construction inflation outstripping interest rates, it's best to put the $2.9 billion in bonds into action.

"We expect you to issue that debt," Transportation Committee Chairman John Carona, R-Dallas, said
_____________________________
Link to article here.

TxDOT
$1 billion error caused cash crunch
Agency officials say they double-counted bond revenue; legislators remain skeptical about legitimacy of fiscal 'crisis'
By Ben Wear
Austin American Statesman

But lawmakers, always skeptical, were often openly hostile during a lengthy Senate committee hearing that amounted to a thorough wood-shedding of TxDOT. They let department officials know that they remain suspicious about the legitimacy of the fiscal crisis.

Texas Transportation Commission members, said state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, "have an agenda. And that's to privatize the second-largest (highway) system in the world. And you are hell-bent-for-leather to do that."

State Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, pushed for a third party to look at TxDOT's books.

"It's important to me that we get the state auditor's office in there as quickly as possible," said Williams, who carried legislation last year that substantially curtailed TxDOT's authority to agree to long-term leases with private companies to build and run tollways.

TxDOT's executive director, Amadeo Saenz, said he would welcome an audit.

Saenz, TxDOT Chief Financial Officer James Bass and three transportation commissioners spent three hours answering questions in an unusual, out-of-session joint meeting of the Senate Finance and the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security committees.

TxDOT officials first announced a money shortage in November, ascribing it to a number of factors: inflation, reduced federal transportation grants, increased road maintenance needs and, most tellingly to legislators, the loss of revenue from those private toll road leases. Until Tuesday, top TxDOT officials had said nothing publicly about having made a serious bureaucratic error.

According to Saenz and Bass, the $1.1 billion that was counted twice was money borrowed through selling bonds. As a consequence, top agency officials told TxDOT's various divisions and districts that they had $4.2 billion to spend this fiscal year.

"As soon as I heard that number," Bass said, "I knew it was an overestimate."

Soon after, with so-called "lettings" for 2008 trimmed to $3.1 billion, TxDOT officials announced huge cuts in spending on right of way and project design, as well as a freeze on the start of many road projects that were ready to go. That sudden halt to projects got legislators' attention — and their goat. The Legislature and voters last year gave the agency authorization to borrow an additional $8 billion — though $5 billion of that will require further legislative action in 2009 — and so legislators don't like that crucial road projects are suddenly up on blocks.

It didn't take long after the freeze announcement for the idea to take hold that TxDOT was manufacturing a crisis to coerce legislators into backing away from the limits on private toll road contracts.

Tuesday's alternative explanation may have been only partially helpful to the agency.

"So, what you're saying is, it's not a political effort on your part," Watson said. "It's a lack of competence."

Saenz said he has brought the planning function, along with project procurement, under Bass' control to avoid the sort of left hand-right hand problem that caused the error.

How state and federal money goes into and out of TxDOT has long been a puzzle, one made only more complex by the addition of toll road financing and a growing practice of delegating road building to local agencies. Lawmakers, gazing at balance sheets gray with numbers and listening to Bass' clarifications of them, said the opaque nature of how TxDOT presents its finances makes it hard to trust the numbers.

"This is screwed up," said state Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, chairman of the Finance Committee, brandishing a revenue-and-expense table. "This is really bad. I heard your explanation. But based on the data, it doesn't match."

TxDOT gins-up shortfalls to get legislators' attention...it worked!

Link to article here.

Perry, Dewhurst at odds over TxDOT funding status
02/04/2008
By Patrick Driscoll
and Peggy Fikac
Express-News

On the eve of a legislative hearing on whether the Texas Department of Transportation is going broke or crying wolf, the state's top two leaders squared off on opposite sides.Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said TxDOT has some explaining to do about massive construction cutbacks, which some claim are a ruse to pressure state lawmakers into backing off last year's restrictions on private-sector financing of toll roads.

Dewhurst called the Senate finance and transportation committees into a hearing today, set for 9 a.m. in Room E1.036 of the Capitol Extension, to find out why TxDOT says it'll be $3.6 billion in the hole by 2015 when it can sell $9 billion in bonds.

"I am concerned the forecasting sheet used to produce that number does not show the complete financial picture," he said in a letter Friday to Hope Andrade, chairwoman of the Texas Transportation Commission, which oversees TxDOT.


But Gov. Rick Perry, who appoints the commission and is devoted to tolling and private investments as the best way to pay for new highway lanes, believes state lawmakers have dropped the funding ball.

"The governor wants a long-term solution" and has put forth ideas, Perry spokesman Robert Black said. "It's time for the Legislature to step up and do the same."

Today's hearing on TxDOT is just the latest round of the scrutiny, which intensified a year ago and continues to get hotter as toll critics burn the ears of officials.

Also Monday, Assistant District Attorney Beverly Mathews of the Travis County District Attorney's office said the office is investigating a complaint that TxDOT illegally lobbied and promoted toll roads.

"We have opened an investigation," Mathews said, declining to give details.

Terri Hall of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, which filed a civil lawsuit on the issue last year, said it's about time.

"A big fat yippee," she said. "People are so fed up with TxDOT, which is so out of control."

TxDOT officials say they did nothing wrong.

Perry and TxDOT's widespread push to use toll roads to make up for frozen gas taxes being swallowed by inflation hit a rough patch last year. Many lawmakers who previously passed enabling toll bills had since become skittish over public outcries.

Last year's Senate Bill 792 reined in toll and privatization plans and called for a committee to study private financing. TxDOT also is going through a sunset review.

Before the 2007 legislative session ended, the agency began warning of a looming financial crisis. Officials blamed federal cutbacks, diversions of state road funds, inflation and the Legislature's toll restrictions.

By November, TxDOT said it will have to slash spending for engineering and land purchases and stop any new construction after Feb. 1.

The agency has delayed $135 million worth of projects in the San Antonio region, including $64 million in Bexar County. Other areas saw similar cuts, such as an estimated $276 million in four counties in and around Houston.

Dewhurst said TxDOT should have told legislators about such problems last year. He also pointed out that lawmakers passed $3 billion in highway fund bonds, got voter approval for $5 billion in general obligation bonds, and that $1.3 billion in Texas Mobility Fund bonds still may be available.

"At the committee hearing," he wrote to Andrade, "I hope to see that TxDOT has provided a cash forecast sheet that includes all the financial tools."

Black said the $5 billion figure is fiction because the Legislature hasn't authorized debt service, which could happen in 2009. And TxDOT did count the $1.3 billion in its projections.

But Perry advised the agency not to issue the $3 billion.

"Because it's a Band-Aid," Black said. "It is yet another short-term fix that will only put us into debt further because it is building something today we'll have to pay for tomorrow."

Zaffirini: “TxDOT is an agency in turmoil and chaos”

Senate Transportation Committee and Senate Finance Committee held a joint hearing in Austin today to probe TxDOT's supposed funding shortfall for 2008. The Legislature wasn't even out of session 6 months before TxDOT fired-off letters to legislators telling them they planned to cut billions in already committed/funded projects. The sparks flew back and forth during the heated "discussion" that seemed more like a public flogging of TxDOT than a committee hearing. Here's just a flavor...

Senator Steve Ogden, Chair of Senate Finance Committee, on TxDOT's balance sheet: "This is really screwed up. Y'all need to redo your sheet."

Senator Tommy Williams: "TxDOT has poor internal controls...I don't have confidence in anything TxDOT is telling this committee."

 

Senator Kirk Watson: TxDOT's either "political or incompetent."

Senator Judith Zaffirini: "TxDOT is an agency in turmoil and chaos. This (blaming Legislature for TxDOT's own incompetence and poor planning) disdainful and awful behavior by some agency staff is at best intellectually dishonest."
_______________________________


The senators put the screws to TxDOT for three hours, and something remotely resembling the truth managed to emerge at the other end. The end result is that the Legislature ought to be exploring TxDOT's "credibility gap" instead of its ginned-up "funding gap." Fed-up like the taxpayers, the senators are tired of being lied to by a state agency over which they have oversight, tired of being lectured to by the Governor (who rejects ANY affordable transportation funding option besides selling off our freeways to his buddies), and tired of being blamed for TxDOT's incompetence. Now let's hope they finally mean it when they say TxDOT needs fixing!

TxDOT is up for sunset review in 2009, so it's the Legislature's golden opportunity to clean house at this "agency run amok."

Though much transpired at the hearings today, here's the summary of the juicy stuff. TxDOT had to admit that it put out false information that misled both the public and legislators about the claimed $4.2 billion "shortfall" (which acting Chair Hope Andrade later revised the term "cuts" to more correctly mean "delays") and the reasons for it.

At the end of the day, TxDOT admitted to repeated accounting errors (overstating the 2008 shortfall by $3 billion), that they welcomed an audit "so we can know what's going on" inside their own agency, and that they haven't "cut" spending, but are rather just moving money around.

Senator Ogden brought up a good point when he stated that the Legislature gave TxDOT $7.5 billion MORE money this two-year budget over the last, so he questioned why are they cutting projects? TxDOT Executive Director Amadeo Saenz then admitted they are making "cuts" based on future projections of shortfalls in 2015, not shortfalls in this immediate 2-year budget cycle. In plain English, they're making "cuts" now in order to advance the Governor's political agenda of selling off our highway system to the highest bidder.
It's good thing only a small cabal of ordinary citizens and taxpayers were there or TxDOT would have been run out on a rail! The most heated discussion of the day came when Senator Zaffirini asked TxDOT for the talking points it sent to the various district engineers who sent letters announcing the cuts in December 2007. TxDOT produced a different letter, but Zaffirini read the initial talking points TxDOT leadership sent out that blamed the U.S. congress and the state legislature, not TxDOT's own overcommitment to projects it couldn't fund due to the poor planning and chaos inside its own doors. Saenz admitted there are three divisions, forecasting, management, and the one that pays the actual bills, where neither knew what the other was doing.

Senator Watson summed it up best when he said: "So TxDOT's either being political or incompetent." But when the dust settled, all of them were more worried about the billions in lost contracts for the highway lobby than they were about the taxpayers held hostage by TxDOT's incompetence and man-made congestion crisis.

The second half of the day was the first meeting of the study committee on private toll roads as required by SB 792, the private toll moratorium bill. The Governor's 3 appointees rabidly pushed the MOST expensive option of privatization of our public infrastructure (bringing in the world's top privatization guru, Robert Poole of the Reason Foundation) while the others were consumed with understanding market valuation.

To refresh you memories, TURF fought hard to strip the market valuation language from SB 792. This language never appeared in ANY bill the entire 80th session until Governor Perry got a hold of it (though Committee Chairman Senator John Carona,/span> credited Senator Williams for actually authoring that section). It's a way to skirt around the federal law prohibiting the public sector from competing with the private sector to drive up the price of a public project.

Market valuation REQUIRES BY LAW that all toll projects undergo a determination of how much money the government can make off the road by analyzing the "value" of it the way Wall Street would. It's called asset monetization and it translates into the highest possible toll rates, because instead of keeping the toll as low as possible, they determine how to get a BIG up-front payment just like the private toll roads. They figure out how much additional bond money they can milk out of one set of motorists in order to fund projects for other motorists. It's Robin Hood applied to roads! The very thought of calling the public's highways "assets" for government to sell off on the open market is OFFENSIVE and an economic disaster waiting to happen!

So when you hear a toller call toll taxes a "user fee," think again. It's another deception geared at making you think you're paying a more direct tax tied to your actual usage of something rather than taking from one to give to another (which is EXACTLY what they criticize the gas tax for doing, making one part of the state help fund roads for other parts)! Regardless, this method of tolling is a targeted, discriminatory, purposely bloated tax, designed to be a government cash cow without the private toll road controversy.

Interestingly, one of the authors of the bill actually asked TxDOT (and agency with NO credibility) how market valuation works when he was the one who authored the bill!

Ream the taxpayer

One of the Governor's appointees, former Transportation Commissioner John Johnson, essentially cautioned the 6 legislators on the committee to NOT consider their constituents, but rather to "keep the big picture in mind." What big picture is he referring to? Selling the public's freeways to the highest bidder for maximum profit.

Then, when the conflict with federal law was mentioned, Poole of the Reason Foundation, suggested TxDOT could petition the feds using an "SEP 15" (or special experimental program) process to WAIVE THE LAW allowing public agencies to compete with the private sector (which results in jacking up the cost to motorists)! OUTRAGEOUS! No one even blinked at the suggestion that they try to skirt the LAW!!! Note it was the lobbyist who knew the loopholes, not the policymakers. It further indicates who's writing our laws, doesn't it? We're lambs being led to the slaughter, folks. WAKE-UP!

In addition, Senator Carona said TxDOT had a lot of explaining to do in regards to their admission (thanks to the evidence uncovered in our lawsuit) they broke the law by hiring registered lobbyists, yet didn't breathe a word of it at these hearings. Why? "Because it's pending in court." Someone should have told Commissioner Ted Houghton that before he
admitted it ON CAMERA!

Our government isn't serving us, representing us, nor looking out for the public interest. Our Legislature and Governor are a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Chamber of Commerce crowd, the Reason Foundation, and road contractors.

 Start our taxpayer revolt on March 4. Go to the voting booth and work your way down the list....throw the bums OUT!

Fort Bend residents reject Trans Texas "monstrosity"

Link to blog here.

Residents reject Trans-Texas "monstrosity"
By Zen Zheng
Houston Chronicle blog
January 26, 2008
Finding a spot at the Rosenberg Civic Center's parking lot Thursday night was a challenge.

At least 600 residents packed the main hall to attend the sixth of the 11 town hall meetings the Texas Department of Transportation has been holding in cities in the path of the proposed Interstate 69 route.

The gathering on the controversial I-69 proposal aimed to allow residents to ask questions and get instant responses from state officials. Originally set for 6:30-9 p.m., it dragged for nearly five hours as scores of residents waited for their turns to tell the officials how upset they were with the proposal.

Residents came from several counties including Fort Bend, Wharton and Waller. Some had attended previous public meetings and decided to continue to protest at the meeting Thursday.


Jeff Ritz of Tomball, who attended the forum in Hempstead, reappeared at the Rosenberg Civic Center entrance to hand out anti-Trans-Texas Corridor stickers. He said to me:

I can't give this thing out quick enough.

In the lobby, while state officials laid out tables on one side to register speakers and distribute official literature to promote the project, Hank Gilbert, who formed a Texas Uniting for Reform and Freedom organization opposed to toll roads and the proposed corridor, had a table on the other side to gather signatures for a petition to the state.

Throughout the night, residents' negative sentiment about the project struck me as overwhelming. Officials on the four-person panel including Texas Transportation Commissioner Ned Holmes and TxDOT's Executive Deputy Director Steve Simmons kept their cool as opponents denounced the proposed 1,200-foot wide, 600-mile long toll road as a ``monstrosity.''

Opponents said the proposed corridor would uproot their homes and livelihood and destroy their environment and communities while fattening the pockets of foreign companies and threatening our nation's security with the open corridor that would link Mexico with Canada through the Unites States heartland.

Holmes and Simmons said the project is needed to address population growth that would worsen roadway congestion and to drive economic development.

When asked why the officials were against popular will as no single voice endorsing of the project was heard at the meeting, Simmons said there were people speaking in support of the proposal at other meetings.

Gilbert was quick to point out that those in support were a handful elected officials who failed to represent the people.

Some residents urged a popular vote on the I-69 idea.

Holmes said if it's determined that people don't want I-69, the project could be stopped.

Richard Morrison, a Sugar Land-area attorney, called the statement ``a lie.'' He said the officials' mind was already made up before coming to the meeting.

Following the town hall meetings, a series of formal public hearings will be held, in which the officials will not respond to any questions and comments from the public speakers. While the public comments made at the town hall meetings are not officially documented, those from the public hearings will.

The hearings next month include one to be held at Arabia Shrine Center, 2900 North Braeswood in Houston on Feb. 12, at Rosenberg Civic Center, 3825 Highway 36 South, on Feb. 25, and at Katy High School Performing Arts Center at 6331 Highway Boulevard the next day.

Were you at the Jan. 24 town hall meeting? What do you think about the discussion that night? What do you think about the proposed I-69 and Trans-Texas Corridor?

Hope Andrade of San Antonio to serve as Interim Chair of Commission


Link to news clip courtesy of Sal Costello, Texas Toll Party here.

Hope Andrade Named Interim Chair of TxDOT

Hope Andrade, who has served on the commission since 2003, has been appointed to a term to expire "at the pleasure of the Governor".

According to the Governor's Office, Gov. Rick "39-percent" Perry appointed San Antonio's Hope Andrade as the interim chair of the Texas Transportation Commission today - to replace Ric Williamson who died from a heart attack just weeks ago. Andrade is expected to continue to ignore Texans and the Texas lege, to force freeway to tollway conversions (as well as the TTC land grab) just as Williamson did.
______________________________

To see what a bully Andrade is, go here. She removed a blind, disabled veteran from the San Antonio MPO Board for voting against tolls! How mean!

Drivers to see major toll hikes

Link to article here.

Drivers to See Major Toll Hikes
By Dennis Cauchon
USA Today
01-28-08

(Jan. 28) -- From the Golden Gate Bridge to the New Jersey Turnpike, the nation's toll booths are getting dramatically more expensive to drive through.
The sharp increases come as states endure financially lean times triggered by the housing and credit crunch and struggle to find money to maintain or replace vital infrastructure.

Big toll hikes are planned for most of the nation's signature toll roads, bridges and tunnels. The increases would add dollars, not cents, to the cost of passing through many toll booths.


For example, in March, the toll for cars driving on the George Washington Bridge linking New York and New Jersey — the nation's busiest toll bridge — jumps to $8 from $5 during peak hours. Truckers will pay $35, up from $25.
"People view highways as free, but they're not," says Patrick Jones, chief executive of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association, which represents toll authorities. He says Congress' decision to keep the federal gas tax at 18.4 cents per gallon, unchanged since 1993, has led to a greater reliance on tolls.

Some major toll hikes planned:

California: The Golden Gate Bridge will raise its toll to $6 from $5 if a board approves after public hearings. Separately, San Francisco is considering a new $2 toll when drivers get off the bridge.

Indiana: The cost of driving all 157 miles of the Indiana Toll Road will rise in April to $8 from $4.65 for those paying cash. The price will not change for those with electronic i-Zoom accounts.

Massachusetts: Rates for the Sumner and Ted Williams tunnels in Boston rose to $3.50 from $3 on Jan. 1. The money will help pay for the "Big Dig," a $14.6 billion downtown Boston highway project that was plagued by cost overruns.

New Jersey: Gov. Jon Corzine wants to increase tolls on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway by 50% every four years, starting in 2010, and add an extra adjustment for inflation.
New York: The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will raise tolls on the Holland and Lincoln tunnels and its bridges by $2-$10 per trip on March 2. The state will impose smaller toll increases on nine other New York-area bridges and tunnels on March 16.

Pennsylvania: The state has asked the federal government for permission to add tolls to Interstate 80. The cost of driving the 316-mile road would be $25 for cars and $93 for trucks. The state will increase tolls on the Pennsylvania Turnpike by 25% in 2009, making the cost similar to the proposed I-80 tolls.

"People aren't thrilled by paying tolls, but that's no different than any other form of taxation," says Barry Schoch, a consultant heading Pennsylvania's effort to put toll booths on I-80, which is now free.

"A toll increase is always political melodrama," Port Authority spokesman Marc LaVorgna says. "The decisions are often avoided until the need is desperate."

Perry's corridor a hard-sell; Texans are still saying "NO!"

Jan. 27, 2008, 10:51PM
Perry's Trans-Texas Corridor plan is a hard sell
Officials pitch his proposed road network in packed, skeptical area meetings

By RAD SALLEE and ERIC HANSON
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

Gov. Rick Perry's ambitious Trans-Texas Corridor plan, and his advocacy of toll funding for future roads, hit the skids in a skeptical Legislature last spring. The road shows no signs of getting any smoother as state transportation officials try to sell the plan to Houston-area audiences.

"This will wipe me out," Dee Bond told a panel of corridor advocates at a town hall meeting in Rosenberg last week.

The panel, which included Texas Transportation Commissioner Ned Holmes of Houston and Steve Simmons, deputy executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation, was there to explain and gather comment on a segment of the planned Interstate 69/TTC through Fort Bend County.

"How is this in my best interest?" Bond asked, to a hearty round of applause.

"We don't know where that roadway is going," Simmons replied, adding, "We don't know for sure if that roadway is going to be built."

Diane Coan of Louise, in Wharton County, suggested the decision to build the corridor should be put to the public.

"Why don't we just take a vote? Do we want this road or do we not want this road?" she said.

As proposed, I-69/TTC would run west of U.S. 59 from Texarkana to Corpus Christi, then split and head to the Mexico border at Brownsville and Laredo. Extensions would enter Houston from the north and west to serve the port and area industry.

As envisioned by Perry, the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor would be a network of these broad corridors linking major cities, with toll roads for cars and trucks, rail tracks for freight and passenger trains, and space for pipelines and power lines.

The most advanced of these projects, TTC-35, is projected to run from Oklahoma to Mexico east of Interstate 35, but no construction contracts have been signed for either TTC-35 or I-69/TTC.

Months of hearings to come

TxDOT has designated a consortium led by the Spanish company CINTRA as first in line for TTC-35 work. Two private developer teams are competing for I-69/TTC.At the Rosenberg meeting, another speaker asked if existing highways such as U.S. 59 simply could be widened instead of building the massive superhighway.

Simmons said it is difficult and costly to acquire right of way to expand highways that pass through numerous built-up areas.

"We can't widen 59 without taking a good chunk of the town," he said.

Earlier in the week, similar meetings in Hempstead and Huntsville were jammed with residents and local officials who questioned the need for the project and the motives of its supporters.

The town hall meetings will continue through the month and be followed by two months of formal public hearings on its Draft Environmental Impact Statement.

In Hempstead, corridor opponents reported a crowd of 800, filling the available parking space and the building, causing some residents to be turned away.

The Huntsville meeting drew such an audience that a second meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Walker County Fairgrounds.

The Huntsville Item reported that more than 400 people attended the earlier meeting and that, for safety reasons, some 250 in an atrium could not enter.

At the Rosenberg meeting, which drew about 350 attendees, many wore anti-Trans-Texas Corridor stickers on their shirts or hats. The panel fielded questions from people who had filled out cards before the meeting.

A diverse coalition

Perry, TxDOT and the commissioners say that tolls are the only adequate way to fund most future road projects without increasing motor fuel taxes.Others say that increasing the tax and indexing it to the cost of road building could meet the state's needs indefinitely.

Critics of the idea say that most of the state's highway network is not congested except in cities and that road segments needing relief can be addressed individually.

The first parts to TTC-35 expected to be built are bypasses around Dallas and Austin, both growing urban areas where the interstate is congested.

Besides opponents of tolling, corridor plans have raised hackles with such disparate groups as farmers and ranchers who do not want their land divided, merchants who fear loss of business to new routes and others who oppose trucks from Mexico doing business in the United States, or the long-term leases of U.S. highways to foreign companies.

Developer, not residents, behind push for toll lanes on I-35 in Waco

Link to article here.

Proposal to build new I-35 bridge becomes entangled in toll road debate
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
By David Doerr
Tribune-Herald staff writer

Real-estate developer Rick Sheldon wowed Waco residents in November when he unveiled drawings of an iconic version of the Interstate 35 Brazos River bridge designed to look like the city’s landmark Suspension Bridge.

The new I-35 bridge would serve as a gateway for visitors passing through town and a point of pride for area residents. But after consulting Texas Department of Transportation officials on financing such a project in these lean times for highway expansion, it turns out there is only one way to do it: tolls.

The tolls, which proved to be a point of contention at Tuesday’s Waco City Council meeting, would be used to expand the highway from six to eight lanes between South Loop 340 and Elm Mott. The tolls would be charged only on the added two lanes.

Waco Metropolitan Planning Organization staff proposed the toll lanes in December to address area transportation needs while dealing with significant cuts in state and federal funding. Now it appears the toll lanes will be the linchpin in Sheldon’s effort to update the look of the I-35 bridge over the Brazos.

“There is still a chance that we could do it without the tolls, but it is going to take forever, and I don’t know if I will be real interested in working on it then,” he said. “I’m not going to do it in 10 years.”

Sheldon, a San Antonio native now living in Waco, has proposed developments totaling nearly $1 billion along Lake Brazos, including restaurants, housing, a new near-campus football stadium for Baylor University and a 250- to 300-room hotel. He doesn’t control all of the projects, but he is working to form a partnership to make them happen.

His bridge proposal garnered praise such as “breathtaking” from various civic leaders when it was unveiled. The toll lane proposal initially was met mostly with criticism and derision when it was announced.

But now the two projects are linked together and that could change people’s ideas about both. There won’t be a lot of time to debate their merits if the MPO’s policy board votes Tuesday to remove the toll provision from planning documents it must submit to the federal government in February.

So Sheldon is calling to extend the debate by keeping the toll proposal in the MPO’s plans. The decision whether to go ahead with the projects would be made at a later time.

“I think (the bridge proposal) starts the debate, and that is all I am asking for,” Sheldon said. “Let’s not have the debate for a week, let’s have it for a year. You can always vote to change it (later). All we’re saying is, let’s please don’t preclude this as an option because it really hurts our chances of getting this thing built.”

The rebuilt bridge would not actually be a suspension bridge, but would have beams and cables to suggest the same look, Sheldon said. The aesthetic enhancements would probably cost between $5 million and $10 million, he said.

Richard Skopik, the transportation department’s Waco region engineer, said the only way to finance reconstructing the bridge in the current transportation funding climate would be to add toll lanes. He said the transportation department isn’t planning to replace the nearly 50-year-old bridge unless the toll lane expansion project is approved.

“To add an aesthetic structure, as has been suggested, you could modify the existing bridge, but I think the intent and the vision was to have a brand new bridge that could encompass these concepts,” Skopik said.

However, he emphasized that bridge enhancements would not automatically come with the construction of toll lanes. Funding from other public or private sources would be needed to pay for the features that would make it look like a suspension bridge, he said.

Sheldon suggested that a private company could be found to operate the toll lanes and pay to make the enhancements. However, the Texas Legislature passed a moratorium on such public-private toll projects last year.

Skopik said the proposal is designed for the transportation department to manage tolling operations.

MPO director Chris Evilia has had to cut 13 out of 23 highway projects in McLennan County since transportation officials announced in late September there would be no money to add capacity to the state’s road system after this year.

State transportation officials have blamed the funding crisis on rising construction costs, federal cutbacks and state diversions of declining gas tax revenues.

Even with the deep cuts in the number of local transportation projects, Evilia still is about $11 million short to fund the remaining 10 projects on his list. The projects are designed to expand highway capacity to meet the state’s growing population.

MPO staff estimates tolls would provide up to 40 percent of the funding to expand the highway to eight lanes. Transportation officials indicate state coffers could pay the remaining 60 percent.

Tolls could also generate an additional $5.7 million to $10.9 million that could be used for other transportation projects in McLennan County, according to MPO planning documents.

Sheldon said the paradigm for funding roads in Texas is shifting whether people like it or not.

“For a lot of folks it is wishful thinking,” he said, referring to their aversion to toll projects. “They want things back to how it was in ‘Leave it to Beaver’ time. It ain’t that way anymore. Go look at the Legislature. They haven’t raised gasoline taxes since 1991. Every time it comes up, it’s a nonstarter.”

Frustration with the current transportation funding picture was evident during Tuesday’s Waco City Council meeting in which members were briefed on the issue and the toll road proposal.

Councilman Randy Riggs said it was “almost extortion” to have to choose between adding toll lanes to I-35 and losing funds for other projects in the Waco area. He blamed federal and state lawmakers for not taking action.

“(Expanding I-35) is something that our citizens need and deserve and it should be a state or a federal issue as opposed to a local issue,” Riggs said. “This is just wrong in my mind to say we will help you with your transportation issues if you do what your citizens don’t want done.”

Although most council members expressed frustration about being forced to consider the toll lanes, a majority appeared willing to recommend to the MPO’s policy board to keep the proposal in their planning documents.

City Manager Larry Groth suggested that keeping the toll proposal in the MPO’s plans would allow the transportation department to move ahead with surveying and preparation to expand the highway even if local officials decide against the toll lanes at a later time.

“If we approve this with the tolls in it, we can keep I-35 in the plan,” he said. “That means that the state can continue working on the design, layout and all that other stuff so there is not a delay, and in my mind that means we stay on this track we need to be on.”

Before Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Joe Mashek, MPO policy board chairman and a McLennan County commissioner, said he opposes the toll lanes even though Sheldon’s bridge enhancement project is linked to it.

“They are kind of holding a gun to our head saying ‘If you don’t do this, you aren’t going to get this,’ ” he said. “It’s a no-win situation because most people are against this toll road on I-35.”

Former mayor, councilman arrested for protesting toll hikes, debt

Link to article here.

New Jersey: Public Opposition to Toll Roads Leads to Arrest
Former elected local officials are arrested for opposing toll road plans at a public town hall meeting attended by the New Jersey governor.
The Newspaper
January 23, 2008

Lonegan arrestMiddle Township, New Jersey Police arrested two motorists on Saturday for speaking out at a public town hall meeting against Governor Jon S Corzine's plans to increase the use of tolling i the Garden State. Former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan had been standing calmly outside of Middle Township High School dressed in a suit and winter coat. He was surrounded by a handful of sign and pamphlet-wielding toll road opponents belonging to the group Liberty and Prosperity when a local official attempted to convince Lonegan to leave prior to the governor's arrival.

"It's not public property, it's board of education property," the local school board administrator explained. "You're going to have to leave the property."

The administrator walked away when Lonegan said that they had a right to protest a public meeting peacefully and that he wanted to see the board's written policy on the matter. A dozen police officers then insisted that Lonegan move at least one-quarter mile from the school. When Lonegan replied: "Nope," he was handcuffed and placed under arrest. Former Atlantic City Councilman Seth Grossman was likewise arrested for being among those holding signs that read: "No Toll Hikes!!! Repudiate Unconstitutional Debt!"

"I didn't go to Middle Township High School last Saturday to get arrested or to get on TV," Grossman explained. "I didn't even go to protest. Our Liberty and Prosperity group went there to participate in Governor Jon Corzine's town meeting."

Police charged both of the former elected officials with trespassing. The governor's office had described the town hall meetings as "part of the governor's effort to have an open and honest discussion about the state's financial problems in all of New Jersey's 21 counties."

Grossman had been distributing fact sheets that questioned Corzine's statement that taxpayers owed $113 billion in long-term obligations that could only be paid down with asset monetization and toll road price hikes. Grossman's materials claimed that under state law, taxpayers are only on the hook for debts specifically approved by voters, which amounts to just $3 billion.

Hiatt repudiates Bush-Peters toll only mantra

Link to article here.

She Brakes for Ideology
By Fred Hiatt Washington Post
Monday, January 21, 2008

The next time you are stuck in traffic (and when are you not?), you might take a moment to ponder Mary Peters's contribution to the fix you are in.

Peters is the Bush administration's transportation secretary, and her main objective seems to be blocking any increase of public contributions to the public infrastructure. The main reason you are sitting in traffic, she believes, is not that the purchasing power of Highway Trust Fund revenue has been dwindling for the past decade, not that population and freight traffic have been soaring with no government response -- but that you are not being asked to pay enough to use the road you are on.

The rigidity of the administration's ideology became clear last week with the culmination of a two-year study of the nation's transportation woes. A bipartisan federal commission came up with a comprehensive, balanced plan for the next 50 years, calling for maintenance and construction, road and rail, public and private funds.Nine of the commission's 12 members endorsed the report. A majority of the nine were GOP appointees, including commissioners chosen by then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R) and then-House Speaker Denny Hastert (R). But three members representing the administration, including Peters, dissented.

Peters acknowledged in her dissent that traffic congestion already is costing the U.S. economy as much as $200 billion a year. She acknowledged that growth in population and commerce is "straining our transportation system as never before," harming productivity, mobility and the environment."We believe, however, that a failure to properly align supply and demand, not a failure to generate sufficient tax revenues, is the essential policy failure," the Bush dissenters wrote. "When consumer demand determines supply, it will engender funding sufficient to meet the demand."This is an astonishingly radical view of government's role in transportation. Cast backward, it would suggest that President Dwight D. Eisenhower never should have built the interstate highway system; it should have been left to private companies to build roads wherever tolling could generate a profit, and nowhere else. The result -- an incomplete, disconnected patchwork of highways -- might indeed have suited Peters, given that another of her goals is a reduced federal role in transportation policy. But the country would have been poorer for it.

Peters is right to stress the importance of private-public partnerships, such as this area will soon see in added lane construction on the Beltway. It also makes sense to have users pay their way, and pay more at peak hours, through congestion pricing, London-style fees to drive downtown and similar mechanisms.In fact, the bipartisan majority endorses all of these. The commission stresses the need to shift from the current pork-barrel, earmark-driven spending to a more rational alignment of money and mission, and it suggests how that might be accomplished. No tax increases will or should be adopted until then, it says.But the rational majority of the commission also understands that the current underinvestment, if continued, will cost lives (see: the collapsed bridge in Minnesota in August), time and economic growth, and that the government has to play a role along with the private sector.

"We're living off investments made 40, 50 -- in New York City, 100 -- years ago," said commission member Frank McArdle, an adviser to the New York state contractors association. Added Steve Heminger, executive director of San Francisco's Metropolitan Transportation Commission: "Now we have aging pains and growing pains."You can see the effect of the Bush ideology in recent reports, as recounted by The Post's Amy Gardner last week, that the administration is yet again looking for excuses to kill rapid transit rail to Dulles Airport. Having jumped through every hoop demanded -- giving up on a tunnel through Tysons Corner, cutting $300 million in costs -- the region finds itself facing another, unexplained roadblock. But if you understand the Bush philosophy, the roadblock isn't so hard to explain: If profit alone -- and not clean air, or joining the rest of the civilized world in connecting airports to cities, or any other consideration -- matters, then Dulles rail no doubt slides down the priority list.
The Peters model might work if the only national interest were maximum efficiency. But if the nation cares about the environment, about staying connected, about balancing roads and rail and transit, then it will have to invest, as a nation, and plan, as a nation. The bipartisan nature of the commission report gives hope that the next administration, whoever leads it, will understand that.

Why the grassroots are ready to run politicians out on a rail...

The House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said this today...

“The American people believe Washington is broken. Middle class families see the cost of living rising. They see more and more of their hard earned dollars being eaten up by college costs, health care costs, housing costs, food costs.”

“With all this happening in their daily lives, they're watching the news — and they see politicians in Washington WASTING their money. While families are struggling to make ends meet, they look up and see politicians using taxpayer money to build monuments to themselves ... funding hippie museums ... letting entitlement spending spiral out of control. ”

The price of gasoline and threat of toll roads all over Texas (and the country) are part of what's leading to a cumulative restlessness among the grassroots. It's time for change, this is an election year, this is our opportunity.

Ft. Bend Town Hall packed with corridor foes

Link to article here.

Fort Bend folks don't care for Trans-Texas Corridor either
Friday, January 25, 2008
By Vicente Arenas / KHOU 11 News

TxDOT is finding few supporters for the plan as they conduct a series of town hall meetings
If Texas Department of Transportation officials were looking to gain support for the controversial Trans-Texas Corridor Thursday night, Fort Bend County wasn’t the place to be.

The folks who packed the Rosenberg Civic Center Thursday night were angry.

“This will wipe me out. How is this in my best interest?,” East Bernard resident Dee Bond asked of state transportation officials.

“Why can’t you work with what ya’ll got? Instead of going off in a different direction,” asked Houston resident Doug Bilbrey.

Also online
Copy of proposed route of Trans-Texas Corridor (pdf)Keep Texas Moving Web site, including schedule of upcoming public meetings
TURF, Trans-Texas Corridor opposition group Web site

Most of the 600 people who crowded Rosenberg’s Civic Center Thursday are landowners who are afraid the proposed highway will swallow up their homes and prime farmland that’s been in families for generations.

“If this is gaining so much opposition, do we want this road or do we not want this road?” said Wharton resident Dianne Coan.

The response to the state’s plan was just as hostile in Fort Bend County Thursday as residents in Waller County were the night before.

“I don’t know why they are blowing smoke and tell us what they want this road,” El Campo resident David Coan complained.

The Trans-Texas Corridor, also known as I-69, would have lanes for 18-wheelers as well as space for trains and it would stretch from the border to near Houston and on to Arkansas.

It would eventually criss-cross the state. But no one at the meeting Thursday wanted it.

TxDOT says the highways are needed to help keep up with the state’s booming population and make it easier to transport goods between the U.S., Mexico and South America.

TxDOT told the crowd the highway is still years from being built, but that was little comfort when it’s your land in the crosshairs.

Gas prices changing consumer habits, now's NOT the time for toll taxes, too

Link to article here. Given the information in this study (which common sense already told us simply by looking at one's own shrinking household budget), now is not the time for increasing our cost of transportation by from 1-3 cents a mile under the current gas tax to 20 cents - $1.50 a mile in tolls (that's the range in the current cost of toll taxes per mile around the state).

Gas Prices Changing Consumer Habits
by Jack Loechner
01-25-08

A new study from The Nielsen Company finds that 49 percent of U.S. consumers are reducing their spending to compensate for rising gas prices, up four points from June 2007. 70 percent of consumers are combining shopping trips and errands, and 41 percent are eating out less, and 39 percent staying home more often.

Todd Hale, senior vice president of Consumer Shopping & Insights, said "… Large numbers of consumers eating out less and staying home more… signal a tough year for some restaurants… there may be an opportunity for consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers and retailers to find… growth in… at-home meal solutions and at-work meals."


The survey finds that record-high gas prices likely contributed to 2007's less-than-stellar holiday sales season. Sixty percent of consumers surveyed said they had less money to spend during the holidays due to increased gas prices.

Hale continued… "… our research shows a jump in consumers shopping on the Internet as a way to deal with high gas prices… a wake-up call for manufacturers and retailers alike to step up their ‘direct-to-consumer' efforts and utilize the Internet to communicate directly with consumers in 2008… "

The survey shows that 27 percent of consumers are reacting to gas prices by shopping more at supercenters, or megastores and big-box stores, where more items needed are in one store.

"Nearly a third of households still travel 11 miles or more to a supercenter, and high gas prices will likely reduce the number of quick trips these households make," said Hale.

Twenty-five percent of consumers are using coupons to save money, up from 20 percent in June 2007. Twenty-three percent of consumers indicate they will buy less expensive grocery brands to deal with higher gas prices, signaling a possible boost for private label or store-brand products and lower-priced branded products.

 

"2008 will likely be a challenging year for U.S. consumers and the economy as a whole as we grapple with growing inflation, credit card debt, declining house values - - as well as expectations for gasoline to hit $3.40 by spring," said Hale.

"Manufacturers and retailers need to be alert to the fact that consumers are looking to save by altering where they shop, how they shop and what products and brands they buy. Value, convenience and competitive pricing will be more important than ever in the year ahead.

For more information, please visit, www.nielsen.com

Kens5 News: TxDOT caught red-handed, admit to hiring lobbyists

[This video is no longer available because the YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated.]

Kens5 News, a CBS affiliate, did a fantastic story on TxDOT's illegal hiring of lobbyists. Greg Abbott happened to be in San Antonio yesterday, so perfect timing to get face time with the Texas Attorney General. TxDOT is now on notice with the highest law enforcement officer in the state of Texas. Sadly, Abbott chose the wrong side of this issue last fall when he chose to side with TxDOT against the taxpayer in TURF's lawsuit to stop TxDOT's PR campaign and political advocacy. Let's see what he does now that he knows TxDOT's broken the law!

Opposition to Trans-Texas Corridor growing

Link to story here.

Opposition to Trans-Texas Corridor growing
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
By Rosa Flores and Shern-Min Chow / 11 News

More than 800 people packed a meeting hall in Hempstead for a public meeting on the Trans-Texas Corridor. Seven more public sessions are scheduled.

Residents are speaking out about a controversial highway that would cut right through the state.The state plans to build a 4,000-mile network of super-highway toll roads. In Hempstead on Tuesday, many residents said that road could cost them their property.Odis Styers owns hundreds of acres north, east and west of town. But the traffic that now travels through on State Highway 290 could interrupt his peace.
Also online
Copy of proposed route of Trans-Texas Corridor (pdf)Keep Texas Moving Web site, including schedule of upcoming public meetingsTURF, Trans-Texas Corridor opposition group Web site
Citizens for a Better Waller County

A TxDOT super highway could soon plow through the middle of his property.

“They are talking about going through prime ranch country, prime farm country and that's limited,” said Styers. "I'm in the cattle business and that would put me out of business."

The I-69 Trans Texas Corridor would run from Mexico to Texarkana. Exactly how it will get from Point A to Point B is still up in the air. But a proposed map shows the area the state is now studying.

It’s wide swath of Texas land cutting through Waller County.

“We are looking at a new system to provide us for the next generation of jobs and congestion,” said TxDOT spokesman Norm Wigington. “If we do not do anything that means that there will be congestion. We know that people are coming here in great numbers.”

But business owners already here, don't want to see their town split down the middle.

“It’s going to be like a huge river that's only going to have a bridge every now and then,” said property owner Matthew Menke. “And it's going to isolate certain areas. And where they decide to lay it. We are going to be at their mercy.”

TxDOT officials said the highway won't be different from any other roadway that would be built through a community.

“State law requires TxDOT to build crossings for all state and federal highways and to maintain as many local road crossings as possible,” said spokesman Chris Lippincott. “We are required to work with local officials to identify all roads of significance and create crossings for them.”

Property owners have been asking questions, but, “It doesn't seem like you can find answers from the state reps or the senate,” said Styers.

And so a lot of people who live in this quiet country and starting to make some noise.

Tuesday night, they packed in for a public hearing on the Trans-Texas Corridor. Most gave state officials more than just an earful.

Property owners worry the state will shortchange them on any land it buys, even as TxDOT insists fair market value will be observed.

The Trans-Texas Corridor would eventually include rail lines, toll ways for vehicles, utility lines for water, power and even data transfer.

Opponents, including the Waller County Commissioners Court, say that is a mistake.

Opponents have spent years protesting the proposed network of roads between Mexico and Texas.

They argue the total cost of $125 billion is really to help big business and not the small towns where they live.

“The citizens here are not going to bear the burden so Wal-Mart can get their cargo into the U.S. cheaper and faster,” said Trey Duhon, one of the estimated 800 who packed into the meeting Tuesday night in Hempstead.

Gas-Tax Hikes Only Fuel the Problem

Link to article here.

Gas-Tax Hikes Only Fuel the Problem
In the era of the earmark, it would be insane to entrust any additional transportation dollars to Congress
By Phil Kerpen

The country’s transportation infrastructure has received long-overdue attention in the wake of the tragic bridge collapse in Minnesota. Throwing more money at the problem is the immediate impulse of many commentators and politicians. Unfortunately, highway funding at the federal level is rife with abuse, diversion, and mis-prioritization, mostly because of the practice of earmarking — a method by which politicians steer funds to politically favored projects, regardless of whether they are legitimate priorities.
And until earmarks are eliminated, higher gas taxes in the name of rebuilding our transportation infrastructure would simply throw good money after bad.


The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 established the Highway Trust Fund to ensure that revenues from a gas tax and other transportation taxes would be used only to fund the construction of the Interstate Highway System, which was considered a federal responsibility for national defense reasons. The system was supposed to be completed by 1969, at which time the gas tax would sunset. Of course, as with so many taxes, the gas tax not only didn’t sunset, it increased. In 1983 it was hiked from 4 cents a gallon to 9 cents, with 1 cent diverted to the newly-created Mass Transit Trust Fund for projects, mostly in a handful of big cities, that have nothing to do with highways.

Since then, the misuse of Highway Trust Fund dollars has only worsened. In particular, since the passage of the 1991 highway bill, funds raised from motorists at the pump have been diverted to bicycle paths, scenic landscape designs, pedestrian walkways, parking garages, and any number of non-highway projects.

This diversion of highway dollars is a bipartisan problem. One of the worst excesses of the recent Republican Congress was the 2005 highway bill, which diverted more than $20 billion in federal gas-tax dollars to 6,373 pork-barrel earmarks — including the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere,” pedestrian and bike trails, and new park signs. Many of the earmarks were for roads and legitimate bridges. But the very nature of the earmarking process results in the substitution of one lawmaker’s political judgment for the priorities of the state officials on the ground. Even those seemingly reasonable earmarks are not properly prioritized.

The change in congressional control does not appear to have improved matters. The Democratic majority’s first opportunity to set transportation funding priorities came with this year’s transportation appropriations bill. Yet that bill fails to prohibit funding for any of the earmarks authorized in the 2005 highway bill. It also spends an additional $2.2 billion on another 1,400 earmarks, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense.

The evidence could not be clearer: Motorists are not receiving good value for their federal gas-tax dollars. Under these circumstances, it would be insane to entrust any additional transportation dollars to Congress by way of a higher gas tax.

In the best-case scenario, Congress would eliminate earmarks and dedicate existing highway funds to urgent infrastructure needs. But if Congress is incapable of such fiscal responsibility, the federal gas tax should in fact be cut, which would grant states greater control over the maintenance of their highways and bridges.

U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett (R., N.J) will soon reintroduce legislation that would accomplish this goal in a very elegant way. His bill would allow states to opt out of the federal gas tax and raise their own gas taxes with a cent-for-cent offset in the federal tax. States would be permitted to shift as much as 16.4 cents of the 18.4 cent tax to the state level, with a minimum of 2 cents remaining to fund projects that are necessarily federal in scope. This approach would allow decisions on transportation priorities to be made at the state level — far away from political manipulation in Washington.

State transportation systems are hardly perfect, but the federal system is so badly broken that it’s hard to imagine Garrett’s formula not being an improvement. Moreover, shifting power to the states will allow the states to compete with each other and serve as laboratories of innovation.

The federal highway system is rife with abuse, thanks in good part to the political diversion of funds through earmarking. Increasing the federal gas tax in this environment should be off the table, while cutting it should be on. Congress must either demonstrate its ability to administer highway funds without pork-barrel earmarking, or give the states an opportunity to manage their own highway funds.


— Phil Kerpen is policy director for Americans for Prosperity.

TxDOT steps over legal line

Link to article here.

TxDOT toll efforts rapped
01/23/2008
By Peggy Fikac
Express News
Austin Bureau

AUSTIN — A state Senate committee chairman said Wednesday the Texas Department of Transportation may have stepped over a legal line as it pushes the controversial Trans-Texas Corridor and toll roads.
"There is a possibility they may well have crossed a legal threshold because of the restrictions that exist in lobbying by state agencies," said Sen. John Carona, Transportation and Homeland Security Committee chairman.

"The even greater issue is just why they would continue with an agenda that is so unpopular with the public. That is the most distressing thing of all," Carona, R-Dallas, said after an anti-toll activist group released documents obtained from TxDOT in an ongoing lawsuit against agency officials.


The TxDOT documents include invoices from a firm that the agency contracts with totaling $63,450 including lobbyists and a poll, and an e-mail on "draft quotes" sent to local officials for their approval or edits.

The poll was conducted by Baselice & Associates. Mike Baselice also is Gov. Rick Perry's pollster.

Noting a Feb. 5 joint hearing on TxDOT by his committee and the Senate Finance Committee, Carona said, "TxDOT has a lot of explaining to do.

"In this next legislative session, I look to see even tighter reins placed upon TxDOT and the commission by both the House and the Senate, and I think that's regrettable" because it shows a loss of trust, he said.

Ted Houghton of the Texas Transportation Commission, which oversees TxDOT, said he's confident the agency hasn't violated the law as it works to secure resources and inform the public.

"We rely on outside expertise to guide us and help us," said Houghton, of El Paso.

Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, or TURF, contends in its lawsuit that TxDOT officials violated a ban on lobbying and on using their authority for political purposes.

The lawsuit was sparked by the agency's estimated $7 million to $9 million Keep Texas Moving campaign to promote toll roads and the proposed highway network, both championed by Perry, who appoints the Transportation Commission. The lawsuit also was fueled by agency efforts to get more state tolling authority from the federal government.

Backers of the corridor and tolls say they're necessary in the face of congestion and insufficient gas-tax revenues. Critics have blasted the potential corridor route and the state's partnering with private firms to run toll roads, which lawmakers sought to rein in last year.

The state agency is holding a series of public meetings on the corridor, and TURF used one as a forum to release the documents.

The documents "show a concerted, premeditated effort on the part of our highway department to directly lobby elected officials, which is against the law. They are pushing a political agenda and legislation that would give them the Trans-Texas Corridor and privatized toll roads and an open door to an endless revenue stream from Texas taxpayers and motorists," said TURF's Terri Hall of San Antonio.

Schlafly: It’s Still the Economy, Stupid

Wonder how free trade, college, and jobs relate to toll roads? Our Nation's so-called "free trade agreements" are the reason why the Trans Texas Corridor is being built and handed over to a foreign company (Cintra) to reap MEGA profits for the next 50 years. China and multi-national corporations want a new trade corridor to ship cheap Chinese goods into the U.S. at Texas taxpayers' expense.

The project requires 580,000 acres of private Texas land to benefit Cintra and China, not Texans. It's the worst eminent domain abuse EVER to befall our country. So in the name of "free trade," we're now sending so many high paying jobs overseas, that the expensive college education you just mortgaged your home to pay for was for nothing. U.S. News and World Report is now suggesting those students take blue collar jobs. This election year we can this to the mantra: it's the jobs, stupid!

It's Still the Economy, Stupid
By Phyllis Schlafly
Monday, January 21, 2008

Bill Clinton was elected president in 1992 using James Carville's slogan "It's the economy, stupid." The Democrats thus capitalized on a temporary economic recession during the last year of George H.W. Bush's administration.

Could 2008 be a repeat performance? The falling stock market, rising unemployment, skyrocketing oil prices, subprime mortgage collapse and the Michigan recession have moved to front and center in the primaries.


Will the Republicans get it? Or will they just keep mouthing their tired mantras about free trade, the global economy, the world is flat, we have to be more competitive, send more students to community colleges and teach more math and science?

Will the Democrats get it, or just keep mouthing their Big Government mantras that we need more taxpayer-paid social services? The liberal New York Times calls on us to "embrace globalization," and to compensate for job losses (which it speaks of with elitist disdain as "dislocations") by extended unemployment benefits, more progressive taxation, tax-paid lifetime retraining of workers, socialized medicine and more income handouts to low-wage workers through the Earned Income Tax Credit.

The private-enterprise system did not cause the loss of jobs. It's the result of bad U.S. policies and one-sided trade agreements that allow foreign governments to discriminate against American workers and products.

It's a very bad U.S. policy to invite millions of illegal aliens to come into the U.S., take low-wage jobs and cash in on the social benefits that U.S. taxpayers generously provide to low-income households (estimated by the Heritage Foundation at a net cost of $20,000 per year).

It's also a very bad U.S. policy to tolerate the H-1B and L-1 racket that is bringing in hundreds of thousands of skilled foreigners, particularly from Asia, to take jobs away from Americans. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, says that the H-1B program is "now replacing the U.S. labor force."

The public is falsely led to believe that only 65,000 H-1B visas are permitted per year to take jobs for which no American can be found. The true figure is closer to 400,000 annually, because the number is increased by an additional 20,000 foreigners who get graduate degrees from U.S. universities, by foreigners who are completely exempt from the count because they work for research, educational or non-profits, and by 315,000 L-1 visas for which there is no cap at all.

The specific purpose of L-1 visas is to allow multinational companies to transfer managers and specialists within the company for a limited time. The high number now issued annually indicates that the multinationals are abusing L-1s as a back door to bring in lower-paid workers, not for a legitimate rotation of managers and specialized employees.

Tata Consultancy, for example, obtained 4,887 L-1s in fiscal 2006. Tata refused to answer questions from the tech journal InfoWorld, which called the H-1B/L-1 racket the fifth-most-underreported tech story of 2007.

Neither the H-1B nor the L-1 foreigners are expected to take permanent jobs or to get residency in the United States. But no one keeps track of whether or not they go home when their visas expire.

We can thank YouTube for posting on the Web a portion of a conference at which immigration lawyers train employers on how to sidestep immigration law. The blunt advice dished out by Lawrence Lebowitz of Cohen & Grigsby was: "Our goal is clearly not to find a qualified U.S. worker. ... Our objective is to get this person a green card."

Lebowitz also advised employers to find a place to advertise for U.S. workers where you will be "complying with the law" but hoping "not to find qualified and interested worker applicants."

Jobs losses are also caused by unfair trade agreements signed by our government that encourage corporations to close U.S. plants and move their production overseas. Chinese laborers, working under slave-labor conditions, can be hired for 30 cents an hour.

In addition to the advantage of cheap labor, our trade agreements permit massive product discrimination against us. Foreign governments are allowed to subsidize the goods they export to us, but are also allowed to impose heavy taxes on goods they import from us.

Free trade was supposed to result in a mutual reduction of tariffs so goods can move freely around the world. It didn't work out that way because our trade agreements do not require a level playing field.

The United States cut our tariffs, but foreign countries substituted border taxes that are just as high as the tariffs they supposedly eliminated. They hide these border taxes under the moniker "value added tax," and it adds up to playing us for Uncle Sucker.

Now that millions of Americans have lost the good jobs they thought had put them on the path to living the American dream, the voters are waking up. Presidential candidates beware: We want to know what you will do to protect American jobs.

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