Some veterans to get free ride on toll roads

Link to article here.

When certain groups of a special status get free rides on toll roads, there will be no end to the groups seeking a way out of paying this new tax on driving -- brought to you by Texas Governor Rick Perry and the Texas legislature. In many cases, carpoolers get a free or discounted ride on toll roads, those with electric cars sought a free ride on toll roads, now some veterans will get a free ride on toll roads. We think ALL Texas taxpayers should be spared this punitive new tax on driving and return to a freely accessible public roads for ALL. Tolls restrict our freedom to travel, period.

Bill would require free toll roads for some veterans
By Ben Wear
Austin American Statesman
March 6, 2013

Four years after the Legislature passed a law allowing wounded and disabled veterans to drive for free on toll roads, about half of Texas’ nearly two dozen tolled roads and bridges are still charging them for passage.

A House bill set for its first hearing Thursday could eliminate that practice by simply changing one word in the statute — “may” to “shall.” State Rep. Abel Herrero, D-Corpus Christi, who carried the 2009 bill allowing toll agencies to discount or forgive tolls for veterans who are officially disabled, were awarded a Purple Heart or a Medal of Honor, now believes the option needs to become a mandate.

Trans Texas Corridor redux? I-69 presses forward

Whether they call it a different name or not, I-69 is Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69 and needs to be done as a free interstate or not at all. The primary purpose is to move freight, not people, and trucks have already proven with their wheels that they won't take a toll road. Look no further than the failing SH 130 bypass around Austin. Any day of the week, any time of the day, two lanes of I-35 remain stacked with 18 wheelers who refuse to pay $50 one way to bypass congestion by taking SH 130. They'll sit in congestion rather than lose that much money taking toll roads. Even worse, the original intent was to make TTC-69 a foreign-owned toll road where the taxation is in the hands of a foreign company who charges much higher toll rates.

Officials seeking progress on I-69 planning
By Peggy Fikac and Dug Begley
February 7, 2013
San Antonio Express-News

AUSTIN — An ambitious multibillion-dollar effort to push forward a new interstate spanning Texas was highlighted at the Texas Capitol on Wednesday as lawmakers struggle with transportation funding needs.

The Texas leg of the Interstate 69 project would stretch from the Lower Rio Grande Valley to Texarkana, tracking U.S. 77 and U.S. 281 in South Texas and U.S. 59 in the Houston area north.
Officials called the project, estimated to cost $16 billion in some mix of primarily state and federal money, important to safety and economic development as goods move north to the Midwest and northeast.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Officials-seeking-progress-on-I-69-planning-4257510.php#ixzz2Mj0RRNgh

When all else fails in the Texas legislature - toll, toll, toll

Link to article here.

Charging Texans an extra 15 cents to 75 cents per mile to get to work, isn't fiscally conservative or sustainable. Taking away existing free roads by slapping tolls on them and building those toll projects with tax & fee money, so the road is 100% paid for, is highway robbery. No one should have to pay a toll to drive on it, period. Ebullient politicians gleefully announced their double tax rip-off. Texas doesn't have a road policy -- it has tolls, tolls, tolls by default and lack of leadership.

Those who have tried to solve the problem with higher taxes, get cut-off at the knees, yet what are tolls if not a Texas-sized tax increase -- by unelected boards to boot? Tolls are the MOST expensive and unaccountable way to fund roads. It's time for government to tighten its belt. Texans are sick and tired of being asked to bail out our politicians from their bad decisions and their refusal to properly fund a core function of government -- building roads!

Wear: If all else fails (politically), toll
By Ben Wear
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Austin American Statesman

Listening to transportation officials last week extol the virtues of what will be Austin’s seventh tollway, I couldn’t help but think of John Carona.

Carona, make that state Sen. Carona, is a Dallas Republican who just about broke his legislative pick in 2009 trying to get a “local option” transportation bill into state law. His measure, which passed the Senate, would have allowed county commissioners in urban areas to ask voters to OK a local gas tax or to increase existing automobile fees. The point was to raise money for local transportation projects.

Bill would mandate all streets be 'complete'

Link to article here.

No matter how you slice it, 'complete streets' are Agenda 21 and sustainable development initiatives designed to be anti-car by mandating streets accommodate bikes and pedestrians at the expense of drivers. Bikes can already lawfully share all roads, so this really seeks to give cyclists special lanes all their own. It's also resulted in shrinking the existing footprint for autos in order to re-do our streets for bike lanes and sidewalks. Since 99% of all travel is done by vehicle, such a law would use scarce resources to re-structure our roads for hike & bike lanes only 1% of travelers use.

And this bill would leave it up to an un-elected Transportation Commission as to how to decide what defines a 'complete street,' not our elected officials.

A Texas Lawmaker Wants Every New or Redone Street in the State to Be "Complete"
By Eric Nicholson
February 8, 2013
Dallas Observer

In November, Mayor Mike Rawlings took a stroll down Bishop Avenue to inaugurate its status as a complete street, the term of art for roadways designed as much to welcome pedestrians, cyclists and small-scale retail as to accommodate cars. It was a consummation of sorts of the city's prolonged flirtation with the concept.

But if you thought the embrace of a generally hidebound bureaucracy like Dallas meant the whole complete-streets thing had jumped the shark, you'd have been wrong. It had only partially jumped the shark. Now, the Texas legislature could push it the rest of the way.

MoPac toll project bid comes in under estimates

Link to article here.

Instead of return the excess money for the project to build other badly needed highway improvements eleewhere, they plan to spend it on 'enhancements.' This is what happens when you have unelected toll boards in charge of building public highways -- they spend, spend, spend and only think of how to keep their doors open and feed their own bureaucracy, not provide affordable travel with our scarce tax dollars.

Contract for MoPac toll lanes lower than expected
By Ben Wear
Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013
American-Statesman Staff

The low bid for adding express toll lanes to North MoPac Boulevard came in well below expectations, toll authority officials said Wednesday, allowing engineers to consider up to $20 million in enhancements to the project.

The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority board awarded the contract for final design and construction of the 11-mile project Wednesday to a consortium led by the Colorado-based engineering firm CH2M Hill. The $136.6 million bid was more than $62 million below the second-lowest of the three bids submitted, and about $33 million below the mobility authority’s estimate of $170 million.

Cost of cars becoming out of reach for many Americans

Link to article here.

San Antonio, TX is listed among those cities with incomes that can least afford a car payment for the average cost of a new car. Adding tolls to Texans' daily commute will not solve the affordability of driving problem our nation faces, yet that's the de facto transportation policy in Texas and many other states - tolls and debt to fund roads since the gas tax is a fixed amount and has not kept pace with inflation and is no longer adequate to fund road expansion or even to maintain our state highway system.

It's time to re-think the punitive taxation involved in tolling, and look to dedicating other existing taxes on roads and vehicles (that are being to diverted to other purposes) solely to transportation to ensure roads are adequately funded without tax increases that hurt Texans and our economy.

New Cars Increasingly Out of Reach for Many Americans
By Paul Eisenstein
NBC News
Wed., Feb. 27, 2013

Looking to buy a new car, truck or crossover? You may find it more difficult to stretch the household budget than you expected, according to a new study that finds median-income families in only one major U.S. city actually can afford the typical new vehicle.

The typical new vehicle is now more expensive than ever, averaging $30,500 in 2012, according to TrueCar.com data, and heading up again as makers curb the incentives that helped make their products more affordable during the recession when they were desperate for sales.

Cintra's concession fees go to feeder roads to SH 130

Link to article here.

TxDOT has worked a deal to spend the $100 million concession fee it received for increasing the speed limit on SH 130 to 85 MPH for non-priority projects. I use the interchange at I-10 & Hwy 46 in Seguin frequently and it may have a bump in truck traffic, but nowhere near the gridlock of the 100 Most Congested Roads. Both of these projects serve as feeders to Cintra's toll road. So basically Cintra's payment helped itself.

Also note, despite a whole lot of legislators claiming you can't toll existing roads in Texas, TxDOT does it routinely (note plans to convert existing Hwy 71 in Austin to toll lanes with Cintra's money, leaving frontage roads as the non-toll as they allowed Cintra to do to Hwy 183 in Lockhart to build its SH 130), which is why HB 1054 needs to pass to protect taxpayers from such outrageous double taxation.

TxDOT revives Texas 71 tollway project
By Ben Wear
Austin American Statesman
Wed., Feb. 27, 2013

The Texas Department of Transportation, in part using money generated by the Texas 130 tollway, has revived dormant plans to build toll lanes on Texas 71 from near Austin-Bergstrom International Airport to Texas 130.

Officials estimate the 2-mile-long project, which could begin before the end of 2014, will cost about $140 million and take two years to complete.

Texas DMV selling driver's personal information

Link to blog here.

There's growing concern that our personal information is being sold or divulged without our permission by any number of government or private institutions. Now there's proof that the Texas DMV has indeed been selling Texans' private personal information to a plethora of businesses with a keen interest in driver information -- over $2 million/yr's worth!

Texas DMV Sells Personal Information To Hundreds Of Companies; Drivers Not Allowed To Opt-Out
Tech Dirt.com
February 13, 2013

Fun, dubious, privacy-violating stuff happening out in Texas where the Dept. of Motor Vehicles has made a tidy sum selling the information it collects (including names, addresses and makes/models owned) to a variety of private companies.

The Texas DMV claims its "top priority" is protecting drivers' information, but that hardly seems to be the case when it's pulling in $2.1 million a year selling it off. There are protections in place, but they are flimsy at best.

Stealing from Peter to pay Paul? Toll Authority buoys Harris County from rising healthcare costs

Link to article here.

The $1 billion in reserves that the Harris County Toll Authority holds may end up being used for more than just road expansion. With the pressures of unreimbursed healthcare costs to counties rising, road users may end up being the 'gap-funding' of choice to fill holes in the county's budget. Read more about the Harris County Commissioners have already used toll road revenues as their own personal slush fund here.

Harris County is in good shape, but shoulders staggering health care burdens.
Editorial
Houston Chronicle
February 22, 2013

When Harris County Judge Ed Emmett delivers his 2013 State of the County speech to a friendly Greater Houston Partnership audience on Monday, he will be able to say what few others in his position around the nation can. We're in good shape.

But shhhhhh! We're going to need to spend more at the county not merely to keep up, but to anticipate future growth.

The county's position is strong and getting stronger, thanks in large part to a booming economy; but also because of forward-looking decisions made by county leaders across the decades. That's a tradition Emmett aims to continue, and one we strongly support.

Entities such as the Harris County Toll Road Authority help position the county to continue to meet the pressures of a rapidly expanding population at a time when the Texas Department of Transportation is literally going broke. The Toll Road Authority, with its $1 billion in reserves, is a large reason Harris County maintains a AAA bond rating, which shaves millions off of interest expenses annually. This isn't to say that Harris County is problem-free. Far from it.

Eminent domain abuse: Soccer field owner fights off horse park

Link to article here.

Eminent domain for private gain is alive and well in Texas. Texans are supposed to have Constitutional protection from this, yet here it is.

Soccer field owner battles Dallas plan for horse park
By JONATHAN BETZ
WFAA
February 17, 2013

DALLAS — Activists are fighting efforts by the City of Dallas to seize a private soccer complex to make room for a golf course and equestrian center.

“They’ve just told me they need the land, and they’re going to get it,” said Rhadames Solano.
In December, the City Council approved the use of eminent domain to seize Solano’s 23-acre soccer complex on Elam Road near Interstate 45 and Loop 12.

Republicans try to sell Texas Capitol to developers for commercial development

Link to article here.

It shows how far off their rockers Republicans have gone...they're actually considering selling off the Capitol, the PEOPLE'S building, in a public private partnership (P3) for commercial developers to wreak havoc with and profit from, including a 47-story building, grocery stores, and tearing down the ONLY public parking garage to make way for condos!

Note that it's primarily Democrats opposed this nonsense, though they're without excuse since they all voted for this disastrous bill (that TURF tried to stop, SB 1048), which opened the floodgates to P3s with NO oversight, accountability, or ANY input from lawmakers or the public.

Guess they had to pass the bill before they knew what was in it!

Legislators addressing development in Capitol complex
By Laylan Copelin
American-Statesman Staff
February 17, 2013

Concerns about plans to build out the Capitol complex have some lawmakers reconsidering the role of public-private partnerships, including changes in state law that could afford Austin neighborhoods some protection from commercial development on state lands.

Public-private partnerships — commonly called P3s — aren’t going away, but powerful legislators are telling Terry Keel, executive director of the Texas Facilities Commission, that the controversial financing option might not be right for the heart of the Capitol complex.

New technology transforms driving

Link to article here.

New technology unveiled at Texas forum transforms driving
By Terri Hall
February 21, 2013
Examiner.com

From Google’s self-driving car to harnessing electromagnetic induction to power buses and cars with clean energy, the eighth annual Texas Transportation Forum held in Austin left industry gurus breathless with new possibilities for transportation as smart technology merges with mobility.

Scott Belcher, President and CEO of Intelligent Transportation Society of America, moderated a panel of cutting-edge companies whose innovative technology isn’t just an idea, but is actually deployed on the ground and transforming the way we drive in the 21st century.

The wave is coming: Trade and debt will overwhelm Texas absent new funding

Link to article here.

The wave is coming: Trade and debt will overwhelm Texas absent new funding
By Terri Hall
Examiner.com
February 18, 2013

The eighth annual Texas Transportation Forum hosted by the Texas Transportation Institute and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) kicked off yesterday in Austin with all eyes on the future - the future of international trade in light of the Panama Canal expansion, the future of road funding, and even the future of driving (like driverless cars).

The big question the Panama Canal discussion tried to answer was whether or not Texas is ready for the coming tidal wave of trade and super-barges (and cargo that will be off-loaded onto super-trucks). The answer is ‘yes’ and ‘no.’

Video nails lawmakers with road debt, presses them to stop tolls

Texas Future has put together a terrific ad to target certain transportation lawmakers with one message: no more toll roads, nor more debt, get back to pay as a you go and let the people decide how they want freeways funded.

Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc8ia96Vxgc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Straus to turn to 'Gang of Seven' on transportation funding ideas

Link to article here.

The 'options' are real easy: dedicate the tax revenues we ALREADY PAY to roads. like vehicles sales tax that's going to general revenue, not to roads. That's $3 billion/yr, TxDOT needs $4 billion. So this coupled with ending gas tax diversions, which is close $1 billion, and we're there.

Texas House has ‘Gang of Five, Six or Seven’ to spearhead transportation solutions
By Rodger Jones
Dallas Morning News
February 13, 2013

Expect Texas House Speaker Joe Straus to turn to a nucleus of members versed in transportation policy to come up with and evangelize for funding solutions for highways.

One observer referred to it as the Gang of Five. One of the five told me it’s more like seven, to start with. The idea is for members to form up a package of revenue options that could be roped together into legislation. The idea also is to keep adding members to the Gang and get momentum for finding real money.

Loop 1604 toll lanes put on hold

Expansion of Loop 1604 hits another roadblock
By Vianna Davila
Updated 1:13 am, Friday, February 15, 2013

Any possible expansion of Loop 1604 between Bandera Road and Interstate 35 will be on hold longer than expected because a federal environmental study could take another three years to finish, Alamo Regional Mobility Authority officials said Thursday.

The study, called an environmental impact statement, must be completed before any major construction on that part of the corridor can occur.

The Loop 1604 EIS was scheduled to be done this year but won't be finished until 2016.

The lengthy delay is based on estimates by Michael Baker Jr. Inc., the environmental consulting firm handling the study for the Alamo RMA and the Texas Department of Transportation.

Firm consultants readjusted the timeline after the Federal Highway Administration said late last month the study needed to be partly restarted because the scope of the project had changed.

The FHWA has the ultimate say over the study.

Read more here.

Washington citizens seek ballot measure to ban freeway tolls

Link to article here.

Washington: Group Proposes Statewide Initiative To Ban Freeway Tolls
Initiative filed in Washington state would outlaw the tolling of interstate highways.
The Newspaper.com
February 14, 2013

SR167 toll laneActivists in Washington state want voters to decide whether interstate highways should ever be converted into toll roads. An initiative filed on Tuesday with the secretary of state's office would repeal provisions in state law that promote the use of tolling and force full disclosure of information on existing and proposed projects. About 330,000 signatures would be needed to guarantee the measure a spot on an upcoming ballot.

Slash in toll rates attracts bump in trucks using SH 130

Link to article here.

TxDOT claims a 57% jump in trucks using SH 130 when they are offered the auto rate. A 57% jump from a base number of not too many in the first place, is still a far cry from the revenues needed to make SH 130 financially solvent.

Even with an uptick of trucks on SH 130, all I see twice a week when I drive I-35 is two lanes of bumper-to-bumper big rigs. SH 130 may be gaining a small percentage of trucks temporarily, but with diesel at over $4/gallon, the high speed (85 MPH, which means you blow extreme amounts of gas) on SH 130, and the distance one takes out of the way, it costs a whole lot more than $11 to take this bypass.

Toll cut on Texas 130 entices more big rigs
By Ben Wear
American-Statesman staff
February 13, 2013

The number of big rigs using the Texas 130 tollway has jumped almost 57 percent in the eight days since tolls for multi-axle vehicles were cut by two-thirds, Texas Department of Transportation officials said Wednesday.

Cars and pickups also are using the toll road in greater numbers, compared with the same period a year ago, even though tolls for those vehicles are unchanged, said James Bass, TxDOT’s chief financial officer.

Congress explores vehicle miles traveled tax

Link to article here.

Can a miles-traveled tax finance infrastructure?
By Burgess Everett
February 6, 2013
Politico

Imagine paying into the nation’s roads and bridges based on how far you drive each year, rather than how much gasoline you consume.

That future is not far off, transportation experts and some lawmakers say. But the United States has not yet fully committed to researching a replacement for the outdated federal gasoline tax, which increasingly brings in fewer dollars relative to the trillions in investment needed for roads, rails and ports.

The main impediment thus far to a vehicle-miles-traveled fee: It’s easily cast as a policy that will bring more government intrusion and the specter of Big Brother.

TxDOT tells lawmakers of funding crisis

Link to article here.

TxDOT Tells Lawmakers Funding Crisis Around the Corner
By Aman Batheja
Texas Tribune
February 4, 2013


After funding billions of dollars in roadwork through debt over the last decade, the Texas Department of Transportation is two years away from a severe drop in funding unless lawmakers find more cash, agency officials said at a budget hearing Monday.

TxDOT Chairman Phil Wilson told the Senate Finance Committee that the agency is at a crucial turning point as large state bond programs are set to hit their limit by 2015.

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