Author: Terri Hall

VICTORY AT MPO! Vote to table approval of long-range plan until it addresses board members (and PUBLIC's) concerns!

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Read news article on the vote here.Commissioner Tommy Adkisson gets superhero status after today’s Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) meeting. He with the help of Via’s Melissa Castro Killen and even some comments by Councilwoman Elena Guajardo tilted the vote in our favor to get our first REAL VICTORY at the MPO! Guess what did it, folks? Diligence, perseverance, and unrelenting public pressure…particularly the MASSIVE turnout at recent Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) hearings and the Bandera Rd. public meeting where all ordinary citizens were in 100% opposition to the proposed toll plans.

Here’s the scoop…

Commissioner Adkisson again requested that the Chair, Councilman Richard Perez, move citizens to be heard to the beginning of the meeting. One of our supporters, ardently opposed to the TTC, Jimmy Lamberth of Wilson County, spoke first with very sincere and passionate remarks against the corridor. Thank you, Jimmy, for traveling so far to come testify today.

Then, I gave my lengthy comments (thank you to all who came and donated their time so I could share my entire 20 minute statement uninterrupted) before the rest of the meeting commenced. When Item #8 came was addressed, Commissioner Adkisson really stuck his neck out there (and thensome) and expressed his discomfort with the Trans Texas Corridor even appearing in the San Antonio long-range plan since it’s technically outside their jurisdiction anyway. He said he attended the East Central High School Corridor hearings and heard the oppposition loud and clear and recognized that adopting this plan as is would be a political loser (trying to hint to fellow elected officials on the Board to follow suit; it’s the politicians on the Board, not the appointees who will hang for supporting this).

Perez and acting MPO Executive Director Syd Martinez tried to continually steer the Board back to accepting the plan without modifications trying to make it sound as if including toll lanes and the TTC in the plan didn’t mean an endorsement of it (think again Mr. Perez!). The duo opined about the inconvenience of including public input on projects (THAT WE PAY FOR), and the inconvenience of removing the TTC and toll lanes from the long range plan as Adkisson insisted upon.

Melissa Castro Killen also echoed Adkisson’s sentiments about the total opposition from the publlic on the toll lanes like Bandera Rd. She communicated how powerful the 450 people filling the room for the Bandera Rd public meeting was in and of itself, and again emphasized the universal opposition expressed by the public. She contended with Perez’ contention that including the tolls in the plan wasn’t an endorsement of it, she wisely stated anything in writing will be an endorsement of tolls in the public’s mind regardless of Perez’ opinion, and he knows it. It was just political manuvering to pass the vote before the opposition gained ground.

Commissioner Adkisson then put forth a motion (that did get a second) to remove the TTC and tolls on I-35 from the long range plan, period. I kept waiting for Commissioner Larson to chime in and ask that 281/1604 and Wurzbach in his precinct also be removed (though this TMMP Plan already assumed the current adopted toll roads would alreayd be built, this was $18 billion in ADDITIONAL “unmet needs”). But Perez didn’t take it to a vote. He and side kick Martinez started up again as to how “unrealistic” Adkisson’s request was to the region.

Then, Councilwoman Elena Guajardo, District 7, whose constituents live in the Bandera Rd proposed toll corridor pathway, brought up concerns that if she knew nothing about San Antonio, she would look at this document and not see one word of mention about the feelings and opposition of the populace. It gives the impression that “everything’s hunky dory” and that the public is on board, which is clearly NOT the case. Then Perez and Martinez tag teamed it again trying to complain how inconvenient it would get to go to the public for input on all of these projects (sounds like RMA Chair Bill Thornton). Excuse me, but federal law requires they do get public input on road projects from affected residents, that’s what the public hearing process is all about not to mention we, the TAXPAYERS, pay the bills! This is the attitude of an elected official toward the taxpayers of Bexar County!

Dr. Syd Ordway, who also represents Via, had apparently had enough of the constant stonewalling by Perez and blurted out with a very authoritative tone a motion to TABLE THE VOTE UNTIL THE CONCERNS OF THE BOARD MEMBERS WERE ADDRESSED and then he named them, Adkisson, Castro, Guajardo. Adkisson quickly gave a second and after yet more mumblings by Perez and Martinez about how TxDOT wouldn’t like this sort of delay (this is all being rushed through by an artificially imposed deadline from TxDOT, can you say, tyring to get it done prior to November 7…to that we say, who cares if TxDOT doesn’t like it?! TxDOT and the MPO work for us not the other way around!) he finally took it to a vote.

FOR tabling the TMMP Plan adoption:

Commissioner Tommy Adkisson (hero in chief)
Commissioner Lyle Larson
Commissioner Chico Rodriguez
Councilwoman Elena Guajardo (stepping out to represent her constituents’ interests)
Councilmen Richard Perez (you read that right, Perez, toller in chief on the MPO, could see he was losing the vote and jumped on the right side of the tracks)
Tom Wendorf (City Public Works)
Amy Madison (she, too, jumped on the right side when the outcome was inevitable)
Melissa Castro Killen (warrior princess, we mean that as a compliment!)
Dr. Syd Ordway
AGAINST tabling the TMMP Plan adoption:

Clay Smith (TxDOT)
Jack Leonhardt (Mayor of Windcrest), votes against the PEOPLE EVERY chace he gets, time to check his campaign records, they could explain his unwavering loyalty to the road lobby
Abstentions:

Al Notzon (Bexar County appointee)
Notably absent:

State Rep. Carlos Uresti (though he sent a staffer, but he couldn’t cast a vote)
State Rep. Joe Straus
Councilman Chip Haass
Councilman Art HallThat’s HALF of the elected officials who didn’t attend! These MAJOR decisions are largely being sloughed off onto politcial appointees, with NO ACCOUNTABILITY TO THE VOTERS!

Toll Party asks MPO to reject TxDOT's mythical "funding gap"

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Toll Party MPO Statement
MPO TMMP Plan based on flawed projections
Plan would require more than $10,000 in NEW TAXES for EVERY person in San Antonio

Thousands of San Antonians ask you to vote NOT to approve the Texas Metropolitan Mobility Plan (TMMP) Plan Update in its current form and seriously evaluate the SMP projects in the TIP to reverse the trend of this MPO being at the bottom of the list of MPOs for STP-MM spending for transit, pedestrian, and bicycle facilities. At least 5% of the STP-MM funds should be set aside for transit purposes so that VIA can accommodate the growth in ridership. Since highway use is declining, this is a rational use of resources.

Now about the traffic projections in the TMMP report. The figures used as the basis for all of the region’s future transportation plans, are flawed. The Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) is actually withholding its congestion index for this year to rework their faulty approach since at least three states no longer recognize TTI’s index as valid.

TTI index is flawed because:
• Uses estimates not actual measurements
• Too many assumptions to convert limited traffic counts into annual travel delay for a region
• CA, FL, WA prefer to measure actual travel times and actual delays rather than use TTI estimates
• No correlation with highway supply
• TTI has, itself, abandoned their own approach – no report this year

From what we can tell, the entire TMMP report is based upon these flawed congestion projections. Secondly, the travel time index is problematic in and of itself since we’ll likely NEVER be able to build enough freeway lanes to allow every motorist a free flowing commute at top speeds during peak hours as is the stated goal on page 13 when over million people pack the freeways all at once to go to work. Since that’s the stated baseline comparison for the travel time index, it, too, is unrealistic and far too costly, if not impossible to actually achieve.

In fact, Toll Road News, a pro-toll news site by Peter Samuel, published a piece that says this about traffic forecasts and planners:

“Accurate forecasts do not serve their (planners) purposes because they are more interested in using numbers to promote the project…forecasting results in a make-believe world of misrepresentation that makes it extremely difficult to decide which projects deserve undertaking and which do not.”

It goes on to say forecasts should be reviewed by independent auditors, benchmarked against comparables, SUBJECT TO PUBLIC SCRUTINY, and even suggested forecasters should share financial responsibility for financial failure from poor forecasts, and that professional and even criminal penalties should be enforced against forecasters who consistently or wilfully misforecast.

Houston transportation analyst Barry Klein and economist Yacov Zachavi rightly point out that congestion is more perception than anything else and it is also self-limiting. People find a way to resolve it on their own. Commuters either move closer to the their jobs, get new jobs closer to home, or telecommute one or more days a week or otherwise reduce the number of commute days per week if congestion is perceived as unacceptable. Truth is, San Antonio’s average commute time is under 30 minutes and has been under 30 minutes for years (a trend found throughout the country). See in the article The Myth of the Long Commute by Randal O’Toole of the Thoreau Institute in Oregon that “Rational commuters will sooner or later seek to escape congestion by changing the location of their homes and/or their jobs.”

San Antonio ranks number 5 in lanes miles per person in the country. We DO NOT LACK roads. This report claims we need over 2,000 more lane miles per person in the next 25 years. That’s absurd on its face! We lack proper planning and proper development of arterial streets to minimize the need to get on a freeway in order to get around. We shouldn’t be seeing school busses on freeways! The TMMP update even admits that San Antonians have to rely more on freeway travel than other cities. When comparing with national data, San Antonians, in fact, have to drive 19% more than citizens in other metro cities and thus spend $854 million on transportation than other residents of large cities.

The emphasis of this report is to just keep building more and more freeways (giving only lip service to other modes of transportation), thereby exacerbating the very problem you’re seeking to solve! Also, the City and County have given developers a free pass on impact fees that would require them to foot a portion of the bill for the infrastructure needs their new development brings to our area. We, the taxpayers, cannot continue to absorb the cost of development. This issue absolutely must be addressed in order to truly solve the transportation needs of the region. Just ask a now unseated State Rep. for the Boerne area what caused many voters to turn on her in that region? She would not vote to make developers pay impact fees causing staggering property tax rates in Kendall County.

REASONS FOR CONGESTION
So let’s look at other causes of congestion. The top 3 reasons for congestion in this country aren’t due to lack of road capacity but accidents, ROAD CONSTRUCTION, and weather. The construction time alone for these projects will clog up our highways with unrelieved gridlock all over town for decades. What is absolutely unbelievable is how TxDOT is bragging it has more projects under contract than ever in the history of SA right now, and yet also claims they’re out of money. Apparently the new funding bringing us from $2.6 billion up to $3.8 billion (as stated on Page 4) isn’t enough. It’s clear it’ll NEVER be enough for TxDOT unless it includes toll roads.

Also, they’re jacking up nearly every parallel road in the City all at once leaving no alternate routes in some cases. San Pedro, Broadway, and Blanco Road (all parallel to US 281) are under construction all at once. It’s inexcusable and shows a total lack of consideration for motorists and residents who rely on those arteries to get around.

It only gives more fodder to those of us who believe TxDOT appears to be purposely CAUSING CONGESTION TO PUSH A POLITICAL AGENDA and is more beholden to road builders than the taxpayers who pay the bills. Ft. Worth for instance, spent a year beefing up parallel roads and public transit before a major freeway reconstruction project. Why isn’t TxDOT doing that here? They should have at least completed Wurzbach Pkwy before breaking ground on the 410/281 interchange. It’s been planned and funding programmed for decades…the residents were promised the completion more than 10 years ago. Then to make matters worse, they tear-up Isom Rd that’s parallel to 410 at the same time the interchange at 281 is under construction and causing more delays than ever in that area. Dave Pasley’s editorial last December echoes our concerns and solutions:

There are “deep flaws in the city’s political and development practices.”
“Ten years ago there was excess capacity on 281 & 1604. Today there is gridlock. How is it possible to screw up these two highway corridors so badly in just 10 years? How can a city without enough traffic to warrant an HOV lane suddenly have so much congestion it needs a toll road?”
HIS SOLUTIONS:
1. Complete the Wurzbach Parkway ASAP.
2. Make San Antonio developers provide a network of arterial streets as they do in Phoenix.

NOT ABOUT CONGESTION RELIEF
Just take a good hard look at this actual toll road that is exactly what TxDOT plans to do on Loop 1604 and 281 (except on 281 those free lanes will be frontage roads, not freeway lanes, under the control of Cintra-Zachry). This will not solve congestion as the TMMP seeks to do, nor will it reduce pollution or do anything other than manipulate congestion for profit and suck-up yet more of the household budget for transportation costs.

A study conducted by the Surface Transportation Project published in June of 2005 shows the two biggest costs for every household since 1984 are housing and transportation and account for 52% of the average family’s budget (or $21,213 a year)…the highest level in 20 years! Now compare that with the median income in San Antonio of only about $36,000 a year and compare it with TxDOT’s claim they need $40,000 from the average family in San Antonio in the next 25 years, and you’ll see this will not only cripple the economy, it’ll tax people into bankruptcy. Their plan is unrealistic and totally unsustainable!

Census data and this study show that healthcare and food combined don’t even match the transportation costs of the average family and this data was collected BEFORE the rise in price of gasoline!

Key Findings in the study:
– Households in regions that have invested in public transportation reap financial benefits from having affordable transportation options, even as gasoline prices rise.
– Lower income households are particularly burdened by higher transportation costs since these expenditures claim a higher percentage of their budgets even if they are spending less.
– Regions with public transit are losing less per household from the increase in gas prices than those without due to investments by federal, state, and local governments in more efficient transportation systems, effectively lowering household transportation expenditures and converting transportation dollars that would otherwise leave the region in the form of higher payments for gasoline to dollars that help pay for local transportation services plus other household expenses.

An overwhelming number of news reports and research studies show that increasing the cost of transportation hurts the economy, including recent testimony from former Fed Chief Alan Greenspan. You cannot grow an economy by increasing the cost of transportation. With gas prices hovering near $3 a gallon and well over that in parts of the state, we are seeing actual data (not assumptions, forecasts, or anecdotal water cooler chats), ACTUAL DATA from the Federal Highway Administration that show that driving is going down and congestion is going down, not up as TxDOT continually claims.

Next, concerned citizens are adamant about removing TxDOT’s version of toll lanes (in the hands of foreign companies, without accountability to taxpayers, and using existing rights of way) from the current plans and any reliance on or endorsement of the widely detested Trans Texas Corridor.

Since the TMMP Update is to identify unmet needs, and we’ve demonstrated how the traffic and congestion indexes are flawed, and how the report does not take other prevailing financially constraining factors into account (like rising price of gasoline, growth rate tapering off, increased transit ridership) that will mitigate congestion, now let’s move into how toll roads cost more than non-toll projects thereby calling into question this claim of $18 billion in unmet “needs.”

TOLL ROADS COST MORE, CALLS TXDOT’S NEEDS LIST INTO QUESTION
First of all, in an August 20 article in the Austin American Statesman it said “The state Transportation Department’s budget has tripled since 1990, including an 80 percent jump from the budget Perry inherited from George W. Bush to this year’s $7.7 billion spending plan.” The Comptroller has stated “this biennium, TxDOT has $15.2 BILLION to spend – up from $7 billion before Perry was promoted to Governor. That is a whopping $8.2 billion more – a 117 percent increase. Perry admits in the Statesman article that they’re using dollar figures gleaned by asking local transportation planners what they would build if money were no object in order to arrive at their outrageous $86 billion supposed “funding gap.” Couldn’t we all come up with exorbitant figures if money were no object? This whole funding gap claim is tantamount to propaganda!

Then, let’s look at a local project. The ORIGINAL plan for 281, 10 lanes and $100 million, now as a toll road 16 lanes and upwards of $200 million. RMA Chair Bill Thornton even claimed it would cost even more than $300 million! On another project, the cost of the toll equipment doubled the cost of building the road. Project after project, we’ve found the same thing…we’re being charged close to twice as much or more to build TxDOT’s version of toll roads, not to mention the 25-35% more in bureaucracy and administration costs to collect tolls, even electronically, and then the 12-19% profit for the private companies.

TxDOT’s “needs” are wish lists by the Governor’s own admission and the local mythical “funding gap” figure of $18 billion ought to be outright rejected and open to public scrutiny before adoption. To put it in perspective, that’s like saying they need more than $10,000 from every man, woman, and child in San Antonio in the next 25 years…that’s from every person in San Antonio, not just motorists, and that’s $40,000 from a family of 4! These figures are absolutely ABSURD and give you more than enough reason to reject it on its face.

Clearly, there are a host of ways to relieve congestion without adding 2,000 more lane miles and 73+ miles of toll lanes. The increased reliance on tolls to fund all these supposed needs are based on flawed projections and indexes. Two state sponsored reports, already vetted by TxDOT in 1999 and 2001 show realistic, less invasive, and more affordable ways to relieve congestion on I-35 and to replace the need for the Trans Texas Corridor through accelerating the Ports to Plains Plan through West Texas to aid in the growing need to transport goods through the State without taking the richest farmland in Texas for the TTC.

Page 23 of the TMMP Update admits that the new inland Port of San Antonio at Kelly is a new destination for massive increases in international trade and a conduit for goods for much of the Nation’s commerce, so why aren’t you insisting the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT help pay for this infrastructure and not disproportionately burden the Texas taxpayer? Also, there is no mention of Prop 1 rail bonds as a revenue source for the $1 billion in rail relocation costs nor the mention of a deal to develop and construct the TTC-35 rail project already in the works with Cintra-Zachry announced in March. San Antonio taxpayers should NOT be expected to pay an additional $1 billion for the relocation of PRIVATE rail lines, for the deregulated rail industry who has recently enjoyed an 83% boost in profits! We have a host of alternatives listed on our web site, many with identified funding sources.

NO REAL DATA TO SUPPORT TXDOT’S TMMP UPDATE AS PROPOSED
The most recent traffic counts TxDOT has are from 2004, before the significant rise in gas prices. They’re using outdated data that doesn’t take a MAJOR shift in fuel prices into consideration. The planned population growth is all on the outskirts of the City, with people now more than ever needing to live closer to their jobs due to gas prices, that growth projection is likely never to materialize. TxDOT’s agenda has been clear…all roads lead to toll roads in the hands of foreign companies. It doesn’t seem to matter what the research and prevailing evidence shows, in TxDOT’s world “it’s toll roads, slow roads or no roads.” El Paso MPO has paved the way for you. They recently rescinded their vote to toll and are challenging TxDOT and not succumbing to their threats.

State Rep. Joe Pickett and MPO Chair in El Paso asked the MPO to approve a plan that builds a Southern Relief Route for less than $200 million and without tolls.

“We can build four highways with the money needed to build one toll road,” Pickett said. “If you don’t put toll lanes on the road, the cost goes down.”

Pickett said he will continue to work against toll roads and the establishment of an RMA because he said El Paso can keep building roads without toll roads and the money is there to make it happen.

NOTE: He confirms what we’ve contended all along, toll roads cost more to build and maintain and there is money there to build needed freeways WITHOUT TOLLS.

The Comptroller has also demonstrated TxDOT has $7 billion available in mobility and revenue bonds right now, today, to build needed infrastructure without TOLLS.

There is overwhelming public opposition to TxDOT’s version of tolling in SA as well. When 900 people show up to a public hearing on the massive toll corridor TTC I-35 project, it can hardly be construed as anything less than a breathless display of public outrage and opposition to TxDOT’s plans! When’s the last time 900 people turned out to ANY government or public hearing in San Antonio? This Board would be wise to take a step back and challenge the flawed data in this TMMP Update before signing onto to such a political and economic loser.

TxDOT would have us believe there is a congestion crisis….the REAL crisis is the price of gasoline and San Antonio’s lack of a viable public transit alternative to help its citizens cope with the rising price of gas (Forbes Magazine lists SA as one of the Top 10 cities hardest hit by high gas prices). This City does not need nor can it afford toll roads, especially those based on flawed and inflated data driven by special interests not ACTUAL DATA. More affordable, less invasive solutions are there, including in plans conducted by the State and already vetted by TxDOT before this shift to tolls. The money, too, is there. If you’re tired of the shell game where there’s money to build toll roads but not free roads or a viable transit system, and you’re ready to stand with the people of San Antonio who you represent, vote NO on the TMMP as proposed!

World Net Daily: American infrastructure for sale

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Link to article here.
America’s infrastructure for sale
By Henry Lamb
World Net Daily
August 26, 2006

The Chicago Skyway Bridge is a 7.8-mile toll road built in 1958 to connect the Dan Ryan Expressway to the Indiana Tollway. In 2004, the facility was leased for 99 years, for a one-time payment of $1.83 billion, to the Skyway Concession Company, LLC, owned by Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte S.A., and Macquarie Infrastructure Group. This same consortium won a 75-year lease for the 157-mile Indiana Tollway for $3.85 billion.Cintra is a Spanish company that has 21 similar highway projects in six countries. Macquarie Infrastructure Group is a wholly owned subsidiary of Macquarie Bank, an Australian corporation with assets in excess of $100 billion.

Cintra has also formed a consortium with Zachry Construction Company in San Antonio, Texas.

In December 2004, the Texas Transportation Commission selected this consortium to develop the Trans-Texas Corridor. The proposal included a bid of $1.2 billion to build and operate the first segment of this facility as a toll road. Zachry Construction Company has invested heavily in political campaigns of key Texas officials.

The Trans-Texas Corridor is a member of the North American SuperCorridor Coalition.

Greg Carey, managing director at Goldman, Sachs & Company told the Texas Transportation Forum last June, that this method of financing should not be limited to highways, but should include airports, bridges, tunnels, parking facilities, ports, rail, water and sewer systems, power facilities, hospitals, government-controlled liquor stores and “… anything else that produces revenue.”

The American Water Works Company, a subsidiary of Germany’s utility mega-corporation RWE, already provides water to 18 million Americans in 29 states.

Carey also told the group that all but 14 states had already changed their laws, or were now considering legislation, to allow this “international” financing of public infrastructure.

This relatively new method of financing infrastructure has excited government officials who see these public/private partnerships as win/win solutions. Government gets an infusion of cash and is relieved of the burden of daily operations. The private sector is eager to invest in long-term projects that promise a payback of as much as 61 times the investment.

But the users don’t win. They get to pay a new tax in the form of tolls, in addition to the gasoline tax that is supposed to provide highways.

The devil, of course, is in the details. Each deal is governed by a contract between appointed government officials and corporate big wheels. There is little or no oversight by elected officials. Each contract determines such things as maintenance, minimum services, prices charged for services, concessions offered along the tollway and every other aspect of the venture. If the public that depends upon the infrastructure facility doesn’t like the performance of the contractor, to whom do they turn for recourse? Elected officials are out of the picture; appointed officials are bound by contract.

The users of the facility are left with whatever they get from the contractor, which inevitably includes gasoline and concession prices that are much higher than those found along non-toll highways, where competition governs prices.

In anticipation of the Trans-Texas Corridor, the Kansas City Southern Lines set up a Mexican subsidiary to purchase the National Railways of Mexico, with 2,600 miles of track that reaches to Mexico’s ports in Veracruz and Lazaro Cardenas.

These ports are owned by another international mega-corporation: the Chinese Hutchison Whampoa Limited. This company has globally strategic locations in 21 countries throughout Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the Americas, and operates a total of 251 berths in 43 ports, including the ports at both ends of the Panama Canal.

The so-called “free trade” enthusiasts have no problems with this international ownership of strategic infrastructure. In fact, it is the essence of “globalization” through public/private partnerships. Enthusiasts claim that this transfer of public infrastructure to private partners is the free market at work.

But it is a process that is rapidly erasing the concept of national sovereignty. Is it smart to allow America’s crucial infrastructure to be controlled, if not owned, by foreign companies? Kenneth Orski reports that one of these toll projects in Stockholm has been used as a demonstration project to show that pricing can be an effective way to decrease automobile use and force public transit use.

Are we empowering these public/private partnerships to make and enforce public policy? Are we removing elected officials from responsibility and accountability for infrastructure? Are we building a trap that will ultimately subject American citizens to the whims of the global elite? Are we making a big mistake, selling American infrastructure to the highest international bidder?

America is for sale: Seminar to sell off American infrastructure to be held in NYC

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In June, TxDOT held it’s own seminar of this type announcing “Texas is open for business.” Now it’s a national seminar that we could appropriately call: “America is for sale: come git your piece of the taxpayer fleecing.” It’s all about selling off American infrastructure using these public-private parnerships like the still SECRET deal Rick Perry signed with Spanish-based Cintra and minority partner Zachry Construction in San Antonio.
See the event information, speaker list, and sponsor list here. You’ll see a lot of familiar culprits who make their living feeding at the public trough like Parsons Brinckerhoff (where the former Executive Director of our MPO now works), Transurban (one of the few international toll road infrastructure companies based in Australia), and of course, Cintra. Angry? Vote out every last toller on November 7!

Chavez cozies up to China…so has Bush for his Trans Texas Corridor

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Link to article here.

Who does the Bush Administration think it’s kidding? On the one hand, China and its cozy relationship with our enemies around the world not just in Venezuela, but Somalia, North Korea, and Iran is a security threat, and on the other hand, we’re willing to accept their money, exploit their cheap labor, and take private Texans’ land to build multi-modal transportation corridors to import their cheap goods to the detriment of Americans and American prosperity (which is based on the production of our own goods, not merely transporting another country’s goods, read more here.). A U.S. official even admits in the article that, “China does not believe in free markets and wants to lock up access to them,” and yet our government is doing back door trade agreements (exploiting Mexico’s favorable nation trade status) and building a massive 4,000 mile network of toll roads in the largest land grab in Texas history to benefit a country who “doesn’t believe in free markets and wants to block access to them”?

This is beyond hypocrisy…it’s schizophrenic and dangerous. Like Pat Buchanan said this week it demonstrates that: “The Republican Party, a wholly owned subsidiary of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is in the grip of a cult called ‘Economism.’ It is all about money now. The GOP worships at the ‘Church of GDP’…Powerful Mexican and U.S. elites seek to erase America’s borders and merge the United States and Mexico into a ‘North American Union'” at the risk of our national security, prosperity, and sovereignty!

U.S. eyes Chavez ties to China
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
August 25, 2006

The visit to China by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez this week is being watched closely by U.S. national security officials who are concerned that Beijing is increasing its backing for the leftist leader.

A defense official involved in Asian affairs said the visit to Beijing by Mr. Chavez is part of China’s strategy of forming coalitions aimed at controlling resource markets — in Venezuela’s case, access to oil.

“China does not believe in free markets and wants to lock up access to them,” the official said. He noted that Beijing thinks the United States is trying to block access to international energy and other resources as part of a containment strategy designed to prevent the emergence of a threatening China.

In Beijing yesterday, Chinese President Hu Jintao warmly welcomed Mr. Chavez, who has proposed an ambitious plan for his country to almost quadruple sales to China to 1 million barrels per day in the next decade.

“I believe that, through your visit, the two countries’ cooperation in all aspects can be promoted,” Mr. Hu told the Venezuelan leader at the Great Hall of the People, the Associated Press reported from Beijing.

Mr. Chavez responded by saying that “mutual trust between our two countries has been deepening, and the economic and cultural exchanges have been strengthening.”

Mr. Chavez told reporters that he hoped to be exporting 500,000 barrels of oil per day to China by 2009.
“And in the next decade, we will aim for a million barrels,” he said.

Mr. Chavez also sought and won Beijing’s backing for Venezuela’s bid for a nonpermanent seat on the U.N. Security Council next year, something the Bush administration opposes.

China views souring relations between Washington and Caracas as a strategic opportunity and is cautiously coaxing Mr. Chavez into reducing Venezuela’s current large exports to the United States, the defense official said.

Currently, Venezuela ships about 1.5 million barrels of oil a day to the United States, accounting for about 10 percent of all U.S. oil imports.

The Chavez government earlier this year threatened to curtail oil exports to the United States over concerns that the Bush administration was planning to invade Venezuela or otherwise oust the leftist government.

Mr. Chavez has embarked on a major arms buildup that includes purchases of Russian, European and Chinese weapons.

Richard Fisher, a specialist on the Chinese military with the International Assessment and Strategy Center, noted that Mr. Chavez said earlier this year that he would consider buying Chinese jet fighters in addition to 24 Su-30 fighter bombers purchased as part of a $3 billion deal with Russia.

The first of three advanced long-range air defense radar purchased from China last year are expected to arrive in Venezuela next month, and the Venezuelan military plans to buy as many as seven more JYL-1 radar by next year, U.S. officials said.

Additional weapons purchases likely will be discussed during Mr. Chavez’s meetings with Chinese leaders, including Mr. Hu.

The purchases followed a Bush administration decision to block sales of spare parts from the United States for Venezuela’s F-16 jets.

“Within the next two to three years, China will be able to offer integrated air defense systems, from satellites to [airborne warning and controls systems], to fighters and [surface-to-air missiles], and naval weapons,” Mr. Fisher said.

China’s sale of military equipment to Venezuela appears to contradict a pledge made by Beijing officials to the U.S. government earlier this year.

Thomas A. Shannon, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, told The Washington Times recently that China informed the United States it is “not interested in political or military adventures” in Latin America and other developing areas of the world.

Recent efforts to entice China’s government into joining the United States in helping promote global stability have failed, U.S. officials said. High-level U.S.-China talks aimed at promoting the concept of China joining the United States as a “stakeholder” in world affairs were rebuffed by the Chinese during recent talks with Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoelleck.

There are also concerns that the close ties between Venezuela and Cuba will lead to covert arms supplies from China to Cuba through Venezuela.

China has delivered some military goods to Cuba since the 1990s, according to U.S. officials.

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Toll road barriers make roads less safe

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Link to article here.

Fire Chiefs: Toll Road barriers put some at risk
Officials worry barrels will hamper rescue workers ability to reach crash victims
South Bend Tribune
August 25, 2006

GRANGER (AP) — Fire officials are questioning the safety of barriers recently placed along the Indiana Toll Road’s emergency turnarounds by the highway’s new private operator, warning that they could hamper their ability to reach crash victims.

Maintenance crews for the toll road’s private operator, ITR Concession Co., recently placed barriers of sand-filled barrels along the 157-mile roadway’s emergency turnarounds.

Matt Pierce, a spokesman for ITR Concession, said the barrels were placed along the turnarounds — located on the medians between eastbound and westbound lanes — to prevent unauthorized vehicles from using them and causing accidents.

But Liberty Township Fire Chief Bill Branham and other fire chiefs fear the barrels could threaten emergency responders’ ability to reach crash victims, because the responders will lose precious minutes moving the barrels out of the way.

“Time is of the essence if someone is in a traffic accident with a car on fire or something like that,” Branham said Wednesday.He and other fire chiefs said they were not told about the barrels ahead of time, and only discovered them during the past week.

ITR Concession is a subsidiary of an Australian-Spanish consortium, Macquarie-Cintra, that won the bidding for the roadway’s 75-year tolling rights with a $3.8 billion bid in January.

Branham said his department has had no direct contact with ITR Concession since it took over the toll road’s operation at the end of June.

And Portage Fire Chief Bill Lundy said he only heard about the barrels “through the grapevine.”

He has since inspected those in his territory and said he only got the full story by calling Indiana State Police.Pierce said the center barrels on the turnarounds are filled with only 100 pounds of sand and can be quickly moved by firefighters. But firefighters said it’s not that simple.

For example, Hammond Assistant Chief Pat Moore said large fire trucks on the toll road travel in pairs, with the rear truck slowing traffic so the lead truck has room to swing out and make the turn into the emergency turnaround.

With the barrels in place, both trucks would have to stop, firefighters would have to get out, move the barrels, and get back on.

“It just isn’t so simple or safe,” Moore said.

Pierce said firefighters from St. Joseph, LaGrange and Elkhart counties were briefed Wednesday on the situation and the new barriers at toll road headquarters in Granger.He said all of the barrels will be replaced by the end of September with flexible fiberglass poles with reflectors. Emergency responders will be instructed in how to drive over them.

The decision to place those poles was discussed at the Indiana Toll Road Oversight Board’s Aug. 9 meeting, Pierce said.

Three of board’s seven members are top aides to Gov. Mitch Daniels.

The Aug. 9 meeting was only publicized by a notice posted on the door at toll road headquarters two days before. State officials have promised to better publicize future meetings.

More contradictions or outright lies??? Perry says Trans Texas Corridor already under construction, yet TxDOT claims it's not.

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See the screen grab from his campaign web site that’s now been pulled down here (scroll down to “Improving Transportation”).

Perry’s Contradictions

First Perry claimed the TTC Hearings were to solicit alternatives (read the WOAI story here). Then Comptroller and Gubernatorial candidate Carole Strayhorn delivers viable alternatives even vetted by TxDOT in 1999 and 2001. Then Perry dismisses the alternatives out of hand calling them bad science fiction. Out of one side of his mouth he says the point of the hearings was to solicit alternatives (versus gain public input on the project), and then out of the other side of his mouth through his Transportation Chair Ric Williamson says “the TTC is the ONLY feasible option.” So which is it? Apparently Williamson forgot to check his own department’s previous studies that Strayhorn is now presenting as alternatives to the TTC.

They also claim there are no signed contracts, but it’s public knowledge that there is a SECRET contract with Cintra-Zachry that the Attorney General has ordered opened (read about it here). TxDOT also claimed at the hearings that TTC construction has NOT begun, yet Perry’s own campaign web site said construction began in 2005 (now that text has been removed, see the link to it above). So again, which is it? These are more than contradictions, it seems to be a blatant attempt to mislead the public on just about every aspect of these toll corridors. Bottom line: For Perry, all roads lead to toll roads in the hands of foreign companies. He’s ignoring the public, viable alternatives, and he’s sold out to special highway interests to the detriment of all Texans.

NPR audio of story on national toll road privatization canker

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Link to NPR Audio. Note how former Bush Administration official now Governor of Indiana, Mitch Daniels, claims he has no regrets for handing over the Indiana Toll Road to Cintra-Macquarie (same two biudders for 281/1604 here in SA). What they don’t tell you is his approval ratings have been in the tank ever since, that Indianans are against it by more than 2 to 1, AND they tried to stop in court!

Read more here, here, and here.

TxDOT FLUSH WITH CASH!

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Strayhorn Camp Says Texas Needs Leadership And New Direction

Despite his assertion to the contrary, Gov. Rick Perry’s Texas Department of Transportation has more than enough money to address transportation needs without giving hundreds of thousands of acres of the state to a foreign company and charging drivers tolls, his principle opponent’s campaign said today.

“Perry says the billions and billions and billions of dollars he has to build new roads are not enough,” said Mark Sanders, spokesman for Independent Candidate for Governor Carole Keeton Strayhorn. “It may sound like chump change to him, but Carole knows with real leadership that sets clear priorities we have ample resources to fix our roads. Perry needs to tell Texans the truth.

“This biennium, TxDOT has $15.2 BILLION to spend – up from $7 billion before Perry was promoted to Governor,” Sanders said. “That is a whopping $8.2 billion more – a 117 percent increase. If the Governor can’t figure out how to build freeways with that kind of cash, we need a new governor.

Strayhorn has pointed to $4 BILLION in Texas Mobility Bonds, $3 BILLION in revenue bonds, increased federal dollars and increased tax collection at the state level to build freeways.
“With Carole’s leadership, that money will be spent on common sense projects like expanding IH 35 using existing right of ways, implementing the Ports to Plains plan to ease congestion, and increasing telecommuting,” Sanders said. “Two of those real-world solutions were vetted by TxDOT in 1999 and 2001. Those are realistic solutions to a real problem, not pie-in-the-sky plans that give half-a-million acres of Texas away to a foreign company to builds toll roads and reap profits from hard-earned dollars of Texans.”

“Rick seems to be more interested in taking care of the special interests than listening to the people of Texas,” Sanders said. “He is ignoring Texans, particularly the farmers and ranchers who overwhelmingly oppose his Trans Texas Corridor.”

Sanders said Strayhorn’s plan to appoint an inspector general and ombudsman to oversee TxDOT will help the agency spend the billions it has wisely and get the agency back in touch with the people it is supposed to be serving

“It’s time to change the status quo at the Texas Department of Transportation and put the people back in charge, not the special interests. Under Carole’s leadership, that is exactly what will happen,” Sanders said.

TAKE THE POLL:
“Why do you believe, as Carole Keeton Strayhorn does, that Rick Perry’s Trans Texas Corridor must be stopped?”
Click: www.carolestrayhorn.com/poll

Perry's toll roads a political pothole…let's send him home!

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Link to article here. This also appeared top of the fold on the front page in the Express-News today.

Again, Rick Perry just doesn’t get it. He thinks 14,000 angry Texans turning out to oppose his corridor are just a few ants on an anthill. He thinks the urban areas in Dallas and Houston are all he needs to win re-election, so he’s not concerned with representing ALL Texans and heeding the will of the rest of the state. That sort of thinking may help him sleep at night, but it’s not in the realm of reality.

Perry also dismisses out of hand Strayhorn’s alternative plan, calling it prohibitively expensive and impractical. What does he call his $186 billion corridor if not prohibitively expensive and impractical (making ranchers and school busses go miles out of the way just to get to the other side of this corridor)? Texans certainly recognize the need for relief on I-35, they can oppose the corridor and offer up alternatives, but for Perry, all roads lead to toll roads in the hands of foreign companies. He refuses to consider ANYTHING else, and his explanations are arrogant and ring hollow to an angry and fed-up electorate.
What this article says is that even in Dallas, the people reject the corridor because it’s a massive toll road with NO public vote and little public input (all negotiated in secret). Houston officials rejected Perry’s public highway privatization scheme and voted NO to selling off their tollway to foreign interests. Honestly, Perry has his head in the sand if he thinks Houstonians and Dallas residents are going to give him a free pass on this issue. The corridor and HB 3, a whole new tax on businesses’ gross receipts, will sink him in the urban areas as much as the corridor is sinking him in the rural areas. November 7, Texans are going to send him home!

TRANS-TEXAS CORRIDOR
Perry’s vision for rural highway could become a political pothole
By R.G. RATCLIFFE
Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
Aug. 23, 2006

AUSTIN – One out of every eight votes in Rick Perry’s margin of victory in the 2002 race for governor came from the rural counties along the Interstate 35 path of Perry’s proposed Trans-Texas Corridor.

Now, as he seeks re-election, Perry’s long-range transportation vision may be turning into a political liability for the Republican chief executive.

More than 14,000 Texans — almost all opposed to the Trans-Texas Corridor — turned out at Texas Department of Transportation public hearings this summer to express their displeasure with the highway and the governor.

“I’d like to admit that I made one big mistake in my life. I voted for Rick Perry,” Rogers-area farmer Leonard Cobb testified at one hearing.

All four of Perry’s re-election challengers oppose the corridor. Democrat Chris Bell, independent Kinky Friedman and Libertarian James Werner all have spoken out against it. Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, running as an independent, attended many of the hearings and called the project the “Trans-Texas Catastrophe” while promising to stop Perry’s “land-grabbing highway henchmen.”

One of Perry’s fellow Republicans on the statewide ballot — U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison — also has criticized the project, saying it imposes too heavily on rural landowners.

The Republican Party of Texas in June passed a plank in its platform calling for the repeal of legislation authorizing the Trans-Texas Corridor. The Texas Farm Bureau — a longtime Perry political supporter — wants the state to scrap the project.

The ‘blue line’
A dozen alternative routes for Trans-Texas Corridor 35 are under consideration. The toll road corridor would run parallel to Interstate 35 through rural areas from Oklahoma to Laredo, bypassing city congestion to become the new trade highway.Many of those at the hearings referred to the top alternative on the color map of the Trans-Texas Corridor as the “blue line,” a pathway of eminent domain that would take homes and farms and churches for a toll road that likely would be built by a consortium headed by a Spanish company.

Farmers contend the 600-mile long swath will cause the condemnation of about 136 square miles of land, could divide farms and force rural school buses to go miles out of the way to get from one side of the corridor to the other. Many local officials fear it will remove land from their local property tax base.

“This lipstick has already been put on this pig. Now the only way to stop this boondoggle is to send Rick Perry home in November,” Mark Wilson testified at a Waco hearing.

Texas Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson said the corridor concept is the only feasible means of easing congestion on state highways while guaranteeing future expansion when needed.

“For every 14,000 people who congregate and protest, there are 1.4 million in downtown Dallas and Fort Worth that recognize congestion on 35 is a problem and somebody’s got to do something about it,” Williamson said.

Dallas-Fort Worth area officials have been generally neutral on the corridor concept, but questioned the specific plan because its route bypassed the cities and would have done little to relieve local congestion. Perry last Friday ordered the corridor study to include an alternative route proposed by local officials.

Dallas County Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, a Republican, said he thinks people in the Metroplex would largely oppose the plan because it relies heavily on tolls and has included little public input.

“I dare say, if you took a vote in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, it would be voted down,” he said.

Two on drawing board The Trans-Texas Corridor is actually a series of new transportation corridors proposed across Texas that would be financed and built by private contractors and likely paid for with tolls. The corridors would probably be about 1,200 feet wide, to accommodate separate lanes for truck traffic, passenger traffic, freight rail, commuter rail and utilities.So far only two projects are even remotely on the drawing board. TTC69, which would run from Mexico north past Houston, likely using either the Grand Parkway or Beltway 8 as part of its route, is in the preliminary planning stage.

TTC35, running parallel to Interstate 35, is further along. The state has contracted with a consortium led by the Spanish company Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte to develop a master plan for the corridor. That plan is what has been the subject of public hearings and angst this summer.

“Fourteen thousand people is a nice turnout, but the fact of the matter is we’re looking for input, any better ideas,” Perry said of the hearings.

“Those that came out are just against — you know, the agin’ers. It’s easy to turn out a bunch of people who are just agin a particular project,” the governor said.

Perry said the population growth in the state and traffic congestion demands additional highways and that toll roads are a good way to pay for it. He said most of his political opponents have offered no alternatives, chiding Strayhorn for supporting the expensive double-decking of I-35 without explaining how to pay for it.

“As the chief executive officer of the state, as a person who has laid out a vision … I think it makes sense for most communities. I think it makes sense to build toll roads.”

But the road for Perry’s election may not be that easy on this issue.

‘Got some explaining to do’
On Monday, Strayhorn outlined a plan to scrap the project and improve I-35 in the existing right of way with additional lanes and double decking in places. Perry has contended that double-decking would be prohibitively expensive, but Strayhorn said it would be more appealing to affected Texans.State Rep. Dianne White Delisi, R-Temple, the mother-in-law of Perry’s chief of staff, Deirdre Delisi, appeared at a Temple public hearing to say the state should concentrate on improving traffic flow on I-35 before seriously considering alternative highways through the countryside.

Gene Hall, spokesman for the Texas Farm Bureau, said the farm and ranch organization is supporting Perry because he has been good for agriculture on a wide variety of issues. But he said the Farm Bureau opposes the Trans-Texas Corridor concept not only along I-35 but statewide.

Hall said it is difficult to know whether rural areas will abandon Perry over the issue.

“He’s got some explaining to do as far as the corridor is concerned,” Hall said.

Greg Gerig, a corn farmer and a director of the Blackland Coalition opposed to the corridor, said there is a feeling state officials have been arrogant.

“Perry has in effect said, ‘We don’t care what people at the hearings said; we’re going to build it anyway,’ ” Gerig said.

Perry said he thinks he can persuade voters to look at his entire record.

“If it is just a single-issue person who doesn’t want toll roads, I’ll do everything I can to explain to him why it is good, thoughtful public policy for the entire state of Texas,” Perry said.

“But I hope the vast number of people who go to vote look at an economy that … is doing as well as it has in a decade or better. I’m proud of the record I’ve run on.”