Transportation Commission Chair says toll revenues could pay off rail bond debt…so much for every dollar in tolls going to local roads like the Governor says!

NOTE: Ric Williamson clearly states toll revenues could be used to fund private rail relocation after the Governor promised every dollar in tolls would go to local roads (see it here). Williamson also states gas tax money will be used to fund toll roads….hence admitting their DOUBLE TAX scheme!

Measure spurs debate on funding new tracks
By Gordon Dickson
Fort Worth Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Sunday,October 30, 2005
Edition: Tarrant, Section: News, Page A29

Some say reduced traffic would result; others say it would subsidize railroads. Should taxpayers shoulder the cost of moving rail lines out of populated areas?

Taxpayers would be writing a blank check to railroads and granting enormous new powers to the Texas Department of Transportation if voters approve Proposition 1 on Nov. 8, critics say.

Proposition 1 would allow the transportation department to issue debt and build new rail lines that bypass congested areas, including downtown Fort Worth and Arlington.

But public officials and others who support the proposed constitutional amendment say it’s a worthwhile expense to move freight lines out of populated areas — to save lives, reduce air pollution and relieve traffic.

It doesn’t specify the cost. But the Texas Legislative Council, in an analysis prepared for the Texas House, estimates that debt service could cost as much as $87.5 million per year beginning in 2007.

This is uncapped debt. The taxpayers will pay for moving profitable, private corporations,” said Sal Costello of Austin, founder of People for Efficient Transportation, which opposes the proposition. “We’re going to pay for them to have new rails.

Supporters say the money could also be used to refurbish the old freight tracks for use as passenger rail lines, toll roads or bus-only express lanes.

In the Metroplex, elected leaders who support Proposition 1 hope it jump-starts plans for a regionwide commuter rail system. Many North Texas cities were born as railroad towns and still have their old tracks.

For example, if Union Pacific abandoned its busy rail line from downtown Fort Worth to Dallas, the corridor could be converted to passenger rail service with stops in Arlington.

Passing Proposition 1 might also make it possible to close many of the 2,500 railroad crossings in North Texas. About 5,500 people were killed or injured in train-automobile crashes in Texas from 1984 to 2004, federal statistics show.

And it could quell complaints from residents of Colleyville, Park Glen and many other neighborhoods bombarded by train horn noise.

“It will improve safety and move hazardous materials shipments out of our cities and neighborhoods,” said Oscar Trevino, North Richland Hills mayor. “Freight congestion hampers our ability to expand the Fort Worth Transportation Authority. It hampers our ability to have commuter rail developed from Burleson to North Richland Hills.”

Officials from Fort Worth-based BNSF and Omaha, Neb.-based Union Pacific — the two biggest railroad companies in Texas — said they support the relocation concept but won’t comment on which rail lines might be moved, or when.

In March, executives from the two railroads met with Gov. Rick Perry and signed agreements in principle to eventually move their operations off tracks in congested areas.

In North Texas, that could mean both companies’ abandoning the rail yards near downtown Fort Worth, including Tower 55 — where national corridors for BNSF and Union Pacific intersect — and building or expanding yards west of Fort Worth and south of Dallas.

But it may be years before specific plans are unveiled.

“It’s the details,” said Richard Russack, BNSF vice president of corporate relations. “You have to really see what’s being proposed and see how it will work.”

Unlike highways, which are publicly owned, railroad tracks are thin swaths of private property.

Supporters say it’s not fair to ask railroad companies, which laid many of their lines long before Dallas-Fort Worth became a metropolis, to cover the relocation costs.

“There is no incentive for the railroads to pay for it. They’re happy where they are,” said state Rep. Linda Harper-Brown, R-Irving. “It’s time to do our part. If we don’t improve our mobility, businesses will go to other states.”

But, she quickly added, the creation of a rail relocation fund is primarily about quality of life, such as reducing traffic congestion.

“We’re not looking to improve businesses,” she said. “We’re looking at improving the lives of Texans.”

Still, critics have many concerns about the bottom line of Proposition 1.

As much as $200 million might be needed to start up the rail relocation and improvement fund, said Texas Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson of Weatherford. That money could leverage up to $1 billion for rail projects.

However, no one has said publicly where the seed money and the money to make annual debt payments would come from. Presumably, the funds would be requested during the next regular session of the Legislature, in 2007.

Williamson said toll road revenues could be among the sources of repayment.

The state’s gasoline tax fund, which normally pays for highway work, cannot be used on rail-only projects. But the gasoline tax might be a revenue source for development of toll roads or bus-only lanes in former rail corridors, Williamson said.

Many facets of the rail relocation program are yet to be negotiated, Harper-Brown said. Who decides which rail lines to buy or build first? Who takes possession of the purchased railroad land? Will state, county or municipal officials make decisions about what to do with abandoned rail corridors? All those questions will be addressed if Proposition 1 passes, she said.

But even with all those unanswered questions, the bottom line for many critics is that Texans would be saddled with years of expensive debt payments.

Such expenditures are tantamount to a state subsidy for rail,” said David Stall, co-founder of CorridorWatch, a group that opposes the state’s Trans-Texas Corridor plans.

CorridorWatch doesn’t have an official position on Proposition 1, but Stall doesn’t mind explaining why he thinks it’s a bad deal.

He believes that supporters are less concerned about safety and more concerned about creating commuter rail.

“Safety is the excuse; politics is the reality,” Stall said. “Giving the Transportation Commission and TxDOT a blank check to play trains is a bad idea, a very bad idea, with or without Prop. 1.”

LAWSUIT GIVES MPO TRANSPORTATION BOARD A BLACK EYE

Citizens demand accountability, open and responsive government

MPO TRANSPORTATION POLICY BOARD STATEMENT
October 24, 2005

Concerns about the toll plans for Bexar County and across the state have birthed a far-reaching movement that crosses party lines and socioeconomic status. Our local group has more than doubled in size in just the last 4 weeks. Everyone is affected by the higher cost of transportation!

Our group of concerned citizens has PLEADED with this body to stop the toll plans and to do the right thing. We’ve asked you to order an independent review of the toll plans. We’ve asked you to consider reconfiguring the composition of this Board. We’ve asked you to change meeting times to allow for greater public input. We’ve asked you to fight for our fair share of the gas tax to return to this region. We’ve asked you to properly study the impact of high gasoline prices on toll feasibility. You have stubbornly IGNORED EVERY ONE of these practical and reasonable requests. Now you have a lawsuit against you for violating the constitutional separation of powers and for privatizing and tolling our tax funded public highways.

An ounce of prevention equals a pound of cure. You ought to heed that advice. The taxpayers will not stand idly by and allow you to hold Texas families’ hostage to pay a toll just to drive to work, school, or shop without our consent!

We’re advocating a good government solution to a very prolific problem. Our government has lost touch with those whom it is called to and paid to serve. We’re suggesting the current dysfunctional and unconstitutional MPOs be replaced with legal entities composed of seven-member boards serving two year terms. Texas citizens should elect five “at large” seats, the Governor appoints one member, and the local transit organization appoints the seventh member of each regional board. At the very least, only elected members should be vested with voting powers and be who constitutes a quorum.

The Governor is coming under fire from some members of the press who see his scheme as bad for Texas. Rick Perry’s “innovative financing” made Texas Monthly’s “Top 10 ways to Fix Texas.” The article includes “Stop the toll road menace” at the #2 position. It states, “Turning planned freeways-that’s freeways-into toll roads in urban areas and holding commuters hostage is downright un-American and un-Texan,” –Texas Monthly, August 2005.

We’re a nonpartisan grassroots watchdog organization seeking efficient transportation solutions, good government and accountability. The Texas Toll Party is not opposed to traditional toll roads that are designed and built as whole new highways that complement free expressways. Traditional tollways are primarily funded with investor dollars. In contrast, “freeway tolls” are funded with tax dollars to create a revenue-generating machine that does not solve traffic congestion. Freeway tolls shift public highways to tollways and hold drivers hostage to pay a fee to drive to work, school or play.

This scheme is illegal, unconstitutional, un-American and definitely un-Texan! We await your decision to make this very wrong situation right again, which is the only thing that will restore the public trust.

Macquarie, SA toll system bidder, shares downgraded by stockbrokers

Macquarie vulnerable, broker say
The AUSTRALIAN
Richard Gluyas and Glenda Korporaal
20oct05

INVESTOR sentiment could be turning against the “millionaires’ factory” Macquarie Bank, according to a leading firm of stockbrokers, which yesterday downgraded its rating of the nation’s largest investment bank.

Goldman Sachs JBWere said Macquarie’s recent meteoric rise, as well as its reliance on fees from specialist funds holding infrastructure assets including toll roads, were vulnerable to changes in sentiment and it advised investors against buying the stock.
Goldman said the recent switch in sentiment towards the bank, which has no involvement in Sydney’s expensive and under-used Cross City Tunnel, has a parallel in the investor backlash that followed Macquarie’s $5.6billion purchase of Sydney airport in 2002.

Macquarie was criticised for paying too much and ramping fees to earn a financial return.

Shares in the nation’s biggest investment bank surged to a record high of $78.23 on September 27.

But since then, amid faltering global share markets, it has been mostly downhill.

Yesterday, the bank’s stock shed a further $2.41, or 3.7per cent, to $63.51.

Goldman downgraded Macquarie from a buy recommendation to a hold, citing factors including increased competition for infrastructure assets and inferior performance by all of the bank’s listed specialist funds.

However, at the same time Goldman Sachs JBWere was downgrading Macquarie to hold, Credit Suisse First Boston was upgrading the merchant bank from hold to buy.

CSFB said there were some valid concerns about Macquarie but they were “overdone”.

A Macquarie spokesman said yesterday the bank did not comment on analysts’ reports.

Meanwhile, a project management expert warned yesterday that public servants were being “rolled” by banks wanting to make big profits out of public-private infrastructure projects.

Australian Institute of Project Management president David Dombkins called for a halt to new public-private sector projects such as the Cross City Tunnel to allow governments to design more appropriate deals.

These should include lower profits for banks and the inclusion of community service obligation provisions that would allow governments to have a continuing say in the project.

Dr Dombkins said the PPP projects negotiated to date in Australia had all ended up costing at least twice as much as they needed to.

“The deals that are being done don’t deliver for the public anyway,” he said. “It is the banks that have got control. We have very immature governments in Australia, which are being rolled by the banks.”

His comments came as a leading pensioner group joined the growing criticism of public-private sector deals such as the Cross City Tunnel.

Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association president Morrie Mifsud said many pensioners were concerned at the growing trend for private-sector involvement in government services such as transportation and health.

In a submission to the NSW Public Accounts Committee, the association called for an end to PPP deals used to deliver public services.

“The association calls on all governments to halt this practice and to use public funding to build infrastructure and deliver services on the basis of public need, not private profits or contractual pressure,” it said.

© The Australian

Rep. Frank Corte Appointed to Eminent Domain Committee

Found in Texas Government Insider:

Members of transportation financing, eminent domain committees named

Speaker Tom Craddick today announced the Texas House of Representatives appointees to the Study Commission on Transportation Financing and an interim committee studying the use of eminent domain power.

On the transportation financing committee, Rep. Mike Krusee of Round Rock will serve as a Joint Presiding Officer. Other appointees include Rep. Warren Chisum of Pampa and Harris County Judge Robert Eckels.

On the eminent domain committee, Rep. Beverly Woolley (pictured) of Houston will serve as co-chair. Other appointees are Rep. Frank Corte from San Antonio, Rep. Aaron Pena of Edinburg, Rep. Marc Veasey of Fort Worth and Rep. Phil King from Weatherford.

I’m not holding my breath on this one, these “committees” are stacked with tollers. In another source, it states they’ll conduct public hearings. Why do they bother? They’ve already conducted hundreds of public hearings around the state as TxDOT reveals their plan to toll our existing roads, they take down the comments, and proceed to IGNORE the public’s OVERWHELMING opposition to them. OK folks, if you’re in Frank Corte’s district, perhaps he needs a fresh email from his constituents on the necessity of finding his voice in opposition to the toll plans that run smack through his district (1604/281 project), and that encourages him to use his newfound influence to affect some changes! For starters, how ’bout he put a stop to the highway robbery of our existing FREEway and right of way on US 281 & Loop 1604? Tolls were taken off 151 in San Antonio and 281 in Comal County due the public outcry and their leaders riding to the rescue, so where’s Frank Corte?

"Tolls are the American Way" says Rep. Mike Krusee

Rep. Mike Krusee chairs the House Transportation Committee and thinks their toll proliferation plan is applying free market principles to transportation. Mr. Krusee, I have some very basic principles to share with you, so please pay attention. Free market principles cannot apply to limited public assets like roadways. We, the consumer, can’t go build a competing road if we don’t like the way a private corporation builds and tolls our existing ones. Giving 50 year exclusive contracts to private companies to set toll rates with no oversight by any elected official is far from free market competition. There is no place for such narrow-minded thinking from our public officials. The voters have spoken loud and clear, a supermajority, in fact, against tolling our existing FREEways. What Mike Krusee and his cronies are doing is entirely UN-American. Self-government and balance of power are among America’s founding principles, and this TOLL ONLY mindset against the will of the majority of Texans is offensive, morally and ethically wrong, and, frankly, would make our Founding Fathers roll in their graves.

See Mr. Krusee’s comments for yourself!

TOLLING AUTHORITY ILLEGALLY CONDUCTS POLITICAL SURVEY WITH PUBLIC FUNDS!

Skewed Results Leave Out the Most Pertinent Information Public Needs to Make Informed Decision About Toll Plan

San Antonio, TX, October 12, 2005 – By the Alamo RMA’s own press release revealing the results of a survey conducted by Baselice & Associates, they admit their toll plans are in trouble (though they probably don’t even know it). When asked the best way to pay for new construction, only 27% of Bexar County residents said toll lanes. That means 73% DO NOT WANT TOLL LANES. This is consistent with other polls that show 70% of Texans are opposed to tolls.

“What I find totally outrageous is that the Alamo RMA is surveying registered voters asking them party affiliation and how they vote (straight ticket or not) USING PUBLIC MONEY! IT’S AGAINST THE LAW for a state entity to conduct political polling (GOVERNMENT CODE – CHAPTER 556. POLITICAL ACTIVITIES BY CERTAIN PUBLIC ENTITIES AND INDIVIDUALS)!” says a shocked Terri Hall, San Antonio Director of a grassroots group opposed to freeway tolls called Texas Toll Party.com. “This is another example of how this toll proliferation isn’t about mobility, congestion, and economic well-being, it’s about politics! It only confirms what Comptroller Carole Strayhorn found in her study of RMAs which found self-enrichment, insider dealings, and conflicts of interest (View the report).”

“TxDOT and the AMRA know that the ONLY thing that stands in their way is public opinion. The Governor and Legislature have already re-written the law to allow them to double tax roads we’ve already for and to toll our existing highways, so now these corrupt state agencies are trying to manipulate public opinion to appear in favor of their toll scheme. Despite their best efforts to spin the results to make it appear as though people prefer tolls more than other funding options, the survey at the end of the day, no matter how skewed, still manages to reveal that 73% of respondents don’t want tolls to fund highway projects,” notices Hall. “Frankly, it’s really sad that our government has become so irresponsible that we no longer trust its public opinion polls. The RMA is using a predictable scheme in order to push the largest tax increase in Texas history, increase the cost of doing business, and grow the size of government in very difficult economic times.”

The purpose of the survey is to push tolls. The TOLLING authority paid a company to manipulate the facts to get some positive numbers for tolls, which they got in some areas of the survey because the questions are clearly worded to produce the desired result in favor of tolls. In actuality, what the questions reveal is that people want congestion relief more quickly. Once respondents were given other options, the majority, 73%, didn’t favor tolls!

“The poll actually tells respondents that tolls won’t add to the tax burden! A toll is a tax and even when people choose NOT to pay it, they do pay the tax, BIG TIME, through the higher costs of goods. Many of the questions are based on such bogus statements, therefore most of this poll yields bogus results. When asking opinions about specific toll plans, it states new toll lanes would be added on specific freeways leaving the existing lanes non-tolled. That’s patently untrue and they know it!

This poll is rife with falsehoods and half truths like: it’s tolls or a 25 cent regional gas tax hike (the Central Texas MPO found it would only take 1.5-2 cents gas tax hike for needed improvements), it’s tolls or we don’t get our highway improvements for 20 years (TxDOT has admitted on camera to a local reporter that they have the funds for the improvements on 281 AND we have in our possession TxDOT’s own documents stating the funds exist and will be used to build US 281 as a toll road instead), that the people who use the toll lanes pay for the construction and operation of the toll lanes (not true $100 million in gas tax money is being used to re-build existing freeways into tollways), and every question about adding toll lanes leads the respondent to believe tolls would only be placed on NEW lanes (the Federal Highway Administration states any lanes built within existing right of way whether new pavement or not is an existing lane). These are verifiably false and misleading statements and the RMA needs to be held to account,” states Hall.

What they didn’t tell respondents is they’re converting existing lanes into toll lanes leaving only frontage road as the “non-toll alternative,” that they’re handing our highways over to a private company to set the toll rates as high as they want using secret contracts for up to 50 years, that taxpayer money not just private money is being used to build the toll roads, that bonds and pass through financing are among the options that can accelerate highway projects without using tolls, and a host of other vital information upon which people need in order to make an educated decision about the toll plans.

“I’d say this is key information that would glean vastly different answers. I KNOW it would because we’re on the ground every week educating people about TxDOT’s toll plans, and once folks find out they’re tolling an existing road we’ve already paid for, and in some cases that the improvements are paid for as well, it’s universally opposed! People aren’t just opposed; they’re incensed! TxDOT’s own survey conducted by UT Austin found that over 70% of Texans are against tolling existing roads, so of course, they have to lie in order to get numbers that make it appear Texans are for tolls.

“This slanted survey claims that support on the northside increased to 62% when given details about the plan, but nowhere do they tell those residents that the improvement plan for 281 is ALREADY FUNDED. Why don’t they ask northside residents this question: do you support paying tolls for improvements that are already paid for on highways that are already paid for? Did the pollster inform these residents that bonds can provide funding for other highway improvements without increasing the tax burden?” asks Hall.

Toll roads cost 40-100% more to build than free roads, they cost more to maintain, less than half of motorists can afford to use them, it drives up the cost of goods for everyone regardless of whether or not they personally choose to drive in the toll lanes, and it’s an inefficient tax where most of the money goes into collecting tolls and catching violators.

“To build these as traditional freeways it’s less expensive, less invasive, less maintenance, with more control and accountability to voters, allows business to maintain its cost of goods, and EVERYONE can use them. Who would choose tolls given that set of facts?” concludes Hall.

“Let’s see a true independent survey conducted….put the toll plan to a vote and the RMA will see definitively what voters think about their toll tax scheme,” challenged Hall. “The fact is TxDOT and the RMA are afraid of a genuine public debate on these issues. The facts are not on their side so they have to hide them or push a deceptive message in order to cram their toll plan down the taxpayers’ throats!”

END

Vote NO on Props 1 & 9

Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing (Again!)
By Toll Party Founder, Sal Costello

In 2001, a Proposition was put forward to the voters that allowed the Texas Mobility Fund. Texans voted for “mobility” and Prop 15 became a constitutional amendment. Only later we found out the wolf was in sheep’s clothing.

Prop 15 ballot language did NOT tell the voter that it was a fund that would allow our public highways to be privatized and tolled – for the first time in our country – so corporations can profit from what is ours. It failed to hint that TxDOT would toll roads and right of way that was already funded. It failed to tell the voter that a toll road costs 40-100% more than a free road. It did not tell the voter that TxDOT would use that power to blackmail regions across Texas to toll it’s public highways.

PROPOSITION 1
TODAY, the Prop 1 rail fund is the same voter trick as Prop 15 from 2001, except this time it’s about the public subsidizing rail.

Prop 1 allows an open ended corporate subsidy. Taxpayers will pay unlimited tax dollars to move private corporation rail lines into the Trans Texas Corridor after Gov. Perry promised no public funds would be used.

The state DEBT commitment would also be open-ended, with no limit on the amount of state bonds that could be issued from this new fund. By amending the Constitution to authorize the creation of this fund, the state will commit itself to massive debt for generations. Private corporations will profit from this taxpayer giveaway that help the controversial Trans Texas Corridor move forward. The railroad industry no longer is state-regulated, and state government should not involve itself in that industry’s investment decisions.

The ballot language does not advise the voter that it’s a special interest fund that the taxpayer pays for and private corporations profit from. It is a blank check and unlimited debt, say NO.

PROPOSITION 9
Proposition 9 allows unelected, unaccountable Tolling Authority board members extended term limits. Current 2 year term limits would expand to 6 years for Regional Mobility Authorities. These appointed people are allowed to privatize and toll our freeways – they will set the toll rates for roads we’ve already paid for.

A two-year term of office requires more frequent assessments of the board members job performance. Six-year terms are not necessary to carry out the functions of the authority since the staff or employees of an authority would do so regardless of the length of the directors’ terms.

Comptroller of Texas has reported the RMAs create “Double taxation without accountability”, and that the RMA’s loose management practices cost all Texans more. NOT surprisingly, Comptroller also found favoritism and self-enrichment as board members gave contracts (without bids) to their friends and their own companies. RMA boards should be required to abide by the standard provided in the Constitution that limits the terms of members of such boards to two years.

November 8th Constitutional Amendments: Vote NO on Prop 1 & 9:
Take the Toll Poll

Flyers, Flyers and more Flyers!

Get these flyers in the hands of everyone you know! Click the links below for a PDF file in English or Spanish.

“Don’t Mess with Texas FREEways – Signals” flyer

This flyer is designed to be copied on 8.5 x 11 paper

“Truth About Tolls” Fact Sheet

These flyers are designed to be copied on 8.5 x 11 paper – 2 sided and cut in half (more bang for the buck). Use the “highway robbery” flyer on the 2nd side.


English Version

Spanish Version

“Highway Robbery” Flyer

These flyers are designed to be copied on 8.5 x 11 paper – 2 sided and cut in half (more bang for the buck). Use the “truth about tolls” flyer on the 2nd side.


English Version

Spanish Version

“$5.90” Flyer

These flyers are designed to be copied on 8.5 x 11 paper – 2 sided and cut in half (more bang for the buck).


$5.90 Flyer
No Spanish Version
at this time…

“GRIDLOCK” Flyer

These flyers are designed to be copied on 8.5 x 11 paper – 2 sided and cut in 4ths (more bang for the buck).


GRIDLOCK Flyer
No Spanish Version
at this time…

City Gives Illegal Loan to Alamo RMA

One of our stellar members, Niki Kuhns, took the Mayor and City Council to task at today’s City Council meeting over their $500,000 loan to the Alamo RMA. See her article in today’s SA Current. She thought, “Where in the City’s charter does it allow them to give loans much less to a state established entity?” It begs the question, did Bexar County Commissioners do the same thing when it loaned the Alamo RMA $750,000 two years in a row? Then add to that the Alamo RMA was just awarded a $1 million toll equity grant for the purpose of “reviewing” a contract to build our toll starter system for the next year, and you have to ask: what does an all volunteer Board with 2 employees need with $2.25 million in operating expenses just to “evaluate” a contract (FOR ONE YEAR!!!)?

Not only is our Transportation Department a bloated bureaucracy, the Legislature and the Governor have brought us yet another bloated bureaucracy whose frittering away our essential highway funds for bureaucratic pay-offs to their special interest corporate friends: RMAs. Enough is enough, we need to stop these illegal loans and abuse of taxpayer money! Go Niki, she had the Mayor and the City Attorney scrambling for cover…ask the State Auditor, John Keel, to investigate TxDOT, the City, and the County, and “to report fraud, waste, and/or abuse occurring at a Texas State agency” (exact wording from his web site): go to State Auditor’s site or call the SAO Hotline at 1-800-TX-AUDIT.