Author: Terri Hall

Alamo toll exec pulls in over $200K/yr plus benefits

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Link to article here.

Ever wonder why the tolling authority, TxDOT, and politicos are so tone-deaf to the public opposition to toll roads? They’re PAID not to listen. So the tolling authority salaries have exceeded $1 million a year, yet they have NOTHING to show for it but a trail of deception and conflicts of interest.

Performance bonus for Terry Brechtel? For what? Failure to get a single toll road off the ground? Even their lowest paid employee gets a higher salary with benefits than the average San Antonian. When Brechtel gets a $25,000 cost of living increase and “performance bonus” for underperformance (in the midst of a down economy with driving and toll road usage going down due to high fuel prices), it’s no wonder why she ignores the testimony of the masses who can scarcely afford to fill their gas tanks as they plead with the RMA to stop tolling our freeways.

Toll-road salaries top $1 million
By Pat Driscoll
Express-News
August 25, 2008

A local agency’s salaries and benefits to plan and eventually operate toll roads will come to $1.2 million in the upcoming fiscal year, including two people yet to be hired.

RMA.salaries.jpg
(Alamo Regional Mobility Authority)

Alamo Regional Mobility Authority leader Terry Brechtel will pull the highest pay — with a $177,407 base and up to $23,527 to cover a cost of living increase and a performance bonus.

brechtel.jpg
Terry Brechtel

The $200,934 total isn’t too far from the $206,000 she made in 2004 as San Antonio’s city manager, when she oversaw a $1.5 billion budget and 12,000 employees. She quit that job after a run-in with then-mayor Ed Garza.

Brechtel’s predecessor at the toll authority, Tom Griebel, only made $160,000 when he left at the end of 2005.

The lowest paid employee at the agency is the administrative assistant, who gets $38,183.

Two jobs — a director of toll operations ($104,771) and an attorney ($99,297) — haven’t been filled yet.

• Salary breakdowns
• Fiscal ’08 and ’09 budget summaries

Recent toll authority news:

• U.S. 281 lawsuit delayed two months
• High gas prices raise questions about toll plans
• Construction contract ready for U.S. 281 tollway

Toll road traffic down, Macquarie bleeding out

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Link to article here.

Even toll road industry insiders must now acknowledge what the rest of us have been observing for years: toll roads are no longer financially viable with high fuel prices! It is obvious that toll roads are purely speculative risky deals that the prudent must shun. These deals depend on low fuel prices, a booming economy, and more vehicle miles traveled, none of which we have now or into the foreseeable future. Selling billions in bonds knowing these toll roads are famous for overprojecting rosy outcomes and have a history of underperformance that will require massive toll hikes and/or taxpayer bailouts, is malfeasance.

Traffic hit hard by fuel prices – average down over 5%, but some way worse
By Peter Samuel
Toll Road News
August 24, 2008
Traffic on tax roads in the US seems to have dropped on average by 4 to 5% and on toll roads by 5 to 6% over the past year. The reduced travel is attributable almost entirely to the big run-up in gasoline prices and is about was to be expected from long-established economists’ estimates of the price elasticity of demand of about -0.2. Fuel prices which dominate the marginal cost of driving are about 30% higher so you would expect traffic as measured by vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) to be 6% lower (-0.2×0.30=-0.06). Deduct one percent for the sluggish economy and you have 5%.

Toll road traffic may be down marginally more than tax roads traffic because tollroads are somewhat skewed to discretionary travel.

FHWA/OHPI data for travel on all roads show the drop in traffic slightly greater in the west (excludes TX) and the southeast but single digit percent falls have occurred in all major regions. Indeed in June all 50 states were down (only DC is up slightly).

Rural travel is down more sharply (5% to 7%) than urban (3% to 5%). Rural interstates are down nearly 7%. (VMT08juntvt.xls)

Fitch Rating survey

A survey of US tollers’ traffic and revenue by Fitch Ratings shows a fall-off year on year clustered in the single middle digits range. Declines are as much as 10% in Florida and California. In Texas are declines in traffic in the lower single digits.

They say that standalone toll projects have the greatest declines and the turnpikes with their dependence on longdistance and rural traffic. Next come the bridges with the least affected being the (urban) expressway networks.

TOLLROADSnews needs to do a proper survey toll agency by toll agency, but that will have to wait a bit longer. A few tollers publish their data monthly (Orange County Toll Roads) and even weekly (91 Express Lanes). There are some more spectacular drops in traffic than Fitch mentions.

91 Express Lanes down 15% to 20%

The 91 Express Lanes are way down. Through July their toll transactions were about 17% lower than the same week last year and the first two weeks of August have been down 18%. Revenue is down about 15% in the last six weeks.

It would be interesting to see if the other express lanes are losing traffic as heavily but it seems logical that they will be more volatile than full tollroads. Most of their users are occasional users taking the toll lanes only when they want a faster ride so their use is discretionary. Furthermore and maybe this is more important: declining traffic in the free lanes means there is less congestion there and faster free trips, so the Express Lanes suddenly aren’t saving as much time as before.

The Toll Roads of Orange County nearby have suffered serious traffic losses too, close to 10% in the case of Foothill Eastern TR (FETR) and San Joaquin Hills TR (SJHTR).

The burst of the housing bubble has hit this part of southern California as well as parts of Florida especially hard.

Orlando Orange County toll expressways in Florida have suffered a traffic drop but not as large. (see OOCEA in table nearby).

Macquarie hemmoraging

Macquarie has reported June quarter traffic and it has some huge drops 2008Q2/2007Q2:

– Indiana Toll Road average daily traffic down from 122.8k to 95.6k, 22.2%

– Chicago Skyway from 44.2k vs 51.7k, down 14.6%

– Dulles Greenway VA is down less from 58.6k to 55.1k or 5.9%

The three major Macquarie tollroads in the US have gone from 233k/day 2007Q2 to 195k 2008Q2 or 16% down. (South Bay Expressway is at 26k day but wasn’t open in 2007).

On the Indiana TR the ticket system portion of the tollroad which caters to longdistance traffic is down 5%.

The spectacular drop is on the barrier system where daily traffic is down from 98.4k 2007Q2 to 70.5k 2008Q2. That’s 28.4% down!

That’s commuter and weekender traffic.

Some of the drop may be attributable to opening of improvements to the competing free route of I-80/I-94 (Bishop Ford, Kingery, Borman Expressways) and the higher tolls, but regardless, it doesn’t look good for the Macquarie shareholders.

Macquarie recently lowered their valuation of these tollroads substantially.

Canada not seeing the same declines in traffic

A lot of the rise in the price of gasoline in the US is simply the fall in the value of the US$ relative to other currencies. Gasoline has risen much less in C$s because C$s now bob around at parity with US$s whereas they were 15% below a year ago.

Also rises in the oil component of the gasoline price seem less north of the border, because the fuel taxes are so much higher already.

Toronto 407ETR up over last year

In Toronto 407ETR traffic continues to be above last year’s levels. Its traffic is larger than all four US Macquarie tollroads combined, so the North American Macquarie traffic in total is down only 5.8% vs 16% for Macquarie’s US roads.

Where from here? (SPECULATIONS)

Our sense is that traffic should stabilize at roughly present levels if gasoline prices stay where they are. Short-term adjustments to the higher prices have been made.

And if the US economy continues in its present sluggish state but avoids a real recession and systemic financial collapse then traffic won’t get much lower than now.

Over the longer term one adjustment to higher prices will be a move to more fuel efficient vehicles – to smaller lighter vehicles, to hybrids, plug-in hybrids and diesels. That will allow road travel to recover somewhat.

Significant and last mode shift to rail transit seems unlikely. It is seriously unprofitable and capacity constrained and is only competitive at the margin.

Motor fuel prices of course could go strongly up, or they could collapse.

So much crude oil comes from the Middle East and South America and is under the control of hostile governments that major supply disruptions could easily occur. Iran’s nuclear program could lead to war in the Persian Gulf just months from now. At home there is fierce resistance to any new production and to any new oil refinery capacity, while the Democrats vilify “Big Oil” and threaten discriminatory taxes against the very companies which will increase fuel supply if they’re allowed to.

On the other hand public sentiment has shifted in favor offshore drilling and concerns about disruptions may already be reflected in oil prices. With luck and even a glimmer of good sense by governments, fuel prices could fall as quickly in the next year as they rose in the last. But you can’t count on it.

With forecasting so difficult, organizational agility looks key.

Feds data: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/tvtw/tvtpage.htm

Burka brings moral clarity in retirement fund raid for toll roads

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Link to article here.

Investing pension funds in toll roads is an irresponsible–and immoral–idea
By Paul Burka
Texas Monthly
Saturday, August 23, 2008

I doubt whether Rick Perry, David Dewhurst, or Tom Craddick has ever heard of the Lane Cove Tunnel in Sidney, Australia. If they had, they might not be so eager to raid the teacher and state employee retirement funds to build toll roads.

On the day the Olympics opened (08/08/08), the Sidney Morning Herald carried the news that the tunnel “is rapidly turning into a bottomless pit for its financial backers….” Two credit rating agencies, Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s, have warned that the toll road could default on its $1.1 billion debt with a year. The tunnel has suffered three consecutive monthly dropoffs in traffic usage. The estimated usage before the road was built was 100,000 vehicles per day; actual numbers in June and July barely exceeded 50,000. A Standard & Poor’s analyst predicted that unless the project gets fresh capital (at least half a billion dollars), it will default within 10 to 16 months. Perhaps TxDOT, since it is such a believer in such projects, would like to invest.

The problem with the financial wheeling and dealing with retirees’ funds that Perry, Dewhurst, and Craddick have proposed is that toll road projects are risky investments. They are risky for two reasons. One is that they are subject to economic fluctuations that affect people’s driving habits, such as the price of gasoline or the pace of development. The second reason is that, when government is involved, they are vulnerable to political pressure and favoritism. Google “toll road defaults” and you will find a trove of stories with unhappy endings. The Camino Columbia toll road in Laredo, which was rife with political intrigue over which landowners would benefit from having a road go through their property, opened in 2000 and defaulted in 2004. Cost: $90 million. Auctioned off for: $12 million. Tx-DOT bail out acquisition payment: $20 million. The Dulles Greenway toll road to Washington’s Dulles Airport defaulted on its bonds within a year of its opening in 1995. The private owner, Toll Road Investors Partnership II, have lost money every year since the road opened. When toll roads lose money, tolls go up–in this case, to $4.80 by 2012. That works out to an astronomical 35 cents per mile. There are similar stories in Orange County, California (where the state had to buy failing toll lanes), and along Florida’s west coast, and near Richmond, Virginia, where the 8.8-mile Pocohantas Parkway, financed with tax-free bonds, has suffered around a 50% shortfall in projected toll receipts; the state has had to maintain the road because the private owners don’t have the money. Bond ratings have been lowered to below investment grade. To pay off the bonds, the toll was increased by 50%.

It is true that many toll roads have been success stories. In Texas these include the Dallas-Fort Worth Turnpike, which paid off bondholderes with toll revenues after thirty years and became free Interstate 30; the Dallas North Tollway and its northern extension; and the Sam Houston Tollway on the west side of Houston. The issue here is not toll roads per se. It is toll roads built with pension funds (and probably other investment funds as well, such as the Permanent School Fund and the Permanent University Fund). These are trust funds. They belong to the members. It is morally wrong to require fund managers to invest them in risky ventures like toll roads. Does anybody doubt that there will be pressure on the pension funds to invest in certain projects that favor certain people and certain contractors and certain areas? We all know what kind of people we are dealing with here. Rick Perry can’t resist it. He appointed the members of the boards that oversee the pension funds. These deals will be neck-deep in politics.

The Statesman’s story on the leadership’s plan quotes Britt Harris, the chief investment officer of the Teacher Retirement System, as saying that investments in infrastructure made sense if the proposal was “equal or better than something we can get [in another project].” Harris then pointed out that the fund’s “ultimate loyalty is to the members,” not to target investments based on geography or politics. The last clause does not appear in quotation marks in the article. Bravo for Britt Harris, but I think he should keep his resume updated.

The biggest risk in toll roads as investments is political pressure. The pressure comes in two forms. The first is pressure on the consultants to provide favorable projections for use of proposed toll roads. Does anybody trust TxDOT–or the consultants they hire, or the private entities they seek to contract with–to do hardnosed, accurate projections? If you do, then consider these comments from an article in Business Week several years ago, at about the time Rick Perry was unveiling his proposal for the Trans-Texas Corridor:

* “There is a history of feasibility studies for toll roads being overly optimistic,” says John J. Hallacy III, director of municipal bond research for Merrill Lynch and Co.

* “Of the 10 major private toll roads constructed since the mid-1990s, nearly half carry far less traffic than projected. Some $4 billion in toll road bonds risk default over the next five years unless they’re refinanced,” estimates Robert H. Mueller, a municipal bond analyst at the J.P. Morgan securities Inc.

What about financing toll roads with bonds? Well, don’t expect bond raters to give the bonds a good rating. I’m quoting here from an article that appeared eight years ago in a tollroad industry publication, so it is possible that things may have changed, though I doubt it. Credit is much harder to get today than it was in 2000.

Fitch-ICBA, the New York bond rating agency says that there is a permanent bifurcation of the toll road bond market. Established systems of toll facilities can expect to be rated in the range A to AA, whereas most standalone and startup toll facilities will be rated BB- to BBB. They see a continuing demand for new toll road financings because of what they call a “seemingly unbridgeable gap” between highway needs and the ability to finance them with tax monies that toll projects can often help to fill.

According to BondsOnline, bonds rated BBB are “lower medium grade” and bonds rated BB- are “speculative.” The lower the bond rating, of course, the higher the interest rate that bond buyers demand. No one is going to be getting any bargains on toll road bonds. And AAA ratings are just a dream: “Fitch says that the ever present possibility of state governments siphoning off surplus toll revenues or leveraging them for other borrowings prevents state owned turnpikes from achieving the AAA rating.” So how can asking pension funds to invest in these bonds ever be a prudent investment? It can’t.

The article continues: Another problem with bonds for highways is that bond rating houses distrust state governments. It is unlikely that any state owned turnpikes will ever reach AAA: The key reason is susceptibility to political interventions.

I have said this before, and I will say it again. There is a sensible way to finance roads. It is to increase the gasoline tax and index it to inflation in the highway construction index. The gasoline tax has some weaknesses. Part of it is diverted to public education. People drive less when gasoline prices go through the roof. Cars are more fuel-efficient. All of this cuts into the revenue potential of the tax. Nevertheless, Texans still love their cars. The suburban lifestyle here is designed around the automobile. Even if the revenue per mile driven is declining, there is a lot of life left in the tax. A portion of the revenue could be dedicated to paying off the bonds for toll roads. This should be capped to ensure that money will still be available for free roads. While the resistance to tax increases is formidable, so is the resistance to toll roads. If you can persuade the public that a gasoline tax increase will reduce the need for toll roads, I think that proposition could be sold. Anything is better than insisting that the savings of retired teachers and state employees be invested in risky ventures like toll roads.

Perry, Dewhurst, Craddick want to raid teacher retirement funds for toll roads

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Link to article here. Link to letter from Perry, Dewhurst, Craddick to Transportation Chair Delisi here.

Teachers had better stage a Texas-sized taxpayer revolt over this sell-out by Rick Perry and his minions. As if Perry’s destruction of his own Party thanks to his relentless push for toll roads and the Trans Texas Corridor that nobody wants isn’t bad enough, now he’s coming after teacher retirement and public employee pension funds to be his suckers on toll road schemes that even the private sector is calling “risky.” And why not when Rick Perry has great influence over these boards, many appointed by him.

Here’s what made it into the article:
“It’s a mixed bag, ending the DPS diversions is a start, but forming a corporation and using public employees pension funds to fund risky toll projects the private sector is beginning to shy away from borders on malfeasance.”

Here’s what didn’t:
The warning signs that toll roads are risky deals due to high gas prices and a decline in driving and toll road usage are flashing like neon lights to anyone with a pulse. Fitch just downgraded toll road bonds and Moody’s warns that new toll roads may not be financially sustainable without toll hikes. How will Legislators defend to a retired teacher on a fixed income that they squandered her retirement on risky toll road deals? “Oops, we couldn’t foresee the toll road bust” won’t fly with the evidence already before them. The options in this letter don’t change the fundamental direction away from the most expensive transportation tax, tolls. Texans can’t afford Perry’s long-term debt and high tax “solutions” any longer. Read more here.

Top leaders strike deal on funding Texas toll roads
By Peggy Fikac
Express-News
August 22, 2008
AUSTIN — State leaders trying to meet Texas’ transportation needs said Thursday they’ll work to stop the diversion of more than $1.1 billion from the highway fund and to allow state-based public investment funds — including pension funds — to invest in toll roads.

Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick also backed the sale of road bonds already authorized by voters. The GOP leaders said transportation officials should immediately sell up to $1.5 billion in bonds to “ensure that greater road funding levels are maintained through the fall and spring until we can work with other elected officials to provide additional solutions.”

Perry had stood against the sale of the bonds until leaders could agree to a broader transportation solution.

The leaders laid out their agreement in a letter to Texas Transportation Commission Chairwoman Deirdre Delisi, who is Perry’s former chief of staff and who took part in the discussion over funding solutions. Their proposal drew praise from those looking for more road funds and concern over the ramifications for other programs and services.

The $1.1 billion that’s now diverted from the gas-tax-fueled highway fund to the Texas Department of Public Safety, for example, would have to be replaced with general revenue money. That would pit DPS against other programs “so someone else is going to come up $1 billion short,” said Dick Lavine of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, which advocates for programs for lower-income Texans.

“It’s just another indicator that we don’t have a revenue system that can produce the money we need to provide the services we need,” Lavine said. Ending that diversion could be phased in over two or more years, said Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle.

While the state comptroller has projected $10.7 billion in balances will greet lawmakers when they return in regular session in January, $3 billion of that is dedicated to property tax relief and $5.7 billion is in the rainy day fund, which requires a two-thirds vote of the Legislature to spend.

In addition, collections from the state’s new business tax are projected to be $1.5 billion less than anticipated this year, although other tax collections have been higher than projected.

The proposal to allow public investment funds — such as the Teacher Retirement System and Employees Retirement System — to invest directly in toll roads also drew attention. The investment would occur through a new entity that could be called the Transportation Finance Corp.

“TRS needs to make those decisions exclusively on the same basis they make any other investment decisions. The fact that the person who appointed them might have a preference really shouldn’t matter to them,” said Richard Kouri of the Texas State Teachers Association. Perry and other officials appoint TRS and ERS board members.

Castle said decisions about investing in toll roads would be made using the same standards as other investment decisions.

Terri Hall of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, which objects to the way that the Texas Department of Transportation has been moving forward with toll projects, called the leaders’ proposal “a mixed bag.”

Ending the diversion of highway money to the DPS “is a start, but forming a corporation and using public employees’ pension funds to fund risky toll projects the private sector is beginning to shy away from borders on malfeasance,” Hall said.

Justin Keener of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which advocates limited government, called the agreement “a significant step towards reducing traffic congestion and improving the flow of people and goods.”

Frank Corte mispresents his residency, should be ineligible to run for State Rep

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Link to article here.

As usual, Frank Corte is belligerent and spouting legal technicalities to defend the indefensible. The guy doesn’t live in the district, and claims as long as “he intends to return” to that vacant lot he claims as a residence, that meets the legal threshold to run as a State Representative for District 122. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that he lied about his residence when he lied about much bigger things like saying he never voted for toll roads when he voted for them in so many bills it’s hard to count them all (HB 3588, HB 2702, SB 792, HB 2661, HB 3775 to name a few). Corte also took campaign cash from the same lobbyist, Gary Bushell, that TxDOT ILLEGALLY hired to lobby elected officials in the path of the Trans Texas Corridor with its Keep Texas Moving campaign. Corte needs to go.

08/22/2008

Dems say Corte can’t run from House district

Gary Scharrer – Express-News

AUSTIN — San Antonio state Rep. Frank Corte must be declared ineligible to run for re-election this fall because the place he claims as a residence is nothing but a vacant lot, the Texas Democratic Party said in a letter Thursday to Republican Party officials.

Chad Dunn, a lawyer for Texas Democrats, provided Bexar GOP Chairman Richard Langlois with public documents showing that Corte lists 4203 Honeycomb St. as his residence. It is a vacant lot in northwest San Antonio.

But Corte said he plans to build a house on that lot, where he once had a residence.

“As long as I intend to return — that’s my residence,” Corte said.

Corte applied for a permit to have the house moved in the fall of 2006, according to documents. But Corte listed the vacant lot as his residence when filing for re-election on Dec. 17, 2007, and on a legally required personal financial statement last summer.

“There’s no house. There’s no shed. There’s no cot. There’s no way that Mr. Corte’s living at the address that he certified as his residency,” Dunn said. “It’s as serious as can be when it comes to eligibility of somebody who wants to serve in the Legislature.”

The issue is a nonstory, Corte said, because lawyers have assured him that he can claim that spot as his residence so long as he intends to return. Corte said he currently lives with his family in an apartment complex located about one-quarter mile from the Honeycomb location.

State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, represents the area where Corte has taken up temporary residence.

Corte wouldn’t say when he plans to start building a new home at his Honeycomb address.

“What process I’m in is irrelevant. I intend to return,” he said.

The documents “conclusively establish that Frank Corte, Jr. knowingly and materially misrepresented facts on his ballot application and is not a resident of District 122, Texas House of Representatives and is therefore not entitled to election to that office,” Dunn said in the letter to Republican Party officials.

Langlois did not return a phone call.

The deadline for replacing a candidate on the Nov. 4 election ballot is today, Dunn reminded Langlois in the letter.

Inaction could result in a legal ruling against Corte’s candidacy and the inability for Republicans to field a candidate, Dunn said.

Corte has represented the area in the state House since his first election in 1992. It’s considered a Republican district.

If Corte is declared ineligible, Democrats could improve their chances to regain control of the state House. They need to pick up five seats in the November election, and Corte’s district is not one of the Democrats’ targeted districts. Democrat Frances Carnot is running for the seat.

Krusee sells toll road ilk to Utah politicians ready to drink the Kool-Aid

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Link to article here. Toll roads aren’t free market, they’re government sanctioned monopolies. If Krusee and his crowd have their way, we’ll soon be taxed for the very air we breathe. Gone will be freedom and mobility, in will be a two tiered highway system, one for the government bureaucrats, special interests, and politicians and one for the rest of us.

Fee-way: Could toll roads replace gas taxes in Utah?
By Brandon Loomis
The Salt Lake Tribune
08/21/2008

Utah’s pending shift to time-of-day tolls in freeway express lanes moves the state one step closer to a necessary overhaul in highway funding, a national transportation advocate told legislators Wednesday.

Tolls are fairer and stabler revenues for road building and must anchor infrastructure plans since gas taxes will fail, starting next year, to keep the federal highway trust fund solvent, said Texas state Rep. Mike Krusee, a member of the National Transportation Infrastructure Finance Commission.

After the presidential election, that commission will recommend a national shift away from gas taxes and toward tolls to charge people for interstates they use – and more during rush hours – essentially turning freeways into fee-ways.

Both federal and state governments will have to make the change – some key Utah lawmakers are interested – as the trust fund is drained, Krusee said. The fund’s shortfall will start at $5 billion next year and swell to $30 billion in 2010, likely meaning a one-third reduction in federal assistance for Utah roads, he warned.

“We don’t even know in 20 to 30 years if [motorists] are going to be buying any fuel or what kind of fuel they’ll be buying,” Krusee told the Utah Legislature’s Revenue and Taxation Interim Committee. His answer: Charge for miles traveled.

The Utah Department of Transportation plans to use electronic transmitters on Interstate 15 within two years so commuters can spot-pay for express lanes. The amount – which has yet to be set – will depend on how busy the freeway is at the time of travel. Higher traffic will mean a higher toll.

That plan could stretch to all lanes if state and federal lawmakers do as Krusee suggests.

The Texas lawmaker called the current funding plan a subsidy by taxpayers to suburban developers who use the roads to open cheaper lands and further bog down commuter-hour traffic. Charging a toll instead means everyone pays their way and the government gets a return on its investment, which it can bond against for future projects.

Electronic scanners are the method of future tolls nationwide and already are used in places such as Chicago, Krusee said. It’s necessary to install cameras as well, so that cars without transmitters can be charged the toll by mail if their license plate is spotted.

Texas built a $3 billion tollway around Austin four years ago, Krusee said, and within six months sold as many transmitters for it as there are residents in the county.

UDOT pays about 85 percent for its own road projects, potentially lessening the blow from federal shortfalls compared with states that get half or more from U.S. gas taxes. But Krusee sees a market approach as the surest way for future generations to snag needed funding.

He found enthusiastic supporters in the Utah Legislature.
“Hearing you is a breath of fresh air,” Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, said. “I just want to welcome you to the socialist republic of Utah,” a reference to what he considers subsidized rush hours.

Stephenson is president of the business-backed Utah Taxpayers Association, which supports freeway congestion pricing. He said it is wrong for taxpayers to subsidize interstate capacity built to meet the demands of just four hours a day. Better, he added, to have those peak-hour drivers pay their way.

More than half the motorists on the nation’s freeways during rush hours are not driving to or from work, Krusee said. Charging them might move them off the road until later, speeding up traffic.

Sen. President John Valentine, R-Orem, said he is “intrigued” by a market approach to roads.

Judge says TxDOT withheld "numerous" documents from the feds

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Link to article here.

New documents cause delay in U.S. 281 tollway lawsuit
By Pat Driscoll
Express-News
August 21, 2008

A judge on Wednesday granted a 60-day delay on the U.S. 281 tollway lawsuit so federal officials can review recently discovered documents from a state environmental study.

The documents, called “a small addition” by the Texas Department of Transportation but “numerous” by U.S. District Judge Fred Biery, could alter the Federal Highway Administration’s environmental clearance for the eight-mile toll road.

Toll critics and environmentalists filed the lawsuit in February to challenge the environmental study’s thoroughness.

“TxDOT has discovered numerous documents containing potential evidence which, to its credit, says should be reviewed,” Biery said in a four-page order.

The Alamo Regional Mobility Authority, which took over the U.S. 281 toll project from TxDOT, promised not to start construction during the break, the order says.

Biery also noted that court battles take time. Thirty-plus years ago, the U.S. 281 project now known as McAllister Freeway was locked in litigation for 14 years and many contracts were delayed.

“The court presumes counsel and the parties will continue to use best efforts to proceed efficiently and professionally,” the order says. “Like good wine, the court will make no opinion before its time.”

The delay, effective Aug. 7, will end in October.

Judge says TxDOT withheld “numerous” documents from the feds

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Link to article here.

New documents cause delay in U.S. 281 tollway lawsuit
By Pat Driscoll
Express-News
August 21, 2008

A judge on Wednesday granted a 60-day delay on the U.S. 281 tollway lawsuit so federal officials can review recently discovered documents from a state environmental study.

The documents, called “a small addition” by the Texas Department of Transportation but “numerous” by U.S. District Judge Fred Biery, could alter the Federal Highway Administration’s environmental clearance for the eight-mile toll road.

Toll critics and environmentalists filed the lawsuit in February to challenge the environmental study’s thoroughness.

“TxDOT has discovered numerous documents containing potential evidence which, to its credit, says should be reviewed,” Biery said in a four-page order.

The Alamo Regional Mobility Authority, which took over the U.S. 281 toll project from TxDOT, promised not to start construction during the break, the order says.

Biery also noted that court battles take time. Thirty-plus years ago, the U.S. 281 project now known as McAllister Freeway was locked in litigation for 14 years and many contracts were delayed.

“The court presumes counsel and the parties will continue to use best efforts to proceed efficiently and professionally,” the order says. “Like good wine, the court will make no opinion before its time.”

The delay, effective Aug. 7, will end in October.

Fitch downgrades toll road bonds, outlook bleak

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Link to article here. Add to the Fitch Report this story in the Austin Business Journal about how vulnerable Texas drivers are to high gas prices, taking 6% of one’s income (tolls could easily double one’s gasoline cost), it’s malfeasance for politicians and their political appointees to continue to push toll roads.

Toll road and airport projects are now riskier
By Pat Driscoll
Express-News
August 20, 2008

High fuel prices, inflation and a dragging economy have made bonds for toll roads and airports riskier, Fitch Ratings said in a report today.

toll.traffic.jpgWith tollway and airport traffic down as much as 16 and 19 percent, respectively, the report said the outlook for tollways and airports is now negative, down from a stable assessment just five months ago.

“The question is whether the current trend will continue for a longer period,” it states. “It is Fitch’s view that challenging conditions will persist over the next one to two years.”

Though fuel prices have been dropping from last month’s record, the economy and credit markets remain troubled and Europe and other countries show signs of stress, the report explains. Besides, food and other commodities haven’t joined the fuel-cost slide.

Not mentioned is that the U.S. Energy Information Administration expects even higher gas prices next year, and a debate slogs ahead on whether global oil production has peaked — and if not, then when — and how well technologies and alternative sources can fill the gap. Many agree that the age of cheap energy is over.

If pressures continue, and policymakers start pushing more money to public transit and more people begin shunning suburbs to live in urban cores, toll roads will face bigger problems, the report says. Airports could lose 10 percent of capacity within several years.

The report’s title rings ominous: U.S. Transportation Assets: Facing a Temporary Decline or a Permanent Change?

TOLL ROADS

Most U.S. toll roads now face traffic losses of 2 to 10 percent, says the Fitch report, which tracked numbers through June. Operators may have to boost rates and cut costs to keep bond ratings healthy, which might be difficult, even more difficult for private concessionaires charging maximums allowed in contracts.

Texas toll hopes, though, aren’t as bleak.

“Facilities in Texas appear to be a bright spot, with year-on-year reductions of less than 5 percent, which is half of what most other facilities in the Northeast, Midwest, Southeast and the West are experiencing to date,” the report says.

AIRPORTS

Seats on domestic flights could be down nearly 8 percent in the last quarter of 2008 compared to a year ago, the Fitch report says. Major airport hubs will fare better, losing only 6 percent.

Some airports could grow mostly because Southwest Airlines continues to expand, it says. San Antonio International Airport, where Southwest is by far the biggest carrier, saw record months in May and again in June. But several airlines, including Southwest, recently announced they will pull back some flights here.

Most U.S. carriers plan to cut capacity 6 to 14 percent in the third and fourth quarters of this year, Fitch says. Airports in the middle of big projects, such as San Antonio’s huge expansion, will likely have less flexibility to weather any financial storms.

Fourth man guilty in TxDOT bribery case

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4th man guilty in TxDOT bribery case
Valley Morning Star
August 19, 2008

McALLEN — A fourth man has pleaded guilty in connection with a cash-for-contracts scheme at the Texas Department of Transportation.

Ricardo Ballí admitted Friday that he lied to FBI agents and Texas Rangers investigating allegations that TxDOT’s local maintenance administrator had extorted cash payments from a contractor looking for work.

The administrator, Cresenciano “Chano” Falcon, 56, and two other TxDOT inspectors pleaded guilty in May to accepting bribes in exchange for certifying completed contract projects.

Authorities have remained tight-lipped about Ballí’s connection to the scheme since opening a case against him last month, even declining to release his age, city of residence or occupation. But local TxDOT spokeswoman Amy Rodriguez has previously said Ballí never worked for the agency.

His attorney, Robert Armand Berg, refused to comment Monday.

The investigation into the three TxDOT workers was initiated after a private contractor informed authorities he was asked to pay bribes to the men in order to receive work from the agency.

Falcon and his two co-defendants — Ray Llanes, 50, and Noe Beltran, 42 — face up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 in fines at a sentencing hearing set for next week.
Under a plea agreement with prosecutors, Balli will not face any additional charges beyond lying to investigators. He entered his plea Friday before he was formally indicted in the case.

A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled for him. He could face up to five years in prison.