Link to article here. Considering most toll roads in Texas are taking twice the footprint as keeping them freeways, now is not the time to build excessively large, more expensive toll roads that fewer and fewer people can afford.

EPA Corrective Action: Limit transportation projects to those that don’t create more pollution.

Solution: No 20 lane MEGA toll road on 281 (or elsewhere) that will only increase car and truck emissions.

Knowing TXDOT, it will promote the TTC and toll roads as the Holy Grail to relieve congestion and pollution…not so! Take a look at TxDOT’s vision of congestion relief. Toll roads DO NOT solve congestion.

Air rules cloud future for S.A.
03/13/2008
By Anton Caputo
Express-News

Federal regulators strengthened the nation’s air quality regulations Wednesday, likely putting hundreds of new communities including San Antonio on the nation’s bad air list, but falling short of what environmental groups and the federal government’s own scientific advisers wanted.The long-awaited decision by the Environmental Protection Agency tightened ground-level ozone pollution standards from 84 parts per billion to 75 parts per billion. The change means communities like San Antonio, which has had average ozone readings of 82 parts per billion over the past three years, will have to come up with plans to control pollution or face federal measures.

Local and state officials had been lobbying hard against the change, arguing the medical science behind the stronger standard was not justified. They also contend communities like San Antonio will have a hard time determining their own destiny because pollution often is blown in from other parts of the state and country.

“First of all, I think we’re the only major American city that is meeting the 84 standard,” Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said. “I don’t know how they expect us to meet 75. I’m just real concerned that it’s a big overreaction that is really not going to do anything for anybody other than cause an economic hardship.”

The federal government won’t compile its new list of failing counties until 2010. At that time, local leaders will have three years to formulate a plan to lower pollution.

Communities that fail are required to take pollution-control steps such as vehicle-emission testing and installing vapor recovery systems at gas stations.

Many also have been required to institute a pollution program that makes it difficult for industry to expand. Road projects can be affected because local transportation planners have to prove the projects won’t create more pollution before spending federal highway funds.

Peter Bella of the Alamo Area Council of Governments said he would continue to work with area cement companies and other industry to voluntarily reduce pollution. But he said it was unlikely that voluntary measures would net the kind of improvements needed.

“It’s going to be real challenging,” he said. “There are no two ways about it.”

Joe Stanko, a Washington-based attorney who represents the power industry, said Wednesday’s decision probably will set off a flurry of lawsuits.

“Various industries are likely to sue because they believe the standards are too stringent,” he said. “The environmental community may sue because it was looking for the standards to be even lower.”

Ground-level ozone, the main component of smog, is formed when pollutants from vehicles, industrial plants and other sources bake in the hot sun.

It’s a lung irritant that has been linked to asthma attacks, reduced lung function and other ailments.

The EPA’s own scientific advisory board had recommended setting the standard at 70 parts per billion or lower, a recommendation shared by a federal advisory panel on children’s health. But EPA administrator Stephen Johnson, who said he also was bombarded by politicians and industry representatives asking for no change at all, decided on the 75 parts per billion.

“It doesn’t make anybody happy,” former EPA administrator Jeff Holmstead said. “He was trying to thread the needle between what the environmental groups wanted and what the business community was hoping for.”

Regulators estimate as many as 345 counties nationally will fail to meet the new standard when the federal agency compiles its official list in 2010. The San Antonio region includes Bexar, Comal and Guadalupe counties.

Federal regulators believe that by 2020, the number of failing counties will fall to 28.

They expect the health benefit of the new standard to be substantial. Based on a number of studies, the EPA reports, the new standards will help avoid as many as 2,300 premature deaths, 380 cases of chronic bronchitis, 6,100 cases of aggravated asthma and 750,000 days missed from school or work a year by 2020.

The new rules will cost an estimated $7.6 billion to $8.5 billion a year to implement by 2020, but will save $2 billion to $19 billion a year in health costs and other benefits.

Johnson said he didn’t take into account the cost analysis or the ability to implement the plan when making a decision because the Clean Air Act precludes him from doing so. But the nation’s top environmental regulator also said Wednesday that he wanted to change the landmark environmental law so things like cost and feasibility can be used in determining future regulations.

Any such move is likely to be met with strong opposition in Congress. Health experts and environmentalists view the setting of health standards without consideration of cost as essential for assuring public health.

Such changes “would gut the Clean Air Act, which has saved countless lives and protected the health of millions of Americans for more than 35 years,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Link to article here.

After pushing for $5 billion more in bonds with Prop 12 last November, TxDOT now pretends to have an aversion to bond debt? Convenient! By the time the Governor and his Transportation Commission are finished playing politics with our roads, they won’t be able to sell bonds because lending conditions are souring every day, and congestion will be eliminated by the high price of gas.

Borrow more for roads, legislators urge transportation department
Perry rejects Dewhurst/Craddick suggestion as a ‘two-year stopgap.’
By Ben Wear
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Go borrow some money and build some things, legislative leaders told the Texas Department of Transportation in a letter Tuesday.

The short letter — signed by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, House Speaker Tom Craddick, Senate Finance Chairman Steve Ogden and House Appropriations Chairman Warren Chisum — recommends that TxDOT borrow another $1.5 billion against future gas tax revenue to bridge a temporary financial tight spot. The Legislature, the letter promises, will make sure that some of the gas tax money now diverted to other, nonhighway-construction needs will be returned to the agency to back the bonds.

TxDOT issued a statement that in effect punted the ball to Gov. Rick Perry’s office. Spokesman Robert Black said Perry has no interest, at least for now, in more debt of this kind.

“What this letter is asking TxDOT to do is a two-year stopgap, two years of going further into debt,” Black said. “A long-term solution comes first. Last year the Legislature came in and all they did was say ‘no.’ With the rate this state is growing and the needs and challenges we have in transportation, we can’t afford to say ‘no’ anymore.”

The Legislature has authorized TxDOT to borrow up to $6 billion against the gas tax; the agency so far has issued just $2.9 billion. Agency officials and Perry, citing slowing gas tax revenue, have resisted issuing more bonds backed by gas taxes.

The state budget for the 2008-09 biennium, according to TxDOT’s count, uses almost $1.6 billion from gas taxes and vehicle fees for agencies other than TxDOT. About three-fourths of that, $1.25 billion, pays for operations of the Department of Public Safety and the state troopers who patrol the state highway system.

The agency has said it ceased pursuing many new construction projects as of Feb. 1 because it wouldn’t have the money in later years to pay for them. So, if the agency in the current fiscal year spent the $1.5 billion suggested by Tuesday’s letter to begin a series of projects, it could have trouble paying the rest later on.

But the legislative letter to Hope Andrade, Texas Transportation Commission chairwoman, says TxDOT should expect more help from the Legislature.

“This action will allow transportation construction to return to reasonable levels in the short-term, but this is just the beginning of the conversation,” the letter says.

In Central Texas, where this year’s engineering budget was cut from $45.2 million to $19.6 million, road projects were put on hold or became candidates for local funding. Those projects included adding lanes to MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) and the widening of FM 1460 between Round Rock and Georgetown, RM 2338 in Williamson County, and Texas 195, which runs from Interstate 35 in Williamson County to Killeen.

It also forced Central Texas’ local toll authority to carry more of the cost of the design and construction of a second wave of toll roads approved in October

TxDOT had announced the construction slowdown in November, citing inflation in construction costs and cutbacks in federal grants. In early February, at a hearing called by two Senate committees, TxDOT revealed that it had double-counted $1.1 billion in scheduling construction projects. That mistake, officials said at the time, had a lot to do with the crunch.

The state auditor is now looking at TxDOT’s finances.

Link to article here. The price of gas is quickly becoming the number one economic concern among voters, and considering even a 20 cent per mile toll is like adding $5 to every gallon of gas you buy (if your vehicle gets 20 MPG), who are the tollers kidding? The average American cannot afford tolls and even TxDOT’s own studies show toll roads aren’t financially viable once gas hits $3 a gallon…now there’s talk of it hitting $4 a gallon unabated!

So why are the tollers still pushing a system they know will financially fail? Rather than discard the toll plans, they subsidize them. That’s right, expect to see more and more of our gas taxes and public funds subsidize what government already knows is a financial sinkhole for taxpayers! They now represent and care more about road contractors who fund their campaigns than they do the taxpayers footing the bill.

Fuel Prices Siphoning Money From U.S. Economy
Cheney Visit to Saudi Arabia May Include Plea on Oil Output
By Steven Mufson Washington Post Staff Writer
March 11, 2008

Crude oil prices continued a record-breaking climb today that pushed it past $109 a barrel, while the price of regular unleaded gasoline at the pump came within half a cent of its all-time high.

Link to article here. Let’s remember that the Minnesota bridge collapse was deemed an engineering flaw not a result of age. Having a public bank get cozy with private hogs at the trough sends up a flurry of red flags. Follow the money and campaign accounts…Dodd and Hagel are far too willing to sell out the public interest.

If the federal government would stop diverting 40% of our federal gas taxes away from roads, and if it would stop loading up spending bills with more than 6,000 earmarks like it did on the last federal highway bill, there would be PLENTY of money for the nation’s infrastructure. They know it; however, they’d rather spew the pro-toll propaganda that creates an artificial “crisis” that only the hogs at the trough can solve!

CQ TODAY MIDDAY UPDATE
March 11, 2008
Senate Panel Considers Public-Private Partnership for Infrastructure Funding
The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee held a hearing Tuesday on legislation to create a public-private partnership to finance needed improvements in the nation’s infrastructure.

The bill, sponsored by Chairman Christopher J. Dodd , D-Conn., and Chuck Hagel , R-Neb., was introduced Aug. 1, the same day an Interstate highway bridge collapsed in Minneapolis, killing 13.

“Some might say that our legislation is ‘too expensive,’ or that ‘we can’t afford to implement such a policy.’ I say we can’t afford not to.” Dodd said.

Hagel said the national infrastructure bank envisioned in the bill would be able to leverage private capital to supplement the current levels of public spending.

“The federal government does not have and will not have the resources to appropriate the required funding necessary to meet our future national infrastructure goals,” he said.

All sides agree that the nation’s transportation infrastructure — especially highways and bridges — needs help if it is to survive projected surges in population, freight traffic and trade. But everyone seems to have a different plan to generate the necessary revenue.

A Jan. 15 report by the 12-member National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission recommended raising the 18.4-cents-a-gallon federal gasoline tax to 40 cents a gallon over five years to help raise at least $225 billion a year for transportation improvements. The commission also urged the federal government to assume more of the financing burden from states.

The federal government currently covers about 40 percent of the nation’s transportation costs. President Bush’s fiscal 2009 budget request proposes $57.1 billion for the Transportation Department, a 10 percent cut from fiscal 2008. Of that total, $39.4 billion would go to highways, about $1.8 billion less than Congress appropriated in fiscal 2008.

Link to article here. Notice the contradictions just among the 3 stories below. Gillespie County Republican Party Chairwoman Pauline Cusack admits to speaking with Representative Nathan Macias’ former opponent Carter Casteel in one account, then says she hasn’t spoken to her since 2006 in another. It’s fair to say, every fact the pollwatchers alleged (which was the basis of our concerns) has been confirmed by the independent news sources below, despite these officials’ best effort at denying any wrongdoing.

The most OUTRAGEOUS admission other than the fact that Doug Miller’s relative counted ballots (can’t get much worse than that) is that these election officials allowed any Tom, Dick, and Harry to “volunteer” to count ballots. That’s got to be against the law! Don’t election workers have to be sworn in and sign statements of impartiality? This election stinks to high heaven!

TAKE ACTION!
DEMAND SECRETARY OF STATE INVESTIGATE!
Send a fax to the Secretary of State at 512-475-2811 or send an email to elections@sos.state.tx.us.

Photo by Miranda Laine
Terri Hall, of the San Antonio Toll Party, leads a press conference calling on the Secretary of State’s office to investigate alleged election fraud in the District 73 race.

Macias backer demanding investigation
By Mitzie Stelte
Herald-Zeitung
March 8, 2008

Supporters of State Rep. Nathan Macias, R- Bulverde, are demanding that the Texas Secretary of State’s office investigate alleged election fraud in Gillespie County involving the District 73 race.

In Tuesday’s primary, challenger Doug Miller unseated Macias by a scant 38 votes; Macias said Wednesday that he plans to call for a recount.

The heated race came down to Gillespie County, which did not complete its vote count until 4 a.m., Wednesday because emergency paper ballots issued on election day had to be counted by hand.

Spring Branch resident Terri Hall, director of the San Antonio Toll Party, a group that opposes expansion of toll roads and supports Macias, held a press conference Friday morning in New Braunfels alleging that family members of Miller were involved in the ballot counting in Gillespie County (see accompanying story). Hall also said that Gillespie Republican Chairperson Pauline Cusack, whom she claims openly opposed Macias, was on the phone repeatedly with former State Rep. Carter Casteel, whom Macias narrowly beat to win the District 73 nomination in the 2006 Republican primary.

Hall, flanked by about 25 Macias supporters, claimed that the counting team in Gillespie took more than four hours to hand-count 160 ballots, which changed the outcome of the election from a 58-vote win for Macias to a 38-vote win for Miller. According to Gillespie County election reports, the Republican vote in Precinct 5, which includes the west Gillespie community of Harper, was 306 votes — 201 for Miller and 105 for Macias.

Dist. 73 includes Comal, Gillespie, Kendall and Bandera counties. Gillespie is the only county that Miller carried.

Hall, who watched result numbers come in at Macias’ election night headquarters in Bulverde, said she and other supporters don’t know first-hand what went on in Gillespie County, but she had heard several reports of what sounded like voter irregularities.

“At a minimum, in this election, there were voter irregularities,” said Hall. “At worst, dare we say, voter fraud.”

But according to Gillespie County Clerk Mary Lynn Rusche, everything was done under the code of the Secretary of State’s office.

Rusche said it is true that Miller’s sister-in-law, Denise Mund, was at one point involved in ballot counting. However, as soon as her identity was realized, the counting stopped and she was asked to leave, said Rusche.

Election administration staff then stepped in and started the count over from the beginning, and the results ended up being exactly the same, said Rusche.

Miller’s brother-in-law, Jeff Mund, was also at the county courthouse, but according to Mund, he was there to wait for results and was never part of the ballot-counting process.

Craig Murphy, Miller’s political consultant, declined to comment on the happenings in Gillespie County during the ballot counting because he said that it is all second-hand information.

But Murphy did say that the Miller campaign is absolutely confident that the ballots were counted correctly.

“It was done fairly,” added Murphy. “That’s all that really matters.”

Cater Casteel denied that she contacted Gillespie Republican Chairman Pauline Cusack, saying, “You’ve got to be kidding me. That’s ridiculous.”

Casteel said that she called people in Kendall and Gillespie County who were there listening for results, but was never on the phone with Cusack.

“I’m sorry they’re grasping for straws,” added Casteel. “But for crying out loud, don’t make stuff up.”

Cusack denied the rumors that she openly opposed Macias.

“I did not take sides in this battle at all,” said Cusack. “I did not endorse anyone; I deliberately didn’t.”

Hall also made accusations that Comal County Commissioner Jan Kennady was on the phone with Cusack repeatedly Tuesday night during the ballot counting and said that it sounded unethical.

While Kennady does not deny having spoken to Cusack on the phone, she said that she did not receive any information that was not public record at the time.

“He’s my representative,” said Kennady. “I’m a public official and I’m interested in all races.”

Kennady also said that she and Cusack had been friends for 25 years, and Cusack did call her after the vote was started over because of Mund’s involvement because Cusack was upset, but again, nothing was ever divulged that wasn’t public record.

In response to the issue of the time it took to count the ballots, Rusche said that ballot counting was delayed for several reasons.

Because of the high voter turnout, many of the precincts ran out of the type of paper that ballot machines will accept and they ended up having to use plain Xerox paper for ballots. Rusche said there were between 300 and 400 paper ballots. Also, Precinct 5, the last one to be counted, did not get their votes to the courthouse until hours after the polls closed at 7 p.m.

Precinct 5 had a very long ballot, added Rusche. The counters had to go through them column by column, race by race.

Secretary of State spokesman Scott Haywood said that his agency generally reviews reports from citizens regarding allegations or complaints about voter irregularities, and then decides whether to send them to the attorney general for an investigation.

Haywood said that the agency received numerous complaints regarding the District 73 Republican race Friday morning and was reviewing them.

Macias’ campaign director, Adam Bell, declined several requests for comment Friday.

__________________________________

Link to article here.

Candidate’s sister-in-law helped count votes
By Mitzie Stelte
Herald-Zeitung
March 8, 2008

Gillespie County Clerk Mary Lynn Rusche confirmed Friday that a relative of District 73 candidate Doug Miller was counting ballots for a short time Tuesday night.

But Rusche said that as soon as election officials realized that Miller’s sister-in-law, Denise Mund, was among the counters, she was asked to leave and the count was started over from the beginning.

Gillespie County already had fallen behind in reporting precinct numbers after having to issue emergency paper ballots which had to be hand-counted. One precinct didn’t turn in its ballots until hours after the polls had closed. The county didn’t finalize its totals until 4 a.m.

As Tuesday night stretched into Wednesday morning, election officials began running low on volunteers willing to stay and count ballots, said Gillespie County Republican Chairperson Pauline Cusack. When it came time to count the last precinct’s ballots, at around 11 p.m., all the volunteer counters who had been at the courthouse had left.

“I was pleading for volunteers,” said Cusack.

Then two people she knew volunteered to help, followed by another woman Cusack didn’t know, who very meekly volunteered.

“I didn’t know anyone at the courthouse was a relative,” said Cusack. “No one introduced themselves to me.”

About an hour and fifteen minutes into the counting, Cusack said a deputy clerk came in and handed her the phone with someone on the other end who was very upset that a Miller relative was helping with the count.

“That was the first time I knew about this,” said Cusack. “It was innocent.”

The count was stopped, and new counters made up of election administration staff started the count over from the beginning, said Rusche. And all tabulations of all candidates were exactly the same on the second count.

The tabulations were done professionally and everything was done up to code of the Secretary of State, said Rusche.

Denise Mund could not be reached for comment Friday.

______________________________________

Link to article here.

Toll Party cries foul in GOP’s Dist. 73
By Roger Croteau
Express-News
03/07/2008

NEW BRAUNFELS — The San Antonio Toll Party is calling for an investigation into what it calls voting irregularities in the Texas House District 73 Republican primary in Gillespie County, where the final box swung the victory from incumbent Rep. Nathan Macias to challenger Doug Miller.

But party and election officials said they are confident the votes were counted accurately.

Macias was ahead by 58 votes until the final box, Precinct 5 in Gillespie County, was counted in the early morning hours Wednesday. Miller won the box by 96 votes — 201 to 105 — and the entire contest by 38 votes.

Terri Hall, the Toll Party director, said Miller’s relatives helped count emergency paper ballots used in that precinct when it ran out of regular ballots. She said the GOP county chairwoman, Pauline Cusack, repeatedly spoke on the phone with Carter Casteel, who held the District 73 seat until Macias beat her in a heated race in the 2006 GOP primary.

Finally, Hall said it suspiciously took hours for that final box of votes to arrive at the Gillespie County Courthouse and then it took four hours to count its ballots.

“We were getting direct word on the ground from Nathan Macias’ poll watchers,” Hall said. “I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding.’ It was so blatant. How can it be a legitimate election with all this going on?”

Hall said the Toll Party is especially concerned because Macias is “a stalwart hero on the issue of toll roads.”

Cusack said she did not speak with Casteel on the telephone at all that night, and has not spoken with her since Casteel lost in 2006. It may have taken a while for the Precinct 5 box to get to the courthouse, but there was no evidence the box was tampered with, nor did it take an unusually long time to count, she said.

Cusack said one of Miller’s family members was involved in the hand count of the emergency paper ballots, but the woman volunteered to help “innocently,” and once it was called to Cusack’s attention, the vote count was halted. She got new volunteers and they started the count over again from scratch.

“I was so upset being accused of doing something wrong, I was almost in tears,” Cusack said.

The precinct is in the Harper area of Gillespie County, where Miller owns a small ranch. Miller won 13 of the 14 boxes in Gillespie County, with the Harper box having the largest margin.

“You would expect his neighbors to support him,” said Miller campaign spokesman Craig Murphy. “This is basically just sour grapes. It’s a little silly and a little sad.”

Gillespie County Clerk Mary Rusche said the turnout in the Harper area was much larger than usual and the precinct ran out of ballots. She made copies of the ballots for voters to use, and those 163 “emergency” ballots were not on the same heavy paper stock and could not be counted by optical scanner with the others. They had to be counted by hand, a process overseen by Republican Party officials.

Cusack said she was “pleading” for volunteers in the courthouse to help with the count.

“This woman volunteered,” she said. “I didn’t even know her name and I did not ask anyone who they support. She was not screaming to get in front and exclude someone else. Let’s not pummel her. She was innocently trying to help out.”

Cusack said she does not know what the relationship is between the woman and Miller. When she got a call from the Macias campaign complaining about her, 90 minutes into the process, the count was restarted with new volunteers, Cusack said.

Hall said she plans to ask the Texas Secretary of State’s office to investigate the Gillespie vote count, with her complaints to be lodged personally, as a voter, and on behalf of the Toll Party.

Scott Haywood, a spokesman for the office, said it would review the complaints and decide whether they warrant being forwarded to the Attorney General’s office for further review.