Link to article here.

Here’s proof Comal County Commissioners explored tolling US Hwy 281 and Hwy 46…“County officials initially considered toll projects to move the Texas 46 and U.S. 281 projects along quickly, but traffic count projections showed tolls wouldn’t have raised enough money to make that option feasible.”

TxDOT’s Greg Malatek and David Casteel along with County officials called me a liar for saying they intended to toll 281 and Hwy 46 in Comal County. The above quote is vindication and proves who is lying to whom. So now we’re supposed to believe them when they say no tolls will be coming to Comal County?

As soon as they develop the area to death and jam thousands of homes and commercial strip malls into the county bringing more traffic to our highways, rest assured, they’ll toll it. These pass through financing contracts actually give them an incentive to overdevelop the Hill Country since TxDOT pays the county back based on the number of cars using the highways. So drive away!

Comal acts fast, snags funds for wider 281
By Roger Croteau
Express-News< 10/11/2007 NEW BRAUNFELS — Comal County officials approved a contract with the state Thursday to widen U.S. 281 from the Guadalupe River north to the Blanco County line. And the 5.6-mile, $35 million project won't include any tolls. The Texas Department of Transportation will foot $19 million of the bill. In a "pass-through" financing agreement, Comal County will issue certificates of obligation for $16 million to pay the rest of the project cost, and TxDOT will pay the county back most of the money. The county will be responsible for the interest payments on the $16 million, as well as 10 percent of the cost of right of way and relocating utilities. The state will pay the county back somewhere between $2.6 million and $4 million a year, based on the number of cars that travel the road. County officials initially considered toll projects to move the Texas 46 and U.S. 281 projects along quickly, but traffic count projections showed tolls wouldn’t have raised enough money to make that option feasible.

“I believe TxDOT is about financially incapable of doing this kind of deal any more, so we are striking while the iron is hot,” Comal County Commissioner Jay Millikin said.

TxDOT District Engineer David Casteel said the department recently gave a presentation showing the shortfall in available funding for road construction in Texas.

“If you were not real aggressive, like Comal County, the opportunity to do a pass-through deal is probably gone,” Casteel said. “Comal County was very wise to move so quickly.”

Comal and New Braunfels officials also agreed last year to a separate $16 million in pass-through financing for the Texas 46 widening project from the Bulverde city limits to Landa Street in New Braunfels. That project will cost $61 million and is under way.

The U.S. 281 project is moving quickly toward construction as well, Casteel said. The environmental studies and public comment period are almost done and right of way acquisition could start within a year.

The 5.6-mile stretch now is two lanes. It will become a four-lane, divided highway.

County Commissioner Jan Kennady noted two recent collisions on that stretch of U.S. 281, one of which killed three people.

“There’s not doubt about it, if you widen it and add medians, it’s going to be safer,” she said.

Dear Ms. Hall:

I’d like to submit an idea for you and your group to explore and possibly lobby for as new state legislation, seeing Texas State Government officials have no objections to secretly monitoring citizens via cameras everywhere we travel on public roads.

According to TXDOT, and other agencies, these secret monitoring efforts are always for “public safety” or for “monitoring regional mobility” concerns.

Here is my suggestion. We as citizens in return, are also concerned for the safety of our government employees and in addition we are also concerned that tax revenue is spent wisely.

Therefore, in the interest of our concern for the safety and security of our elected officials and ALL state government employees, why not propose and lobby for a measure to require real time live streaming camera surveillance (to be posted 24/7 on the Web) of any and all elected state officials and their employees while those individuals are in their offices, inside a publicly owned government facility conducting their duties, or while traveling in any State owned method of transportation?

(Of course audio monitoring should be included in the measure)

It would certainly help constituents to rest easy each night knowing their public officials and employees are safe while in public facilities. They would be virtually free from any attempt to be bribed while they are in the public building or vehicle.

It would would additionally provide physical security, since criminals would be less likely to attempt harm to any state employee or elected official due to it being public knowledge digitized record of any crime would assist in identifying them for conviction of any crime.

All State automobiles could be equipped with cameras monitoring the INSIDE of the vehicle, and perhaps RFID chips could also be of assistance in some similar fashion to monitor the vehicle’s travel.

Just a thought, since Governor Perry’s administration sees no problem at all with TXDOT secretly recording the images of Texas motorists, in their ongoing efforts to unselfishly serve and protect the people of the State of Texas.

Sincerely,
Gary
Dripping Springs, Texas

Link to article here.

Legislators are finally getting a clue that people don’t want toll roads and they’re starting to look at the most affordable transportation solution…the gas tax. However, without putting the lid on toll roads, raising the gas tax under current law and policies amounts to a DOUBLE WHAMMY, a gas tax increase AND toll proliferation!

Here’s what I told reporters, but you can see how little of it got printed…
Until TxDOT undergoes a top to bottom review of its books and until their funding gap figures are resolved (State Auditor and A&M Study found it was off by $30 billion) and a trustworthy determination of the true transportation needs are made, we cannot support a gas tax increase. This is because no one knows the real dollar amount that a gas tax increase would need to raise. Also, we cannot support ANY transportation tax increases until lawmakers put the lid on tolling. Our fear from the beginning has been that we’d get a gas tax increase and STILL pay tolls across Texas. A DOUBLE whammy for taxpayers!

However, we appreciate a lawmaker courageously stepping forward to start the discussion of a REAL solution other than tolls!

Since the Prop 12 bonds are going to be used solely for TOLL ROADS not FREEways, we will work very hard to defeat it. Read the official legislative analysis that says so here.

Senator urging funding for roads
By Patrick Driscoll
Express-News
10/11/2007

State lawmakers don’t seem to have a clue when it comes to gauging public tolerance for higher gasoline taxes or hearing demands to scale back toll-road plans, a ranking Texas Senate member said Thursday.”We need leadership on these issues,” said John Carona, R-Dallas, chairman of the Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security. “I’m very frustrated from the governor of Texas on down.”

He made the remarks to the Express-News Editorial Board while stumping for Proposition 12 on the November ballot, which would allow $5 billion in bonds backed by general revenue to be spent on roadways, although he concedes that’s just a quick fix.

Texas Department of Transportation officials said two weeks ago they face a funding meltdown because federal and state lawmakers refused for more than a decade to raise gas taxes and state legislators this year began curbing the agency’s ability to privatize tollways.

TxDOT will slash $1.8 billion in road construction over the next three years, including at least $57 million to widen several San Antonio highways.

Carona didn’t dispute the crisis, but said TxDOT should pull back some on using toll roads and privatization — the most hated and costly solutions — to fill the funding hole.

“I’m not opposed to all the toll roads,” he said. “I just think they need to be part of the mix, not all of the solution.”

But that means other options are needed, he said. Between now and the 2009 legislative session, the senator will rally support for three initiatives:

Raising the state’s 20-cent-a-gallon gas tax by a nickel or a dime.

Indexing the gas tax to construction costs but capping increases to 3 percent a year.

Asking voters to consider a constitutional amendment to ban diversions of highway funds for other uses — including a fourth of the gas-tax pie going to schools, but only if all of that funding can be replaced from other sources.

Carona believes he can push some version of all three measures through the Senate.

“It’ll depend wholly on what’s going on in the House,” he said. “The time to go after this is right now, while there’s heightened legislative awareness.”

House Transportation Committee Chairman Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock, said he’ll stick with Carona all the way, but there should be a backup plan because similar bills have failed over the years.

“The backup plan has got to be bringing private investment,” he said. “The Legislature pretty emphatically said no to indexing, to increasing the rate.”

Gov. Rick Perry, a staunch advocate for privatization and tolling, has long opposed proposals to increase the gas tax but would be open to allowing indexing, spokeswoman Allison Castle said. He also wants to stop gas-tax diversions.

“The governor believes toll roads are the fairest form of taxation, you only pay if you use them, but he’s willing to consider a number of options, including indexing the gas tax,” she said.

Toll critic Terri Hall of San Antonio Toll Party said she can’t support a higher gas tax until TxDOT’s finances are probed and the agency chucks a policy to toll new highway lanes whenever feasible.

“However, we appreciate a lawmaker courageously stepping forward to start the discussion of real solutions other than tolls,” she said.