Link to story here.

Texas newspapers sold to Australian interests
Editorial change could silence critics of superhighways
By Jerome R. Corsi
WorldNetDaily.com
January 29, 2007

Macquarie, an Australian investment consortium involved in leasing U.S. toll roads, has begun acquiring newspapers in Texas, a move critics say is designed to silence grassroots objection to the planned Trans-Texas Corridor.

That highway project is believed to be part of a much larger plan that eventually could, critics allege, tie the economies, lifestyles and even governments of the United States, Mexico and Canada together.

Halyard Capital just days ago announced the sale of its portfolio company, American Consolidated Media, which publishes 40 community newspapers and shopping publications in nine Texas and Oklahoma communities, to the Macquarie Media Group for $80 million.

Sal Costello, the founder of TexasTollParty.com and a vocal critic of the Texas Department of Transportation plans to build the Trans-Texas Corridor toll road parallel to Interstate 35, told WND the newspaper deal was “absurd.”

“Macquarie being allowed to buy these newspapers is just another con job,” said Costello, obviously upset at the acquisition. “Macquarie is buying our news organizations to hide the fact that they are stealing our land.”

On his blog, Costello had noted that the Macquarie purchase comes “after the ACM’s rural independent newspapers have been the most vocal opposition to the Trans Texas Corridor.”

“Countless articles over the past months and years peg the TTC as an eminent domain land grab. ACM’s publications had placed serious political pressure on the TTC,” he said. “The newspapers are the main communication tool for many of the rural Texas communities, with many citizens at risk of losing their homes and farms through eminent domain. Future TTC contracts are estimated to affect about one-half million acres of land, and 4,000 miles of Texas toll roads.”

Macquarie Media Group is a wholly owned subsidiary of Macquarie Group Australia which also owns the Macquarie Infrastructure Group, one of the largest private developers of toll roads in the world.

According to the Public Private Partnerships section of the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, Macquarie is an investment partner along with Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, S.A., in the deal to lease the Chicago Skyway on a 99-year lease. The Chicago Skyway deal was concluded in August 2005 and was the first long-term lease of an existing public road in the United States. Cintra is a publicly-listed company headquartered in Spain, owned by the Madrid-based Groupo Ferrovial.

According to the FHWA website, Cintra and Macquarie Infrastructure Group also combined in 2006 to finalize a 75-year lease on the Indiana Toll Road.

Macquarie is not involved in the Texas Trans-Texas Corridor financing. Cintra is the foreign investment capital group that is providing the funding for the TTC-35 project.

As reported previously by WND, Macquarie participated in the EuroMoney Seminar, entitled, North American PPP 2006: The Infrastructure Finance Conference,” a “networking” PPP conference held in New York City at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, September 19-20, 2006, at a cost of $2,500 per attendee.

On January 11, 2007, in a separate announcement, President Bush nominated David James Gribbin to be general counsel of the Department of Transportation. Gribbin previously had served as a division director for Macquarie in Washington, D.C.

Prior to this most recent nomination, Gribbins had been serving as General Counsel to the FHWA, a position then-DOT Secretary Norman Mineta appointed him to fill in 2004.

A spokesman from Macquarie told WND that Macquarie Media Group is not planning to change the editorial content of the American Consolidated Media publications. “A key part of the attraction of American Consolidated Media,” the spokesman told WND, “is that the ACM publications delivers news and stories that are of interest to the communities they serve.”

Asked whether the Macquarie Media Group acquired ACM to silence critics of PPP projects that Macquarie Infrastructure Group is pursuing in the United States, the spokesperson said, “No. Each division in the Macquarie Group has their own investment funds and makes their own investment decision. The Macquarie Media Group is focused on making media investments around the world. ACM is an attractive investment because their publications serve the local communities. The Macquarie Media Group will seek to grow the ACM portfolio, but not change their editorial direction.”

Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, is among the leaders in Congress expressing alarm at the coordinated plans that appear to be moving the United States into and beyond “partnerships” with Mexico and Canada.

Asked about the Department of Transportation’s work with Dallas-based trade group NASCO, the North American SuperCorridor Coalition Inc., and the Texas Department of Transportation plans to build the Trans-Texas Corridor, Poe told WND “the NAFTA superhighway plans exist to move goods from Mexico through the United States to Canada. It appears to be another one of the open-border philosophies that chips away at American sovereignty, all in the name of so-called trade.”

He believes the public ought to be involved in such decisions, especially those states directly affected such as Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., has introduced House Concurrent Resolution 40 to express the sense of Congress that the United States should not build a NAFTA superhighway system and should not enter into an agreement with Mexico and Canada to form a North American Union.

Many of the plans are being assembled under the Security and Prosperity Partnership, to which President Bush of the United States, President Fox of Mexico and Prime Minister Martin of Canada agreed in 2005.

Listen in here or read the interview with William Lutz of the Lone Star Report below. Senator Carona continues to lead the PEOPLE’S fight against TxDOT’s verison of toll roads and the Trans Texas Corridor!

Interview: Sen. Transportation chairman John Carona
by William Lutz
Lone Star Report
January 29, 2007

When you’re talking to Texans about cars and highways, you’re guaranteed their rapt attention. As Sen. John Carona (R-Dallas) well knows.

Carona last year won Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst’s nod for chairman of the Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security. From toll roads to gasoline taxes to red-light cameras, issues before the panel stretch with the endlessness of a West Texas interstate.

Already the new chairman has filed several noteworthy bills and called for important changes in Texas transportation policies. He discussed it with LSR this week.

LSR: How do you view the Trans-Texas Corridor?

Carona: To this day, there is still a great deal of controversy surrounding the corridor. Many people feel like their voices have not been heard. They simply have not been listened to. It’s one of the reasons why on March 1 we’re going to hold a hearing here in Austin and allow the public to come forward and speak directly to the Legislature about their concerns.

If you have rural interests – you’re a farm or ranch owner – you’re very concerned about eminent domain.

If you are a taxpayer in this state, you are very concerned about what amount of state money, if any, will go into the project, how long it will take to be built.

If you are an elected leader in one of our communities along I-35, you’re concerned about what the Trans-Texas Corridor may do in terms of diverting business away from your center of commercial activity in your small town or region.

So there are a lot of reasons to be concerned.

Of course, the underlying concern [with the corridor] being whether or not it’s good public policy to have a private company operate a major Texas roadway, as would be the [case with the] corridor should it ever be built.

LSR: What is toll equity, and what changes should be made to it?

Carona: The term toll equity has been coined in that the Transportation commission and TxDOT will have to financially supplement a toll project that may not have as great a volume in one part of the state as in others. Not all areas are really automatically attractive for toll construction. Yet at the current time with limitations on the state funding for roadways, that might be the only way build a toll [road].

The question comes in with the subjectivity of the process. Many people feel that the formula that’s been used to provide equity – the amount of supplement for one toll project in one part of the state – hasn’t necessarily been consistent with the way the money has been applied in other toll projects in other regions.
I think you’ll see the Legislature take a much more careful approach in that, and really begin to examine whether or not there ought to be toll equity and whether or not these projects are being handled in a fair and consistent fashion. And I think that’s an appropriate thing for the Legislature to do.

LSR: What are comprehensive development agreements, and what should the Legislature do with them?

Carona: Comprehensive development agreements are agreements between the public (in this case the state) and private companies to be able to build roads in this state. And these Comprehensive Development Agreements, or CDAs, are entered into after they are placed out for bid with private companies.
Most recently – again – the conversation involving CDAs has to do with major toll projects throughout the state.

But there are some concerns about these comprehensive development agreements, which the Legislature authorized into law over the last six-year period. In particular, the concern is these agreements contain provisions that limit competition. The non-compete provisions actually keep the state from building other free roads that might ultimately compete with the toll road over whatever the length of the CDA is.

[CDA length] is also part of the concern. These CDA agreements can extend 70 years. And, in fact, the Transportation commission would like to take that limit off altogether, where, in theory, private operators could come in and operate these Texas roadways for a 100-year period of time. I think that’s inappropriate. It goes far beyond what ought to be the reasonable authority of the Texas Transportation Commission. So those are the kind of changes we’ll be looking to make in the years ahead. [Carona’s SB 149 would prohibit non-compete clauses in CDAs.]< LSR: How would you characterize the relationship between the department [of transportation], the Texas Transportation Commission, and your local elected officials in North Texas? Carona: Let's say, right now, that relationship is strained. Many people feel that while TxDOT and the Transportation commission talk about local control and local decision-making, in reality, that means local as long as you agree with TxDOT or the Transportation commission. And if you disagree, of course, the commission has the ability to withhold funds that might otherwise go to your particular project. And that's the kind of relationship that people are frustrated with. And that's what prompted my recent call for the current chairman of the Transportation commission [Ric Williamson] not to remain on the commission. Upon the expiration of his current term, he perhaps [should] step aside and let someone new come in. In many quarters of the state, the Transportation commission has worn out its welcome. And I think we need to bring in new faces, and we need to bring in a policy from Austin where the folks here listen to what the local needs are and are willing to address the transportation priorities in the fashion recommended to them by locally elected officials, [who] candidly are in a position to know best what the immediate transportation needs really are. LSR: What are some of the mistakes TxDOT has made in North Texas? Carona: One concern, of course, is the proliferation of toll roads. In North Texas, we have a general attitude of support of tolls, but recently announced toll projects - like [State Highway] 121 up in Collin County [were] very unpopular. People feel like they have already paid for that through with their gasoline taxes. Another example that should have been handled differently would have been the relationship between the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) and TxDOT. Many people feel that TxDOT has attempted to shut down NTTA, that they [TxDOT leaders] consider NTTA as an impediment to what TxDOT would like to do in its statewide policy, when in reality, NTTA was developed to be able to focus on the immediate needs of North Texas, and be in the best possible position to provide efficient roadways at the lowest possible cost. That's the right mission, and NTTA has been on the right track, in my opinion. But to see the encroachment by TxDOT onto the duties previously handled by NTTA is a mistake. And that's been one of the things to cause great concern and anxiety amongst locally elected officials. LSR: Tell us about the bill you have filed [SB 257] allowing for the use of local sales taxes for transportation projects. Carona: North Texas has a major congestion problem. It's only going to get worse. What the bill I filed would do is enable local communities to hold a local vote to determine whether or not they would like to exempt from the current sales tax cap, which the state imposes, up to one penny to be used for transportation projects. If you are a region in North Texas that does not use DART [Dallas Area Rapid Transit], for example, if it's approved by a local vote of the people, you could elect to collect up to one penny and join DART. If, on the other hand, you're a city like Dallas [that] already has DART, then, of course, you've taken care of your transportation needs, but because up to one penny would have been exempted, you could again elect to use that additional one penny in capacity for economic development purposes, as other cities currently do through what's referred to as the 4-a and 4-b sales taxes. What we're trying to do is just give North Texas more options to be able to meet transportation needs. Specifically, this option would be used to further rail and mass transit in North Texas. LSR: When you're talking about changing how we do toll roads, you're not talking about abolishing all new toll roads, are you? Carona: Toll roads are a good thing, not a bad thing. But you can have too much of a good thing. The point legislators are trying to make in Austin now - and this is a view that is widespread among legislators of both political parties – is that presently we are relying too heavily on toll roads into the future to meet Texas’s transportation needs. Virtually every major project on the board today is to be built as a toll road.

That’s simply irresponsible. The public has paid for a [transportation system] through gasoline taxes that are paid into the state every time someone goes to the pump and fills his car. To continue to pay those taxes, and to have to pay tolls for every major artery going forward in the state – as least those that are built new – is in essence double taxation. And I think it’s an unfair burden on people across the state.

Some new toll roads are a good thing, but they should be part of a total transportation mix of options.

That’s why we’re proposing other things like the indexing of the current gasoline tax. The current gasoline tax has not been raised since 1991.

One of the things before the Legislature this session will be whether or not to change the law so that that gasoline tax at its current level can simply be increased at the rate of inflation going forward.

I think that’s a very reasonable compromise. Certainly, the cost of construction has increased dramatically since 1991 … Indexing the current fuel tax from this point forward to match the rate of inflation is one very modest yet responsible way to meet the roadway needs of the state.

On an annual basis, this would amount to little more than one penny per gallon of gasoline. And I think that’s a very affordable option instead of [what] we’re seeing now, which would be the proliferation of toll roads.

LSR: Are there any other initiatives you’d like to highlight?

Carona: On a local basis, one of the issues I care very passionately about is the use of red-light cameras [at stoplights]. I think it’s an issue that’s becoming increasingly controversial.

I am not an opponent of the use of red-light cameras. What I am an opponent of is the use of them as a means for cities to profit for purposes of paying for other city budget needs. Cities receive now sales tax revenue, and they receive property tax revenue. They should not be initiating yet another form of revenue, which is the hanging of red-light cameras on practically every major intersection throughout the city.

Cameras ought to be limited specifically to those areas that have a legitimate public safety concern. For those locations, and for those reasons, I support cameras.

But when they go beyond that, as a revenue-raiser, as is the case currently in the City of Dallas, surrounding cities, and the City of El Paso – all of which are either using or beginning to use red-light camera technology, [I am concerned]. Those cities are already placing substantial line items in their budget to account for the profit that they make off of these cameras.

When the use of these cameras goes toward profits as opposed to public safety, I think that’s wrong.

So one of the pieces of legislation that I’ve filed [SB 125] would be to take those surplus monies – those profits, if you would – [and] after a city recovers its costs of buying the camera and maintaining the camera, and either using those profits to fund the state’s trauma-care fund, which is what deals with traffic accidents, or as an alternative.[after all that], we need at the state level to lower the fine that’s currently on the books in most cities and cap it on a statewide basis. So cities can indeed recover the cost of the cameras and the operation, so that the profit motive is taken out.

Once you take the profit motive out, I predict we’ll see much less use of those cameras in our communities.

Editor’s note: A video version of this interview will be posted to http://www.dallasblog.com. It is the standard policy of The Lone Star Report to edit interviews for length, grammar, and clarity. So the version published here may differ slightly from the video version.

Link to article here.

House resolution opposes North American Union
Lawmakers seek to block NAFTA superhighway system, continental integration
By Jerome R. Corsi
World Net Daily
January 26, 2007

Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., has introduced a House resolution expressing congressional opposition to construction of a NAFTA Super Highway System or entry into a North American Union with Mexico and Canada.

Goode said the goal behind House Concurrent Resolution 40, introduced Monday, is “to block a NAFTA Superhighway System and to indicate the opposition of the Congress to the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) of North America that was declared by President Bush, Mexico’s then-President Vicente Fox, and Canada’s then-Prime Minister Paul Martin, at the conclusion of their summit meeting in Waco, Texas, on March 23, 2005.”

The preamble of HCR 40 refers to the Trans-Texas Corridor being built by the Texas Department of Transportation, noting “a NAFTA Super Highway System from the west coast of Mexico through the United States and into Canada has been suggested as part of a North American Union to facilitate trade between the SPP countries.”

A subsequent “whereas” clause notes “the State of Texas has already begun planning of the Trans-Texas Corridor, a major multi-modal transportation project beginning at the United States – Mexico border, which would serve as an initial section of a NAFTA Super Highway System.”

The resolution expresses concern “it could be particularly difficult for Americans to collect insurance from Mexican companies which employ Mexican drivers involved in accidents in the United States, which would likely increase the insurance rates for American drivers.”

Another concern with the plans for a NAFTA Super Highway is that “future unrestricted trucking into the United States can pose a safety hazard due to inadequate maintenance and inspection, and can act collaterally as a conduit for the entry into the United States of illegal drugs, illegal human smuggling, and terrorist activities.”

The Spanish investment consortium, Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, S.A., owned by the Madrid-based Groupo Ferrovial, is funding the construction of TTC-35 and will lease the highway for 50 years. To prevent more such foreign leasing of U.S. highways, HCR 40 notes as a risk that “a NAFTA Super Highway would likely include funds from foreign consortiums and be controlled by foreign management, which threatens the sovereignty of the United States.”

Regarding SPP, HCR 40 states “reports issued by the SPP indicate that it has implemented regulatory changes among the three countries that circumvent United States trade, transportation, homeland security, and border security functions and that the SPP will continue to do so in the future.”

Further, HCR 40 charges “the actions taken by the SPP to coordinate border security by eliminating obstacles to migration between Mexico and the United States actually makes the United States-Mexico border less secure, because Mexico is the primary source country of illegal immigrants into the United States.”

The resolution calls for Congress to express its sentiment that:

* the United States should not engage in the construction of a North American Free Trade Agreement Super Highway System;

* the United States should not allow the Security and Prosperity Partnership to implement further regulations that would create a North American Union with Mexico and Canada; and

* the president of the United States should indicate strong opposition to these acts or any other proposals that threaten the sovereignty of the United States.

As WND previously reported, in the 109th Congress, Goode had introduced HCR 487, which is substantially the same as the re-introduced HCR 40.

WND has also reported Goode has introduced two additional bills into the new Congress, with the intent of blocking any North American integration by the Bush administration. The two additional resolutions are:

* H.C.R. 18. Expressing disapproval by the House of Representatives of the Social Security totalization agreement signed by the Commissioner of Social Security and the Director General of the Mexican Social Security Institute June 29, 2004. Joined by 27 co-sponsors. Introduced Jan. 4, 2007.

* H.C.R. 22. Expressing the sense of Congress that HCR 40 currently has five co-sponsors, all Republicans: John J. Duncan Jr. of Tennessee, Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, Jones of North Carolina, Ron Paul of Texas, Cliff Stearns of Florida and Zach Wamp of Tennessee.

Link to WOAI story here.

Joe Krier here claims that there was controversy like this surrounding the construction of the interstate highway system by Eisenhower. HARDLY! The interstate system didn’t take swaths of private land the width of 4 footballs fields and effectively cut off normal wildlife migration patterns with 1,200 foot slabs of concrete without exits or overpasses. Just the first 4 corridors of the Trans Texas Corridor (if built out as proposed), would take 3 times the land of all the existing interstates in Texas today. Also, Eisenhower wanted to build the interstates for national security, not to turn over massive amounts of Texas infrastructure to foreign control! The pro-tollers are out of touch and don’t have their facts straight.

Truth is, there’s nothing even remotely like the TTC anywhere in the world. It’s not only the biggest eminent domain project in U.S. history, it’s horrible public policy, and the decisions of whether to build it or not is being cut off from the taxpaying public and being forcibly foisted upon Texans against their will.

EXCLUSIVE: Measure in Legislature Would Kill Trans Texas Corridor
San Antonio State Rep says toll road proposal ‘must be stopped by the people of Texas’
By Jim Forsyth
WOAI Radio
Thursday, January 25, 2007

A measure introduced in the Texas Legislature Thursday would kill the controversial Trans Texas Corridor, 1200 WOAI News reported today.

State Rep. David Liebowitz (D-San Antonio) says his bill would strip the Texas Department of Transportation of the authority to buy land for the Corridor, and sell bonds based on the expectation of future toll revenues needed to build it. It would also remove TxDOT’s authority to contract with private firms to build the massive project, and would remove tax breaks included in the current Corridor enabling legislation.

Liebowitz says the Trans Texas Corridor would destroy rural Texas, make life miserable for farmers, seize hundreds of thousands of acres of land now occupied by homes, businesses, and ranches, and allow private companies to dictate toll rates and potentially put existing companies out of business.

“This would destroy rural Texas as we know it,” Liebowitz said. “It must be stopped by the people of Texas.”

But Joe Krier, head of the transportation lobby Texans for Safe, Efficient Transportation said Liebowitz’ bill is a ‘huge mistake.’

“The Trans Texas Corridor is one of the most visionary announcements in the history of the state,” Krier said. “It will make Texas globally competitive in this century and into the next century.”

Liebowitz said there are too many potential disruptions of Texas life for him to be pleased with the Corridor, and he said farmers and ranchers will suffer immeasurably.

“This will not only tear apart farms and split ranches, but the plans for only limited access will mean that if I have cattle on one side of the corridor and I want to get feed to the other side, I might have to travel 25 miles, just to feed my cattle.”

Krier said the same arguments were made about the Interstate Highway System fifty years ago, and now that indispensable system of highways drives the Texas, and American, economies.

“All great projects are controversial, if Dwight Eisenhower announced the Interstate project today it would be controversial, it was controversial when President Eisenhower announced it.”

The Trans Texas Corridor, an ambitious system of toll roads that would connect all portions of Texas, would cost one third again as much as the entire Interstate Highway System, which had a final price tag of about $118 billion. It has been strongly opposed by rural groups as well as anti toll road activists, but has been praised by transportation and business advocates as a way to insure Texas’ prominence in the coming world of global trade, especially with Mexico and Latin America.

Liebowitz says he’s also not crazy about the concessions that will be made to the operator of the Corridor, presumably Cintra-Zachry, a partnership of San Antonio based Zachry Construction Company and a Spanish firm.

“Companies which control, have these very long term leases, to build the Trans Texas Corridor will also have long term leases to control the land along the corridor, and they will have the ability to decide who builds restaurants, gas stations, and on and on, along the route,” he said.

The Corridor is the brainchild of Governor Rick Perry and Texas Department of Transportation Chairman Ric Williamson, but it met with serious and widespread opposition from the public at several dozen public hearings all over the state last fall.

Link to article in Reuters here. Link to more in-depth Sydney Morning Herald article here.

The Sydney Morning Herald and Reuters is reporting that Macquarie Media Group Ltd., a subsidiary of Macquarie Bank, has purchased American Consolidated Media, subject to regulatory approval.

American Consolidated Media owns 40 newspapers, mostly in Texas and Oklahoma. The Hearne Democrat, Calvert Tribune, Alvarado Post, Bonham Journal, Ellis County Chronicle, Ennis Journal, Stephenville Empire Tribune, Waxahachie Daily Light, Midlothian Mirror, and the Franklin Advocate are all owned by ACM. This is Macquarie’s first print media purchase and first move into the U.S. media market.

Macquarie Bank is the parent of Macquarie Infrastructure, one of the largest toll road operators in the world. Macquarie Infrastructure last year partnered with Cintra to purchase a toll road in Indiana and is currently a bidder to control the 281/Loop 1604 toll system for the next 50 years.

D.J. Gribbin, a director for Macquarie, has just been nominated by President Bush to be General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Transportation and is awaiting senate confirmation.

Macquarie Media buys U.S. community newspapers
Reuters
Jan 24, 2007

SYDNEY, Jan 24 (Reuters) – Australia’s Macquarie Media Group said on Wednesday it has agreed to buy American Consolidated Media and Valley Newspapers Holdings LP, which publish 40 local newspapers in parts of Texas and Oklahoma.

Macquarie Media said the acquisition had an enterprise value of A$102 million ($80 million).

The company said the purchase was part of a broader strategy to acquire and grow a portfolio of community newspapers in the United States.