A little GOP perspective that addresses the growing discontent of the citizenry with the establishment…

OPINION: Some elected officials have short memories
by William Lutz
Lone Start Report
Week of Decmber 11, 2006

Isn’t it fascinating, the chasm between what leadership says in October and in December?

Just a few weeks ago, all of the state’s major leaders – from Gov. Rick Perry on down – ran campaign ads and gave speeches on how they are going to get tough on border security and be fiscally responsible.

Suddenly, now that the election is over, we hear the state’s elected leaders talk about waiving spending caps and characterizing as “divisive” any proposals to get tough on illegal immigration. It’s as if saying the right things in October did not obligate elected officials to do the right thing in January.

This bait-and-switch game is beginning to wear thin with the voters.

In Houston, voters overwhelmingly elected talk radio host Dan Patrick, despite expenditures against him of more $1 million by the usual trade associations and big party donors.

The usual tactics – flood the district with money and last-minute direct mail attacks -worked well against Republican insurgents like State Board of Education member Bob Offutt and Supreme Court Justice Steven Wayne Smith.

But they didn’t work this time. KSEV radio became the great equalizer, cancelling out leadership’s financial advantage.

In other parts of the state, issues such as toll roads, ethics, a lack of progress on fighting illegal immigration, and excessive federal spending, caused demoralized Republicans to stay home or vote for third-party candidates.

Yes, the voters kept Texas Republicans in charge, but 39 percent in the Governor’s race and a six-seat loss in the Texas House constitute a pretty clear warning shot.
But did the elected officials in Austin get the message?

Some members of the Texas House did.

Reps. Ken Paxton (R-McKinney) and Bill Zedler (R-Arlington) filed bills that would prevent illegal immigrants from getting in-state tuition at state universities. Rep. Dianne White Delisi (R-Temple) filed a bill that would calculate the cost of illegal immigration. And Rep. Burt Solomons (R-Carollton) has filed a bill denying professional licenses to those who cannot work legally in the U.S.

And Rep. Leo Berman (R-Tyler) has filed a bill that would cut off some government benefits to some children of illegal immigrants, and has been subjected to a series of ferocious attacks.

Meanwhile, in a Dec. 7 speech to the Texas Border Coalition, Perry said, in calling for a guest worker program, “Good neighbors do not foster fear and engage in divisive appeals; they seek solutions.” Candidate Perry ran commercials telling voters he’d keep Texas safe with more law enforcement, but Gov. Perry lambastes “divisive” appeals.

Meanwhile – again – on Dec. 7 one of the governor’s 2006 opponents, Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, issued a report defending illegal immigrants, whom she now calls “undocumented workers.” During the campaigns she lambasted Perry for signing a bill that gives in-state tuition to illegal immigrants.

(Strayhorn’s report conveniently ignores the cost of providing public education to American-born children of illegal immigrants. The report also claims that illegal immigrants add $17 billion to gross state product -a meaningless number, as the government’s giving $17 billion worth of welfare checks would add $17 billion to gross state product.)

Already, talk around Austin centers on how the leadership is going to “shut down” Dan Patrick. The idea is to make sure he doesn’t pass any bills, so that voters won’t re-elect him.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, that strategy – if employed by leadership – won’t neutralize Patrick. It will empower him.

Patrick’s message was clear: The party has lost its way; the incumbents won’t stop rising local property taxes and won’t take on the illegal immigration issue; it’s time for leaders who will.

If Texas leaders continue to avoid these issues, they only prove Patrick correct and increase both his radio audience and his political support.

And they will increase the growing gulf between average voters and the GOP establishment.

This column is not an endorsement of everything Patrick says or does. Patrick opposed the governor’s school finance package in 2006, for example, but the rollback language in HB 1 will make it more difficult for school districts to raise taxes in the future. The Legislature showed by passing HB 3 that it is serious about lowering local school property taxes.

In fact, there were candidates in Houston, such as Rep.-elect Jim Murphy (R-Houston), who won in spite of Patrick’s endorsing the other candidate.

But Murphy didn’t wait for the press to ask his position on appraisal caps or stopping illegal immigration. He campaigned on those issues and addressed voters’ legitimate concerns.

Here’s an idea for the leadership: instead of trying to dictate top-down to Republican voters and elected officials what they should be for, how about listening to them and addressing their concerns?

If the Legislature limits growth in local property taxes, enacts good border security legislation, and cuts off government goodies to illegal immigrants, what does Patrick have left to run on?

Voters in Houston won’t accept excuses from statewide candidates anymore. Either candidates deliver on immigration and property tax issues, or they get blown out of there.

The leadership has a choice: Either the GOP can keep its campaign promises and not mislead the voters with code words, or voters will continue to elect more Dan Patricks and GOP candidates will continue to under-perform in swing districts.

In other words, if leadership values its political future, it will bridge the chasm between the rhetoric of October and that of December.

Link to article here.

What’s beyond amazing is that this report seems purposely suppressed by the Governor’s office until AFTER the election! They had this information in SEPTEMBER, long before November 7, and any draft could have easily been finalized and released BEFORE November 7. This coupled with Perry’s newfound voice for a guest worker program on Wednesday (which was hush-hush during the campaign while he ran on strong border enforcement), shows this administration purposely manipulated Texans and misled people on his stance on key issues in order to get re-elected.

This report goes a long way in de-bunking TxDOT’s lies and bloated “shortfall,” however, lawmakers ought to take Rep. David Leibowitz’ advice that we dedicate our gas taxes to transportation (stop this practice of diverting money to frivolous earmarks, read more here), get a greater share of federal gas taxes due to Texas’ disproportionate share of NAFTA traffic than other states, and put TxDOT’s budget under a microscope since there’s been proven waste (including the fact that their proposed toll roads cost 40-100% more than free roads). THEN and ONLY THEN should we EVER grant a dime more money to such a dishonest, wasteful, and myopic (obsessed with tolling Texas) bureaucracy.

Toll road argument thrown into doubt
By Patrick Driscoll
Express-News
12/09/2006

A new study throws cold water on a long-cherished claim of toll road advocates, surprising some of them, and could redefine a debate over if and how Texas should toll its highways.

For more than a year now, state officials have scared the dickens out of motorists by saying the gas tax would have to go up $1.20 a gallon to build all the roads needed statewide over the next quarter-century.

That would almost triple the 38.4 cents drivers now pay in federal and state fuel taxes. Since that’s politically impossible to do, the argument goes, toll roads should be built wherever and whenever feasible.

But now a Texas Transportation Institute study says gas taxes wouldn’t have to go up nearly as much.

Just indexing the gas tax to rising construction costs would be enough, the 139-page report says. The extra money could finance bonds through 2030 and pay them all off within five years after that.

Or, to avoid borrowing with bonds, the tax could be increased 12 cents in 2008 and indexed to construction inflation through 2030.

Even if the tax weren’t indexed, a flat increase of only 39 cents a gallon would do the same — a far cry from the $1.20 that Texas Department of Transportation officials have maintained would be needed.

Toll critics embraced the news, saying it’s proof TxDOT is pumping up numbers to justify toll roads.

“All of this is a charade to draw us into TxDOT’s pointy-headed policy mindset that’s obsessed with tolls and how to sell the public on it,” said David Ramos of San Antonio Toll Party. “The bottom line is TxDOT is trying to create a crisis to justify their money grab.”

Toll advocates were caught off guard when the TTI study was recently presented to the Legislature’s Study Commission on Transportation Financing.

“That report was a surprise,” said Ted Houghton, a Texas Transportation Commission member from El Paso who serves on the study commission. “It wasn’t on the agenda and no one had any time to read it. So we’re going through it and working on the assumptions.”

The report, done for the Governor’s Business Council, differs from TxDOT’s assumptions in three key areas, said Michael Stevens, a Houston developer who’s a member of both the Business Council and the transportation study commission.

TxDOT failed to account for how much tax revenues would go up over the 25 years from increased driving, he said, and overestimated unfunded needs for state roads by $8 billion.

And, when calculating the funding gap, TxDOT added an estimated $22 billion for local streets in the eight largest cities, though the state has no responsibility for such roads.

The study concluded that a bloated $86 billion in unfunded needs espoused by TxDOT is actually just $56 billion.

“These numbers are pretty tight,” Stevens said. “We study it like we study our businesses. Before we published it, because we knew it was so different, we did a large amount of due diligence on it.”

That included meeting with TxDOT and the governor’s office after a draft quietly came out in September, he said.

Houghton said TxDOT is poring over the report and could respond next week.

State officials might question estimates for construction inflation, which is rising faster than consumer inflation.

Road building costs in Texas went up 33 percent last year because of higher fuel costs and increased global competition for asphalt, concrete and steel.

The study predicts construction inflation will go up just 3.4 percent a year.

Other issues could involve whether costs such as road maintenance were included.

Also, Houghton said indexing the gas tax to construction inflation could cause the tax go up faster than many realize — rising to 84.4 cents a gallon by 2030 or even a $1 or more, depending on the scenario — and would hit poor people the hardest.

“It’s the most regressive tax there is,” he said.

While the study doesn’t recommend scrapping statewide toll plans, it does say toll dollars should stay in local areas and that the gas tax should be indexed to inflation to finance bonds.

It also calls for an end to diverting gas tax revenues to non-transportation uses.

Indexing the gas tax likely would mean fewer roads would need to be tolled, said Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock, who chairs the House Transportation Committee and co-chairs the legislative study commission.

But a bill he filed last year to index the tax to consumer inflation was killed. He said he’ll try again when the Legislature meets in January, and may consider tying the tax to faster-rising construction costs.

The legislative study commission also will offer ideas, but a report will be held off at least another month while members mull the TTI gas-tax study.

“The study has thrown a kink into the process,” Krusee said.

What’s unreal is that even after the Texas Transportation Institute and Governor’s Business Council study gas tax versus tolls and find only an 8 cent indexed gas tax is needed, they still say at the end they recommend both increasing the gas tax AND tolls…just like TxDOT’s money hungry mentality…give US everything…give us your first-born, let’s make it so expense to drive that we bring our economy and families to their knees to line the pockets of these “concessionaires!”

ISSUES IN DEPTH: Report: Eight-cent indexed gas-tax increase can replace tolling
by Christine DeLoma
Lone Star Report
December 4, 2006

New toll roads aren’t the only pathway to financing the state’s transportation needs, according to a recent report commissioned by the Governor’s Business Council (GBC).

An eight cent increase in the gas tax indexed for inflation may be all that’s needed to pay for new state roads over the next 25 years.

In outlining the report at the Nov. 28 meeting of the Study Commission on Transportation Financing, David Ellis of the Texas Transportation Institute offered lawmakers several toll-less financing alternatives to meet the state’s future transportation needs in the eight largest metropolitan areas.

A flat increase in the gas tax, Ellis said, is possible but not optimal. “The fuel tax loses buying power to inflation every year because it is a tax based on the unit of volume. It’s not related to costs of projects,” he said. Nonetheless, he said, a 31-cent increase per gallon in the gas tax would provide for the Department of Transportation’s (TxDOT) unfunded needs, as opposed to the estimated $1.21 increase frequently cited by Texas Transportation Commission (TTC) chairman Ric Williamson.

However, TTC commissioner Ted Houghton, a member of the study commission, called the gas tax regressive. “I think when you get down to it,” said Hougthon, “is raising the gas tax the way to go? Or is tolling and concessions and CDAs (comprehensive development agreements) and pass through financing and those other tools in the toolbox. [A]re those the ways to get to where we need to go? So the debate is, raise the gas tax. It seems to me, Mr. Chairman, that’s where we are, or continue on the plan that we have set forth that we believe is going to achieve our needs without putting it on the backs of the taxpayers on a regressive based system.”

Study commission member Michael Stevens, who is also chairman of the GBC’s Transportation Task Force, said the significant discrepancy in numbers results from TxDOT’s failure to take into account the increase in growth population in their revenue projections, as well as the increase in vehicle miles traveled.

Those factors alone, Stevens said, would generate enough additional income to eliminate the need for higher gas taxes.

“The reason for the importance of this issue,” Stevens told Houghton, “is your position is, and has been, that the reason we should follow your line of reasoning is because it takes a $1.20 increase in the gas tax to do anything to solve the problem. It does not require that amount of money. It is a debate that is worth having. It is a debate that has not occurred, and I welcome [it].”

Stevens added that TxDOT also included the cost of city and county roads, which it is not responsible for, in its projections for the construction costs over the next quarter century. “The $86 billion problem is a problem that includes city and county roads,” he said.

What TxDOT needs is closer to $60 billion, he said. Of that figure, the GBC report estimates TxDOT would need $44 billion for the state’s eight largest metropolitan areas.

Indexing the gas tax can address the $44 billion state shortfall, Ellis said. The last increase occurred in 1991 when it was increased to 20 cents. Due to inflation, the tax is worth less than 14 cents a gallon in terms of purchasing power.

According to the GBC report, indexing the state and federal portions of the gas tax to the highway cost index (HCI, which is a percentage of the annual increase in highway construction costs) would pay for the shortfall. Yearly highway construction costs have increased between 0.5 percent and 1.5 percent faster than inflation over the past 15 years.

“If you just create an index against the state and the federal portion of that tax, which is a little over a penny a year increase,” Stevens said, “that penny a year can pay for the entire shortfall for the state’s portion. It’s staggering. It’s incredible information that we were rather surprised to figure out.”

Ellis said additional revenues generated from the index would be deposited into the Texas Mobility Fund or similar fund to service the debt on the bonds. An eight-cent increase in the gas tax, coupled with the HCI, would pay for the transportation costs for both metropolitan and rural areas.

Houghton, however, wasn’t buying into it. “It sounds like it is a replacement for the current system,” he said. “If you’re depending upon motor vehicle taxes, I think we’re headed down a rocky, rocky road. And we can debate the numbers, and you can increase the gas tax, but it is our contention that eight cents won’t put a dent into your number of $44 billion. It’s just not going to happen. And we believe that. And we’ll continue to prove that testimony anywhere in the state of Texas.”

Houghton said the current system of tolling roads, and the proceeds from concessions, would provide a revenue stream available for building free roads or rail, something GBC’s report did not take into consideration. When the state, he said, awards the project to construct SH 121 in Dallas, it will receive over $1 billion in concession fees. Houghton also said that revenues from the gas tax cannot be used for alternative transportation projects like rail.

Ellis, in defending the report, said, “[W]hat we’re trying to do is develop a way to understand what some of the other options are.”

Stevens said the gas tax index is just another option. “We don’t recommend just that. We recommend tolls roads, We recommend local option taxes considered for the local portion.”
If such is the case, Houghton said he wouldn’t be opposed to indexing the gas tax to generate additional revenue, saying we still need “all the tools in the toolbox.”

Link to column here.

Well, kudos to the Express-News, our guest column got some ink, but it was edited. See unedited version below the Express-News version. The original had quotes about the public’s reaction to toll roads from the Lone Star Report and Austin-American Statesman that are quite different than what the Editorial Board, TxDOT, and pro-tollers claim. They also notably edited the truckers boycott of the foreign management of the Indiana Toll Road by the same two companies trying to buy-up San Antonio’s toll system.

Comment: Perry’s toll road proposals will fleece Texas taxpayers
By Terri Hall
Special to the Express-News
Dec. 3, 1006

Re: the editorial “First few tolled miles right move for Texas” (Nov. 19):

No one can give a single rational reason taxpayers should pay tolls for roads and improvements that are already 100 percent funded, such as U.S. 281 here in San Antonio, Texas 71 and U.S. 183 in Austin and Texas 121 in Dallas.

The Texas Mobility Fund, also known as Proposition 15 and passed in 2001, was sold to voters as accelerating transportation projects using bonds. Toll roads were on a list of projects noted in this vague ballot wording that politicians also used to divine the Trans-Texas Corridor.

Nowhere did this authorize the conversion of existing roads and rights of way into toll roads, nor did it authorize privatizing our public highways, nor did it authorize a Minute Order the Transportation Commission passed in December 2003 calling for all new improvements to be considered for tolls first.

The Texas Department of Transportation is repeatedly attempting to use population growth as the reason to toll existing and new improvements to Texas roads.

Let’s look at the facts.

When population increases, tax revenues also increase. TxDOT’s budget has more than doubled since Rick Perry took office without raising our taxes. TxDOT’s revenues have gone up about 178 percent in the past 20 years, and that’s adjusted for inflation and population growth.

Then consider that close to $10 billion in transportation funds have been raided to fund such things as cemeteries, tourism promotion and a computer system in the comptroller’s office. There’s no shortage of cash. Rather, there’s a shortage of fiscal discipline in favor of frivolous earmarks, which were a contributing factor in Republicans losing control of Congress in this last election.

TxDOT also has $7 billion (which is nearly equivalent to an amount doubling its annual budget) available in bonds right now to accelerate freeway improvements. Instead, it has earmarked them for toll roads.

TxDOT also has its own study on how to relieve congestion on Interstate 35 using existing funds and right of way, but it’s now ignoring it in favor of tolling I-35, Texas 130 (a bypass route from San Antonio to Austin) and the Trans-Texas Corridor, making it nearly impossible to travel north-south in this state without paying a toll.

When tolls increase the cost of a project anywhere from 40 percent to 100 percent more than constructing it as a nontoll project, when we pay 1 cent to 3 cents per mile under gas taxes versus 25 cents or more per mile on a toll road (per TxDOT’s own studies and admission it’ll charge “whatever the market will bear”) and when TxDOT uses noncompete agreements allowing the private entity control over the free lanes (including downgrading free lanes to frontage roads, slowing speed limits, increasing stop light times and prohibiting the state from upgrading or improving free lanes/roads near the tollway), it’s a no-brainer to conclude the taxpayer is getting fleeced!

This governor’s toll and “innovative financing” scheme is destroying our public freeway system. This new version of tolling is about generating more taxes (a toll is a tax) for the state while engaging in a revenue-sharing scheme that also lines the pockets of private and foreign companies (many based here in San Antonio), not about providing safe, efficient transportation all Texans can use.

It’s time for the public’s concerns to be addressed, not swept under the rug or sidestepped to “give toll roads a chance.”

Most folks have no problem with traditional toll roads, such as those in Houston and Dallas, that were brought to a public vote, were brand-new roads and the money and control stayed local. But this “let them eat cake” mentality is going to be a political noose around the neck of any politician who continues down the road of privatizing our public assets to enrich special interests and hijacking our free lanes to line the pockets of private entities in 50-year monopolies.

For more information, go to www.SATollParty.com.

Terri Hall is regional director of San Antonio Toll Party.com, a nonpartisan, grass-roots organization promoting nontoll, good government transportation solutions.
_____________________________________
ORIGINAL UNEDITED:

Perry’s version of tolls a special interest money grab

No one can give a single rational reason taxpayers should pay tolls for roads and improvements that are already 100% funded, like Hwy 281 here in San Antonio, Hwys 71 and 183 in Austin, and Hwy 121 in Dallas. The Texas Mobility Fund, also known as Proposition 15 passed in 2001, was sold to voters as accelerating transportation projects using bonds. Toll roads were in a list of transportation projects noted in this vague ballot wording that politicians also used to divine the Trans Texas Corridor. Nowhere did this authorize the conversion of existing roads and right of way into toll roads, nor did it authorize privatizing our public highways, nor did it authorize a Minute Order the Transportation Commission passed in December 2003 calling for ALL new improvements to be considered for tolls first.

Our Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is repeatedly attempting to use population growth as the reason to toll existing and new improvements to Texas roads. Let’s look at the facts. When population increases, tax revenues also increase. TxDOT’s budget has more than doubled since Rick Perry took office without RAISING OUR TAXES. TxDOT’s revenues have gone up at a rate of approximately 178% in the last 20 years, and that’s adjusted for inflation and population growth. Then consider that close to $10 billion in transportation funds have been raided to fund things like cemeteries, tourism promotion, and a computer system in the Comptroller’s office, there’s no shortage of cash. Rather there’s a shortage of fiscal discipline in favor of frivolous earmarks, which were a contributing factor in Republicans losing control of Congress in this last election.

TxDOT also has $7 billion (which is nearly equivalent to an amount doubling their annual budget) available in bonds right now today to accelerate FREEway improvements. Instead, they’ve earmarked them for toll roads. TxDOT also has its own study for how to relieve congestion on I-35 using existing funds and right of way, but it’s now ignoring it in favor of tolling I-35, Hwy 130 (a bypass route from San Antonio to Austin), and the Trans Texas Corridor making it nearly impossible to travel north-south in this state without paying a toll.

When tolls increase the cost of a project anywhere from 40%-100% more than constructing them as non-toll projects, when we pay 1-3 cents per mile under gas taxes versus 25 cents or more per mile on a toll road (per TxDOT’s own studies and admission they’ll charge “whatever the market will bear”), and when TxDOT uses non-compete agreements allowing the private entity control over the free lanes (including downgrading free lanes to frontage roads, slowing speed limits, increasing stop light times, and prohibiting the State from upgrading or improving free lanes/roads near the tollway), it’s a no brainer to conclude the taxpayer is getting fleeced! This Governor’s toll and “innovative financing” scheme is destroying our public FREEway system. This new version of tolling is about generating more taxes (a toll is a TAX) for the State while engaging in a revenue sharing scheme that also lines the pockets of private and foreign companies (many based right here in San Antonio), not about providing safe, efficient transportation ALL Texans can use.

Let’s get a reality check on what the public thinks about those shiny new Austin toll roads:

From the Lone Star Report, November 13 edition

Toll roads were a non-starter on election day Mike Krusee (R-Round Rock) gets only 50 percent of the vote in a solidly Republican district? And his Democratic opponent is within five percent? (My addition: Since this report, the election results are in doubt since Travis County made a 6,000 vote mistake and Krusee is now under 50%) This is but one example of the unpopularity of the state’s current transportation policies.

Most successful candidates ran as fast and as far as they could from the governor’s policy of making almost all new freeways toll roads. The Trans-Texas Corridor also did not play well on election day for a variety of reasons.

The Legislature will likely revisit this issue, which could put lawmakers on a collision course with Gov. Rick Perry.

It remains to be seen exactly what changes to current policy will gather steam at the Capitol. But transportation will be an issue in the spring.
_________________________________________

Then in the Austin American Statesman on November 10, 2006:

Just avoid the tolls

The easiest way to prevent the Trans Texas Corridor from happening is to not use the toll roads that are completed. I will never get on one of them, so the state will never reap one penny from me. If we all do that, then they won’t be able to repay the bond debt and won’t be able to sell future bonds for more toll roads.

Skip the toll roads, and let them eat cake.

KATHY SCHULTZ
kmsboz@hotmail.com
Round Rock
————————————————————————

Not happy with tolls roads

I was a tentative supporter of the new Austin area toll roads, based purely on the desperate need that any traffic relief option is better than nothing at all. The key word in my prior statement is “was.” As I witnessed the construction process, I gave the benefit of doubt that all the puzzle pieces would eventually fall into place. Oh, how I was wrong. The new traffic pattern will cause significant harm to the already tortuous Interstate 35 northbound traffic flow. It will also severely limit accessibility to the I-35 corridor businesses. The appearance indicates an overall intent to force tremendous misery; thus maximizing the opportunity to extort commuters through the toll system. More misery equates to more dollars. Where’s the accountability? This is a system with potential for good intent and purpose, but is severely tainted with tremendous deception. Ultimately, it will offer benefits to a large portion of frustrated Austin area commuters, but we have been sold a bad bill of goods with a perpetual high cost.

CLAY BRANDENBURG
clayb@osmtech.com
Cedar Park

Then, a group of independent truckers called the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, OOIDA, has recently called for truckers to bypass the Indiana Toll Road, which was leased to a consortium composed of Cintra, a Spanish investment consortium with ties to Juan Carlos and the ruling family of Spain (same group who was granted development rights to the Trans Texas Corridor and who is vying to take over the first San Antonio toll roads), and the Australian investment firm Macquarie Infrastructure Group (also vying to control the first San Antonio toll roads).

It’s time for the public’s concerns to be addressed not swept under the rug or sidestepped to “give toll roads a chance.” Most folks have no problem with traditional toll roads like Houston and Dallas that were brought to a public vote, were completely brand NEW roads, and the money and control stayed local. But this “let them eat cake” mentality is going to be a political noose around the neck of any politician who continues down the road of privatizing our public assets to enrich special interests and hijack our free lanes to line the pockets of private entities in 50 year monopolies.

For more information on this statewide shift to tolls and the many anti-taxpayer aspects to them, go to www.SATollParty.com.

Link to article here.
Schlafly’s article chronicles the GOP’s loss of Reagan Democrats and middle class voters due to jobs and free trade policies, which also spills over to health care and other kitchen table issues. Read on…

The Race To The Middle For 2008
by Phyllis Schlafly
Eagle Forum
Published in Texas Insider
11-30-06

The best postmortem on the 2006 election came from that perennial politician, Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA). He said, “People want to know who’s on their side. Whether it’s health care or wages or retirement issues, they want to have someone on their side.”

The biggest electoral bloc of the “they” who are seeking friends is the middle class, which includes people variously labeled blue-collar workers, skilled workers, or Reagan Democrats. They are the swing voters, often called the moveables. President Ronald Reagan’s victories absolutely depended on their support. But Presidents Bush I and II kicked them away from the Republican Party, particularly on the issue of jobs.

Did the 2006 election teach Republicans that it is smart to be friends of the middle class? Have Republicans realized that jobs were second only to the unpopular war as the issue of 2006, and will surely be the number-one issue in 2008? George W. Bush carried Ohio in 2004 because the marriage amendment brought out the values voters. But Democrats can play that game, too: in 2006 the Ohio referendum on increasing the minimum wage raised the jobs issue, passed by 57 percent, and helped to bury Republican candidates.

Ohio has lost its manufacturing base. Some of the good jobs went to plants that were outsourced overseas and some disappeared in the tsunami of cheap Chinese goods as Wal-Mart replaced small businesses and left behind towns with empty streets and boarded-up windows.

Incumbent Republican Senator Mike DeWine was badly defeated by Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) who had led the congressional fight against CAFTA and wrote a book called “Myths of Free Trade.” Brown’s TV ads showing him standing in front of a “plant closed” sign were powerful.

Almost every one of the Republican Members of Congress who bit the dust in the 2006 election had been an enthusiastic booster of the globalists’ agenda: NAFTA, CAFTA, WTO (World Trade Organization), Fast Track, PNTR (Permanent Normal Trading Relations), and Free Trade Agreements (FTA) with countries most Americans never heard of. Republicans were badly on the defensive in the face of Democrat ads touting the issue of jobs.

The United States has lost over three million manufacturing jobs since Bush became President. The U.S. trade deficit hit a record high of $717 billion last year, and is expected to be even higher this year.

The middle class is not placated by feel-good talk that the stock market has climbed to a record high, or that unemployment is at a record low, or that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is growing. Unemployment statistics don’t count the guys who lost $50,000 jobs in manufacturing and are now working $25,000 jobs in retail, and job-growth figures happily do count the wives who have been involuntarily forced into the labor force just to keep groceries on the table.

The middle class is not placated by glib slogans that free trade is good for the economy and that protectionism is a nasty word. Common sense tells them that there is no such thing as a free lunch and yes, indeed, they do expect friends in government and industry to protect American jobs against unfair competition from foreigners who work for 30 cents an hour.

Americans relish competition, as our national fixation on sports contests proves every day. But the globalists have destroyed a level playing field and, in addition, have subordinated us to an umpire (a.k.a. the WTO) that is biased against us.

Globalist policies have encouraged U.S. employers to use near-slave labor in Asia, whose products are then guaranteed duty-free or low-tariff re-entry to the United States. Those products are then sold here for prices that are cheap by U.S. standards but have a high markup of up to 80 percent.

Globalist policies also allow discrimination against U.S. manufacturers by the Value Added Tax racket, whereby foreign governments subsidize their products both coming and going. For example, German automobiles cost 16 percent less in the United States than the same car sold in Germany, and U.S. automobiles cost 16 percent more in Germany than the same car bought in the United States.

Nancy Pelosi plans to shift the dialogue on Capitol Hill to worker’s pay, college tuition, health-care costs, and other issues that touch ordinary families. Her solutions are all bad economics and very expensive, but they will enable her to pose as a friend of the middle class.

All six U.S. Senators thought to be planning a run for the Democratic nomination for president voted against CAFTA. The issue would be dramatically joined if the Democratic nominee were opposed, for example, by Senator John McCain, who supported NAFTA, CAFTA, WTO, and PNTR for China.

Will Republicans continue to follow George W. Bush in his post-election travels to solicit even more Asian products made by cheap labor and subsidized by their governments? Or will Republicans get smart on the jobs issue and reestablish their friendship with the Reagan Democrats?

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TxDOT’s gas tax figures pure propaganda
Nothing justifies a 300% gas tax hike San Antonio, TX, November 29, 2006– TxDOT’s at it again. Using scare tactics and exploiting their ready access to Express-News reporters to push their unjustified, overly expensive road building frenzy, today’s story can only be called propaganda. The article may as well have said “if we don’t build toll roads, the sky will fall.” Opposition to Perry’s version of tolls must be winning if such absolute drivel is considered news.

Let’s do a math lesson…TxDOT’s state gas tax revenues have gone up 178% over the last 20 years (and that’s adjusted for inflation and population). Just since Rick Perry took office, their budget has more than doubled (gone up 117%) WITHOUT RAISING OUR TAXES. We’ve had repeated state budget surpluses and are on track for even bigger surpluses in 2007. TxDOT has $7 billion (that’s BILLION with a “B”) in mobility and revenue bonds right now today to build roads and accelerate projects. These guys are flush with cash and they have the audacity to promote tax increases! It’s the wasteful spending and the building of more expensive toll roads (ie – 281 original 10 lane non-toll plan, $100 million, as a 16 lane toll road, over $300 million) that are sucking up all our hard-earned taxes. We’re NOT taxed too little, they’re spending too much.

Then consider we currently pay 38 cents a gallon (20 cents for the state tax) and they want to double that, even increase it over 300% if it’s closer to $1.09 increase. Also consider nearly $10 billion in our state gas taxes have been diverted to frivolous earmarks, that every single toll road costs more to build and maintain than non-toll roads, and that even Rick Perry admits their dollar figures they call “needs” are actually “wish lists” comprised if money were no object (which clearly money is always a factor), and it’s not hard to see these figures are completely bankrupt of rationality.

What on earth do they think they need to build? We’ve already completed our entire interstate highway system and our state highway system, and San Antonio is ranked number 5 in the country in lane miles of highway per person (we don’t lack roads, we lack proper planning and development strategies, see Pasley editorial here). If anything we should be cutting back our road building, not increasing it.

Also, their new gas tax figures often include the lost revenue from tolls if they switch to non-toll projects. For instance, up in Austin, their Metropolitan Planning Organization’s (MPO) first comparison of tolls versus gas tax increase came up with a 2-3 cent hike. Their second pass was to TxDOT’s liking and factored in the lost toll revenue if the projects were converted back to non-toll highways and claimed the tax hike would be more like 17 cents a gallon. That’s still a FAR cry from $1.09 a gallon! You’d think the Express-News “story” would include these FACTS rather than grant a stitch of ink to such blatant scare tactics by the pro-tollers in their attempt to beat back our obvious momentum in defeating Perry’s version of toll roads.

“They can’t win with the truth or on the merits of their arguments, instead they try to spew blatant falsehoods and propaganda to prop up their schemes,” notes Terri Hall, Regional Director of San Antonio Toll Party.com.

Bottom line: even at these OUTLANDISH figures, the gas tax system (currently 1-3 cents a mile) is still far less expensive than tolls of 25 cents up to $1.00 a mile (per TxDOT’s own studies), especially toll rates in the hands of a private company using non-compete agreements.

Anytime there’s an increase in the cost of transportation it’s bad for the economy. With the cost of building and maintaining roads going up 30%, and if you take their argument that they don’t have the money to maintain our current road system, then why on earth build even more that we can’t sustain?

Clearly the road lobby is pushing to build more roads, especially toll roads that require a larger footprint than non-toll roads (thus more to maintain as well), and continue this cycle of tax and spend.

“Enough will NEVER be enough for these hogs at the trough and WE the taxpayers have to demand accountability, sensible, fiscally constrained transportation planning, and insist on a sustainable transportation system that won’t bankrupt consumers and businesses alike, ” insists Hall.

Let’s not forget last year’s federal highway bill with more than 6,000 earmarks including a $223 million bridge to nowhere in Alaska and a parking garage for a private university (University of Incarnate Word). There’s plenty of money in gas taxes, so much they can divert hundreds of millions if not billions to frivolous pet projects. Seems the overwhelming public consensus is to stop the practice of diverting our current transportation funds to pork barrel spending and we could expand and maintain our highways just fine.

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Link to article here. We must be winning if such absolute drivel is considered news.

OK, let’s do a math lesson…TxDOT’s state gas tax revenues have gone up 178% over the last 20 years (and that’s adjusted for inflation and population). Just since Rick Perry took office their budget has more than doubled (gone up 117%) WITHOUT RAISING YOUR TAXES. We’ve had repeated state budget surpluses and are on track for even bigger surpluses in 2007. TxDOT has $7 billion (that’s BILLION with a “B”) in mobility and revenue bonds right now today to build roads and accelerate projects. These guys are flush with cash and they have the audacity to promote tax increases! It’s wasteful spending and the building of more expensive toll roads that are sucking up all our hard-earned taxes. We’re NOT taxed too little, they’re spending too much.

Then consider we currently pay 38 cents a gallon (20 cents for the state tax) and they want to double that, even increase it over 300% if it’s closer to $1.09 increase. Also consider nearly $10 billion in our state gas taxes have been diverted to frivolous earmarks, that every single toll road costs more to build and maintain than non-toll roads, and that even Rick Perry admits their dollar figures they call “needs” are actually “wish lists” comprised if money were no object (which clearly money is always a factor), and it’s not hard to see these figures are completely bankrupt of rationality. What on earth do these guys think they need to build? We’ve already completed our entire interstate highway system and our state highway system, if anything we should be cutting back our road building, not increasing it.

You’d think Driscoll would include these FACTS in his reporting rather than grant a stitch of ink to such blatant scare tactics by the pro-tollers in their attempt to beat back our obvious momentum in defeating Perry’s version of toll roads. They can’t win with the truth or on the merits of their arguments, instead they try to spew blatant falsehoods and propaganda to prop up their schemes. Bottom line: even at these OUTLANDISH figures, the gas tax system (currently 1-3 cents a mile) is still far less expensive than tolls of 25 cents up to $1.00 a mile (per TxDOT’s own studies), especially toll rates in the hands of a private company.

Anytime you increase the cost of transportation it’s bad for the economy. With the cost of building and maintaining roads going up 30%, and if you take their argument that they don’t have the money to maintain our current road system, then why on earth build even more that we can’t sustain? Clearly the road lobby is pushing to build more roads, especially toll roads that require a larger footprint than non-toll roads (thus more to maintain as well) and continue this cycle of tax and spend. Enough will NEVER be enough for these hogs at the trough and WE the taxpayers have to demand accountability, sensible, fically constrained transportation planning, and insist on a sustainable highway system that won’t bankrupt consumers and businesses alike. Let’s not forget last year’s federal highway bill with more than 6,000 earmarks including a $223 million bridge to nowhere in Alaska. There’s plenty of money in gas taxes, so much they can divert hundreds of millions if not billions to frivolous pet projects. Seems the overwhelming public consensus is to stop diverting our current transportation funds to pork barrel spending and we could expand and maintain our highways just fine.

Toll-road rejection may spark big gas-tax jump
By Patrick Driscoll
Express-News
11/29/2006

If the idea of paying tolls to drive on future highway lanes in San Antonio turns your stomach, perhaps you could swallow a higher gas tax instead.
How about adding 38.2 cents a gallon, or as much as $1.09, on top of the 38.4-cent tax that motorists pay now.

That’s what Texas Department of Transportation officials came up with recently when they estimated how high the gas tax would have to go in Bexar County to widen 70 miles of highways without tolling the new lanes.

The difference is whether motorists everywhere in the county pay a new gas tax of 1 to 2 cents a mile, depending on vehicle miles per gallon, or if only drivers using the new lanes pay a toll of 15 to 20 cents a mile.

Neither is all that palatable.

“People are getting squeezed, especially the middle class,” said Stone Oak resident Jerry Zimmermann, who lives near the nexus of a planned North Side tollway network. “There’s no relief coming.”

Zimmermann has at least two layers of protection against a local gas tax increase — state legislators and voters would have to approve it. However, he has only one line of defense against toll lanes that could be added to U.S. 281, Loop 1604, Bandera Road, Interstate 35 and the junction of Wurzbach Parkway and U.S. 281 — he simply could avoid them.

“If anything, I think we need to consider mass transit. I haven’t heard anybody talking about that,” Zimmerman said, adding that passenger rail might justify a tax increase.

The low-ball estimate of 38.2 cents a gallon would raise $231 million a year (in estimated 2026 dollars), or almost $9.3 billion over 40 years.

That’s enough to pay off $2.2 billion worth of road bonds (in 2004 dollars), which projected toll fees otherwise would finance, and spend $30 million a year to maintain the new lanes.

Another $800 million, either from other taxes or private investments, still would be needed.

TxDOT argues it would be cheaper to sell bonds and build now because global demand for asphalt, cement and steel has forced up prices for those materials much faster than inflation in recent years and likely will continue. State highway construction costs went up 33 percent last year alone.

“You’re making money if you go ahead and do it now,” said David Casteel, who oversees TxDOT’s office in San Antonio.

The lower estimate assumes that driving nearly doubles over four decades, average fuel efficiency doesn’t get higher than 37 mpg, borrowing rates hover around 6.5 percent, all proceeds are spent on the roads and only 5 percent of motorists abscond to other counties to buy gas.

The jump of $1.09 a gallon assumes that driving increases just half as fast, fuel efficiency more than doubles to 50 mpg, borrowing rates get up to 7.5 percent, 40 percent of revenues are diverted to schools, mass transit and other uses — a third is currently diverted, including 25 percent to public education — and one in five motorists slip off to other counties to buy gas.

“There’s an unlimited number of scenarios you can analyze,” Casteel said.

At least one toll critic isn’t completely sold on TxDOT’s estimates.

Bill Barker, a transportation consultant and former VIA Metropolitan Transit planner who advises San Antonio Toll Party, wishes officials would look for ways to reduce how much people drive, such as creating neighborhoods friendlier to mass transit and walking, and consider cheaper ways to get more traffic moving on existing streets, such as adding turn lanes, timing traffic lights better or replacing signal lights with roundabouts.

“We’re growing and we need to be smart about how we address our transportation options,” he said. “The most expensive might not be the best.”

It seems there are an unlimited number of opinions about tolls roads.

“They’re fine, especially if you live out there (North Loop 1604),” said Jennifer Garcia, adding that toll roads won’t ease her commute from near the Medical Center to her job downtown. “If it’s going to alleviate problems over there, and everybody’s happy, then they’re fine.”

“They suck,” said Merlin O’Brien, who lives at Canyon Lake and uses U.S. 281 for his treks to San Antonio. “I don’t think we need toll roads.”

The gas tax idea doesn’t have steady legs either.

“Nobody wants taxes raised at all,” Garcia said.

Gas station owners say a local gas tax would scare away customers to other counties, and collecting the tax would be a bureaucratic nightmare.

“We would obviously have to oppose that,” said Scott Fisher, a spokesman with the Texas Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association, whose members own, operate or supply about 16,000 retail outlets.

O’Brien said he might be convinced if there was a way to ensure the money was spent as promised. And, he said, he still would buy gas in San Antonio even if it were 38 cents higher than other cities.

“Wherever I need it,” he said. “You always need gas.”

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Link to story here.

This wreaks of government abuse of our personal information. TxDOT began collecting data on drivers using the toll roads in Austin before they charged tolls. It begs the question, why are they collecting information if they’re not yet collecting tolls and the purpose of collecting information on toll roads is supposed to be strictly for toll enforcement? Invasion of privacy and perhaps to sell that golden information to company who finds it valuable.

Cameras Capturing License Plates On Toll Roads

KXAN-TV
Nov 29, 2006
As TxDOT monitors weather conditions to determine whether to put crews on standby, it has new considerations this winter. De-icing roads in any inclement weather now includes more than 20 miles of new toll roads, much of which is elevated.

“We’re interested in seeing how drivers react to icy conditions on these new sets of roads. We’re keeping an eye on how driving patterns are in bad weather,” Marcus Cooper with TxDOT said.

TxDOT’S Central District office will be checking weather conditions in an 11-county area around Austin.

Speaking of toll roads, people who are driving on sections of the new roadways are being photographed. Most don’t even know it.

A TxDOT contractor is taking pictures of your license plate and using that information to build a database of every driver on the road. It’s got some people upset.

There are cameras along 45 taking pictures of every car’s license plate We can understand photographing violators who aren’t paying the tolls, but the roads are still free, and yet every driver is being tracked on camera.

We did some digging and found an employment ad seeking 57 image review clerks being hired by a contractor for TxDOT. It reads, “the position must perform accurate data entry of license plates from images into databases.”

We found one of the people who was hired to do this work. He didn’t want his identity revealed. He told us his quota was 4,000 license plates entered into the database everyday. It seemed high so he asked his supervisor.

“She said, ‘Well no, we’re not doing violations right now. We’re basically entering in all the data from everybody traveling the new toll roads.” Which sort of threw me back because at that point I thought I was going to be handling violations,” the image review clerk said.

To get to the bottom of it, we went right to the source and talked to Gabriela Garcia at the Toll Road Authority. She says because the tolls are not being collected yet, the equipment is simply being tested. The photographs will be used to enforce people who blow through the toll booths without paying.

“There could be some of that going on now. I’m not sure how much of that’s happening on which roads and how many of the vehicles are actually being photographed. It’s not being sold to anybody or anybody else for any other purpose other than toll enforcement purposes only,” Garcia said.

Garcia told KXAN in a second interview that any photographs taken and information gathered on people that are not violating the tolls will be deleted, and no records will be kept.

View his bill ID=filingDate&LegSess=80R&Code=11/13/2006″>here.

HB 154 by Pickett (D-El Paso) would abolish the Texas Transportation Commission (Ric Williamson) and replace the position(s) with a commissioner of transportation as an ELECTED state officer.
More on Pickett’s battle with TxDOT and his successful move to rescind the El Paso MPO’s vote to toll here, here, and here.