Link to New York Times article here.

Note how this corridor is to include utilities and rail (sound familiar, like the Trans Texas Corridor?). Also, it mentions public-private partnerships (how much you wanna bet it’s foreign investors, too) which allows this developer to use the State’s eminent domain powers to condemn the land over the LOUD objections of the property owners who say they’ll refuse to sell. More eminent domain abuse…this must be stopped! We must clean house at every level of government until private property rights are protected they way our forefathers fought and died to secure!

Lastly, this developer brought in BIG MONEY, a Halliburton subsidiary, to intimidate landowners. Are we convinced yet that our government has become abusive and complicit with this takeover by BIG MONEY and BIG BUSINESS at the expense of the founding principles and protections our country was built upon? Get this book and see for yourself: The Big Ripoff- How Big Business and Big Government Steal Your Money.

Developer Wants Toll Road; Colorado Makes It Difficult
By MARTIN FORSTENZER
New York Times September 22, 2006

FORT COLLINS, Colo., Sept. 21 — After Robert Thomasson and his wife found out in the early 1990’s that the house they had built near the Denver suburb of Aurora lay in the path of a proposed public toll road, they moved to a 60-acre ranch in pastoral Elbert County, about 60 miles southeast of the city.

“We ended up fighting it but were unable to prevail, so we decided to move out here to Elbert County, where it would never happen again,” Mr. Thomasson said.

In 2002, Mr. Thomasson, a retired teacher, learned that his new home sat in the path of another toll road, one proposed by a private developer. “My wife and I spent two years building our home here,’’ he said. “We were devastated.”

The private toll road has become the object of a bitter struggle between Ray Wells, the Denver developer proposing it, and the owners of thousands of houses, ranches and farms in its path.

Mr. Wells, who has built hundreds of miles of roads in the state, has said the toll road, which he has been planning off and on since the 1980’s, will be a speedy alternative to busy Interstate 25 through Denver. It would run north and south across the plains and hills about 25 miles to the east, stretching for 210 miles through seven counties from Fort Collins to Pueblo. It would include a freight railroad line and a utility corridor to carry electricity and natural gas.

Mr. Wells estimates that the project, which he calls the Prairie Falcon Parkway Express but which has long been nicknamed the Super Slab, will cost about $2.5 billion, a spokesman said. Mr. Wells has said he intends to raise the money from investors.

The developer’s original plan relied on an 1891 Colorado mining law that allowed private developers to condemn private property needed for a road. After Mr. Wells strongly lobbied the Colorado legislature last year to pass a bill making it even easier for him to build the toll road, Mr. Thomasson helped rally about 1,200 property owners to march on the Capitol in Denver, carrying signs and shouting slogans opposing the project. The landowners successfully fought to defeat of the measure.

Opponents of the road then achieved passage of two bills to restrict greatly the construction of private toll roads. Gov. Bill Owens, a Republican, vetoed both bills last year, but he signed similarly worded ones into law this summer after they passed again.

The new laws removed the right of private toll road developers to condemn private property and require them to negotiate a more complex and expensive bureaucratic process.

“It was hard for me to understand how the governor could support private toll road companies asserting condemnation powers when the law that they were claiming gave them the power was put on the books before the automobile was even invented,” said State Senator Tom J. Wiens, a Republican who sponsored one bill.

Mr. Wells’s spokesman, Jason Hopfer, said the toll project would reduce traffic on Interstate 25 and provide an alternate route for railroad freight cars that now pass through Denver.

“The route addresses the need for infrastructure in Colorado that is sorely lacking,” said Mr. Hopfer, who also said Mr. Wells declined to be interviewed for this article. “If you just drive I-25, you see the need for an alternative route. A great deal of the population of Colorado lives along the corridor, and there’s no other north-south alternative.”

Critics said the road was not needed.

Marsha Looper, an opponent and a Republican who is running for a seat in the state House, said: “We have the Ports to Plains Highway that is in direct competition with this proposed road. It’s a toll-free federal highway that our taxes are paying for that is only 40 miles to the east of the Super Slab.”

After the new legislation passed this summer, many around the state thought the toll road project was dead. To build it, Mr. Wells must now either buy all the property needed for its construction or buy much of it and form a public-private partnership with the state, which could condemn the rest. Either would be difficult and very expensive.

Undaunted by the new restrictions, however, the developer filed papers with the state in August to proceed with the toll road under the current law, and hired the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown &; Root to work on it. Under his new plan, the road would be built on a 1,200-foot-wide path inside a designated three-mile-wide corridor.

“We think the new legislation gives a framework that was missing in the past, that will make it clearer as to what the next steps are,” Mr. Hopfer said. “This gives more structure to the process.”

Worried property owners in the corridor said they had no intention of selling. Tommy and Phyllis Orr raise corn and alfalfa on 60 acres in Weld County. “We moved here in 1964,” Ms. Orr said. “The road might cut our farm right in two, or it just might take out the whole thing. I don’t want to be forced off of our property. We’re too old to relocate and start our lives over.”

Some opponents said Mr. Wells hired Kellogg, Brown &; Root to intimidate property owners, and because of the company’s political influence. Its parent company’s ties to the White House and other political connections are well known.

“I think he needed that power and influence,” Ms. Looper said. “The intimidation factor is extremely big.”

To which Mr. Hopfer responded, “That’s just conspiracy theories.”

Link to article here.

Williamson is in rare form as usual…confusing the constant steady fury of taxpayers that’s been bubbling for more than two years with “love.” And the guy speaking for TTI called the “nation’s premier annual congestion study” is a farce since TTI pulled its own index this year to rework its flawed methodology since other states are no longer using it. Its reputation and its congestion index’s relevance are in question, yet they refer to TTI’s index as the “nation’s premier annual congestion study.” Clearly there’s been a total break with reality as these guys partake in a lovefest designed to figure out ways to fleece the taxpayers and feed their egos all at the same time.

Read this for more outrageous quotes from the “hearing” (the public not invited).

Also, consider that these policy wonks want to toll everything in sight AND raise your gas taxes AND indebt the public to foreign companies. Had enough? Vote out their bosses in Congress and here in Texas, starting with Rick Perry on November 7!

National panel on transportation hears Texas ideas
Patrick Driscoll
Express-News
09/21/2006

DALLAS — There’s a good reason why a national commission studying future transportation funding is holding its first hearing in Texas.

After all, Texas officials already have started writing the playbook by trying to toll every new highway lane possible and by inviting private companies to join in.

And the state’s No. 1 toll salesman, Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson, made a strong impression on commission members when he spoke Wednesday to kick off a two-day hearing at the Hyatt Regency Dallas.

“Close your eyes and imagine what you can to see,” Williamson told the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission. “And that’s your vision.”

Texas set a goal of eliminating most congestion and uses a market approach to squeeze the most out of available money, he said. Officials are looking at proposals such as the Trans Texas Corridor, a 4,000-mile network crisscrossing the state with toll lanes, railways and utility lines.

“The public will love you if you just reduce congestion,” Williamson assured.

The 12-member commission, created by last year’s federal transportation law, is tasked with figuring out what the nation should do about transportation funding through 2050.

This week’s hearing, the first of four scheduled, is being held in Texas because transportation officials here have unplugged from national efforts and come up with their own innovations, commission members said.

“I’m going to get your card, you’re going to hate me before this commission is over, because you’ve got some good ideas,” Tom Skancke of the Skancke Co. told Williamson.

Other ideas the commission has heard go beyond just tolling.

Cambridge Systematics officials who spoke at Wednesday’s hearing said federal, state and local governments will need to come up with at least $157 billion more a year to maintain and improve roads and transit, nearly double what they spend now.

They recommended indexing the gas tax to inflation, tolling more highways and involving the private sector more. Long-term solutions could include charging drivers for each mile driven and, to reduce traffic, charging higher fees on congested roads.

But no decisions have been made yet, panel members said.

“We need to know a lot more,” said Frank McArdle of the General Contractors Association of New York. “Somebody has to pay that revenue. We have to understand the impacts.

“At the end of the day, we have to hear from the people who use the system.”

Other speakers Wednesday included Patrick Jones of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association and William Millar of the American Public Transportation Association.

“The inability of our traditional policymaking bodies to deal with this deepening crisis has been wearing down public confidence in our government,” Jones said. “We must invest today to avoid paralysis tomorrow.”

Speaking today will be Tim Lomax of the Texas Transportation Institute, co-author of the nation’s premier annual congestion study, and toll and transit officials in Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth and Austin.

Once again, Rick Perry and his highway cronies are on a completely different planet than the taxpayers tasked with footing the bill. He still tries to claim the “user” pays, but we have documented on this web site how that’s NOT TRUE since they plan to use gas tax money and public bonds for these toll roads. Perry’s own transportation advisor even admits the tolls aren’t coming off these roads. So how is that a user tax when even once the road is paid for, the tolls continue in order to fund road projects on other highways, and when everyone’s gas taxes go into the toll roads yet you can’t drive on it without paying a toll, too? Read Commissioner Lyle Larson’s blistering statement that TxDOT isn’t being honest about how these toll projects are being funded here; there will be a LOT of taxpayer money involved.

Press Release

Perry Announces Plan to Accelerate Interstate 69
Ambitious Transportation Corridor Will Create Jobs, Trade Opportunities

HOUSTON – Gov. Rick Perry today announced an ambitious plan to partner with the private sector to develop an interstate-quality highway corridor with additional rail freight capacity that connects the Lower Rio Grande River Valley to I-37 and continues along the south and east portions of Texas from Corpus Christi through Houston all the way to northeast Texas. The visionary transportation project, TTC-69, will connect industrial hubs in South Texas and the Midwest.

“When construction is complete, Texas will benefit from unprecedented trade opportunities, a faster, more reliable transportation system, and thousands of new jobs,” Perry said. “For decades Texas has relied on the private sector to finance and build our telecommunications and utility infrastructure. It’s time we harnessed the private sector to finance our roads and railroads, too.”

Perry made the announcement at the annual meeting of the I-69 Alliance, a non-profit group of public and private sector leaders from east and south Texas. The Alliance was formed 12 years ago to advance the goal of developing the I-69 corridor. I-69 is the combination of two federally designated High Priority Corridors, which together form the shortest route between the industrial northeast and the South Texas border with Mexico.

“Instead of baby steps, I say it’s time for Texas to take a giant leap forward. We can build the needed corridors that will connect the Texas cities and towns along the proposed I-69 route,” Perry told the group.

Perry pointed out that Texas received scant support to design and construct transportation routes in the last two federal transportation bills. A recent overhaul of the Texas transportation code expanded the authority of TxDOT in both highway and rail infrastructure development.

“Texas has never been a state that waits for others to lead or innovate, and we’ve never been afraid to try something new when the old ways don’t work anymore,” Perry said. “We have no better choice than public-private partnerships. They are the wave of the future because they are faster, cheaper and fairer, charging a cost only to those who use toll roads.”

Perry previously advanced the development of I-69 in 2002, when transportation secretary Norman Mineta asked Texas to propose a highway project for accelerated environmental review. Since then, the Texas Department of Transportation has been studying the corridor to determine how to minimize the project’s environmental impact. The study is approaching the half-way point.

“We don’t know exactly what needs to be built and where it will go until after the environmental study is complete. But I-69 was always envisioned as an upgrade of the existing infrastructure into interstate quality roads,” Perry added. “Widening existing roads, adding truck lanes beside existing lanes, adding additional freight rail capacity, they are all components of the I-69 dream that the Trans Texas Corridor model can build much, much sooner.”

Perry unveiled his Trans Texas Corridor plan in 2002. The plan is a new vision for transportation that leverages the resources of the private sector to build needed infrastructure more quickly. The Corridor will be built as the state grows over the next 50 years and is expected to create hundreds of thousands of jobs, save commuters time with speed limits up to 85 mph, take hazardous cargo out of our most populated areas, provide for passenger rail between cities, and significantly reduce air pollution.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has said that the Trans Texas Corridor is helping make Texas “a national example for all states” for innovative transportation solutions.

Link to article here.

Our supporters reading this is like preaching to the choir. Bexar County commissioners would be wise to wake-up to this economic disaster, especially in light of the fact that San Antonio’s median income is far less than Houston or Dallas. Commissioners Lyle Larson and Tommy Adkisson have “seen the light” for some time, one more on board and the citizens, not special interests, would have a majority…

Too Many Toll Roads Bad For DFW, Commissioners Say
September 13, 2006
NBC

DALLAS — Dallas County commissioners are looking at ways to cut down on the need for several new toll roads in the future and said they don’t think it’s good for residents or the local economy to be overtolled.

Drivers currently only have to pay to drive on two roads, but that will soon increase to several roads. “I pay about $40 a month just to go back and forth to work. I use the toll roads just to go shopping. What will it be like when we start encompassing all these other roads?” motorist Sherry Blake said.

Dallas County commissioners said residents wouldn’t have to fund as many future roads with tolls if the Texas Department of Transportation didn’t have to share 66 percent of the gas tax with other programs including education.

“There’s a policy of raping people who use tolls to pay for projects that could have been paid had the funds not been diverted,” Dallas County commissioner Kenneth Mayfield said.

“What’s more important than education? That doesn’t bother me,” resident Nancy Marlow said.

County commissioners asked staff to provide other options besides tolls for funding major Dallas County roads in the future.

Judge Margaret Keliher said she believes an excessive amount of highway tolls will have a negative impact on the local economy.

An Audit Report on Flight Services Provided by the Department of Transportation’s Aviation Division Flight Services Section< br />
September 2006

Report Number 07-001

Overall Conclusion

The Department of Transportation (Department) is not operating the state fleet of aircraft in a cost-effective manner. Current hourly rates charged for interagency flight services and other revenue earned by flight services are not sufficient to cover costs incurred by the Department’s Aviation Division Flight Services Section. The State Auditor’s Office estimated that the total loss incurred from providing state-operated flights in fiscal year 2006 was $972,441.

In addition, auditors could not determine whether the Flight Services Section always complies with applicable statutes, state rules and regulations, and policies and procedures. We could not make this determination because the Flight Services Section does not always receive or require adequate information from the state agencies and higher education institutions that use its services.

Contact the SAO about this report.

Download the Acrobat version of this report. (.pdf)

If you prefer an HTML version, follow this link to an Adobe site which converts PDF files to HTML.

Not only is Bush’s new appointee to Transportation Secretary a pro-toller (read it here), she’s accused of covering up wrongful deaths and of overcharging the Federal Highway Administration by railroad company, CSX. Link to article here.

Bush nominee accused of cover-up
Whistleblower says transportation secretary pick should be probed

By Jerome R. Corsi
World Net Daily
September 16, 2006

Mary Peters

President Bush’s nominee for secretary of Transportation, Mary Peters, should be investigated for shutting down a probe of CSX Transportation into wrongful deaths in crossing accidents and overcharges, contends a whistleblower who worked for the railroad company.

Peters, who was head of the Federal Highway Administration at the time of the rail probe, is “another Bush cover-up artist,” asserts Dave Nelson.

The White House declined to comment on the allegation.

Nelson received a $1.18 million payment after filing a false claims action against CSX, alleging the company was overcharging the Federal Highway Administration for railroad crossing equipment upgrades that were never made or were not made as specified.

After Nelson’s action, CSX agreed to pay the Justice Department nearly $6 million, admitting Nelson’s allegations were correct.

As recently as 2004, CSX paid a $1 million fine to the state of New York to settle Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s investigation into CSXT responsibility regarding railroad crossing accidents that resulted in fatalities in the state.

Nelson told WND that even today, CSX is continuing to overcharge the Federal Highway Administration, or FHWA, for railroad crossing equipment upgrades and that railroad crossing accidents are still resulting in deaths that could have been avoided.

While Peters was head of the FHWA, a criminal investigation was begun by the U.S. Department of Transportation in its Office of Inspector General.

“I was providing information to that DOT criminal investigation,” Nelson said. “The Justice Department closed both the criminal and civil investigation ongoing in DOT after the FHWA told DOJ that the FHWA did not care about CSX overcharges involving railroad crossing equipment.”

Nelson further told CSX that the order to close the Department of Transportation investigations involved John Snow, the former secretary of Treasury in the Bush administration. Nelson alleged to WND that Snow’s nomination to head Treasury was the reason Peters told the Justice Department the overcharges in the CSX investigation did not merit further investigation.

Nelson said his attorney sent him an e-mail after Justice closed the CSX investigations and told him specifically the statement of the FHWA was the key reason the investigations were closed.

“The Bush administration did not want the embarrassment of criminal and civil investigations being brought against CSX for activities when John Snow was CEO of CSX occurring when Snow was being nominated to be the secretary of Treasury,” Nelson said. “I believe even today that Mary Peters was doing what she was told to do by the White House, namely to close the CSX investigation even if the charges were true.”

Nelson alleged to WND that wrongful deaths are continuing to happen due to CSX’s faulty, inadequate or outdated railroad crossing equipment.

“I invite the attorneys of any family seeking redress from a death involving a railroad crossing accident to contact me,” he said. “In many cases, the death involves what amounts to negligent homicide and the board and executives of a railroad like CSX should be held responsible if effective civil and criminal actions are filed.”

Nelson said he also believes Peters should be investigated and possibly indicted because the decision by the FHWA to shut down the CSX investigation at the time Snow was nominated was an action that “doomed many innocent U.S. citizens, including women and children, to railroad crossing accidents the FHWA and DOT knew were caused by CSX fraud and negligence. … ”

Nelson estimates that in the last five years CSX overcharges to FHWA regarding railroad crossing equipment probably still amount to some $100 million.

“This $100 million in overcharges gives CSX a more-than-ample war chest from which to hand out $1 million here and there to the Eliot Spitzers of the world and the various families who have the courage to sue when their family members are killed by CSX negligence regarding railroad crossings,” Nelson said.

Peters served as Federal Highway Administrator from Oct. 2, 2001 to July 29, 2005. Snow was sworn in as secretary of Treasury on Feb. 7, 2003. He was elected CEO of CSX July 11, 1989.

The Senate Commerce Committee has announced nomination hearings for Peters will begin Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. Eastern.

Inside information supplied by Nelson prompted and advanced a Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles by New York Times reporter Walt Bogdanich, called “Death on the Tracks.” The stories reported railroad company cover-ups regarding faulty equipment and false reports concerning fatal accidents at railroad crossings.

CorridorWatch.org ALERT – 09-14-06

‘You Can’t Take It’ and promoters sued for misleading property owners about land seizures linked to Trans-Texas Corridor project.

AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has filed a lawsuit to stop three individuals and their organization from falsely claiming they can protect property owners from potential eminent domain proceedings possibly linked to the Trans-Texas Corridor project.

The Attorney General’s lawsuit alleges that promoters of “You Can’t Take It” with its associated Web site attempt to scare property owners into believing their properties may be affected by the future highway projects. The scare tactics then lead to offers to rescue them from speculative eminent domain proceedings for a fee of $600, which will increase to $1,000 by November. The organization also would assess homeowners a $100 yearly “maintenance fee.”

The defendants assure homeowners that their organization is capable of halting eminent domain proceedings, which may, speculatively, affect them. They claim to accomplish this by filing commercial lease agreements or otherwise encumbering the property using the organization’s so-called “Property Protection Scheme.”

The promoters claim this conversion is an ironclad safeguard that will bar further legal proceedings involving these properties. The defendants go even further by fraudulently claiming that only by availing themselves of this organization’s expertise can consumers gain full protection from “thirsty developers.”

To the contrary, the organization’s attempts to encumber these properties with commercial lease agreements for the purpose of “economic development” to block state condemnation could place homeowners in jeopardy of losing these properties. You Can’t Take It promoters also deceive homeowners by telling them that such a conversion will increase their property values by seven times the actual market value.

The defendants also fail to inform homeowners how this scheme could affect pre-existing contractual agreements they have with mortgage companies, home equity loan programs or banks. In addition, consumers are not told how entering into such agreements may run afoul of local residential zoning ordinances.

The defendants recently have conducted door-to-door solicitations with sales teams, pressuring potentially affected homeowners into doling out money to become enrolled in their “Property Protection Scheme.”

The Attorney General seeks both temporary and permanent injunctions halting any deceptive claims or advertising, requiring the defendants to fully disclose all the facts associated with eminent domain proceedings.

The suit also requests penalties of $20,000 per violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, a penalty of $250,000 if a harmed consumer is 65 years of age or older, and reasonable attorneys’ fees.

Property owners, who believe they may have been misled by this organization or others like it, may file complaints with the Attorney General by calling toll-free (800) 252-8011, or file a complaint online at www.oag.state.tx.us

Additional information can also be found on www.CorridorWatch.org.