Express-News article link.

No matter how you slice it, the gas tax system is FAR cheaper for motorists than tolls (pennies versus dollars). Do the math as Guerra does below and you’ll see! So even a toll of 14 cents a mile is 14 times more than the gas tax we pay for that mile. So with toll rates of 25 cents to $1.00 a mile, you can see tolls would be 25 -100 times more money OUT OF YOUR POCKET compared to gas taxes.

Carlos Guerra: Texas’ fast track to toll roads leaves unanswered questions
Web Posted: 03/14/2006 12:00 AM CST
San Antonio Express-News

Many Texans are now realizing that state leaders plan to put miles of toll roads into their not-so-distant future. But most still don’t realize that these plans have been years in the making, and that poor leadership and/or our leaders’ kowtowing to special interests created the claimed need for toll roads.

Texas’ first fuel tax — 1 cent-per-gallon of gasoline — was levied in 1923 to pay for roads needed for the state’s growing motor vehicle fleet, and was extended to diesel and liquefied petroleum gas in 1933. It remained a relatively low tax until it was raised to 10 cents per gallon in 1984; 15 cents in 1987; and, most recently, 20 cents in 1991. Today, a dime of the 20-cent tax pays for state roads, a nickel for county roads and the last nickel goes to public schools.

And though its revenues were raided several times to fund nonroad-related needs, Texas’ fuel tax — and a similar federal levy — paid for building and maintaining almost all of our immense asphalt web, which was built as we could afford it.

But increasingly, Texas Department of Transportation officials have claimed that gas taxes can’t meet needs expanded by population growth, increased NAFTA truck traffic and inflation.

“Our answer to people wanting mobility (has been), ‘We’ll get to you when we get to you,'” says David Casteel, TxDOT’s local district engineer. “We have told them, ‘When we get some money together, we’ll build your piece of road,’ and tried to squeeze as much local funding as we could.”

State transportation officials also say that since Texas’ highway system and inflation have never stopped growing, maintenance is progressively eating up more of the money.

In 2003 and 2005, two key changes to the Transportation code allowed TxDOT to charge drivers “user fees” more easily, and empowered the agency to cut deals with private-sector firms to fund roads on state-seized land in return for paying the state a fee.

These contractors will recoup their investment — and a tidy, long-term return — by collecting tolls for very long periods of time.

The contractors’ up-front investments, concession fees, and perhaps a cut of toll revenues for the state, the reasoning goes, will make a lot of money available for other transportation needs.

TxDOT critics counter that building roads on land purchased with gas taxes, and then tolling them is double taxation, and the imposition of an onerous new tax that will put billions into well-connected, private-sector pockets.

Nor do detractors buy into TxDOT’s assertions that it hasn’t enough money, or that so many more highway miles are desperately needed.

Should you double the size of the church to accommodate attendance for Easter services, they ask.

Critics also are putting pencils to the toll plans. A 20 cent-per-gallon tax for a vehicle that gets 20 mpg equals a penny per mile, one critic reasoned. But every penny-per-mile toll that is added atop that tax would effectively double the fuel tax on that road.

“The gas tax could increase 50 percent, and that would still cost only $0.015 per mile,” he concluded. “Big deal!”

And before accepting that tolls are an inescapable reality, we also should consider that in 1991, when our gas tax rose to 20 cents, gasoline was $1.11 cents per gallon nationally, and in Texas it was as low as 80 cents.

Should we still collect only 20 cents for gasoline that now often surpasses $2.50 a gallon?

To contact Carlos Guerra, call (210) 250-3545 or e-mail cguerra@express-news.net.

Read USA Today article here.

Car renters to get E-pay option for tolls
By Gary Stoller, USA TODAY
March 12, 2006

Car rental companies are poised to plunge into electronic toll payment, a move that will save customers time and boost the fast-growing business of user-financed roads.

Cendant Car Rental Group, the owner of Avis and Budget, plans to announce Monday that renters at 117 locations in the New York and Houston metropolitan areas will have the option, beginning in April, to pay tolls electronically.

Avis and Budget will add a daily fee of up to $2, as well as pass along toll costs. Drivers get to avoid the lines at the cash booths.

Toll roads on tap…Motorists can expect to see more toll roads.
Miles of new toll roads planned as of Jan. 1, 2005:
Texas 174
Pennsylvania 50
Florida 46
North Carolina 36
Puerto Rico 27
Virginia 21
Illinois 13
California 10
Washington 9
Colorado 7
Source: Federal Highway Administration

The companies will make the option available by the end of this year in the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic states, Florida, Chicago and Dallas, Cendant Vice President Michael Caron says.

Rival Hertz is testing toll-collection devices and may expand availability later this year, Hertz Vice President Richard Broome says.

The companies say they’re reacting to customer demand and that the demand is likely to get stronger with the proliferation of toll-financed roads and bridges.

Neil Gray of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association says toll road mileage may double in five to 10 years. Now, 5,200 miles of roads in 35 states require tolls.

Most electronic payment systems involve a radio frequency device in the car that wirelessly transmits a vehicle’s identification code to a nearby reader.

That’s the technology Avis and Budget will use in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, where toll authorities cooperate in an electronic toll-collection system called E-ZPass.

Avis and Budget renters will pay $1.50 per day to use an E-ZPass transponder, plus the toll. The Highway Toll Administration, a business partner of Cendant, will charge the renters’ credit card for tolls.

In Houston, the car rental companies will use another technology that doesn’t require a radio transponder. PlatePass uses a camera to capture license plate images to tabulate a toll. Renters will be charged $2 each day they use a toll road, plus the toll.

Toll authorities welcome rental car companies’ involvement in electronic toll collection, says Tracy Smith, of the Harris County Toll Road Authority in Texas. It could shorten lines and reduce auto emissions at cash tollbooths.

It could also cut down on “toll runners” — violators who pass through without paying. Car renters are major contributors to the non-payment problem, says David Centner, president of the Highway Toll Administration.

Many renters skip tolls because they believe they won’t get caught or are confused by the payment system, Centner says.

CAN CASTEEL AND HER CRONIES BE TRUSTED IN RECOUNT?
Casteel may force a recount…

See Express-News article. Here’s the gist…

“Down by just 45 votes, state Rep. Carter Casteel is weighing her options, considering asking for a recount in her District 73 contest against Nathan Macias.”

Then here’s the Comal County Election Administrator’s reaction to the close win:

“When I found out she lost by 44, I thought, ‘Hey, this isn’t over yet,'” Linell Hinojosa said.

READ MORE OF THE BIAS DISPLAYED BY OFFICIALS IN COMAL COUNTY
Can we really trust such biased personnel to conduct a fair recount or count of the mail-in ballots?

See these two examples and read the tone of these officials. Macias can’t possibly get a fair shake from folks like these:

Herald-Zeitung article where commissioners express reservations and mourn loss of their Momma Bear.

This is the editor of the New Braunfels paper and the Comal County Commissioners directing such biased and vindictive words toward our new State Representative…it’s UNBELIEVABLE! Macias was serving his country in the military for the last 20 years, and DID vote absentee when he could. They don’t like that he’s a native of San Antonio, and that he’s not from the good ol’ boy club that runs New Braunfels:
See it here..

Do you see the writing on the wall here? It’s obvious this old guard isn’t willing to accept defeat, admittedly a close one. Also, they seem willing to stop at NOTHING to ensure the election results ultimately favor Casteel!

ACTION ALERT!!!
CALL SECRETARY OF STATE NOW!

Contact the Secretary of State Roger Williams: 512-463-5770 and secretary@sos.state.tx.us and ask that a truly unbiased third party take over any further handling or counting of election ballots for the District 73 race.

Bandera and Kendall counties are expecting no eligible ballots, but Comal
and Gillespie do have some eligible ballots still outstanding. Here are
the numbers for those officials:

Gillespie County Chair
Pauline Cusack
PO Box 25
Willow City, TX 78675
(830) 685-3602
(830) 685-3272 fax
pauline.cusack@starband.net

Gillespie County Judge
Mark Stroeher
830-997-7502

Commissioners
1 – Curtis Cameron, 830-997-7503
2 – William (Billy) Roeder, same number
3 – Calvin Ransleben, same number
4 – John (Corkey) Thompson, same number

Comal County Chair
Donald Hensz
226 W Tanglewood Drive
New Braunfels, TX 78130
(830) 625-6119 fax also
dongenny@wireweb.net

Comal County Judge
Danny Scheel, 830-620-5505
contact@co.comal.tx.us

Commissioners
1 – Jack Dawson, 830-620-5504
2 – Jay Millikin, 830-620-5509 cctjpm@co.comal.tx.us
3 – Gregory Parker, 830-620-5503
4 – Jan Kennady, 830-620-5508

Ask Comal County Clerk Joy Streater at (830) 620-5513 or contact@co.comal.tx.us add “mail for Joy Streater” in the subject line to ask Linell Hinojosa and all local county officials (who are clearly biased against Macias) to step aside for any recount or counting of overseas ballots.

Read it here.

Hmmmm, where to begin. First, the photos provided by the Alamo RMA accompanying the article are totally misleading. There is no way to move existing lanes out without destroying them (as TxDOT is so fond of saying, that’s clever TxDOT speak, for “we’re going to rip you off and make you think we’re not tolling an existing FREEway”). As my 10 year old likes to put it, there is no highway forklift or giant spatula that picks up and moves out existing freeway lanes. That’s right sweetie, out of the mouths of babes, eh? Anyone can take a drive out to 281 or 1604 and see full well that there is NOT enough room to put 6 toll lanes down the center median strip of existing 281 or 4 toll lanes down the middle of the existing median on 1604.

Then, Krier has yet to give ONE FACT that we’ve supposedly “misstated.” But I can give one he has misstated: he said on KTSA radio in February that what I drive on today on 281 will NOT be tolled. PURE FALSEHOOD, Mr. Krier, since Frank Holzman of TxDOT admitted such at an Encino Park HOA Meeting January 24. We have it on camera, sir.

Next, Krier claims there is no other choice but tolls. Who is Joe Krier, an elected official? No, he represents 70 private companies that make-up the highway lobby here in town, and of course, they’d like tolls to be the ONLY option. Why is Joe Krier proclaiming there’s no choice like he’s a legislator or transportation expert? Oh, that’s right, the Governor just appointed him to study highway financing options (see it here). Texans ought to be comforted to know that Joe Krier is exploring transportation financing options after he just declared in today’s paper that there aren’t any other options besides tolls! Your tax dollars at work, folks!

Then, Mr. Krier claims tolls give consumers a market choice. Also not so. Highway corridors with NO PUBLIC FREE ALTERNATIVE EXPRESSWAYS are NOT equivalent to market forces. Read an article Tolls Are A Slippery Slope here that explains why.

Ms. Chapa, the San Antonio Toll Party does call the tolls DOUBLE TAXATION, but we’re not the original source for that claim. The Comptroller of the State of Texas, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, found that the toll plans are in FACT, DOUBLE TAXATION. See the report here. Also, Ms. Chapa needs to be aware that taking TxDOT’s word for something is a risky proposition. On Hwy 45 near Austin, they promised non-toll frontage roads to run alongside the proposed tollway, and guess what? They just conducted a public meeting where they stated now there would be no frontage lanes…that’s right, NO NON-TOLL lanes. Read it here. Guess ya can’t believe everything proponents tell you.

“The delay prompted by the lawsuit is an opportunity for local leaders to be more transparent about the proposed toll projects and for opponents to cool the rhetoric and seriously consider the options before them.”

If TxDOT wanted to be more transparent about the toll projects, they’d let the public see what’s in the 50 year sweetheart deals they’re currently negotiating with two foreign companies who also happen to be partners on toll roads around the world. So much for competitive bidding. They’d also come clean with the public on the toll rates which are no where even close to 14 cents a mile being stated publicly. Had Ms. Chapa called me before printing this article, I would have pointed her to TxDOT’s own feasibility studies and the Comptroller’s Report (See the report here) that show toll rates as much as $1.00 a mile! Hardly the kind of loose change most San Antonians can spare just to get to work efficiently! Take a look at the famous toll road SR 91 out in CA where motorists now have to pay $8.50 to travel 10 miles of toll road to get to work. Do the non-toll lanes look like congestion relief to you? Toll roads don’t relieve congestion, they manipulate congestion for profit.

I’d sure like to know what everyone keeps referring to as rhetoric from our camp. Concerned citizens know that what Krier and proponents call “rhetoric” is actually the TRUTH! It makes the BIG MONEY advocates squirm and highly uncomfortable to have us informing the public the TRUTH, but so be it.

OK, now the traditional toll roads versus Perry toll road distinction
Chapa cites Houston’s toll roads as precedent. First of all, Houston residents VOTED to build their toll roads. Second, the money stays local and doesn’t go overseas. Third, what TxDOT is promoting is the shifting of existing freeways and rights of way (already built and paid for) into tollways. If these were new roads as they claim, why are the freeway names the same names as our existing freeways (281, 1604, I-35, Wurzbach Pkwy., Bandera Rd., & I-10)? Also, toll roads haven’t solved Houston’s congestion problems, and San Antonians median income doesn’t come close to Houston, Dallas, or Austin.

Who controls development? The City and County. If gas tax revenues can’t keep pace with the development, make the developers anti-up. It’s that simple. Consumers shouldn’t have to pay a WHOLE NEW DRIVER’S TAX just to get to work because developers keep dumping more congestion onto our already crowded roadways! We already have a driver’s tax, the gas tax! If a case needs to be made to raise it, then make the case. What the public sees now is that our politicians don’t want to make the case or give us a say in the matter. They see the gravy train a comin’ and wouldn’t want a little thing like Democracy and a public vote to stop it.

Truth be told, there is no comparison. Side by side, tolls are infinitely, and I mean infinitely, more expensive than a gas tax increase. We’re talking pennies per mile versus dollars. That’s another thing Ms. Chapa would have discovered in talking to the other side, the MPO Board in Austin did a side by side comparison and found that it would only be a 2 cents gas tax increase versus tolling EVERY major highway in Austin except one. If given the truth and given a side by side comparison, the voters would choose the gas tax system hands down. Perhaps Ms. Chapa should ask our MPO why they haven’t done an honest comparative analysis of gas taxes versus tolls?

However, TxDOT and proponents resort to unsubstantiated scare tactics saying it would require a 50 cent to $1.25 gas tax increase. That’s more than a 600% increase! What on earth do they think we need to build? We’ve already built the entire FEDERAL interstate highway system and our entire STATE highway system (which used to be the envy of the world), there is simply NO justification for increasing our state gas taxes by 600% percent. NONE! Think about what they’re asking us to blindly swallow here! Talk about scare tactics and rhetoric. I think that label is more appropriately applied to toll proponents! Why didn’t Ms. Chapa question these figures that are thrown about by the proponents?

After what TxDOT has pulled on the 281 project, it’s clear everything they say ought to be questioned. Let’s talk about that project, shall we? Chapa neglects to tell the public an essential FACT about the controversy surrounding the 281 project. U.S. 281 improvements are already funded and paid for! Residents are outraged they’ll be charged a toll to drive on an existing freeway (one tax to build what we currently drive on) whose improvements are also already paid for (another tax paid for the improvements, plus a toll tax to drive on it). It’s essentially TRIPLE TAXATION!

For the last 6-7 years in public meetings, TxDOT presented their plan to fix the congestion. See it here. It would add overpasses at the stop lights, 2 more lanes of freeways, and 4 lanes of frontage road AND it’s already paid for. The truth goes a long way toward transparency!

Not only did TxDOT break their promise, Bill Thornton and others have LIED to the public about the funds ($48 million) having disappeared. Also not true. I have the documents that prove the money is still there, and, in fact, Ms. Chapa’s own paper reported that even more gas tax funds (now $77 milion) dropped out of the sky to pay for the EVEN BIGGER tollway planned for 281! Read it here.

“We underestimated the interest and the passion of the opposition,” Krier said.

You bet ya, and the best is yet to come!

As far as foreign investment…
Selling exclusive rights to our public infrastructure is a heck of lot different than Toyota building a plant in town! No one is forcing us to buy a Toyota, but TxDOT actually has a plan to force us to use the tollways! See the plan on page 10 here. Then there’s always the pesky non-compete agreements which actually gives these companies control over the free lanes to manipulate the traffic to maximize the toll revenues. Read about it in Ms. Chapa’s own paper here.

If Brehctel, Krier, and proponents can’t see the difference, the public surely can! I would again refer you this article Tolls Are A Slippery Slope here that explains why highway corridors with NO PUBLIC FREE ALTERNATIVE EXPRESSWAYS do NOT equal free market principles. Also, some more relevant reading. Read these articles on the U.S. addiction to foreign money, here and the internationalizing of our roads here.

The logical route: As traffic clogs Bexar County, one option stands out
Web Posted: 03/12/2006 12:00 AM CST
Rebeca Chapa
Editorial writer

It’s 5:30 on a Friday afternoon, and traffic is bumper-to-bumper on U.S. 281. There’s a fender bender at Encino Rio, and cars are streaming in and out of subdivisions and shopping centers. It’s a typical frustrating drive for thousands of commuters traveling on U.S. 281 into or out of San Antonio.

And it’s going to get worse unless we as a community do something about it now, be it toll roads, light rail, expanded mass transit or some combination of options.

Currently, roads are built and maintained using money from the 38.4-cent gas tax, which is made up of an 18.4-cent federal tax and a 20-cent state tax.

The state tax also funds schools, the Texas Department of Public Safety and other state needs. It hasn’t increased since 1991, when it grew by a nickel.

Toll road advocates argue that it would take a tax increase of 50 cents to $1.25 per gallon to keep up with current and future needs. Consumers wouldn’t stomach it, and suggesting it would be politically suicidal for a politician.

Texas Transportation Commissioner Hope Andrade of San Antonio said the failure to raise the gas tax incrementally was poor planning.

“It’s our leadership,” she said.

“They didn’t think about preparing us for that.”

But pointing the finger doesn’t solve the problem, and now leaders are scrambling to come up with ways to make up the growing financial shortfall. Many see only one logical way out: toll roads.

“We don’t see any other realistic option,” said Joe Krier, chairman of the San Antonio Mobility Coalition and president and CEO of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.

Krier and others argue that tolling roads will give consumers a market choice about paying for new roads.

Without the option, road projects will continue to be built as they have in the past, on the slower pay-as-you-go system.

How tolls figure in planning

Tolling U.S. 281 has been the subject of intense media coverage and some public outcry. Opponents, most notably the San Antonio Toll Party, call the project a form of double taxation, since the existing roads have already been paid for with taxpayer dollars.
But all tolled roads will run alongside nontolled ones, giving motorists an option, says the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority, or RMA, a local body created in 2003 to develop and fund toll projects in partnership with the state.

The U.S. 281 toll project is one small part of a proposed 70-mile toll system that would incorporate the northern swath of Loop 1604 from Texas 151 to Interstate 10; U.S. 281 north of 1604; a small slice of Wurzbach Parkway; and Interstate 35 from the northern county line to downtown.

And toll roads are part of a much broader statewide transportation plan known as the Trans-Texas Corridor. The network, heavily touted by Gov. Rick Perry, could accommodate freight rail, high-speed commuter rail and separate lanes for car and trucks and have capacity for utility lines.

Ric Williamson, chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission who was handpicked by Perry, has been one of the project’s most ardent advocates.

Cintra-Zachry, a consortium of Spanish and local interests, has received a $3.5 million contract to produce a development and financial plan for a portion of the corridor.

A useful delay

Cintra-Zachry has also put a bid in for the controversial U.S. 281 project, which was recently put on hold for at least a year by a legal challenge. A lawsuit filed in December by People for Efficient Transportation Inc. and Aquifer Guardians in Urban Areas contended that existing environmental assessments don’t provide an adequate picture of the impact such a project could have on the area.
The Federal Highway Administration concurred, pulled its environmental clearances and effectively halted construction. A new environmental assessment is being conducted along a 12-mile stretch of U.S. 281.

The delay prompted by the lawsuit is an opportunity for local leaders to be more transparent about the proposed toll projects and for opponents to cool the rhetoric and seriously consider the options before them.

Some local officials are using the delay to raise questions about the necessity of tolling versus other alternatives to relieving the congestion.

Bexar County Commissioners Lyle Larson and Tommy Adkisson sent a letter to state legislators in January, asking that TxDOT re-allocate funding for the starter toll system to build overpasses at Encino Rio, Stone Oak Parkway and Borgfeld Road, as well as an additional highway lane in each direction.

For Adkisson, the negotiation process has been just as problematic as the project itself.

“It was born in deception,” Adkisson said. “They’ve tried to cram too much down our throats too quickly.”

Many point to the two private bidders — Cintra of Spain and Macquarie of Australia — as evidence that the state is selling out to moneyed interests that have an eye for profits. Because the companies are willing to invest their own money in the project, their preliminary proposals are partially confidential.

RMA officials acknowledge that the process has evolved rapidly. The RMA was created just more than two years ago and has had to invent itself in a short period. As for the confidentiality attached to the proposals, officials admit it is different from the standard bidding procedure.

“It is new to me,” said Terry Brechtel, executive director of the RMA. “I haven’t seen this process before. Am I comfortable with it? Yes.”

Other states

Toll roads are not uncommon across the country — or even Texas. Houston has 83 miles of tolled roads operated by the Harris County Toll Road Authority. In Dallas, the North Texas Tollway Authority operates 52 miles of tolled roads, as well as the Mountain Creek Lake Bridge and the Addison Airport Toll Tunnel.
In those cases, a tolling authority funds and operates the roads. But private sector financing and operation of toll roads is becoming more common as officials buck up against a tide of development not matched by sufficient increases in revenue.

Macquarie-Cintra, a consortium made up of the Australian and Spanish firms, recently submitted a bid to operate the 157-mile Indiana Toll Road. The company has offered the state $3.85 billion to maintain, operate and profit from the major thoroughfare that traverses the Hawkeye State from east to west along its northern border.

The deal, spearheaded by Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, passed the Republican-controlled state House and Senate this month.

The plan is now in committee, and a final compromise bill could be reached by Tuesday, the deadline to vote on it.

Macquarie-Cintra already operates the 7.8-mile Chicago Skyway, having paid $1.8 billion for that 99-year lease.

Separately, the two firms are competing for the U.S. 281 toll project, but their final development proposals aren’t expected for several months.

Garnering support

Officials acknowledge that the public isn’t fully convinced of the need for toll roads.
“We underestimated the interest and the passion of the opposition,” Krier said.

“We just let a lot of misinformation get out.”

One of the major sticking points for some is the use of a foreign company to build and operate the roads.

“We don’t need foreign countries with their hands in our pockets any more than they are already,” one Express-News reader recently stated in a letter to the editor.

But foreign investment is a way of life in this day and age, toll advocates say.

“Nobody complained when Toyota came to town,” Brechtel said, referring to the $850-million Japanese-owned manufacturing conglomerate set to begin producing Tundra trucks a year from now.

Officials haven’t committed to either toll consortium yet and are still looking at publicly funded toll roads.

Two public meetings on the toll project are scheduled this month: March 29 at Reagan High School and March 30 at Bush Middle School. Both will begin at 6 p.m.

rchapa@express-news.net

Read the Express-News Editorial here.

Here’s my response to this Editorial:

I take issue with you stating our side has misstated the facts or hurled heated rhetoric. Joe Krier and the slew of pro-toll proponents, all of whom will financially benefit from the toll plans, cannot name ONE FACT we’ve misstated! All of our figures are directly from the Comptroller’s web site, TxDOT’s own web site, and other reliable government sources in the public domain like the General Accounting Office.

No one in our group is saying that we shouldn’t address the congestion problems in San Antonio. On the contrary, we desire a true assessment of how to finance it without toll agreements in these 50 year sweetheart deals with foreign companies for improvements that are ALREADY PAID FOR! We’ve attended TxDOT’s numerous public meetings, the MPO Meetings, the RMA Meetings; if we’re misstating the facts, it’s these bureaucracies who are doing it because that’s who we get our information from. If we’re lying, then Lyle Larson and Tommy Adkisson and David Leibowitz, and other public officials are lying because that’s also who we get our information from.

I’m confident that once you see the FACTS laid out in front of you, the editorial you (or your staff) published today would never have been written.

Editorial: Toll plans warrant sober consideration
Web Posted: 03/12/2006 12:00 AM CST
San Antonio Express-News

The figures are stark: Hundreds of thousands of new people and vehicles will be moving throughout our community during the next 25 years.

As companies such as Toyota and Washington Mutual bring thousands of new jobs to the area, efficient transportation will become an ever-more critical component of our lives.

In 1980, 8,600 vehicles traveled along U.S. 281 north of Loop 1604 each day. Now, that figure is more than 90,000 vehicles, according to the Texas Department of Transportation. Official estimates put the rate in 2035 at about 161,000 vehicles per day.

That’s a lot of cars, and they’ll require a lot of roadways.

The revenue from state and federal gas taxes isn’t sufficient to keep up with the demand for new and improved roads. Elected leaders haven’t raised the state tax in 15 years, and the political will isn’t there to do so now.

Enter toll roads as an option. They provide a way to get roads built more quickly, while giving motorists the choice of whether or not to ride them. Two private companies, one from Spain and one from Australia, are bidding to finance and operate toll projects in Bexar County and across the state.

State and local officials are considering the two companies, while at the same time looking at public financing solutions.

Unfortunately, the debate over tolls has become mottled on both sides with misinformation, no information and, sometimes, conflicting information.

We urge toll road advocates to be more transparent about toll road projects, and we recommend that those opposed to toll roads seriously consider the future transportation needs of this community. At a minimum, opponents should cool their rhetoric and exercise caution about the arguments they advance as facts. Overheated propaganda is detrimental to the debate.

It’s time for a sober discussion about transportation — one of the most significant policy questions that will affect our community for years to come.

Toll roads are essential if we are to add capacity in a reasonable amount of time, but the details must be examined thoroughly.

San Antonio is the eighth-largest city in the country. To continue growing at a healthy pace, we can’t sit back and let development overtake our community. We have to be pro-active and forward-thinking.

NOTES:
First of all, we’re attempting to have a sober discussion about the FACTS, but it’s a lot easier when the proponents aren’t allowing their judgment to be clouded by BIG MONEY. How else can such life-altering plans be treated? You bet thousands of concerned citizens are sober to the fact that our government is about to price us off our own freeways, plans to toll nearly every freeway in Texas, and then hand them over to private companies for profit! If the public financing option is still on the table, then why is TxDOT promoting these CDAs (public-private deals) in a workshop January 17, well-attended by the same folks who plan to profit handsomely by the toll roads? See the details here. Oh, and Cintra and Macquarie, the two foreign companies that remained nameless in the editorial, are PARTNERS on toll roads all around the world. Read about it here. This seems like important information to reveal before repeating TxDOT’s claims of “competitive bidding.”

Next point, all the added population also means more tax revenues. Gas tax revenues and who will fund the growing highway burden don’t stay fixed based on today’s population. The more folks that take up residence here, the more tax revenues go up. In a related article by Carlos Guerra today, he quotes TxDOT complaining the gas taxes have been raided and now there’s not enough money for highways. Well, look no further than Ric Williamson, the Chair of the Transportation Commission, to see who’s guilty of raiding those funds while he was a State Rep. here. Make Williamson pay for the improvements he can’t fund!

But for the majority of the trouble on 281, TxDOT already has a FUNDED plan to fix the increased traffic and it’s on our web site here. It would add overpasses at the stop lights, 2 more lanes of freeways, and 4 lanes of frontage road AND it’s already paid for. If there’s such dire concern over the high traffic volume, then why doesn’t the City and County start to curb development over the aquifer in that part of town rather than charge us a lifetime toll tax for highways we drive on today free of tolls?

Development has and will continue to takeover our community because our politicians would rather represent the BIG MONEY special interests than proper city planning and the public good. Too bad our newspaper has fallen for the propaganda. It doesn’t take much time to do a little research on how toll roads don’t solve congestion, they simply manipulate it for profit. It doesn’t take much, but we’ve amassed a whole web page devoted to links chock full of evidence to back up our contentions here. Our blog and the “In the News” section also chronicles our contentions with dozens of articles here. And it isn’t rhetoric; it’s the FACTS! How ’bout the Express-News Editorial Board investigate this and what the other side has to say before backing tolls?

Read it here.

NOTE: Casteel’s numbers don’t tell the whole picture. From 1984-2004 the state gas tax revenues went up at the rate of 178% while population only grew 50%. These bureaucrats consistently tell half truths and mislead the public about why we’re in this mess and who is responsible for it. Increased growth brings increased tax revenues, period! We added more lane miles from 1990 to the year 2000 but commute times went up. If simply building more roads relieves congestion, then we shouldn’t be experiencing congestion woes. Our woes are largely due to poor planning at the City, County, and State levels. Read about it in my presentation to the Transportation Commission: here. Their own figures on the Comptroller’s web site and from government sources don’t lie!

Carlos Guerra: Toll road debate follows the special interests in big-bucks lane
Web Posted: 03/12/2006 12:00 AM CST
San Antonio Express-News

If Texans are rancorously debating toll roads — an issue likely to decide November’s governor’s election — there are four good reasons for it.

Texas’ population exploded during the 1990s, and the growth will continue for at least 25 years. International trade also increased traffic to and from Mexico.

And over that decade, highway funding shrunk so that now, more than half of the state’s gasoline taxes pay for maintenance of Texas’ enormous highway system.

But clearly, the biggest reason we’re debating toll roads is that Texans love to travel Texas’ miles and miles, and special interests want the big bucks from building multibillion-dollar highways, and even bigger bucks from charging people to drive on them over the next 50 to 99 years.

Ric Williamson, head of the Texas Transportation Commission, is often vilified for asserting that within our lifetime most Texas highways will be toll roads. Almost equally quoted is the Hobson’s choice he offered: “It’s either toll roads, slow roads or no roads.”

But are those our only real choices? Of course not.

This issue is about cronyism and big bucks, multidecade concessions, and which international corporation will get them, that’s all.

David Casteel is the Texas Department of Transportation’s district engineer for the San Antonio and Laredo districts. TxDOT, he emphasizes, doesn’t write Texas’ public policies regarding highways, or even transportation. It takes orders from the Legislature and the Texas Transportation Commission, and increasingly, orders from the metropolitan planning organizations that now determine how transportation resources are spent locally.

Additionally, TxDOT’s newest bosses are new regional mobility authorities that the Legislature empowered to decide where toll roads are built, by whom, and how much they should toll.

Casteel says that more roadway lane miles are needed now, and that population and traffic growth have overtaken TxDOT’s budget, which is largely funded by a state tax on gasoline.

“We were on a pay-as-you go system, so our answer was wait, wait, wait and when we get the money we will build your road,” he says. “But in that time, congestion got worse; we have one of the fastest rates of growth for congestion.”

The biggest reason Texas can’t keep up with increased traffic is that TxDOT’S funding hasn’t kept up with population growth or even inflation, he says, and gas taxes have been raided during lean years to balance budgets.

“The last time the gas tax was raised was in 1991, when it was raised a nickel (to 20 cents per gallon) and it wasn’t indexed to inflation,” Casteel says.

“During the past 25 years, at the state level, more than $10 billion has been used from the state gas tax for other purposes, and during that time, population increased 67 percent in Texas and we were only able to add 8 percent more lane miles, so the math is pretty simple.”

But is tolling 90 percent of our new and existing highways the answer?

In future columns, we will explore if a higher gasoline tax is better than tolls computed per-mile and increased as congestion rises; if absolutely necessary toll roads shouldn’t be owned by the state instead of a private concern; and why privately operated toll road deals will guarantee that toll-free roads, by contract, will be left to deteriorate and virtually vanish.

To contact Carlos Guerra, call (210) 250-3545 or e-mail cguerra@express-news.net.

Read it here.

HOW GRASSROOTS IS BEATING SPECIAL INTERESTS
By Sal Costello
Friday, March 10, 2006 at 07:47PM
Scott Bennett in Sal Costello

Gov. Perry knows who I am. And, he doesn’t like me.

I’ve been called the nemesis of many Texas elected officials.

I’ve been told by legislators that my grassroots group has begun to affect change in that special interest marble hell hole that we call our capital.

This story starts out discussing the freeways in Austin, but you’ll want to read on because it will affect you and your family’s pocketbooks as your freeways are also shifting to tollways. It’s happening throughout Texas. In Dallas, Freeway Toll 121 is the first of many thefts planned.

In 2004, 93% of the public feedback opposed the Gov. Perry toll plan that would shift most freeways in Austin to tollways. Austin’s Mayor Will Wynn, and other local elected representatives ignored the 93% of the public feedback and voted to toll roads already fully funded with gas tax dollars.

Since then, I’ve been leading a big-fit across Texas.

Tens of thousands throughout Texas have joined our cross-partisan grassroots group called TexasTollParty.com (it’s kind of like the Boston Tea Party, but replace the tea with special interest politicians (looters) and add some lawsuits we’ve filed and been successful with).

WE DON’T OPPOSE TRADITIONAL TOLL ROADS
To be clear, we don’t oppose traditional toll roads, where toll revenues on Turnpike A are tied to the investor financed Turnpike A, and where Turnpike A is designed and built as an ALTERNATIVE to our public expressways.

In contrast, Gov. Perry’s “Freeway Tolls” permanently take public expressways from drivers; double tax drivers since the freeway toll roads are funded with gas tax dollars (they don’t tell you that part); cost much more for construction, right of way, utility relocation, maintenance and service than nontolled roads; create corporate welfare as privately owned corporations profit off publicly owned assets; and add new layers of wasted bureaucracy.

State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn did an investigation in 2005 that showed one of the new, bureaucratic freeway tolling authorities had board members giving out NO BID contracts to themselves and their friends. (http://www.window.state.tx.us/specialrpt/ctrma05/)

Gov. Perry calls his plan to toll all future Texas freeway projects “innovative financing”. I guess it’s innovative to fund a project with gas tax dollars and then charge folks to use the road – daily – forever. I like to call it “highway robbery.”

Here’s how Gov. Perry’s plan works: They use our gas tax dollars and our right of way that we’ve already paid for to build the expressways on our public highways. Then they place toll booths on them to collect a daily drivers tax.

FAST FORWARD TO THE PRIMARY ELECTION THIS WEEK:
We Won the first Toller vs. NonToller race in Travis County. Our endorsed candidate, Sarah Eckhardt, beat entrenched, eleven year incumbent and County Commissioner, Karen “Toll Road Queen” Sonleitner—57% to 43%! To prove that we gave the victory to our viable candidate, our election analysis matched our members to those who voted. (http://salcostello.blogspot.com/2006/03/congrats-to-all-our-endorsed.html)

And, we tipped the scale of the big upset and first Toller vs. NonToller House District 73 race in San Antonio as Nathan Macias beat toller incumbent, Carter Casteel by 45 votes. In House District 101 our endorsed Tom Latham beat toller incumbent, Elvira Reyna. And, we’ve had other candidates we’ve endorsed – win and get to the coming runoff.

In November of 2005, we took the lead and opposed Props 1 & 9. We saw the corporate welfare and extended freeway tolling authority terms that Gov. Perry was trying to sell us, and we fought hard. We helped stop Prop 9—Prop 9 would have allowed unelected people six year terms on the mobility authorities. And we also came close to stopping the blank check of Prop 1. More importantly, analysis of the counties we are strongest in, showed we made a 20% difference for Props 1 & 9.

We aren’t afraid to fight in the courtroom either. In December of 2005, we filed a lawsuit to stop San Antonio’s 281 freeway toll. By January 2006 we stopped the project.

As we continue to grow and educate others throughout Texas, we plan on firing more representatives–both Democrats and Republicans–that think that they can ignore us. We must vote for the person and not the party. Independent thinking Democrats and Independent thinking Republicans that will represent us is the answer.

Help stop Gov. Perry’s new tax scheme.

Go to TexasTollParty.com today and in just 1 minute, automatically send an email to Gov. Perry and over 200 other looters and let your voice be heard by telling them you don’t want to pay a toll for roads that you’ve already paid for.

—-
Sal Costello is founder of TexasTollParty.com and People for Efficient Transportation Inc.
http://salcostello.blogspot.com

Can you believe it? What a house of cards? Talk about fiscal irresponsibility…the RMA actually voted to consider selling bonds in order to pay -off their ILLEGAL LOAN from the City. To his credit, Lyle Larson’s appointee to the Board, Bob Thompson, said the CDA process is delaying the traditional design/build process TxDOT could put in place, toll-free. He also asked them to assign a cost to the delay this protracted public-private partnership contract negotiation is costing the County and tens of thousands of motorists as well as businesses in the 281 corridor. However, no one listened to him or responsded…in his usual railroad fashion, Chair Bill Thornton, just plowed through the meeting calling for and passing votes faster than you can blink.

I found it interesting that Leon Valley Councilman Hubert Lange attended the meeting (the first time any representative of Leon Valley has been in attendance) and asked for the elevated, limited access corridor to be added to Bandera Rd. at the earliest possible date whether it’s tolled or not, he thought it would be great! Ask the folks of Leon Valley if they think a bypass highway will serve their community and the local businesses “just great.” Their Mayor, Chris Riley, doesn’t agree with Lange’s assessment.

Here’s the list of the companies in attendance who are obviously seeking to profit from the toll roads that will empty our pockets for private gain:

HNTB (transportation-engineering firm)
LEIHMAN BROTHERS (Investment Banking)
POPULAR SECURITIES (Investment Banking)
CITI GROUP (Finance/Investment Banking)
ESTRADA HINOJOSA (Investment Bankers)
R.J. RIVERA (Transportation-engineering firm)
Loeffler, Tuggey, Pauerstein, Rosenthal (or LTPR) Law Firm (Senator Jeff Wentworth is an attorney there)
LOCKE, LIDDELL, & SAAP Law Firm (up to their necks representing the “distinguished” highway lobby eager to stick it to the taxpayers)

Here’s the text of my statement to the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority (tolling authority) Wednesday, March 8, 2006 –

We come before you VICTORS today. The Toll Party scored two MAJOR upset victories unseating two toller incumbents, Karen Sonleitner in Travis County and Carter Casteel, MY State Rep who I put on notice when she refused to stop this toll nightmare. The winds of change are a blowin’ and our politicians who are more interested in representing special interests rather than the public good are going to one by one be removed from office! Governor Perry being the top of the list.

There are issues surrounding the competitive bidding process on the CDA for 281/1604. Cintra and Macquarie are being billed as two competitive bidders when they are partners on projects around the world and in the U.S. I’ll name them: Madrid, Ontario, Indiana, Illinois, here in Texas for the TTC I-35 project, and now they’re pretending to bid as separate entities in name only when the public can see full well that they’re partners!

There are also concerns about HNTB being hired by TXDOT to conduct a new “independent” environmental assessment for 281 when this Board has hired them to do the preliminary engineering of the toll roads all over town to the tune of $6.5 million in taxpayer money.

We met with HNTB yesterday and mentioned some very important aspects being overlooked here. NAFTA /CAFTA traffic was stated as justification for toll roads on I-35 by the Bexar County delegation at the Transportation Commission Meeting February 23, 2006, yet the Governor’s brainchild, the Trans Texas Corridor, has been promoted as the priority corridor to relieve truck and commercial traffic from I-35. So which is it? You can’t have it both ways!

Also, why isn’t the federal government being asked to foot the bill for this trade route? Why should Texans, especially San Antonio whose median income is near the bottom of the barrel for the top 50 U.S. cities, bear the sole burden of our Nation’s commerce? Texas is a donor state and continues to send more of our gas tax dollars to Washington than we get back. Not only should we receive back what we pay in, it’s arguably justified that Texas should receive even more than we pay into the system due to our geography being the natural gateway from Mexico on up into Canada and the conduit for much of the Nation’s trade. You seem to be looking everywhere for money, look no further than last year’s highway bill with 6,000 earmarks for congressional pet projects!

None of this escapes our notice and this continues to constitute the wholesale railroading of ONE agenda down the throats of taxpayers in this state. Rest assured these issues will be addressed. This Board needs to reconsider its meeting location. We were told last December that come April, the meeting location would change to the US 281/ Thousand Oaks area. Then you pull yet another bait & switch and say the Board meetings will remain at Kelly through the end of the year…the furthest possible location from those most affected by the toll plans. Are you going to change that? Will you answer the question or speak to any of these issues?

No one answered.