Read his statement in the Star-Telegram.

I found Ric Williamson’s quote very interesting if not hypocritical. He says he doesn’t want any scandals and told highway firms not to invite he or his staff to dinner. Well, they have one such event coming up Feb 22! A public-private partnership already running amock is the San Antonio Mobility Coalition (or SAMCO See who’s “drinking” at the public trough here.). It’s partially tax-funded yet represents the private interests of 70 companies, who, you guessed it, build or finance highways! I received the email below from one of our County Commissioners that confirms SAMCO is having a dinner reception to “thank” the Transportation Commission, essentially, for bringing toll road revenues to San Antonio companies. If Williamson is truly concerned about appearances of impropriety or the granting of special favors for the companies that make-up SAMCO, perhaps he should be urged to cancel this “thank you” reception.

And what about the “scandal” of the Transportation Commission suing our own Attorney General to keep the TTC I-35 contract secret from the public? Williamson takes us for fools if he thinks the public doesn’t see this as a scandal and government getting too cozy with private special interests (at the expense of the public good).

CDA’s are nothing more than NO BID, secret, corporate welfare contracts:

AG SAYS CDA MUST BE MADE PUBLIC AFTER HOUSTON CHRON REQUEST

CINTRA SUES AG LAWSUIT TO KEEP CDA A SECRET

SA LIGHTNING SEES THE CDA

JAN 17 CDA WORKSHOP HELD BY TXDOT TO ENCOURAGE MORE PRIVATE COMPANIES TO GET IN ON THE SELLING OF TEXAS HIGHWAYS FOR PRIVATE GAIN

“CDA’s will reduce the cost that you all – will have to bear” –statement by Phillip Russell, Director of TxDOT’s Turnpike division as he addressed the Jan 17th audience full of private corporations including Halliburton and the City of Weatherford (Williamson’s hometown).

______________________

—–Original Message—–
From: Victor Boyer [mailto:vboyer@samobilitycoalition.org]
Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2006 11:58 AM
Subject: SAVE THE DATE! 2/23/06 San Antonio/Bexar County Delegation Presentation

SAMCo Members and Interested Individuals:

Please join us in Austin February 22-23, 2006 as we:
Honor and thank members of the Texas Transportation Commission for their important contributions to resolving mobility issues in our state.
Provide our annual update on San Antonio/Bexar County transportation projects and needs to the Texas Transportation Commission
The events begin with a reception in honor of the Commissioners on February 22, 6:00 pm at Serranos Cafe & Cantina. The Delegation presentation is scheduled for 9:00 am on February 23.

Registration deadline is January 20, 2006 and seating is limited! Please fax back the attached registration form to Jessica Casarez at (210) 229-1600.

Please contact me at (210) 229-2125 if you have any questions.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Vic Boyer

Link to article in the Statesman here.

Hey, buddy, wanna buy a toll road?
By Ben Wear
Austin American-Statesman
January 23, 2006

Save your pennies, invest in the right companies, and you, too, might someday own a Texas toll road. Or at least a few feet of one.

Adjusting to the idea that in the future most new Texas expressways will be toll roads has been tough enough. Now it appears that a good number of those roads might be in private hands.

The state, as most people know, is working out a deal with the Spanish company Cintra (and its San Antonio minority partner Zachry Construction Corp.) to build a 300-mile alternative to Interstate 35.

But Harris County is listening to companies interested in paying it billions for a long-term lease of the county’s lucrative, 83-mile toll road system. Cintra-Zachry has also made a bid to build and run 47 miles of new toll roads in San Antonio.

Officials here in Austin, including state Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Williamson County, say they are open to the idea of selling the 66 miles of toll roads under construction on Austin’s north and east sides. And, oh yes, the original plan for expanding Capital of Texas Highway (Loop 360) involved a long-term concession agreement with a private operator.

And that’s just what we know of now.

“Texas is open for business,” said the opening slide in a Texas Department of Transportation workshop put on last week for an overflow crowd of industry contractors, including toll road companies. The Texas Transportation Commission makes no bones about it: It wants companies to come to Texas, wallets open, and build or buy toll roads.

“We’re prepared to make sure you’re rewarded for taking on that risk,” commission Chairman Ric Williamson told the crowd.

That potential reward is the nub.

One of the primary sales points for toll roads has been that once the turnpikes are in place, with forevermore toll charges, the profits would be plowed back into the road system. The turnpikes would become unceasing fountains of transportation cash that would allow Texas to close what Williamson says is an $86 billion funding gap over the next quarter-century, and maybe build some passenger rail systems to boot.

So, if we sell the fountains now, we’d be flooded with transportation cash for projects, but we’d lose the future cash flow. The toll road operators, meanwhile — no fools they — would certainly do everything they could to pay Texas less than what those roads will eventually generate in revenue.

That margin, the profit, is money that would go to their stockholders, not Texas roads.

“That could go both ways,” Krusee said, noting that the roads might underperform and thus swing the transactions to Texas’ favor. And if the state gets big money now, Krusee said, more roads could be built faster, and the state would see an economic development benefit from that acceleration.

Maybe so. But there’s also the ticklish question of how much autonomy private operators would have in setting toll rates. Last I checked, Texans don’t get to vote on who serves on the Cintra board of directors.

Read his outstanding piece in the Express News.

Read our coverage in the Express-News.
Also on WOAI.com.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

More than 200 citizens say: “Don’t Mess With Texas FREEways”

View event imagesSan Antonio, TX, January 21, 2006 – More than 200 concerned citizens opposed to Governor Perry’s tolling of existing freeways and the Trans Texas Corridor braved the cold weather and united under the banner of SATollParty.com for a rally at the Ancira Jeep Dealership on US 281 North today. Supporters converged in San Antonio to voice objections to the conversion of free state highways and interstates into toll roads. Attendees represented residents from at least 13 different counties rural and urban alike.

Speakers included Gubernatorial candidate Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, Gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell, Attorney General candidate David Van Os, State Senate candidate for District 18 and CorridorWatch.org Founder, David Stall, candidate for State Representative for District 52 Barbara Samuelson, candidate for State Representative for District 122, Larry Stallings, Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson, the successful Comal County “Enough is Enough” Tax Rollback Campaign Leader and newspaper publisher Douglas Kirk, State Civil Rights Director for LULAC Henry Rodriguez, and Bexar County Homeowners Taxpayer Association President Bob Martin.

Also in attendance were candidate for State Representative for District 73 Nathan Macias, Bulverde City Councilwomen, Cindy Cross and Robin Urbanovsky, and candidate for Comal County Judge Pete Garcia.

“Texans want a highway system that’s free from corruption, free from conflicts of interest, and free from personal profiteering. Texas property belongs to Texans not foreign companies,” declared a charismatic and energized Gubernatorial candidate Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn.

Strayhorn explained that a concerned citizen told her staff that the Department of Transportation is going to do whatever the hell they want to. And she gives this reply, “I stand here in Bexar County today to tell you that as your next Governor, as long as there’s breath in Carole Keeton Strayhorn’s lungs, you will have a new Governor, a strong voice in Austin, and TxDOT will NOT do whatever the hell they want to.”

“As we’re seeing nationally with the Abramoff scandal, our very Democracy has been hijacked by lobbyists and corporate insiders who yield more influence over our government than the governed,” declared Terri Hall, Regional Director SATollParty.com.

“Ordinary citizens have to get organized and band together to beat back the grip of special interest lobbyists that threaten our representative government. The highway lobby thought they could catch us all asleep at the wheel, but instead they’ve awakened a sleeping giant who is shining the light on their backroom deals that sell out the public interest for private gain of the select few,” said Hall.

“I’m sick and tired of self-dealing, insider cliques stealing self-government from the people for their private enrichment. That’s the only thing this toll wreck plan represents,” says attorney David Van Os, candidate for Texas Attorney General whose campaign is built on being the people’s advocate, not another arm of corporate cronyism.

“There’s clearly a disconnect between the grassroots and the political elites of both parties. When the Governor sends out his Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson saying things like, ‘In your lifetime most existing roads will have tolls,’ it’s no wonder there’s wholesale, widespread opposition to Perry’s statewide toll mandate,” Hall notes. “When something as fundamental as our freedom of mobility is at stake, the taxpayers have a right to vote on their own self-determination. Not only are we being denied a vote, our limited public assets, like freeways, are being sold to private interests to control for profit. This is a dangerous trend that goes beyond tolls; it’s time to take our government back!”

Comal County “Enough is Enough” Tax Rollback Campaign Leader and newspaper publisher Douglas Kirk believes “that the tax rollback campaign and the toll issue are just the beginning of a statewide tax revolt in which the owners of government are busy throwing elected officials out of office and making necessary personnel changes.”

END

Carter Casteel continues to get caught in lies. Let me tell you about what she said when we first confronted her about her vote to toll her district at her Town Hall Meeting in June of 2005. She had the whole Comal County Commissioners Court convinced she was against tolls. Then she voted to toll her own district and thought she could hide from it. First, her line was “no one in my district will have to pay a toll,” then when it became clear her vote FOR HB 2702 which proliferated tolls and made it even easier to toll existing highways, then her song and dance became, “I stand behind my vote and didn’t want to delay the TTC- I-35 project.” It’s interesting that Hunter Industries got contract work for the TTC I-35 project and they gave hefty contributions to her campaign! I’m sure Hunter Industries didn’t want the delay to that project either!

Now, she’s at it again. She promised to run a good, clean campaign against her opponent Nathan Macias, who is against tolling existing highways, and then produces a memo outlining her plan to attack to him.

Read about it in the Texas Insider.

Read the lurid details of more bureaucratic bungling by TxDOT!Read the column by Carlos Guerra about how the leak still isn’t fixed and how the Zachry crew mowed right over the sign that warned of a sewer main!