Category: General

Greater Chamber lacks understanding of basic economics, throws a tantrum over 281 lawsuit

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Link to article here.

Pro-toll former City Councilman turned Greater Chamber President Richard Perez, has turned into the whiner-in-chief on behalf of the Chamber’s big dog, Zachry. This propaganda campaign is a bankrupt attempt to blame those looking out for the taxpayers and advocating for the economic survival of families for the greed of government and road contractors. The overpasses we’ve advocated for 3 years could be built tomorrow for one-quarter the cost, use half the footprint, take half the construction time, and 281 would remain a freeway we can ALL use.

If the big business community understood anything about economics, they’d know paying a toll to get to and from work equals a pay cut for employees. Good luck getting/retaining employees if you’re located in a tolled corridor. I just talked to a guy the other day who works along 281. He told me he’d have to get a new job and move since he can’t afford to pay tolls on top of high gas prices that are already killing him. Let’s start telling their stories…

These rabidly pro-toll whiners who stand to make four times the money off toll roads as freeways can cry wolf all they want. At the end of the day, San Antonio cannot afford toll roads. TxDOT’s own studies (toll roads aren’t viable at $3 a gallon for gas), the bond market (increasing cost of borrowing), and the declining dollar prove it.

Economic Leaders Fear Job Losses from Latest Anti Toll Move
Worry latest lawsuit will show a ‘polarized city unable to solve its infrastructure problems’
By Jim Forsyth
Thursday, February 28, 2008

Lose your job, or can’t find a job? Blame anti toll road groups.

That’s the powerful new message coming from the city’s business and economic development leaders as Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, an anti toll group, and the environmental organization Aquifer Guardians in Urban Areas, filed a federal lawsuit this week seeking to block plans to build toll lanes on U.S. 281 outside Loop 1604, claiming the construction would threaten the Edwards Aquifer and endangered species, 1200 WOAI news reports.

Several economic development groups tell 1200 WOAI news that now that the decision has been made to proceed with toll lanes as a way to fight congestion, any attempts to delay the process threaten the entire region’s economic growth.

“I think what they’re doing through this lawsuit is hurting families,” Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce President Richard Perez said from India. The Greater Chamber has long supported toll road construction.

“At the end of the day, it’s families that need to get out of their homes to work, to shop, to live their lives.”

The argument among economic development officials is that the issue of toll lanes on U. S. 281 has been the subject of a robust debate over the past two years, with lawsuits filed before to attempt to block the toll lanes. Despite widespread opposition, the Metropolitan Planning Agency voted in December to begin construction of toll lanes this year, and now that the debate has happened, lawsuits have been settled and the decision has been made, it’s time to move on.

“All of this is going to cost us an additional millions and millions of dollars that we just don’t have right now,” Perez said.

Several economic development officials cited the weakening national economy, and pointed to the fact that congestion on the city’s north side can be accepted by companies looking to locate in the region if those companies know that the city has planned ahead and relief is on the way. But if companies see a city where transportation solutions are tied up in court, potentially for years, and traffic gridlock on one the most desirable sections of the city getting worse and worse, the image will be of a polarized community which is unable to solve basic infrastructure problems.

One person who helped with the latest lawsuit conceded that the group’s real goal is to tie up the toll lane construction indefinitely, in hopes of forcing the RMA to accept non toll alternatives for U.S. 281, including a long dormant plan to build overpasses at Evans, Marshall, and Stone Oak Roads.

“The last thing we need to be is alienating people who are putting our people to work,” Perez said.

Frank Corte has taken over $8,000 from toll road interests yet denies his support of toll roads

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Listen to 16 year incumbent for State Representative Frank Corte runaway from his record of consistently voting for toll roads here.

Follow the Money
Frank Corte’s campaign finance report looks like a who’s who of toll road interests: Hilco, Red McCombs, Terrell McCombs, Tim Tuggey, Union Pacific (for the Trans Texas Corridor), Tim Word. There’s several smoking guns, too. Frank Corte has taken money from Gary Bushell, the very same registered lobbyist that TxDOT illegally hired to lobby elected officials up and down the path of the Trans Texas Corridor, which is the subject of TURF’s lawsuit against the state for TxDOT’s illegal taxpayer funded lobbying. Corte also took money from Dan Shelley, the very same “consultant” who worked for Cintra, then went to work for Governor Perry during the exact time frame Cintra-Zachry was awarded the development rights to the Trans Texas Corridor TTC-35, and then Shelley went back to work for Cintra after cinching the deal.

To round out the who’s who list of toll road interests giving money to Corte’s campaign is Zachry’s political action committee. Zachry is a bidder on the 281 toll project, was awarded the development rights to the Trans Texas Corridor TTC-35, and is bidding for the development rights on the Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69. So when Corte claims to be against toll roads (and he tried to wiggle out of his stated position FOR the Trans Texas Corridor in the Free Market Foundation voter guide) after voting for them every chance he got, taking money from a laundry list of toll road interests with deep financial interests in toll projects across the state removes all doubt about where Corte stands on toll roads. He’s for them. In fact, Corte’s lying to constituents in a shameless, misleading attempt to sugarcoat his voting record to get re-elected.

Voting records don’t lie even though Corte does
Frank Corte has voted for every piece of toll legislation since 2001, including tolling existing freeways, market-based tolls (or “whatever the market will bear” in a Robin Hood scheme tolling one corridor to pay for others), the Trans Texas Corridor, putting our highways under the control of foreign companies, paying losing bidders up to $1 million, ending requirement of lowest bid contracts, and even voted to allow no bid contracts (HB 3588, SB 2702, SB 792, HB 2661, HB 3775).

Fort Bend County calls for new American Revolution over Trans Texas Corridor

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Link to article here.
Feb. 27, 2008
Speakers blast Trans-Texas Corridor at hearing
Poem, call for ‘revolution’ mark emotional event
By ZEN T. C. ZHENG
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

A poem depicting a dialogue between a spider and a fly, a rewritten 19th century letter by a hero of the Texas Revolution, and many emotion-choked speeches marked the second consecutive night of public display of opposition to the Trans-Texas Corridor plan in Fort Bend County.
The public hearing held Tuesday night by the Texas Department of Transportation at Katy High School Performing Arts Center drew about 220 residents from Katy, Fort Bend, Waller and Harris counties and surrounding cities. Like the protesters at a hearing in Rosenberg the night before, dozens of the speakers decried the state project as “un-American” and urged state officials to abandon the plan.

Opponents included many landowners who said their property would be lost to the proposed 1,200-foot wide corridor network. Others said the project would devastate the environment, spur illegal immigration and aid foreign economies by creating a North America Free Trade Agreement highway to connect Mexico to Canada through the U.S. heartland.

Dianne Hodge of Waller showed a project map and said the plan would destroy the 1880s-era house that she and her husband spent years restoring, homes of her siblings and their families and neighbors, a church and a natural habitat for barn swallows.

“You are destroying a way of life that families have spent generations building. You are destroying food-producing ranches and farms for Americans and taxing them through tolls in return and not allowing them to even vote on whether or not they want your corridor,” she said.

“These are the things that started the American Revolution — the seizing of houses and land, and taxation without representation. If we need a new American Revolution to restore a government of the people, by the people and for the people, then let it begin in Texas.”

Similar sentiment was echoed by Edward Dickey, whose parents live in Katy and plan to retire to Weimar where they own property.

“The town of Weimar would be wiped out by the corridor,” said Dickey, who lives in Houston. “And if the corridor is built, I would have to pay a toll to visit my family. This corridor divides families and splits Texas.”

He modified a letter that Col. William Barret Travis, the Texas commander in the Battle of the Alamo, wrote to Sam Houston, the first president of the Republic of Texas, to depict the state transportation agency as the enemy of the people and his resolve “to die like a soldier” to fight the project.

Attendees loudly applauded Waller County resident Alice McGuffie, who in her poem portrayed the state agency as a spider weaving a “Trans-Texas Cobweb” to lure people into the web like a fly.

“Come hither, hither, pretty fly, with pearl and silver wing; Cobwebs bring development, new jobs, growth and much, much more. There’s money to be made here; just think — riches galore!” the poem reads.

The gathering was one of 46 public hearings held by TxDOT on a draft study on the environmental impact of the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor, particularly its Interstate 69 portion, along the project’s path from the Texas-Mexico border to Texarkana.

The Trans-Texas Corridor network is conceived as a cross-state road system of new and existing highways, railroads and utility rights-of-way. It would have separate lanes for passenger and truck traffic, freight and high-speed commuter rails, as well as infrastructure for utilities including water, oil and gas pipelines, electricity and telecommunications services. One revenue option to support the network would be toll fees.

Several elected officials — including Waller County Commissioner Glenn Beckendorff; state Rep. John Zerwas, R-Katy; Rep. Dwayne Bohac, R-Houston; and Rep. Bill Calligari, R-Katy — also joined the residents to denounce the plan. Beckendorff presented a Waller County commissioners court resolution in opposition to the plan, saying it doesn’t take into account the county’s mobility plan.

Some speakers called on the U.S. Congress to initiate an investigation of Gov. Rick Perry and the state transportation agency in crafting the plan that they said serves foreign interests at the expense of Texans.

Karen Othon, a TxDOT spokeswoman, said the public comments will be submitted to the Federal Highway Administration with the draft environmental impact study for review this spring.

The administration is expected to issue a response in winter. If the federal agency approves the initial study, the study will be refined to map out a more detailed, narrowed-down project route.

Othan said that there is a possibility that strong public opposition to the project could result in the state halting the plan.

TxDOT is accepting public comments through March 19. Written comments can be submitted by mail to I-69/TTC, P.O.Box 14428, Austin, TX 78761 or via the Web at http://ttc.keeptexasmoving.com/comments_questions/comments_i69.aspx.

Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69 poses threat to Victoria's history

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Link to article here.

Superhighway poses threat to area history
Destruction of graves, prehistoric camps for corridor concern historians
BY DAVID TEWES – VICTORIA ADVOCATE
February 26, 2008

It’s the kind of thing that has inspired science fiction horror movies.

Unmarked graves with the remains of Victoria County’s pioneers and prehistoric camps and burials dating back 9,500 years dot the countryside.

To see a graphic/document:

  • Where the cemeteries are [PDF]

    • Throw in plans to build a Trans-Texas Corridor super highway through some of that same territory and you have the ingredients for a “Poltergeist”-type movie setting.

    But in this case it’s not the terrified homeowners whose houses were built on top of the graves that are concerned. It’s the county’s historians and archaeologists who fear losing part of Victoria County’s history.

    “It’s going to take years to excavate these sites,” said Bill Birmingham, an archaeology steward for the Texas Historical Commission. “The best thing would be to preserve them for future research.”

    The threat has sent the historians and archaeologists scurrying to locate and map as many of these sites as possible. That information will then be presented at the Texas Department of Transportation.

    Linda Wolff with the Victoria County Historical Commission is mapping the cemeteries and Birmingham is mapping the archaeological sites that could be in the path of the Trans-Texas Corridor highway.

    “All of the cemeteries I know of will be included in my written comments to the highway department and Trans-Texas Corridor officials,” Wolff said. “My concern is I can only protect the cemeteries I know about.”

    Under Texas law a single burial in the middle of a pasture is considered a cemetery, Wolff said. It doesn’t matter if it’s noted on a deed or if there’s a marker.

    But because they may not be marked, Wolff may not be aware of them. She’s asking anyone with information on cemeteries in the county to contact her at 361-575-3689 or by e-mail at wolfhaus@txcr.net.

    “In the Mission Valley area in particular, I think there may be unmarked cemeteries along Diebel Road,” Wolff said. “But I’d like to hear from anyone that has one in the Mission Valley area.”

    Birmingham said anyone with information on archaeological sites possibly in the path of the highway may contact him at 361-575-2170.

    A prehistoric site on the McNeill Ranch near Nursery and the Mission Espiritu Santo Ranch between Victoria and Mission Valley are two major sites that could be in the highway’s path, Birmingham said.

    “They just can’t do anything in that area without hitting sites,” he said. “I’m fairly concerned.”

    John and Judy Clegg own Mission Espiritu Santo Ranch, which was named for the Spanish mission built there in 1726. It was once the largest cattle ranch in Texas when the Spanish ran it.

    Clegg said he’s seen the plans for the highway.

    “It takes pretty much the whole ranch,” he said. “But once they find out it’s a historic land, then they’re going to be looking to do something different.”

    Besides the remnants of the mission, there are close to a dozen historic and prehistoric sites on the property, Clegg said. He’s concerned that the highway will be moved just enough to avoid those sites.

    “I don’t want that,” Clegg said. “It’s a special site out there and people have been living out there for 8,000 years.”

    Birmingham said erosion and looters have already taken their toll on the county’s sites. A new highway could be devastating, he said.

    “It’s part of our history,” he said. “It’s part of our heritage.”

    David Tewes is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact him at 361-580-6515 or dtewes@vicad.com, or comment on this story at .

  • To report cemeteries that might be in the path of Trans-Texas Corridor/Interstate 69, contact Linda Wolff at 361-575-3689 or by e-mail at wolfhaus@txcr.net.
  • Archaeological sites may be reported to Bill Birmingham at 361-575-2170.
    • To see a graphic/document:

  • Where the cemeteries are [PDF]

    • Express-News: 281 lawsuit makes front page

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    Link to article here.

    Lawsuit challenges impact of toll road
    By Patrick Driscoll
    Express-News
    02/27/2008

    A long-running standoff over plans to morph part of U.S. 281 into a tollway — a spat that could lead to costly delays for motorists — headed to a federal court Tuesday.Toll road critics and environmental activists joined forces, once again, to file a lawsuit on the last day of a deadline to legally challenge the tollway’s latest environmental study.

    The desperate effort could also be the last chance to scope down and strip out tolls from the planned 10- to 20-lane expressway, which would stretch 71/2 miles north of Loop 1604, and revert back to a freeway with half as many miles.

    The 48-page lawsuit challenges the environmental study’s conclusion — that widening U.S. 281 and tolling the express lanes would not significantly harm people, wildlife or drinking water. Activists called the claim ridiculous.

    The project would lay down asphalt and concrete on another 70 acres across Edwards Aquifer recharge and contributory zones north of Loop 1604, according to the study, which federal officials cleared last summer.

    Your Turn
    • A lawsuit says that an environmental study of a proposal to morph U.S. 281 into a 10- to 20-lane tollway for 8 miles is absurd. Tell us what you think.More coverage
    KENS video: Anti-toll groups speak out

    Even more acreage would get covered if toll lanes get added, as planned, to Loop 1604.

    “This lawsuit is really about common sense,” said Enrique Valdivia, president of Aquifer Guardians in Urban Areas. “We think paving over 300 acres of recharge is pretty significant to everyone who depends on the aquifer.”

    Drivers would pay 17 cents a mile to use the express lanes in 2012, with rates rising annually with consumer inflation. Access roads would be left as the nontoll option.

    “Charging a toll will only hurt local businesses and residents who have invested in the 281 corridor,” said Terri Hall, founder of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom. “Powerful special interests will profit from these tolls.”

    The two groups, represented by Save Our Springs Alliance, filed the lawsuit in San Antonio to demand a more detailed impact study, which could take several more years to do.

    They filed a similar lawsuit just more than two years ago, which stopped U.S. 281 tollway construction, but state officials simply redid the less-intensive assessment. The regurgitated study took more than a year to finish and cost $2 million.

    Since then, construction costs soared by a third and traffic got worse, and toll advocates fear such trends only will continue. If inflation rises 5 percent to 8 percent a year, as the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority projects, delays will burn an extra $53,000 to $85,000 a day.

    “We are hopeful for a quick resolution to this lawsuit, which is serving as nothing more than a delay tactic for groups who have been opposed to any real relief on the 281 corridor,” mobility authority Chairman Bill Thornton said.

    Authority officials, who say the environmental study was thorough enough, are almost ready to select a private development team and then sell bonds for the $476 million tollway. Bulldozers are set to roll by summer, with toll lanes opening within four years.

    If work on the first three miles of the tollway hadn’t been blocked two years ago, the job would be 90 percent complete, said Clay Smith of the Texas Department of Transportation, which recently gave the project to the mobility authority.

    Motorists today would be driving on access roads that had better turnarounds, more turn lanes and a bridge over Redland Road that’s not there now, he said. Express toll lanes would be a year away from opening.

    “It’s a shame that folks continue to want to keep the public in gridlock out there,” said Smith, who’s a planning engineer. “We’ve got a plan to solve the congestion.”

    Hall and other critics say TxDOT caused the problem by converting a freeway- and overpass-plan for U.S. 281 into a tollway plan, and the agency along with the mobility authority have since refused to budge despite loud opposition.

    Some of the $325 million in public subsidies set aside for toll roads in San Antonio should instead be spent on nontoll lanes, Hall said.

    Toll promoters, including many in the road industry, say going back to a plan that does less is not good enough in the face of crushing growth.

    Ron Paul on the TTC and taxes/tolls

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    Taxes or Tolls on the Trans Texas Corridor
    by Ron Paul | February 24, 2008
    Texas Straight Talk

    One major concern I discussed a few weeks ago regarding the Trans Texas Corridor is where the land will come from. Another concern is where the money will come from. Official government websites for the TTC assure that public-private partnerships will shield the taxpayer from bearing too much of the cost burden, but a careful reading shows the door is definitely open to public funding sources, while at the same time there is no doubt of the intention to charge tolls on the road.

    Taxpayers already pay for their transportation system through hefty gasoline taxes, vehicle registration fees, and other fees. They have every right to expect the roads they have already paid for to be properly maintained and toll-free.

    However, private foreign corporations have flocked to this country eager to participate in toll collection on our poorly managed toll roads, and they make a lot of money doing so. Taking over the management and maintenance of an existing toll road is one thing. Converting taxpayer built roads into cash cows for big corporations is quite another. Using eminent domain to take privately owned land, and taxpayer funding to build a highway that is designed to bring in private revenue is nothing short of highway robbery.

    Cintra/Zachry, a private Spanish firm, is poised to make billions from TTC tolls. Yet my fear is that as planning progresses, more and more public burden will creep into the process, and more profit will be pledged to the private corporation. The costs will be socialized and the profits will be privatized.

    And to add insult to injury – private lands will be taken for this road which will be, for all intents and purposes, a private business. The government should not use the power of eminent domain to seize and redistribute land for the benefit of a private company. This is wrong and unconstitutional. Cintra Zachry should negotiate with each individual land owner and go through the normal private land acquisition process to start its new business. If mutual agreements can be reached, fine. If not, government force is not appropriate. Our government should protect property rights, not facilitate theft.

    Toll roads should not be paid for with taxpayer dollars, or even bond funding that pledge future tax dollars. Taxpayers should not have to pay additional fees for something they have already paid for. Eminent domain should absolutely not be used for private businesses. This public-private partnership has all the makings of the worst of both worlds. I am doing my part at the Federal level in Congress to limit the damage to the taxpayer. I introduced a bill in that prohibits the use of federal funding for any part of the TTC and I will continue to push for this bill, and other bills protecting property rights, taxpayers rights and our national sovereignty. The government should not fund and enforce private efforts like this and thumb their nose at land owners and taxpayers.

    Citizens file lawsuit to halt 281 toll project

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    IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    TURF, AGUA file lawsuit to halt 281 toll project

    Citizens call for gas tax funded improvements be installed immediately

    San Antonio, TX, February 26, 2008 – Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF), a grassroots group defending citizens from tolls on existing roads, and Aquifer Guardians in Urban Areas (AGUA), advocates for protection of the Edwards Aquifer, have joined together to file a lawsuit in federal court today asking that plans to convert US 281 to a toll road be stopped pending full compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act.

    The lawsuit alleges TxDOT failed to do a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for this massive project over the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone, the sole source of water for over 1.2 million people as well as failed to study the cumulative effects of the combined 281 and Loop 1604 projects on the region’s economy, property values, tax revenues, businesses, residents, neighborhoods, and motorists.

    “The controversy is indisputable. The overwhelming majority of citizens do NOT want their freeways converted into toll roads. This practice is now against the law without a public vote (HB 2702), but that hasn’t stopped our politicians from continuing this highway robbery,” Terri Hall, founder of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF), fumed.

    SMOKING GUN
    PROOF THEY’RE TOLLING EXISTING ROADS

    TURF posted a video on YouTube of State Representative David Leibowitz asking Alamo RMA Executive Director Terry Brechtel if, in fact, they are tolling existing roads/right of way already paid for by the taxpayers, and she answers, “That is correct.”

    Together the highway expansions and toll projects of US 281 and Loop 1604 will cost well over $1 billion (US 281 is now up to $475 million, and Loop 1604 is approximately $1 billion). Yet TxDOT’s environmental assessment claims there is “no significant impact” to residents, motorists, and businesses who will now be charged a toll to use what today is toll-free.

    Hall pointed out that the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) forced TxDOT to do a full EIS on the Bandera Road toll project citing the toll controversy as the reason. She noted the obvious contradiction of FHWA’s own policy of recommending a full EIS on controversial projects by its approval of 281 without an EIS compared to its mandate forcing an EIS on Bandera Road.

    Hall thinks the only difference is that the politicians near Bandera Road are reflecting the citizen opposition against the toll road (Helotes, Grey Forest, and Leon Valley have all passed resolutions against the Bandera Rd toll project) while the politicians in the 281/1604 area, Frank Corte and Jeff Wentworth, are not.

    “The politicians representing this area are pro-toll even though over 90% of the public feedback is opposed to the toll projects. It’s that stubborn refusal to step in and stop this double taxation that lands us in court today,” Hall concluded.

    “Charging a toll will only hurt local businesses and residents who have invested in the 281 corridor. This is clearly taxation without representation. School boards and municipalities have to come to the voters to approve massive bond measures, and yet the Alamo RMA is about to sell $1 billion in toll revenue bonds without voter approval. What a horrific injustice to taxpayers!” said Hall.

    Hall continued, “Special interests will profit from these tolls, since road contractors stand to make four times the money ($475 million) for converting 281 into a toll road instead of making the promised freeway improvements that have been funded with our gas tax money since 2003 (total freeway plan cost: $100 million). TxDOT and our politicians who enable them have continued to jam this down the taxpayers’ throats over the public’s opposition. It’s time to install the gas tax funded overpass & expansion plan now.”

    In public hearings in 2001, TxDOT promised improvements to 281 would be begin in 2003, but then did a bait and switch and decided to convert the entire 281 freeway into a toll road. Prominent businessmen auto dealer Ernesto Ancira and Tetco President Tom Turner both sent letters asking the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) to revert back to the gas tax improvement plan in January of 2007 to no avail. The citizens have done the same.

    Concerned citizens through TURF feel TxDOT and elected officials have forced them to go to court just to get them to comply with the law and to halt the toll project. Once the toll project is on hold, the citizens are demanding the gas tax FUNDED plan for overpasses be installed immediately.

    “Most people believe TxDOT and the RMA’s lies that the ONLY way to get congestion relief is toll roads, which is patently false. They’ve had the cash in hand to fix 281 for 5 years, but they’ve hijacked our freeway simply to raid our wallets,” says Hall.

    “This lawsuit is really about common-sense. It is ridiculous to say there is no significant impact from adding $1 billion worth of infrastructure over the recharge and contributing zones.” said Enrique Valdivia, President of AGUA. “TxDOT and US Fish & Wildlife issued a ‘Finding of No Significant Impact’ (FONSI) for highway 281, and a ‘not likely to adversely affect’ finding for endangered karst invertebrate species and the golden-cheeked warbler. Obviously,we think paving over 300 acres of recharge is pretty significant to everyone who depends on the aquifer.”

    The Edwards Aquifer is a karst aquifer that is highly vulnerable to water pollution because surface water quickly enters the aquifer through recharge features without significant filtration. Many toxic pollutants, such as benzene, are being found in aquifer wells and are common components of highway and parking lot run-off.

    The plaintiffs are represented by Save Our Springs Alliance. SOS Alliance’s litigation docket and information on the adverse affects of highways can be found at www.sosalliance.org.

    TURF also has a lawsuit pending against TXDOT for its misuse of taxpayer funds to “sell” the public toll roads and the Trans Texas Corridor and for lobbying using taxpayer money. Read more here.

    Read TURF’s lawsuit filed in court today.

    AGUA’s website is www.aquiferguardians.org

    TURF’s website is www.TexasTURF.org

    -30-

    ____________________________________________________________________

    TURF ANNOUNCEMENT
    281 Lawsuit
    February 26, 2008

    Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF), a grassroots group defending citizens from tolls on existing roads, and Aquifer Guardians in Urban Areas (AGUA), advocates for protection of the Edwards Aquifer, have joined together to file a lawsuit in federal court today asking that plans to convert US 281 to a toll road be stopped pending full compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act.

    The lawsuit alleges TxDOT failed to do a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for this massive project over the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone, the sole source of water for over 1.2 million people as well as failed to study the cumulative effects of the combined 281/1604 projects on the region’s economy, property values, tax revenues, businesses, residents, neighborhoods, and motorists.

    The controversy is indisputable. The overwhelming majority of citizens do want their freeways converted into toll roads. This practice is now against the law without a public vote (HB 2702), but that hasn’t stopped our politicians from continuing this highway robbery.

    PROOF THEY’RE TOLLING EXISTING ROADS
    TURF has posted a video on YouTube with proof that TxDOT and the Alamo RMA are, in fact, converting this existing freeway into a toll road. We posted an exchange between State Representative and MPO Board member David Leibowitz asking Alamo RMA Executive Director Terry Brechtel if they are tolling existing roads already paid for by the taxpayers, and she answers, “That is correct.”

    Together the highway expansions and toll projects of US 281 and Loop 1604 will cost well over $1 billion (US 281 is now up to $475 million, and Loop 1604 is approximately $1 billion). Yet TxDOT’s environmental assessment claims there is “no significant impact” to residents, motorists, and businesses who will now be charged a toll to use what today is toll-free.

    Allow me to point out that he Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) forced TxDOT to do a full EIS on the Bandera Road toll project citing the toll controversy as the reason. That’s an obvious contradiction of FHWA’s own policy of recommending a full EIS on controversial projects when it approved 281 without an EIS but forced an EIS on Bandera Road.

    Why the inconsistency? The politicians near Bandera Road are reflecting the citizen opposition against the toll road (Helotes, Grey Forest, and Leon Valley have all passed resolutions against the Bandera Rd toll project) while the politicians in the 281/1604 area, Frank Corte and Jeff Wentworth, are not.

    The politicians representing this area are pro-toll even though over 90% of the public feedback is opposed to the toll projects. It’s that stubborn refusal to step in and stop this double taxation that lands us in court today.

    Charging a toll will only hurt local businesses and residents who have invested in the 281 corridor. This is clearly taxation without representation. School boards and municipalities have to come to the voters to approve massive bond measures, and yet the Alamo RMA is about to sell $1 billion in toll revenue bonds without voter approval. What a horrific injustice to taxpayers!

    Special interests will profit from these tolls, since road contractors stand to make four times the money ($475 million) for converting 281 into a toll road instead of making the promised freeway improvements that have been funded with our gas tax money since 2003 (total freeway plan cost: $100 million). TxDOT and our politicians who enable them have continued to jam this down the taxpayers’ throats over the public’s opposition. It’s past time to install the gas tax funded overpass & expansion plan now.

    In public hearings in 2001, TxDOT promised improvements to 281 would be begin in 2003, but then did a bait and switch and decided to convert the entire 281 freeway into a toll road. Prominent businessmen auto dealer Ernesto Ancira and Tetco President Tom Turner both sent letters asking the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) to revert back to the gas tax improvement plan in January of 2007 to no avail. The citizens have done the same.

    Concerned citizens through TURF feel TxDOT and elected officials have forced them to go to court just to get them to comply with the law and to halt the toll project. Once the toll project is on hold, the citizens are demanding the gas tax FUNDED plan for overpasses be installed immediately.

    Most people believe TxDOT and the RMA’s lies that the ONLY way to get congestion relief is toll roads, which is patently false. They’ve had the cash in hand to fix 281 for 5 years, but they’ve hijacked our freeway simply to raid our wallets. Our message: stop holding commuters hostage, stop manipulating our lives by tinkering with the stop light times, and stop stealing time from our families. Install the overpass plan NOW and keep our FREEway FREE!

    Can't pay your toll bill? Toll authority hires collections company

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    Link to article here.

    Friday, February 22, 2008
    Gila Corp. will call those who skip tolls
    Austin Business Journal

    The organization that runs the relatively new toll roads in Central Texas has hired its first bill collector.

    Austin-based Gila Corp., through its business unit Municipal Services Bureau, was recently awarded a contract with the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority www.ctrma.org. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

    Gila CEO Patrick Swanick says the collections firm, which works with a variety of governmental agencies, made it a goal last year to work with more toll authorities. Gila www.gilacorp.com was selected to provide video billing, violations processing and collection services to the mobility authority. The company was founded in 1991 and employs about 280 people.

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    Judge grants restraining order against Macias opponent, Doug Miller

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    State Representative for District 73, Nathan Macias, a true hero to the anti-toll cause and to taxpayers as a whole, has been embroiled in a vicious attack by a political action committee called Texans for Economic Development (TED). TED has illegally accepted money from corporations. Doug Miller, Macias’ opponent, admitted on his campaign records that he both accepted and spent this illegal money , which is a third degree felony.

    On February 22, a Travis County District Judge placed a restraining order on both TED and Doug Miller’s campaign account until they appear in court on March 6 (two days after the primary election). Macias anticipates Miller and TED will attempt to get the restraining order lifted in court tomorrow. However, they have to prove they haven’t accepted or spent these illegal funds in order to do that. Since Miller has already signed off on his campaign finance report showing this illegal activity, it’ll be tough for him to get the order lifted. This is certainly BIG NEWS and will likely crush the Miller campaign. Stay tuned.

    For more information, go to www.NathanMacias.com. Click on “Just the Facts.”