Rep. Ken Paxton calls for investigation of TxDOT's ad campaign

Posted on October 2, 2007 by Terri Hall

September 26, 2007
For Immediate Release

Representative Ken Paxton Issues a Statement Regarding the Use of Public Money for Advertising Government Programs

“The Texas Department of Transportation has recently been called into question for spending taxpayer money promoting the TransTexas Corridor and other projects. While I appreciate the Department’s efforts to share with the public information regarding its initiatives, I believe the Legislature has a responsibility to ensure that state resources are spent efficiently. For this reason, I have requested an interim charge to research the use of public money for advertising government programs, as I believe the government should not spend the money raised from taxpayers to lobby the public.” -State Representative Ken Paxton, District 70.

Rep. Ken Paxton calls for investigation of TxDOT’s ad campaign

Posted on October 2, 2007 by Terri Hall

September 26, 2007
For Immediate Release

Representative Ken Paxton Issues a Statement Regarding the Use of Public Money for Advertising Government Programs

Another example of TxDOT-induced congestion…this one designed to push folks to use toll road

Posted on October 2, 2007 by Terri Hall

Link to article here.

Commuters are fried over new stoplights on Texas 71
Signals installed after tollway opened causing new backups east of the airport
By Ben Wear
AMERICAN STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, September 17, 2007
Sometimes, as the old saw has it, you have to break some eggs to make an omelet.

Of course, this sort of transaction works out best for the one holding the knife and fork. From the egg’s point of view, it’s pretty much a lose-lose.

The “eggs” in this case are people commuting into Austin on Texas 71 from eastern Travis County and Bastrop County. The omelet is Texas 130, the new tollway that has been opening piece by piece over the past few months as construction moves southward. The Texas Department of Transportation completed the section from U.S. 290 to Texas 71 on Sept. 6.

That’s also when new traffic lights on Texas 71 at Texas 130 were turned on. Before then, there was no light on Texas 71 between Ross Road east of Onion Creek and FM 973 near the airport, a stretch of about a mile and a half.

The new luminous obstruction, according to some of the e-mails and calls I’ve been getting, initially added at least 15 minutes to some people’s morning commute. One Bastrop resident says her commute ballooned from 30 minutes to 80 minutes or more. One person wrote, perhaps engaging in hyperbole, that the backup extended as far as 10 miles.

The stoplights weren’t causing a backup in the evening rush.

Late last week, after some scrambling by the Transportation Department to reroute some quarry trucks and to restripe part of Texas 71, the backup caused by the new lights had moderated. People were losing just a few minutes.

Two questions arise: What’s causing the problem? And why the heck do there need to be stoplights there anyway? Wait, there’s a third question: What the blankety-blank is the Transportation Department going to do about it in the long run?

The Transportation Department’s Austin district blames “starvation,” a traffic phenomenon the agency says is happening in this case because of the light farther west at FM 973. The City of Austin controls the timing on that light. Sometimes people get a green going west at Texas 130 and simply have to sit there, because traffic is stacked all the way from FM 973 to Texas 130.

I was out there Thursday morning, and — sure enough, a little after 8 a.m. — that is exactly what happened. At that point, westbound traffic on Texas 71 backed up within minutes to Ross Road, and it took people several minutes to reach Texas 130. Then they had to crawl to FM 973.

But Bastrop commuters tell me that before the Texas 130 light came on, the FM 973 backup at its worst extended nowhere near Ross Road. The new situation has some of them bailing out early and taking back routes to avoid the situation on 71.

The lights at Texas 130 are variable in their timing and switch based on the presence of traffic. Given that traffic is substantially heavier on Texas 71 than on the tollway — Texas 71 had 30,000 cars a day in this stretch two years ago, while the tollway in this interval has yawning gaps between cars — you might think that Texas 71 drivers would be getting the bulk of the green time. Not so.

Thursday morning, the typical interval was about a minute of green for 71, then 40 seconds to 50 seconds of green for Texas 130.

The tollway was getting roughly equal time.

As for why there has to be a light, well, picture yourself on the tollway at 7:30 a.m.

You’ve just paid about $4 to drive down from Georgetown — right now the road is free south of U.S. 290, but that won’t be the case by January — and you want to turn left at Texas 71 and go to Houston. You get to Texas 71, and (in this alternate universe) there’s only a stop sign there. To your left is a solid line of commuters headed into Austin. You’re stuck, probably for a very long time. Maybe next trip, you take another route and don’t pay that $4.

You get the picture.

What is the Transportation Department going to do? Well, in the short run, workers on Wednesday night restriped Texas 71 between FM 973 and the tollway to have three lanes in each direction. That extra capacity seemed to mitigate the “starvation” to some degree. And the agency is working on the signal timing of its lights and the city’s light at FM 973.

But in the long run, everyone involved knows, there need to be express lanes for Texas 71 as it passes under the tollway. Right now, there are only the frontage roads with a big space in between. So, is the state about to build those express lanes?

No. There was no money allocated in the $3.6 billion Central Texas Turnpike Project’s budget to do that or to build a similar seamless connection where Texas 130 crosses U.S. 290 about 11 miles to the north. Commuters up there from Manor and Elgin have to stop at lights as well.

What is likely to happen, based on what local transportation officials have been saying, is that Texas 71 and U.S. 290 will be turned into freeways all the way from U.S. 183 back in Austin to just beyond Texas 130. Wait, did I say freeways? Actually, the current thinking is that they will become tollways for those stretches, with free frontage roads alongside.

That would be those same frontage roads people are driving on now. The ones with the traffic lights.

So, until last week, you could pass by Texas 130 without stopping. Now there’s a light. In a few years, there will probably be a way to breeze through on Texas 71 without having to stop at those lights. If you pay.

Local transportation officials have said repeatedly since the whole toll road rhubarb sprouted here in 2003 that people would always have the same free access they had before any toll road came along. To fulfill that promise, they’ve already had to make expensive midcourse corrections on the Loop 1 and Texas 45 North tollways.

One of those cases was similar to this Texas 71 situation, the spot where the Texas 45 North tollway crosses under Parmer Lane.

The state scrambled, redid plans and spent more than $20 million building a special free lane on each side under Parmer so that drivers, who didn’t have to stop at Parmer when all that was there was plain old RM 620, could bypass the Parmer traffic light. Of course, they had two lanes each way before and one lane now, but one lane is better than nothing.

These tollway extensions on Texas 71 and U.S. 290 won’t happen for at least a couple of years, probably more in the case of Texas 71.

The folks on Texas 71 may have to stew a good while longer. Or maybe that should be “fry.” As in, fried eggs.

TxDOT claims its out of money for new lanes/roads – how 'bout they stop using their $ for ads!

Posted on September 28, 2007 by Terri Hall

Link to article in DMN here and Express-News here. Earth to TxDOT…how about you stop spending what money you do have on advertising and lobbying? Of course, Dallas government officials see the new toll tax windfall soon to be collected by the NTTA on the 675 miles of new toll lanes planned in DFW as “easing the financial burden” TxDOT faces. Well, what about relief for the taxpayers’ burden of having to pay new exorbitant toll taxes just to drive to work?

One of the best quotes from these articles:

Transportation Commissioner Ted Houghton said the agency needs to slim down, maybe enact a hiring freeze and use fewer outside consultants.
“As we ask the citizens of this state to buck up and be prepared, I think we internally need to look at our own house,” he said.

TxDOT running out of cash for new roads
But NTTA payments expected to ease North Texas’ financial burden
Thursday, September 27, 2007
By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER / The Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN – Texas will soon run out of money to pay for new roads or bridges, state transportation officials said Thursday.

Within three years, nearly all of the state’s construction budget will be spent on maintenance and to pay debt incurred in building existing roads, top officials of the Texas Department of Transportation said.

“The people of Texas need to understand that within a very short period of time, there will be no money for mobility projects,” said Texas Transportation Commission member Ned Holmes of Houston.

The impact will be less severe in North Texas, where local officials are counting on more than $3 billion in upfront payments from the North Texas Tollway Authority as part of its deal to build the State Highway 121 toll road.

But even some of that money now will probably have to cover projects that had been envisioned as state-financed projects. Throughout Texas, funds for new roads will begin drying up almost immediately, officials said.

Meanwhile, spending on maintenance – especially in Dallas, where the roads are in the state’s worst shape – will be increased. State projects already under contract will not be affected.

The inability to build new roads, or to widen existing ones, comes even as experts are warning that Texas’ soaring population and booming economy have made traffic in its leading cities among the worst in the U.S. A national study released last week warned that traffic jams in Dallas grew faster over the past 25 years than in any other city in the country.

“People and businesses are moving here because we’re a low-tax, low-regulation and low-welfare state – and that is not going to change,” commission chairman Ric Williamson said. “They are going to need roads and highways to be able to get around.”

Trouble is, Texas just can’t afford to build them anymore, he said.

During the next 60 days, local officials will be asked to scale back requests for state funds, said Amadeo Saenz, who was named TxDOT’s new executive director late Thursday.

“This will cause delays, and some projects will be canceled,” Mr. Saenz said.

Scarce funds, high costs

Mr. Williamson says many factors are to blame for his department’s inability to keep up with the demand for new roads.

Federal funds are increasingly scarce, and highway construction costs have soared 62 percent in the past five years, he said. Meanwhile, the state’s aging roads are increasingly in need of repair.

“We don’t want to see a Minnesota bridge collapse in Texas. In order to avoid that, we are going to have to take care of the assets we have,” Mr. Williamson said.

But commissioners saved their harshest criticism for decisions by the Texas Legislature.

They said lawmakers spend the state gas-tax revenues on too many other needs, including more than $1 billion for the state police alone.

But commissioners said the Legislature’s moratorium last session on private-investments in toll projects has hurt the most.

The decision cost the state billions of dollars in annual construction funds, said Mr. Williamson, who like the other commissioners was appointed by Gov. Rick Perry.

Mr. Williamson said Mr. Perry asked the commission to find a way to pay for the state’s growing transportation needs. Convincing private companies to pay money up front to operate toll concessions was that solution, he said.

Terms too steep

Lawmakers need no lecture on the severity of the state’s transportation needs, suggested Steven Polunsky, a top aide to Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, chairman of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee.

“We agree absolutely that there is a financial crisis,” Mr. Polunksy said. “And Senator Carona will support next session a multi-pronged approach to solve it.”

He wants to raise the gas tax and stop the diversion of revenues to pay for other needs, Mr. Polunsky said.

But the private investment deals favored by the commission were too lopsided, he said, noting that some proposed leases would have kept the toll roads in private control for 75 years or longer.

“The price that came with those private financing deals was too steep,” Mr. Polunsky said. “Lawmakers found the terms unacceptable, both politically and from a business standpoint.”

Mr. Williamson said efforts to raise the gas tax are misplaced. The tax is inefficient because lawmakers divert too much of it to other needs, and he said it is too regressive, since poor people pay the same rate as rich ones.

He did say he would probably support efforts to index the rate to inflation, if only because inflation is making it increasingly difficult for the department to simply maintain the roads it already has.

The legislative moratorium nearly killed Dallas’ transportation agenda, said Michael Morris, transportation director for the North Central Texas Council of Governments.

“We took a lot of criticism back in the spring for working to make sure our projects were not going to be affected by the legislature’s moratorium,” Mr. Morris said. “But if we hadn’t succeeded in that, we would be dead in the water, just like the rest of Texas is going to be.”

NTTA is not a private company, but it modeled its offer to pay $3.3 billion in return for operating the toll concessions on SH121 on the private companies’ proposals. Without the latter, NTTA’s deal would never have been so aggressive, Mr. Morris said.

When state funds begin drying up over the next couple of years, it will be the NTTA’s money, he said, that keeps construction projects moving forward in the Dallas area.

Even that money, however, will run out over several years – and by then, if the state or federal governments haven’t found new ways to pay for projects, North Texas will suffer like the rest of the state, Mr. Morris said.

Relief in sight

Some short-term relief could come as soon as next month, when Texas voters have a chance to approve a constitutional amendment that would authorize TxDOT to borrow up to $5 billion in one-time construction money.

That issue is on the Nov. 6 ballot. But even if it passes, the money would only be a one-time infusion, warned James Bass, the department’s chief financial officer. TxDOT has estimated the state has an $86 billion gap between construction needs and available funding. The $5 billion would help – but would also increase the state’s annual debt payments for decades to come.

Instead, Mr. Morris said, the state needs real solutions – and that means new revenue. “We’re just shuffling the deck chairs around on the Titanic,” he said.

Bandera Rd doesn't need tolls, community group concludes

Posted on September 27, 2007 by Terri Hall

Link to article here.

It’s once again, very clear that the Alamo RMA, the tolling authority, WILL NOT listen to the community. They exist to toll roads, period. They’re paid NOT to consider other alternatives, regardless of what the community wants! They’ll pretend otherwise, but it’s been made clear in countless public statements by the RMA, no matter what is done on Bandera Rd., it must be tolled if the RMA is going to make inprovements.

Bandera Road panel sees no need for tolling
Amanda Reimherr Buckert
Express-News
09/27/2007

After nearly a year of work, the Bandera Road Community Working Group has identified possible solutions to alleviate the traffic and congestion problem along Bandera Road — none of which includes toll roads.The next project the working group is tasked with is to create a Context Sensitive Solutions strategy for the 61/2-mile stretch of road between Loop 410 and Loop 1604, and the public has been asked for input.

“CSS is an approach that determines what the unique characteristics of a community are and how those can be enhanced to create a design standards book for an area,” said Leroy Alloway, spokesman for the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority.

The authority created the Bandera Road group last October after a public outcry against toll roads as a solution to the traffic problems. The Texas Department of Transportation has allocated no money to improve Bandera Road, so the Alamo RMA was charged with finding long-term solutions.

A total of 21 options are being considered, but the only one that can fund any improvements is tolling.

“Some of the interim improvements the group has suggested are synchronizing traffic lights, extending turn lanes and other traffic access management options; but a long-term solution must be a build option,” Alloway said.

But no traffic relief solutions that include building or expanding roadways can be done until an Environmental Impact Statement required by the Federal Highway Administration is completed in 2010 or 2011.

Numerous residents have opposed either elevated or at-grade toll lanes, and they suggest that other options are available.

Marcy Meffert, a former mayor of Leon Valley, is a member of the working group.

“This is my personal opinion, I am not a spokesperson for the group, but we need to do something about this traffic. A toll road — elevated or not — is not the answer,” she said.

However, Alloway said nothing is final.

“Nothing can be official until the (environmental) study is completed, but the likelihood of an elevated toll lane is now significantly less,” he said.

During the CSS process, the Alamo RMA is seeking as much public involvement as possible, Alloway said.

People are encouraged to submit their input on what is important to them or what they would like to see in the area by contacting the Alamo RMA at (210) 495-5256 or e-mailing info@alamorma.org.

Goode: Bush wants North American Union to increase profits for corporations

Posted on September 25, 2007 by Terri Hall

Link to article here.

Rep. Virgil Goode says below: “We are giving away the country so a few very rich people can get richer.” Goode stressed that the Bush administration supports both a NAU regional government and a NAFTA Superhighway system.

Congress debate begins on North America Union
Resolution calls for end of NAFTA superhighway, abandonment of integration with Canada, Mexico
By Jerome R. Corsi
WorldNetDaily.com
September 25, 2007

Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va. (Photo: University of Virginia)

A House resolution urging President Bush “not to go forward with the North American Union or the NAFTA Superhighway system” is – according to its sponsor Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., in an exclusive WND interview – “also a message to both the executive branch and the legislative branch.”As WND previously reported, on Jan. 22 Goode introduced H.C.R. 40, titled “Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States should not engage in the construction of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Superhighway System or enter into a North American Union with Mexico and Canada.”

The bill has been referred to the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

WND asked Goode if the president was risking electoral success for the Republican Party in 2008 with his insistence on pushing for North American integration via the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP.

“Yes,” Goode answered. “You won’t hear the leadership in the Republic Party admit it, but there are many in the House and Senate who know that illegal immigration has to be stopped and legal immigration has to be reduced. We are giving away the country so a few very rich people can get richer.”

How did he react when President Bush referred to those who suggest the SPP could turn into the North American Union as “conspiracy theorists”?

“The president is really engaging in a play on words,” Goode responded. “The secretary of transportation came before our subcommittee,” he explained, “and I had the opportunity to ask her some questions about the NAFTA Superhighway. Of course, she answered, ‘There’s no NAFTA Superhighway.’ But then Mary Peters proceeded to discuss the road system that would come up from Mexico and go through the United States up into Canada.”

Goode is a member of the Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development of the House Committee on Appropriations.

“So, I think that saying we’re ‘conspiracy theorists’ or something like that is really just a play on words with the intent to demonize the opposition,” Goode concluded.

Goode stressed that the Bush administration supports both a NAU regional government and a NAFTA Superhighway system: “The Bush administration as well as Mexico and Canada have persons in the government in all three countries who want to a see a North American Union as well as a highway system that would bring goods into the west coast of Mexico and transport them up through Mexico into the United States and then in onto Canada,” Goode confirmed.

The Virginia congressman said he believes the motivation behind the movement toward North American integration is the anticipated profits the large multinational corporations in each of the three countries expect to make from global trade, especially moving production to China.

“Some really large businesses that get a lot from China would like a NAFTA Superhighway system because it would reduce costs for them to transport containers from China and, as a result, increase their margins,” he argued.

“I am vigorously opposed to the Mexican trucks coming into the country,” Goode continued. “The way we have done it and, I think, the way we should do it in the future, is to have the goods come into the United States from Mexico within a 20-mile commercial space and unloaded from Mexican trucks into U.S. trucks. This procedure enhances the safety of the country, the security of the country, and provides much less chance for illegal immigration.”

As WND reported, the Department of Transportation has begun a Mexican truck “demonstration project” under which 100 Mexican trucking companies are being allowed to run their long-haul rigs throughout the U.S.

Previously, Mexican trucks have been limited to a 20-mile commercial zone in the United States, with the requirement that goods bound for locations in the U.S. beyond the 20-mile commercial zone be off-loaded to U.S. trucks.

WND reported last month that Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., successfully offered an amendment to the Department of Transportation Fiscal Year 2008 appropriations bill to block DOT from spending any federal funds to implement the truck project.

Dorgan’s amendment passed 75-23, after Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., changed her vote to support Dorgan.

By a voice vote, the House passed an amendment offered by Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., to the DOT appropriations bill comparable to Dorgan’s, designed to block the agency from using federal funds to implement the truck project.

DeFazio chairs the House transportation subcommittee that oversees motor carriers.

“With the Trans-Texas Corridor, which I would say is part of the NAFTA Superhighway system, and with this NAFTA plot with the Mexican trucks just coming in and not loading off to U.S. trucks, they will just drive right over the Rio Grande and come on over into Texas,” Goode argued. “A lot of these Mexican trucks will be bring containerized cargo from the west coast of Mexico where they will be unloaded in Mexican ports to avoid the fees and costs of unloading at U.S. ports.”

“So, when you look at the total package,” he continued, “we do have a NAFTA Superhighway system already in place. There are those in all three countries that believe we should have a North American Union and the Security and Prosperity Partnership, in my opinion takes us down that road. And I am vigorously opposed to the loss of our sovereignty.”

Why, WND asked, do so many congressmen and senators insist on writing and telling their constituents that they don’t know anything about the Security and Prosperity Partnership, or that SPP working groups are really just to increase our competitiveness?

“In the House, a strong majority voted to provide no money in the transportation funding bill,” Goode responded. “I commend Congressman Duncan Hunter for submitting an amendment to the Department of Transportation funding bill [which] got over 360 votes that said no funds in the transportation appropriation measure, prohibiting Department of Transportation funds from being used to participate on working groups that promote the Security and Prosperity Partnership.”

As WND reported, Hunter’s amendment to the FY 2008 Department of Transportation funding bill prohibiting DOT from using federal funds to participate in SPP working groups creating NAFTA Superhighways passed 362 to 63, with strong bipartisan support. The House approved H.R. 3074 by 268-153, with the Hunter amendment included.

“So, I think a majority the House, if you had an up or down vote on the SPP, would vote down on the SPP,” Goode concluded. “But some still say, and it’s a play on words, that we don’t have a Security and Prosperity Partnership that will lead to a North American Union. I don’t think they can say anymore that we don’t have a Security and Prosperity Partnership arrangement between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, because that was done in Waco, Texas, on March 23, 2005, and the recent meeting at Montebello was to talk about it further.”

WND asked Goode to comment on the North American Competitiveness Council, or NACC, a group of multinational corporations selected by the Chambers of Commerce in Mexico, Canada and the U.S. as the central adviser of SPP working groups.

At the SPP summit in Montebello, Quebec, the NACC met behind closed doors with the three leaders, cabinet secretaries who were present, and top SPP working group bureaucrats, while various public advocacy groups, environmental groups, labor unions – and the press – were excluded.

Should SPP working group meetings be open to the public?

“I wish they were,” Goode responded. “If it is as the Bush administration says, ‘We’re not planning any North American Union,’ then why wouldn’t those meetings be open, why wouldn’t you let the media in?” Goode asked.

“But some of the very big corporations want the goods from China to come in here unchecked,” he continued. “It costs money for U.S. trucks to transport Chinese goods from West Coast ports like Los Angeles or Long Beach. But if you can have a Mexican truck and Mexican truck driver, that’s going to be cheaper. And it’s all about the margins. The margins relate directly to how much money the multi-national corporations are going to make.”

Has the Senate debate on the Dorgan amendment brought the issues of the NAU and NAFTA Superhighways more to the attention of the Senate?

“I think so,” Goode said. “That debate had a very positive effect. You had grassroots support calling the Senate on the Dorgan amendment.

“The Bush administration engages in the same play of words with all these issues,” Goode added. “Take a look at the Kennedy-McCain comprehensive immigration reform, which the Bush administration has now tried to jam through the Senate not once, but twice.

“The Bush administration claims it’s not [amnesty] when you let someone stay in the country and give them a path to citizenship,” Goode pointed out. “Well, that’s their definition, not my definition, and not the definition of the majority of the public. The majority of the public called in and buried the amnesty bill because of public pressure. Public pressure also got de-funded the pilot program on Mexican trucks in this country.”

So should the U.S. pull out of the SPP?

“Yes,” Goode answered, “but the best way to end SPP would be to have a chief executive that wouldn’t do anything with it.”

What does Goode think of the state legislatures that are passing anti-NAU, anti-NAFTA Superhighway and anti-SPP resolutions?

“If enough state legislatures pass resolutions like that, it surely should have an impact on the House and the Senate,” Goode said.

“President Bush’s position is that we need to carry out NAFTA and we need to have this free flow of goods with Mexico and Canada,” Goode explained. “Well, Bush’s approach involves a derogation of our sovereignty and it also undermines the security and the safety of the country.

“It will be much easier for a truck to get a container on the west coast of Mexico and haul in a biological or radiological or nuclear weapon than it would be if you are going to have to unload the trucks on the Texas-Mexico border and put the goods and material in a U.S. truck,” he continued.

“The problem is that the NAU, NAFTA Superhighways and SPP all go back to money,” Goode stressed. “The multinational companies want their goods from Mexico and China because they want the cheap labor.”

What about the U.S.’s large and growing trade imbalance with China?

“I don’t want to have to be an ‘I told you so’ person,” Goode answered, “but I was a vigorous opponent of PNTR (“permanent normal trade relations”) and before that of ‘most favored nation’ trade status with China. We need tariffs and quotas with China. Personally, if I know food is coming in from China, I won’t buy it. The American people with the adoption of COOL, country of origin labeling, with the food clearly labeled, I think you will see the American public will shy away from Chinese products.”

In 2000, Congress voted to extend to China PNTR. “Most favored nation” or MFN trade status, was given to China first in 1980 by the Carter administration. COOL rules are administered by the Department of Agriculture.

Goode concluded the interview by thanking WND for covering the SPP, NAU and NAFTA Superhighway issues: “I want to thank you for putting these issues out where people can read it,” Goode said. “You have enlightened hundreds of thousands if not millions of American citizens who otherwise would have been greatly in the dark on the SPP.”

Sparks fly at MPO as McNeil strips agenda item repudiating TxDOT's ad campaign

Posted on September 24, 2007 by Terri Hall

Link to YouTube video of the knock em out drag em out between David Leibowitz, Carlos Uresti, Tommy Adkisson and pro-toll, pro-TxDOT McNeil. Uresti finishes her off in this YouTube edition.

For those who believed the City Councilmembers when they claimed who was the next Chair of the MPO didn’t have anything to do with tolls, today’s MPO meeting blows a gaping hole through that notion. MPO Chair and City Councilwoman Sheila McNeil stripped an item from today’s agenda AFTER the 72 hour open meetings minimum requirement! Representative David Leibowitz requested a vote to repudiate TxDOT’s ad campaign and lobbying of Congress, and she wrote him a letter denying a vote but said she’d place it on the agenda and the Board oculd vote on whether or not to vote on it at the October meeting. Then she pulled a fast one at the last minute and pulled the item altogether!

State Senator Carlos Uresti came to Leibowitz’ defense and caught McNeil in her contradictions as to the reason she stripped the item. Commissioner Tommy Adkisson also defended Leibowitz’ right to place an item on the agenda. McNeil claimed unilateral authority to set the meeting agenda. She did her usual, “we can get together to talk about it” for anyone who disagrees with her or TxDOT in an attempt to silence all dissension.
Link to Express-News story on it here.

No restraining order, but case to STOP TxDOT's lobbying moves forward

Posted on September 24, 2007 by Terri Hall

Link to AP article here.

Also, another article and our press release below…

Judge denies activist’s request to stop toll road campaign
The Associated Press as it appeared in the Star-Telegram
September 25, 2007

Related Content

http://www.mysanantonio.com

AUSTIN — A judge has refused a toll road opponent’s request to block the Texas Department of Transportation from spending money on a campaign that promotes toll roads and the Trans-Texas Corridor.

Terri Hall of the San Antonio Toll Party and Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom argued the “Keep Texas Moving” campaign violates a prohibition on state officials using their authority for political purposes.

On Monday, State District Judge Orlinda Naranjo denied Hall’s request for a temporary restraining order. The judge noted another law cited by state lawyers that allows the department to promote the development and use of toll projects.

“It seems that the Legislature has weighed in and given the department the authority to promote toll roads,” Naranjo said.

Another hearing is expected soon on the state’s motion to dismiss the case. The state contends that it’s legal for the transportation department to promote toll roads and that the agency is responding to calls for public education about its projects.

Hall’s lawsuit also seeks to block transportation officials from lobbying Congress to allow more tolling.

“This is just round one,” Hall said Monday. “This issue is definitely not over.”

Her attorney, Charles Riley, said the facts will show that the agency is using highway funds for a political purpose, and not just for providing information about toll roads.

Gov. Rick Perry and the transportation department have championed toll roads and the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor, a tolled network of superhighways, as solutions to dire transportation needs that have outpaced gas tax revenues.

A department spokesman said he had no comment on Monday’s ruling and referred to earlier statements defending the department’s right to promote toll roads.

______________________________

Link to article here.
Activist loses bid to halt toll-road ads
Peggy Fikac
Express-News, Austin bureau
09/25/2007

AUSTIN — A San Antonio activist lost a court round Monday in her effort to stop state transportation officials from spending public funds to promote toll roads and the Trans-Texas Corridor, but the fight’s not over.

State District Judge Orlinda Naranjo refused to grant a temporary restraining order to immediately stop the spending as sought by Terri Hall of the San Antonio Toll Party and Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom.

Another hearing is expected as early as next week on a state motion to dismiss the case, which targets the multimillion-dollar Keep Texas Moving campaign and any attempt by transportation officials to convince Congress to allow more tolling.

“This is just Round One. This issue is definitely not over,” said Hall, contending that transportation officials in promoting the initiatives are violating a ban on using their authority for political purposes and on lobbying.

Naranjo noted that another law cited by the state specifically allows the Texas Department of Transportation to promote the use of toll projects.

___________________________________
IMMEDIATE RELEASE

No restraining order issued
Hearing on injunction still to come

Monday, September 24, 2007 – In Travis County District Court today, Judge Orlinda Naranjo did not grant a temporary restraining order (TRO) to immediately halt the Texas Department of Transportation’s Keep Texas Moving ad campaign. TxDOT unearthed a law that says they can advertise toll roads (Sec 228.004 of Transportation Code) and the citizens invoked another that says they can’t (Chapter 556, Texas Government Code). TURF and its Founder Terri Hall, sought a temporary restraining order against the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to stop its political advertising and lobbying, but the burden to obtain a TRO is higher than for an injunction.

The defendants counsel in the Attorney General’s office, Kristina Silcocks, presented no evidence and was unprepared to argue potential damages to the State if a TRO was granted. Judge Naranjo seemed incredulous at such a shoddy case, but not incredulous enough to grant the TRO.

“The citizens will fight on. TxDOT is waging a one-sided political ad campaign designed to sway public opinion in favor of the policy that puts money in TxDOT’s own coffers. School Boards cannot lobby in favor of their own bond elections, and yet TxDOT has its own special law that may allow them to get away with such a blatant conflict of interest,” says an incredulous Hall.

Hall also notes that TxDOT’s campaign goes beyond mere advertising, “It’s propaganda and in some cases, the ads blatantly lie to the public! In one radio ad (scroll down to radio ad “continuing maintenance”), it claims it’s not signing contracts with non-compete agreements in them and yet last March TxDOT inked a deal with Cintra-Zachry for SH 130 (read about it here.) that had a non-compete clause (which either prohibits or financially punishes the State for building competing infrastructure with a toll road).”

The next step is a hearing on the State’s plea to the jurisdiction, likely to happen next week. Then if TURF gets past that hurdle, a hearing for the injunction will be set.

TURF will keep the press advised as to the next hearing date.

-30-

No restraining order, but case to STOP TxDOT’s lobbying moves forward

Posted on September 24, 2007 by Terri Hall

Link to AP article here.

Also, another article and our press release below…

Judge denies activist’s request to stop toll road campaign
The Associated Press as it appeared in the Star-Telegram
September 25, 2007

Related Content

http://www.mysanantonio.com

“It seems that the Legislature has weighed in and given the department the authority to promote toll roads,” Naranjo said.

Hall’s lawsuit also seeks to block transportation officials from lobbying Congress to allow more tolling.

“This is just round one,” Hall said Monday. “This issue is definitely not over.”

Her attorney, Charles Riley, said the facts will show that the agency is using highway funds for a political purpose, and not just for providing information about toll roads.

A department spokesman said he had no comment on Monday’s ruling and referred to earlier statements defending the department’s right to promote toll roads.

______________________________

Link to article here.
Activist loses bid to halt toll-road ads
Peggy Fikac
Express-News, Austin bureau
09/25/2007

Naranjo noted that another law cited by the state specifically allows the Texas Department of Transportation to promote the use of toll projects.

___________________________________
IMMEDIATE RELEASE

No restraining order issued
Hearing on injunction still to come

The next step is a hearing on the State’s plea to the jurisdiction, likely to happen next week. Then if TURF gets past that hurdle, a hearing for the injunction will be set.

TURF will keep the press advised as to the next hearing date.

-30-

Sad days for highway department

Posted on September 23, 2007 by Terri Hall

Link to article here. I don’t feel even a tad sorry for the leadership of TxDOT! They’ve brought this upon themselves and they need to live with the consequences. Politicians have been “kissing their rings” for far too long….the jig is up and the PEOPLE of this great State will work tirelessly to take our government back from the highway lobbyists who “own” our representatives and TxDOT. TxDOT employees who approved this ad campaign should be personally liable to return every DIME of the taxpayers’ money they’ve spent illegally, but there is no way to do that in the courts. Therefore, an injunction is our only shot at stopping the leak….

Sad days for highwaymen
By Rick Casey
Houston Chronicle
Sept. 22, 2007

If you work at it, I think you can bring yourself to feel a little sorry for the good folks at the mighty Texas Department of Transportation.

Tomorrow they’re going to have to go before a judge to defend themselves against an anti-toll road activist from San Antonio who wants to keep them from spending $7 million to $9 million on an advertising and public relations campaign to convince Texans how wonderful their ambitious, privatized toll-road plans are.

But as bad as the bother is of having to respond to a mere citizen-activist, consider this:

I remember a day when TxDOT’s more honestly named predecessor, the Texas Highway Commission, couldn’t imagine having to spend a postage stamp, much less $9 million, to defend itself to the citizenry.

Kissing their rings

At a time when the state was more rural and gas was cheap, both Austin staff and district engineers throughout the state were potentates of the political system, the real structure not described in civics books.Legislators funded them generously through gas taxes and county commissioners and mayors kissed their rings. The reason is that every elected official wanted new and improved roads in his district.

How far the mighty have fallen. TxDOT is facing popular uprisings featuring everything but pitchforks in Austin and San Antonio, where Houston-style congestion is relatively new and toll roads are novel.

That uppity Legislature

But worse, rather than genuflect to the Counts of Concrete, the Legislature has grown more than disrespectful. It has become rebellious.Last June, Coby Chase, director of TxDOT’s Government and Business Enterprise Division (an interesting title in itself), briefed commissioners on the just-completed legislative session.

Total funding, he said, increased only 2 percent — not near enough to cover inflation since the last biennium, while the state’s population and pent-up transportation needs burgeoned.

Sensitive to voter anger over soaring gasoline prices, the Legislature turned down proposals to raise the 20-cent-per-gallon tax or to index it to the price of gas. Yet high prices at the pump are hiking sales of more efficient cars, which can be expected to put a brake on state revenues.

The governor and TxDOT have responded with schemes to auction the rights to build toll roads to the highest private-sector bidders, who will, of course, recover their money by charging drivers what the market will bear.

But the uppity Legislature voted, overwhelmingly in both houses, to put a moratorium on new toll road projects, with a few exceptions.

Well! The indignity of it all!

Gov. Rick Perry, who has provided the major push behind the privately operated toll roads, vetoed the bill.

Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, had authored the Senate version of the House bill that was vetoed. Rather than engage in a veto override fight, he said, he and others negotiated with the governor’s office and TxDOT using his bill as a vehicle.

From Williams’ standpoint, the best thing about the bill is that it lets the Harris County Toll Road Authority proceed with six proposed projects. Specific projects in the Metroplex and a few other places are also exempted.

The compromise with the governor is that instead of a total moratorium, a process is set up that allows local authorities the first right to build toll projects before they are offered to the private sector.

“It was the governor’s idea, not mine,” said Williams.

But even that process is what Chase described to TxDOT commissioners as a “an artificial competition.”

“Previously, our strategy was to allow the market to determine value of a project through a competitive process,” Chase said.

In other words, private corporations would bid on how much they would pay the state to build and operate proposed toll roads, setting their own tolls to recoup their investments.

It was a competition few public officials would want to join. In order to beat the private companies, the public officials would have to charge toll rates that would subject them to anger from taxpayers who feel they shouldn’t be gouged by their government.

So the law Williams carries neuters the governor’s intent. The first is that it requires that TxDOT and the local authority agree on an independent consultant to be hired to determine the “market value” of any proposed project.

But among other things, the two sides must agree in advance of ordering the study what the toll rates will be now and over a period of time.

The Harris County Toll Road Authority, for example, could insist on a rate lower than what the traffic will bear, and thereby lower the “market value,” or the amount for which the right to operate the road can be sold.

If both sides agree, the study is done and the local authority pays that amount into a fund to be used for other local projects. If it chooses not to, TxDOT can go out for private bids, using the agreed toll structure.

If both sides can’t agree in advance, the project dies.

In other words, whereas the state highway barons always had veto power, now the locals also do.

Can it work? Here’s a measure of the confidence level, which reflects the last-minute pressure under which the scheme was concocted: That section of the law expires in four years.