Link to article here. The article notably left out State Representative Nathan Macias who led the charge against SB 792 that unleashed market-based tolls (highest possible tolls). Macias noted TxDOT’s fuzzy math and outrageous cost escalation for 281. He also demanded that TxDOT install the gas tax funded plan for 281 immediately. At yesterday’s press conference, several lawmakers joined him and also called for the gas tax plan to be constructed on 281 yet that’s not mentioned in this story.

More lawmakers add voices to outcry over toll road plans
By Patrick Driscoll
Express-NEWS
09/05/2007

A firestorm ignited by recent news about state officials eyeing tolls on interstates and spending $9 million to advertise toll-road plans continued to roll through San Antonio on Tuesday.

Several state lawmakers gathering at Stone Oak Parkway where U.S. 281 is slated to be rebuilt as toll express lanes with non-toll frontage roads said the Texas Department of Transportation has gone too far.
“They’re arrogant in what they’re doing because they’re not listening to the will of the people,” said Rep. Joe Farias, D-San Antonio.

Rep. David Leibowitz, D-San Antonio, said TxDOT shouldn’t be spending public money on ads to push its policies. He plans to seek an attorney general’s opinion on the matter this week. Also, he’ll ask the local Metropolitan Planning Organization, which oversees federal gas-tax dollars in this area, to pass a resolution to oppose the ads.

“It’s illegal for them to be promoting toll roads with taxpayer dollars,” Leibowitz said.

TxDOT officials in Austin didn’t return phone calls Tuesday but said last week that the campaign addresses concerns that the agency hasn’t done enough outreach and that state law allows it to spend money on marketing toll roads.

The campaign started June 1 with television, radio, print, billboard and Internet advertising to direct people to the Keep Texas Moving Web site (www.keeptexasmoving.com). It also includes direct mail and training for spokesmen to appear on talk radio.

“A $9 million dollar pain pill is what they’re selling us, to buy into their plan,” Farias said.

Adding to the anger of toll critics last week were reports that TxDOT was lobbying Congress for the ability to toll existing interstate lanes.

“Even if such authority is granted on the federal level, state law requires both voter and County Commissioner Court approval before any segment of an existing roadway is converted to a toll facility,” said a 24-page TxDOT report, which has been on the agency’s Web site since last year and was approved in February by the Texas Transportation Commission.

Reaction last week was swift on all levels.

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said she’ll file a bill to ban states from converting existing interstates into toll roads, and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, concurred.

U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, called for a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing on converting interstates to tollways and on TxDOT’s ad campaign.

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff and City Councilwoman Sheila McNeil, chairwoman of the Metropolitan Planning Organization, both issued statements to oppose any tolling of existing highway lanes.

Talk about adding insult to injury…TxDOT can take a rancher’s land within 90 days (called quick take) of serving a Texan forcible eminent domain condemnation papers whether or not their court case is settled, and yet they’re spending taxpayer money to blow sunshine in their ears saying TxDOT has a history of being fair and equitable to landowners. It’s laughable if not outright abusive! TxDOT is pushing a nearly universally opposed project, the Trans Texas Corridor, using taxpayers’ money against them, in order to polish up the agency’s own well-deserved tarnished image. Considering the TTC is a land grab of colossal proportions, taking land for a corridor up to 1,200 feet or 4 footballs fields wide (compared to a fully built out interstate which is generally only 400 feet wide), and will then hand it over to a foreign corporation from Spain, Cintra, to call this public use or fair and equitable is propaganda of the worse kind!

TxDOT spends $9 million on public relations effort
by Christine DeLoma
Lone Star Report 08/27/07

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) wants you to know that there’s no new money available to pay for non-tolled road construction. That’s why it is spending up to $9 million on a new ad campaign promoting toll roads and the unpopular Trans-Texas Corridor.

While critics call the TV, radio and web advertising campaign a waste of taxpayer dollars, the agency argues it has no other choice but to tell its side of the story.
Said TxDOT spokesman Chris Lippincott: “This is a direct response to one of the most frequent criticisms our agency receives, which is we are not responsive to the public, that we don’t do a good job of communicating what we’re doing and why, and we’ve taken those criticisms in stride.”

Corridor opponents are predictably criticizing TxDOT’s new touchy feely approach. David Stall of Corridor Watch, called it a “propaganda campaign to sway public opinion.”

“I think the money would be better spent in engaging people in a meaningful dialogue as opposed to propping up a flawed project that flowed from a flawed process,” Stall said.

The public relations campaign, called Keep Texas Moving, was launched in June and is expected to cost between $7 million and $9 million. It is aimed at addressing top concerns regarding the Trans-Texas Corridor and toll roads in Texas – both of which have come under criticism in mostly rural areas.

Several 30-second radio ads feature the voice of Transportation commissioner Fred Underwood. One spot called “Fair Treatment” describes what is characterized as TxDOT’s tradition of working with landowners to negotiate right-of-way purchases that are fair and equitable.

Another ad, called “Trans-Texas Corridor,” tries to assuage rural concerns that the Corridor could divide counties. The ad says TxDOT will work with county officials and landowners to provide crossovers and local road connectors.

The ads tread on touchy subjects for rural folks who believe their voices have not been heard in past. To Stall, the public relations campaign is about trying “to justify the ends that they have already concluded.”

In addition to the corridor, TxDOT’s PR campaign is pushing toll roads. “We have to use the tools the Legislature has provided us,” Lippincott said. “They provided some guidance in terms of how we should engage the private sector, but the reality is, as long as TxDOT is authorized to construct toll roads, we have little choice but to pursue that option when and where it is appropriate.

“That’s why the commission identified more than 80 projects across the state, and we’re working with our local partners to start developing those projects.”

Is TxDOT running out of money?
The Texas Transportation Commission considered Aug. 23 shifting $6 billion from its construction budget to its maintenance budget over a five-year period – a longstanding discussion topic on which the commission took no formal action.
“That’s just to maintain the system that we have, in fact it takes money away from our efforts to battle congestion,” Lippincott said.

The problem, as he points out, is that state gas tax revenues soon won’t be able to cover the maintenance of state roads and the construction of new roads. The former is costlier than the latter.

“We will reach a point. this year,” said Lippincott, “[that] the money that we receive from the state gas tax will only pay for maintenance of the system that we have. It will not pay for anything, for new capacity, for new lanes on existing roads or for new roads. So we have to come up with new resources.”

TxDOT is funded primarily by Fund 6, which is dedicated for the construction, improvement, and maintenance of the state highway system.

Funds are generated by state and federal gas tax dollars, motor vehicle registration fees, and sales tax on lubricants and federal funds.

The state constitution directs 25 percent of state gas tax revenues to be redistributed to education and 75 percent to Fund 6.

However, over the years the Legislature has dipped into the fund to pay for non-transportation related programs. In the 2008-09 biennium, for example, lawmakers siphoned off nearly $1.5 billion to pay for employee pay raises, retirement benefit packages, and ambulance services to match federal Medicaid funds at the Health and Human Services Commission.

According to TxDOT, federal money is also drying up. Over the past 18 months Congress has rescinded $666 million from Texas transportation funding. With the federal Highway Trust Fund expected to see red in 2009, state transportation officials expect up to $320 million in rescissions in the future.

With the Legislature seemingly unwilling to raise the state gas tax, TxDOT has tried to find “innovative financing” methods to finance new roads. This means entering into 50-year lease agreements (comprehensive development agreements) with private companies to design, bid, build, operate and maintain toll roads. In many cases, the agency has been met with resistance by the legislature over the details of these long-term lease agreements that give the state large upfront concession payments in exchange for giving private companies the right to charge tolls for a profit.

The legislature put the brakes on TxDOT’s use of public-private partnerships to build private toll roads, which include the Trans-Texas Corridor, in most rural areas for the next two years. Yet the agency can build segments of the project without using comprehensive development agreements.

In the wake of the recent Minneapolis bridge collapse, Sen. John Carona (R-Dallas) has reiterated his call earlier this month for indexing the gas tax to inflation or the consumer price index. He picked up the support of the American Automobile Association of Texas on the condition that the gas tax funds be spent on transportation-specific projects.

Nonetheless, Lippincott points out that the House voted for a temporary gas tax cut for summer travelers. Had such a measure become law, it would have cost Fund 6 at least $700 million. The House also rejected an amendment by Transportation Committee chairman Rep. Mike Krusee (R-Round Rock) to index the gas tax.
“The reality is that we have come nowhere near meeting the demands for improved transportation across the state,” Lippincott said.

The population has grown 65 percent over the last quarter century while road usage has increased by 95 percent. During this same time period, road capacity has increased only 8 percent.

Lippincott also cited the increasing cost of highway construction. Since 2002, road construction costs have increased 73 percent, far outstripping inflation. This includes the costs of steel, concrete and asphalt, which is a petroleum based product, he said. O

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

San Antonio, TX, Tuesday, September 4, 2007 – Several Texas lawmakers, Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson, and State Representatives Joe Farias, David Leibowitz, Nathan Macias and concerned citizens stood shoulder to shoulder to call for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to cease and desist from using taxpayer money to lobby for toll roads and the Trans Texas Corridor. The citizens went a step further and called for the immediate resignations of TxDOT’s top brass. Both also called for TxDOT to immediately install the original gas tax funded improvement plan for U.S. Highway 281 and drop all plans to convert that existing state highway into a toll road.

“TxDOT should begin (improving its relations with the public) by installing the overpasses and improvements at an estimated cost of $100 million and already paid for by our gas taxes instead building the hugely intrusive $400 million toll plan for US 281 at four times the cost (and double the number of lanes),” demanded Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson, who also sits on the San Antonio Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO). Adkisson listed other failures in transportation policy, including the failure to index the gas tax, accelerate other modes of transportation, implement creative solutions like contraflow, repair Texas being a donor state giving away more of our gas taxes than we get back despite being asked to bear the burden of NAFTA related traffic, and illegal lobbying (Texas Government Code Chapter 556) by TxDOT.

Representative Nathan Macias (R- Dist 73) also insisted TxDOT install the gas tax improvement plan for US 281 saying it is DOUBLE TAXATION to toll an existing highway and noted that the highway department was cherry-picking, “There’s money in them thar hills, and TxDOT is comin’ after it.” He also pointed out that every major artery used by his constituents in the Texas Hill Country is slated to become a toll corridor including, I-35, US 281, I-10, and SH 16. Macias sits on the House Transportation Committee and led the charge AGAINST SB 792 which allows the highest possible tolls. He challenged TxDOT’s cost escalation for the 281 and 1604 projects that have doubled and even quadrupled in some estimates. “The math just doesn’t add up.”

Representative Joe Farias (D-Dist 118) told how he introduced an amendment to put Loop 1604 and US 281 under the two-year private toll moratorium, SB 792, but explained how the Senate stripped it out. He’s gravely concerned with the economic impact to his constituents who struggle to put gas in their cars much less pay tolls, too. Farias has been threatened by a highway lobbyist for introducing that amendment.

Representative David Leibowitz, (D-Dist. 117), who also sits on the San Antonio MPO, called for the board to pass a resolution to stop TxDOT from illegally spending taxpayer money to push tolls and is also asking the Attorney General for an opinion to aid in that effort.

“I have never voted for a single toll road bill in my time in the Texas House,” shared Leibowitz as he described how he expressly placed 1604 under the moratorium through legislative intent in the House journal and now he finds that TxDOT and the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority (ARMA) are flouting that intent and are still trying to involve private entities in tolling that highway. He also shared concerns about the disproportionate share Texas is having to pay for NAFTA.

All encouraged citizens to seek accountability at the ballot box since the vast majority of the Legislature followed the Governor down the path to toll roads (versus indexing the gas tax), which will result in “the largest tax increase in Texas history” according to Bexar County Commissioner Lyle Larson.

“The citizens support lawmakers’ efforts to put accountability and sanity back into transportation policy,” said Founder of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF), Terri Hall. “With U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison introducing a bill to prevent the tolling of existing interstates this week, calls from U.S. Congressman Ciro Rodriguez to investigate the tolling of existing interstates report, and U.S. Senator John Cornyn and U.S. Congressman Charlie Gonzales adamantly opposed to it, the people may get relief on the federal level first.”

Hall echoed the calls to revert back to the gas tax funded plan for improvements to 281 and stop the tolling of our other existing highways.

“TxDOT has breached the public trust and it cannot be repaired short of cleaning house at that agency. They’ve repeatedly sworn to our faces they’re not tolling existing roads and then lobbied Congress to do just that!” fumed Hall surrounded by dozens of concerned citizens.

“It’s vitally important the public is made aware that several existing state highways and interstates are slated to become toll corridors, I-35 (between San Antonio and Dallas), I-10 (in Houston and San Antonio), 281, 1604, Bandera Rd., and others. If TxDOT and the politicians who enable them have their way, it won’t stop there,” believes Hall.

“TxDOT plans to take every single lane on existing highway US 281 and convert them into toll lanes. The only free lanes will be frontage roads, not highway lanes. The same is true for 16 miles on Loop 1604. When TxDOT already has a plan and the money to install the needed improvements on 281 without tolls and REFUSES to do so after thousands of citizens and many lawmakers have asked them to, it’s clear we have a highway department that’s out of control and not acting in the public’s best interest. In fact, they’re more interested in enriching private road contractors leaving the traveling public left holding the bag,” voiced Hall.

Link to article here.

Hutchison wants to ban tolls on Texas’s interstates
Hutchison wants to block Texas from levying fees on U.S. highways
By POLLY ROSS HUGHES
Houston Chronicle, Austin Bureau
September 1, 2007

AUSTIN — U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, considered a possible future contender for Texas governor, said Friday she’s filing a bill to ban states from converting existing interstate highways into toll roads.

Hutchison, joining objections of bipartisan lawmakers in Austin and Washington, said she will “vigorously” block the Texas Department of Transportation from ever levying tolls on federal highways.

“I intend to immediately introduce as free-standing legislation my amendment that the Senate passed in 2005 to specifically prohibit states from tolling existing interstate highways,” the Republican said in a prepared statement.

Earlier this year, Texas transportation officials sent a letter to Congress seeking a change in federal law to let states “buy back” interstate highways and levy tolls on them.

Such a tolling plan, under a state law passed in 2005, would require a vote of county commissioners and local voters.

Texas’ other U.S. senator, fellow Republican John Cornyn, concurred with Hutchison.

“I think it’s a bad idea, and I don’t support it,” he said Friday in an interview.

Gov. Rick Perry, a big proponent of toll roads, has said he opposes tolling existing roadways unless local voters want them.

Hutchison and U.S. Rep. Charles Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, said Friday they’ll oppose the state’s effort to change federal law.

“Texans should never have to pay twice for a highway, and I will fight any such efforts,” Hutchison said reacting to news reports detailing TxDOT’s federal legislative agenda, “Forward Momentum.”

Gonzalez issued a statement calling the initiative an “alarming proposal” that he said would place an “unnecessary fiscal burden” on citizens.

Agency spokesman Chris Lippincott defended the plan this week as a solution to an estimated $86 billion shortfall in needed highway funding for Texas.

Lippincott said charging tolls on interstate highways would help clear congested roadways and lead to cleaner air.

Yet, state Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee Chairman John Carona, R-Dallas, predicted state lawmakers will never allow such a toll system.

State Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, also registered objections, saying the nation is in serious trouble if it has to sell off its highway infrastructure, especially to private companies which TxDOT proposes could manage resulting toll roads.

“It’s crazy,” she said. “It’s just taxation upon taxation upon taxation.”

Hunter wins Texas’ first GOP straw poll
By ANGELA K. BROWN
Sept. 1, 2007
Associated Press

FORT WORTH, Texas — California congressman Duncan Hunter won Texas’ first Republican Party Straw Poll on Saturday in a low-turnout event that lacked the top-tier presidential candidates.

Hunter got 534 votes, or 41 percent of the vote. Former Tennessee senator and actor Fred Thompson, who is expected to announce his candidacy next week but was not at the event, came in second with 266 votes, or nearly 21 percent. Texas congressman Ron Paul came in third with 217 votes, or 17 percent.

Crowd support seemed split between Hunter and Paul, whose grass-roots supporters waved signs and chanted his name throughout the day. Other candidates attending were Chicago businessman John Cox, who got 10 votes; counterterrorism expert Hugh Cort of Birmingham, Ala., who got three votes; and tool-and-die maker Ray McKinney of Savannah, Ga., with 28 votes.

Each of the other absent but better-known candidates received less than 7 percent of the vote. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee came in fourth with 83 votes; former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani got 78 votes; former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney received 61 votes; and Arizona Sen. John McCain garnered eight votes.

Others who didn’t attend, Kansas senator Sam Brownback and Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo, each received six votes.

Hunter, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee who is serving his 14th term in Congress, said his message of strong national security seemed to resonate with poll voters. He played a leading role in the construction of a 14-mile double fence on the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego and co-authored legislation signed by President Bush that would extend the border fence to 850 miles.

“I think we go on to great things, and we’re going to carry this message for a strong America,” said Hunter, who won the straw poll in Arizona and came in a close third in South Carolina.

The Texas straw poll is only for party activists, and those casting ballots must have been a delegate or alternate to a recent GOP state or national convention. Last month’s Iowa Republican straw poll, in which Romney won, was open to any voter who pays for a ticket.

Texas GOP officials had said they expected 2,000 people to vote Saturday, but only 1,300 did.

The low turnout and top-tier candidates’ absence in Texas didn’t seem to bother Debbie and Wayne Turner of Waxahachie. Wearing matching American flag shirts, the couple said they were eager to attend the historic event — even though Wayne Turner, who supports Thompson, and his Giuliani supporter wife didn’t get to meet their favorite candidates.

“This group here is the cheerleaders, and we’re passionate about it,” said Wayne Turner, who wore a black cowboy hat with “Fred Head” around the brim and carried a sign that read, “Run, Fred, run!”

The event kicked off with large screens showing images of the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and soldiers in the war zone, as a recording of country singer Darryl Worley’s “Have You Forgotten?” played.

Some speakers acknowledged that electing a Republican to the White House in 2008 would be challenging because of momentum of the Democratic presidential candidates. Several criticized one of the frontrunners, New York senator Hillary Clinton.

Texas senator John Cornyn said the best GOP candidate should be selected because “obviously we’re going to be flying into a bit of a headwind on the national level.” He said some Republicans have lost sight of the party’s core values, such as national security, limited government and keeping taxes low.

“If we regain our vision … we will also regain and earn the endorsement of the people,” Cornyn said.

Meanwhile, war protester Cindy Sheehan spoke at a rally outside the convention center, where several hundred people gathered. Sheehan recently announced she is running as an independent for the congressional seat held by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat.

“I’m here in opposition to the Republican straw poll,” Sheehan said before her speech. “The war will be a big issue (in the election), and I don’t see any of the major candidates talking about bringing the troops home. They’re playing politics with our troops’ flesh and blood and innocent Iraqis’ flesh and blood.”

The Texas primary will be March 4.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 31, 2007
CONTACT: Geoff Embler or Matt Mackowiak

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison today said she would vigorously oppose any effort by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to toll existing interstate highways.

“I will vigorously oppose any effort by the State of Texas to buy back existing interstates and convert them into toll roads,” Sen. Hutchison said. “Texans should never have to pay twice for a highway and I will fight any such efforts.”

TxDOT released their legislative agenda in a report called “Forward Momentum” in February which seeks changes in federal law that would allow such buybacks for the purpose of tolling interstate highways, pending approval by local governments.

Sen. Hutchison has long fought against tolling existing interstate highways, and successfully passed an amendment in the 2005 highway bill which would have prevented states from tolling interstate highways that have already been paid for, but House conferees did not agree to it.

“I intend to immediately introduce as free-standing legislation my amendment that the Senate passed in 2005 to specifically prohibit states from tolling existing interstate highways,” Sen. Hutchison said.

Sen. Hutchison is a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which funds the U.S. Department of Transportation, and is a member of the Senate Republican Leadership.

–END–

View the news report here.

If this doesn’t demonstrate that these toll plans are special lanes for the rich and powerful, then I don’t know what does. Considering that tolling authority board members who decide on toll rates (ie – TAX HIKES) to be imposed on all of us exempt themselves, the self-interest is obvious! You can bet that the lawmakers who voted to allow these taxes will also be exempt from living under the toll taxes they impose on us, just like they get the best health plan in the world, and the best retirement plan in the world. What’s good for the goose ought to be good for the gander, but not when it comes to politics. Are you angry enough to vote them out? Because until you are, you’re going to keep getting fleeced under this insidious good ol’ boy system.

Some Drive On Tollway For Free

Click here for a .pdf file listing people who have a free TollTag.
Click here for a .pdf file listing the NTTA’s rules about who gets a free TollTag.

Bennett Cunningham
Reporting

Link to WOAI stories here and here.

WOAI radio in San Antonio has shut us out for many months but this week they launched the Joe Pags afternoon talk show and had Joe Krier, President of the San Antonio Greater Chamber of Commerce, San Antonio Mobility Coalition, and a pro-toll group Texans for Safe Reliable Transportation, on the air promising no existing lanes would be tolled, then days later they “break” a story about a secret plan where TxDOT lobbied Congress to do just that.

Not sure where they’ve been all year, but we reported the news of TxDOT lobbying Congress to remove all limits to tolling interstates and their proposed buy back scheme that would give private corporations tax breaks on toll income in January. The Legislature was briefed on it in February! So when you read Senate Transportation Committee Chairman John Carona feign outrage, remember that. Who’s he kidding? A housewife in San Antonio knows this but not the Senate Transportation Committee Chairman?

Well, we ought to feel vindicated as news of what we’ve all known since Ric Williamson uttered this now famous quote, “In your lifetime, most existing roads will have tolls” (Houston Chronicle, Oct. 11, 2004)…the plan is to turn all our existing roads into toll roads and DOUBLE TAX, even TRIPLE TAX us to use them. What’s most shocking in this media frenzy is the pretense of outrage on the part of elected officials.

Gimme a break…TxDOT has been converting our existing state highways into tollways all over the state, with two interstates highways slated to be tolled (I-35 throughout the state and I-10 in San Antonio and Houston), and they have done NOTHING to stop it! They all hide behind tough rhetoric, then give the green light to TxDOT to play a game of semantics and pretend that if they bulldoze our existing highways and do an elaborate and ghastly expensive re-arranging of the pavement, that they are somehow not tolling existing roads. It would be laughable were it not so serious.

“Outrage” is Reaction to 1200 WOAI News Toll Exclusive
Local, state officials vow never to allow TxDOT to toll existing highways