Category: General

Help wanted: sound transportation policy

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OPINION: Help wanted: sound transportation policy
by William Lutz
Lone Star Report
August 27, 2007

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) says it needs to spend $9 million in taxpayer money to sell its vision of transportation policy to the public.

Maybe if TxDOT pursued rational transportation policies, the public support would follow, and it could spend that $9 million building and maintaining roads.

Listening to the state’s transportation officials, including Gov. Rick Perry and Commissioner of Transportation Ric Williamson, talk is like reading a cheap imitation of a George Orwell novel.

Borrowing money and deficit spending are called “innovative financing techniques.” The term “public-private partnerships” is used to describe mortgaging public property. Tax hikes are called “market-based” or “value-based” tolling or “market valuations.” Government-sanctioned monopolies are referred to as “introducing competition to transportation financing.”

Here’s why Texans ought to be concerned.

Borrowing carries a price tag. The Texas Constitution has traditionally eschewed deficit spending and required existing revenue to pay for existing spending. Now, the state wants to build most of its roads by borrowing, either publicly or by getting a private firm to agree to borrow money, build a road, and collect tolls.

There’s no such thing as free money, and often bond lawyers request concessions in exchange for the money fronted to the state. Many of these private financing arrangements prohibit the state from building free roads near a toll road, or require it to pay a stiff penalty if it builds a competing free road or wants out of the deal.
Secrecy. A 2005 transportation bill exempts draft copies of many road deals from public disclosure – even in the face of criminal subpoenas.

Prior to 2007, the terms of these deals weren’t even public until after the contracts were signed, and the terms set in stone. In 2007, the Legislature provided some additional transparency, but more sunshine is still needed to ensure informed consent from the public.

No checks and balances. The ability of TxDOT to rent state highways to private vendors without a legislative appropriation basically gives TxDOT a license to print money, without going though the usual appropriations process. The Constitution wisely gives the Legislature the power of the purse, and state assets should be pledged only in response to a public legislative appropriation.

The state also takes some highway spending “off-budget” by allowing the creation of regional mobility authorities to build state highways. Even the state auditor cannot precisely calculate how much the state spends on roads.

No fiscal restraint. TxDOT officials often claim that it would require a $1.20 increase in the gasoline tax to build needed infrastructure without tolling. This figure is a cost estimate of every project that a region might want to build in the next few years. Both the Governor’s Business Council and the State Auditor have taken issue with TxDOT’s calculations.

It also shows a lack of priorities at the agency. Most Americans would love a longer vacation, a fancier home, and a nicer car. But their wallets get in the way. Every day, Texans take their limited resources and differentiate between wants and needs. The government should do so also.

Tax hikes. Remember when Bill Clinton referred to taxes paid by the well-to-do as “contributions,” as if payment of taxes were somehow voluntary? Remember how much fun Republicans had lampooning all the rhetorical games Clinton played to avoid referring to his “deficit reduction” plan as a tax hike?

Well, it’s happening again. In the 2007 transportation compromise, Perry insisted on “market-based tolling,” whereby the tolls for new highways are set above the cost to build and maintain the road. Perhaps one could call a toll a “user fee” if the amount of the toll reflected the cost of building and maintaining the road (though even that’s debatable). But when money is taken from a government-sanctioned toll road monopoly and used to build other free roads, that’s a tax.

Simply stated, Perry is raising taxes.

These bad transportation policies are being promoted not only here but also by the U.S. Department of Transportation and in other states like Indiana, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. But just because George W. Bush likes something doesn’t make it right or conservative.

There is a better alternative. It starts with the recognition that building roads is a legitimate function for government, as recognized by the U.S. and Texas constitutions.

Further, user-based fees such as gasoline taxes and auto registration fees are appropriate ways to fund that service, provided that all revenue from those fees goes to roads.

Then, the state should do for transportation what it is already doing in health, education, and welfare policies – look at costs. Why has the cost of building roads increased so quickly? Is this legitimate? Are there ways to reduce these increases?

Registration fees should be adjusted so that overweight trucks pay their fair share. The relationship between damage to a road and weight is exponential, and the registration fees and taxes should reflect that. The gas tax should be adjusted to acknowledge that, on a per-car basis, the gas tax has declined due to improved fuel economy in cars and trucks.

Once the state has gone though that process, then and only then should discussion of tolling begin.

It’s time to stop pushing public policies that primarily benefit a select few highway contractors and investment bankers at the expense of the motoring public.

Instead, let’s put a spirit of public service back into TxDOT and enact transportation policies that provide accountability and frugality. Those policies wouldn’t take a $9 million PR campaign to sell to Texas voters.

NYT: Pennsylvania's war over tolling existing interstate, I-80

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Link to article here. The Director from the University of North Texas is rather clueless to what’s happening in his own state! The article claims “experts” have never heard of another existing interstate being converted to a toll road, but such a plan is alive and well all over the U.S., with Texas being ground zero.

Existing interstate I-35 is slated to be tolled from San Antonio to Dallas, along with portions of I-10 in Houston very soon with San Antonio to follow. Portions of state highways 121 in Dallas and 281 in San Antonio are also going to be converted if Governor Perry and his un-elected Transportation Commission have their way. A pilot program in the 2005 federal highway bill, SAFTEA-LU allows existing interstates to be tolled. The Texas Department of Transportation actually requested that Congress grant them the right to buy back (hence takeover) existing interstates in Texas so they can toll them and remove them from federal responsibility (Read more here.).

Texas is also the home of the highly controversial Trans Texas Corridor, frequently referred to as a NAFTA Superhighway until it became popular for the Bush Administration to deny their existence. This will be a 4,000 mile network of trade corridors to benefit multi-national corporations at the expense of Texas taxpayers, landowners, and commuters.

The New York Times owes it to its vast readership to find out what’s unfolding all across the country, especially in Texas where Bush and his sidekick Texas Governor Rick Perry have literally led us as lambs to the highway lobby slaughter. They recently cooked-up “market-based” tolling which allows the government to charge the highest possible tolls using their government-sanctioned highway monopolies. Read this excellent commentary by one Texas journalist, William Lutz, here.

Pennsylvania Political War Over Planned Tolls on I-80
By Sean Hamill
New York Times
August 26, 2007
BROOKVILLE, Pa., Aug. 23 — Anthony Foote spends a lot of time driving his Kenworth T-600 truck on Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania. He prefers it to the state’s other east-west highway, the Interstate 76 turnpike, which can cost him $140 in tolls.

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Interstate 80Map

Interstate 80

Lisa Kyle for The New York Times

Traffic was heavy this week on I-80 in Pennsylvania. Some 21 million vehicles travel annually, 70 percent from out of state.

So the news that the state plans to impose tolls on I-80 was as upsetting to Mr. Foote as finding an ugly scratch in the purple paint on his rig.

“I hate paying tolls,” he said. “It eats up my profit. If this goes through, you’ll have a lot of truckers avoiding Pennsylvania — including me.”

Pennsylvania officials plan to build up to 10 toll areas along the 311-mile stretch of Interstate 80 in the next three years to help pay for road, bridge and mass transit projects and subsidies.

The move has sparked a political war between the bipartisan coalition of state legislators who approved the plan and two Republican congressmen who say it is a “shell game,” taking revenue from rural Pennsylvania to bail out the state’s urban areas.

“It’s absolutely horrendous for my district,” said one of them, Representative John E. Peterson, whose Fifth Congressional District covers about half of I-80 in north central Pennsylvania. “Every major bill like this should be measured by whether this will make people less likely to come here. And if this stays active, we’ll never get another distribution center or similar business again in my district.”

Paying for new roads with tolls, or adding tolls to sections of older urban roads, is common across the country. But experts say that imposing tolls on an entire interstate highway that had been free may be unprecedented, in part because the federal government typically bans tolls on highways paid for with federal money, as I-80 was.

“I haven’t heard of another one,” said Bernard Weinstein, director of the Center for Economic Development and Research at the University of North Texas, which has done a half dozen studies on the impact of toll roads. “But I think most states will eventually have to move to the user principle. Tolls are going to be the wave of the future.”

Pennsylvania’s plan is to generate about $950 million a year through the sale of bonds backed by tollway revenue and other state sources over the first 10 years, with about $500 million going to road and bridge projects throughout the state, and the remaining $450 million going to subsidize mass transit in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and other cities.

State officials say that about 70 percent of the 21 million vehicles that travel I-80 annually are from out of state, and 40 percent are commercial trucks.

After the State Legislature and Gov. Edward G. Rendell, a Democrat, included the toll plan in their July budget deal, Mr. Peterson and Representative Phil English surprised state officials on July 24 by quietly slipping an amendment into the House’s version of the federal transportation bill to prevent it.

But hardly anyone outside of Mr. English and Mr. Peterson’s offices believe it will still be there after the House-Senate conference committee meets on the transportation bill. Pennsylvania’s senators, Bob Casey and Arlen Specter, have both said they do not want to interfere in the state’s decision-making and will not help the two congressmen.

Even so, Mr. English and Mr. Peterson are not giving up, and they believe they have public opinion, and federal law, on their side.

The plan requires the approval of the Federal Highway Administration, a process that state officials hope will be completed in a year. Under a program called the Interstate System Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Pilot Program, states can add tolls to interstates paid for with federal money.

“It will fly only if the Federal Highway Administration decides it will fly,” said Mr. English, whose Third Congressional District covers about 30 miles of the western edge of I-80. “And this plan doesn’t fit the pilot program as proposed by Congress.”

Mr. English argues that the pilot program was intended to let states use new toll revenue for road maintenance and improvements, not mass transit.

But Joseph G. Brimmeier, chief executive for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, said he was confident Pennsylvania’s program would pass muster.

“We put together a package that helps solve the funding crisis in Pennsylvania for the next 50 years,” he said. “It solves the crisis without raising one cent of taxes. And here we are four weeks into this debate, and I don’t hear any plans from them to help solve these problems.”

Both Mr. English and Mr. Peterson said they liked the financing idea that Governor Rendell first proposed: leasing Interstate 76 to a private company to generate revenue. But state officials could not garner support for it, and the tolling plan, which includes raising rates on the rest of the existing tollway system as well, was approved instead.

Mr. Brimmeier said what upsets him the most about the representative’s efforts is that they “try to pit one part of Pennsylvania against another.”

When asked about the toll plan, many drivers on I-80 sounded resigned.

“I’d have to pay it, and I’d still go on 80, but I wouldn’t be happy about it,” said Dawn Toporcer, a fourth-grade teacher from Lordstown, Ohio, who was shopping with her two daughters for school at the Prime Outlets at Grove City, a regional outlet mall on Interstate 79, about three miles south of I-80.

Grove City was specifically chosen as the site for the mall 15 years ago because of its location near the intersection of the two interstates, said Michelle Czerwinski, a mall spokeswoman. The mall attracts millions of customers who get there by traveling I-80, and imposing tolls on the highway would hurt, she said.

“It’s just going to be a negative,” Ms. Czerwinski said. “Any kind of toll plan would slow down the traffic.”

TxDOT Uses Gas Tax Money to Lobby for Toll Roads

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Link to article here.
Texas Department of Transportation Uses Gas Tax Money to Lobby for Toll Roads
Activists urge investigation of Texas Department of Transportation lobbying on behalf of toll roads.
The Newspaper.com
August 24, 2007

Keep Texas Moving logoThe Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has been spending millions on a public relations project designed to lobby the public and the legislature on the benefits of toll roads. The San Antonio Express News reported Monday that an internal TxDOT memo entitled “Keep Texas Moving: Tolling and Trans-Texas Corridor Outreach” suggested the agency would spend $7-9 million promoting the tolling concept. In February, the state auditor’s office chided TxDOT for hiding lobbying expenses behind other, legitimate expenses.

“A total of $4.5 million associated with the 21 invoices described above was charged to the incorrect activity,” the audit report stated (view excerpt). “For example, $52,000 of a $628,000 invoice that was charged to engineering was actually for public relations expenses.”

The multi-million dollar public relations campaign began in June with paid advertisements and a slick website called Keep Texas Moving, which promotes the 4000-mile Trans-Texas Corridor proposal. Expected to be up to 1200 feet wide, the toll road will cost between $145 and $183 billion to construct and require acquisition of 9000 square miles of land. Terri Hall, founder of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, opposes the Trans-Texas Corridor and today sent a letter to Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle urging him to open an investigation.

“It’s not only an inappropriate and wasteful use of our gas tax dollars by an agency perpetually claiming it’s out of money for roads, but it’s illegal for a public agency to take a policy position and use the public’s tax money to sell them something using an under-handed PR campaign,” Hall wrote.

Source: Dont like toll roads? TxDOT is talking to you (San Antonio Express News (TX), 8/24/2007)

TxDOT's ad campaign to push tolls draws ire

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Link to article here.

Jaime Castillo: TxDOT’s ‘outreach’ plan reaches deep into taxpayers’ pockets
By Jaime Castillo
San Antonio Express-News
08/21/2007

Even if it’s just for a moment, let us give credit where credit is due.

The Texas Department of Transportation has realized — finally — that it has an image problem when it comes to convincing Texans of the need for a vast network of toll roads and the Trans-Texas Corridor.

The realization, however, comes with a price tag of $7 million to $9 million that, rather than going to build highways, will fuel an advertising campaign centered around a memo titled, “Keep Texas Moving: Tolling and Trans-Texas Corridor Outreach.”

This is where I get off the track. Outreach?

The nerve of state highway officials to use such a term after years of helping fan the flames of skepticism among Texans for a tolled highway system.

The time for outreach would have been, say, two years ago, if not more.

Take, for example, the Trans-Texas Corridor, the 50-year plan favored by Gov. Rick Perry to build a superhighway of toll roads and rail and utility lines.

For more than a year and a half, Cintra, a Spain-based company, and its minority partner, Zachry Construction Corp. of San Antonio, fought tooth and nail in court to keep certain things — like how it would be financed — out of the public eye.

During that time, Texans also were expected to swallow other problematic revelations concerning the deal.

Those included the news that Dan Shelley, Perry’s onetime liaison to the Legislature, left the governor’s office to become a lobbyist for Cintra, where he had worked as a consultant prior to joining Perry’s staff in the first place.

Then, 40 days before the Nov. 7, 2006, general election — a campaign which saw Perry vilified for his support of toll roads — TxDOT suddenly released the details of the Cintra/Zachry pact as if to say all’s well that ends well.

To put the whole situation into perspective, TxDOT now wants to spend millions of dollars of public money to make you feel better about the public information it fought to keep you away from two years ago.

But TxDOT is hardly the king of hypocrisy in this situation.

Consider state Rep. Warren Chisum, chairman of the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee.

Not that I disagree with Chisum’s summation of the need for a public relations blitz.

“I wonder what for?” he was quoted in Tuesday’s Express-News as saying. “So people wouldn’t hate ’em so bad?”

But Chisum went on to say that the money would be better spent fixing roads.

What a great idea! Surely Chisum used similar logic when he helped write the state’s latest two-year budget.

Right?

Wrong.

Continuing what has become a biennial shell game, Chisum participated in crafting a budget that diverts one-tenth, or $1.6 billion, from the state highway fund to pay for things that have nothing to do with building and maintaining roads.

Sadly it’s nothing new.

From fiscal year 1986 to 2005, nearly $8.7 billion of the fund was spent on non-highway items, including state historical and arts commissions and law enforcement functions with the Department of Public Safety.

In other words, Chisum, a Pampa Republican who was first elected in 1989, has been there nearly every step of the way as the Legislature as a whole became all too accustomed to robbing money from the state highway fund.

The state has grown by leaps and bounds, while the gas tax — the main source of revenue for highway building — has remained stagnant since 1991.

But thanks to the decisions of top elected officials, it’s doubtful whether all the advertising pros in the world can put this Humpty Dumpty together again.

TURF asks Ronnie Earle to prosecute TxDOT for advertising campaign!

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IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Texas Highway Department advertising campaign prompts citizens to call on Ronnie Earle

Friday, August 24, 2007 – The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) not only crossed the line, they leaped over it! And if citizens want justice, Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle (who took down Congressman Tom Delay) is just the guy to deliver. TxDOT gleefully announced this week that it’s spending $7-$9 million in taxpayer money to “sell” the public what Bexar County Commissioner Lyle Larson called “the largest tax increase in Texas history.” And what pray tell are they selling?

“Unaccountable, eminent domain abusing, runaway toll tax roads and the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC),” admonishes Terri Hall, Founder of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF). “It’s not just smarmy; it’s ILLEGAL!” (Chapter 556 of the Texas Government Code forbids governmental agencies from engaging in lobbying.)
As if TxDOT hasn’t heard the word “No!” from enough citizens, over 13,000 at last year’s TTC-35 hearings alone, apparently they lack the intellectual capacity to understand one of the most basic words in the English language.

“To add insult to injury, they patronize us further by thinking we just haven’t gotten the message, or that we somehow don’t understand their cash cow, land-grabbing, DOUBLE TAXING toll road policies, therefore they need to spend OUR money to further indoctrinate us into submission,” suggests Hall.

Though the advertising campaign started June 1, it’s not likely to last long since citizens have called on Travis County District Attorney, Ronnie Earle, to come to the rescue.

“The politicians who are ramming this down our throats need to realize they can’t escape the long arm of the law, especially Ronnie Earle’s. Tom Delay couldn’t, and neither will they,” warns Hall.

Read TURF’s formal complaint filed with Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle below:
______________________________
Mr. Ronnie Earle
District Attorney
Travis County
509 W.11th St
Austin, TX 78701

August 22, 2007

Dear Mr. Earle:
The citizens of Texas believe the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is illegally using taxpayer money to wage a cleverly cloaked public relations campaign to push the wildly controversial Trans Texas Corridor and toll road proliferation.

According to a memorandum obtained by the Express-News entitled “Keep Texas Moving: Tolling and Trans-Texas Corridor Outreach” sent to transportation officials by Coby Chase, director of the agency’s government and public affairs division, TxDOT has undertaken a multi-million dollar campaign including direct mail, billboards, and training of employees to sell the public their proposals over talk radio.

It’s not only an inappropriate and wasteful use of our gas tax dollars by an agency perpetually claiming it’s out of money for roads, but it’s ILLEGAL for a PUBLIC agency to take a policy position and use the public’s tax money to sell them something using an under-handed PR campaign.

The State Auditor already found TxDOT “cooked the books” Enron-style on the Trans Texas Corridor mismarking funds as “engineering” when in fact, they spent it on PR. The Auditor’s office testified to this before the Senate Transportation Committee on March 1, 2007. See the report entitled “An Audit Report on the Department of Transportation and the Trans-Texas Corridor” released in February 2007 (see it here).

Please open an investigation and prosecute this agency for its repeated illegal activities. The people of Texas want justice. When Ken Lay cooked the books at Enron, he was sent to jail. The same needs to happen with those guilty of breaking the law at the highway department.

Sincerely,

Terri Hall
Founder/Director
Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF)
__________________________________

“If a corporate CEO had done this to their shareholders, they’d be in JAIL!” notes Hall.

Citizens gasped when the Texas State Auditor’s office revealed that TxDOT cooked the books at the Senate Transportation & Homeland Security Committee hearing March 1. A record 800 witnesses heard this testimony at the hearing.

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Despite threats from the feds, TxDOT forced to abandon Cintra bid for Hwy 121

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Link to article here.

State Highway 121 was wrested from the grip of a foreign company, Cintra, and it’s now in the hands of the North Texas Toll Authority (NTTA), despite threats of sanctions from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). Talk about brazen! However, 16 miles of this 26 mile project are already built and PAID FOR WITH GAS TAXES (it’s INEXCUSABLE that it’s now converted to a toll road!). To make things worse, SB 792 allows even our public tolling entities to charge the HIGHEST POSSIBLE TOLLS! The FHWA’s behavior, repeated threat letters of withholding our federal highway revenue, then backing off thanks to Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, then threats of sanctions, it’s clear the Bush Administration is a wholly-owned subsidiary of corporate hogs at the trough!

The FHWA is charged with protecting the public interest, and not only have they flouted that responsibility, they rabidly PROMOTED a foreign interest OVER the public’s, ON OUR DIME! James Ray at the FHWA let the cat out of the bag a few months ago, that the FHWA, Texas Transportation Commission, Perry, and Bush truly believe in state run capitalism (which is really fascism). This is beyond appalling…this has to be a criminal dereliction of duty!

Texas officials say they were forced to abort the Cintra concession
Toll Road News
August 23, 2007

Texas officials have revealed that in the past few days they discussed with the FHWA canceling the past approval of NTTA taking over SH121, together with canceling the Cintra concession. They got an assurance the cancelations would get Texas back in compliance with federal procurement law. They have sent us copies of two letters on the SH121 crisis both dated Tuesday Aug 21 TxDOT-FHWA, and FHWA-TxDOT.The first TxDOT-FHWA letter responds to Richard Capka’s blistering Aug 16 attack on Texas’ handling of the SH121 procurement which he cited as clear violations of federal law and regulations. See report http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/3092Addressed to Janice Brown, FHWA rep in Austin TX the letter is signed by TxDOT deputy Amadeo Saenz and foreshadows actions taken today by the governing Texas Transportation Commission (TTC). It says they will consider canceling the Cintra procurement and canceling the decision (called a minute order) previously approving NTTA for SH121.

The letter then says: “We request FHWA concurrence that (these) actions…will be sufficient to bring TxDOT into compliance with federal law and not be subject to (sanctions)…”

The letter adds that further FHWA action on environmental clearance of SH121 is “critically needed” to move forward on SH121. See TxDOT-FHWA letter here.

The response from FHWA rep Brown to TxDOT’s Saenz says that the two proposed cancellations would indeed bring TxDOT into compliance with federal law and remove the basis for federal sanctions. It also says FHWA is working for “timely completion” of the environmental review. See FHWA’s Brown’s letter here.

TxDOT unpersuaded NTTA bid better but decision was local

Texas officials say it was their assessment Cintra provided the sounder proposal but that they had agreed to devolve responsibility to the Dallas-Ft Worth area council of governments’ Regional Transportation Council (RTC) which preferred the late proposal by the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA). Under Texas law SB792 they say they are required to defer to the RTC despite their doubts about the choice of NTTA’s proposal.

At the Texas Transportation Council meeting today the two cancellations were made:

Agenda item 8a passed as a new minute order notes that a RFQ for SH121 was issued March 2005 and after shortlisting a formal RFP was issued mid Aug 2006. Feb 28 the commission “conditionally awarded” the concession or comprehensive development agreement to Cintra.

However the instructions to proposers authorized TxDOT to suspend or terminate concession contract negotiations at any time – providing for cancellation of the procurement.

The resolution passed today says simply: “The commission has determined that it is in the best interest of the state to terminate the CDA negotiations with Cintra…” and “It is therefore ordered that the procurement… is canceled.” See text of 8a here.

Agenda item 8b outlines the origins of the NTTA move with the RTC asking on Mar 26 if NTTA wanted to top the Cintra bid. NTTA submitted a huge document (almost entirely fluff and puff – TRnews) May 18, but the RTC accepted it. June 28 the TTC set the RTC to negotiate some substance with NTTA giving them 60 days to produce a project agreement plus another 45 days for financial close. Text of 8b here.

Today’s minute order cancels those requirements giving the parties more time, saying environmental clearance is likely to take longer than the 60 days. The department has to come back to the commission with additional agreements to enable NTTA to take over SH121 for a period of up to 50 years.

Deal not done until the money arrives

Texas officials say the deal is far from done yet. One official said he has doubts that NTTA can come through with the financing promised the RTC. They think NTTA has stretched its borrowing power to, and perhaps beyond, prudent limits.

But caught between FHWA protests and the RTC-NTTA, and the requirements of SB792 they say they had no other alternative.

The officials say the RTC has taken a gamble with NTTA now that the Cintra procurement has been cancelled.

“If the NTTA doesn’t come through it is back to square one. We have to start a procurement all over again.”

The three bids back in February

We were given the bids by the three finalists in the procurement won by Cintra in February, socalled Form Ks. Cintra’s offer more than doubled the next from Skanska with Macquarie a bit further behind in third place. See table nearby.

Cintra says accept TTC decision

José Lopez, Cintra’s Austin-based director issued a statement after the Commission meeting:

“While we believe our proposal – with its guarantee of $7.3 billion in new and additional revenue to the Metroplex for SH121 and other transportation projects – was the better option for the state and Dallas-Fort Worth, we respect the commission’s decision.

“We want to thank the commissioners and the staff at TxDOT for the time and consideration they have devoted to this issue. We know they are working diligently to address the serious mobility challenges facing Texans, and we wish them, NTTA and the Regional Transportation Council only the best as they move forward with SH 121 for North Texas drivers.

“…we look forward to continuing our work in Texas, the U.S. and around the world assisting officials meet the increasing demands on infrastructure by improving roadways, relieving congestion and enhancing driver safety in the most cost-effective and efficient ways possible.”

Agreement reached NTTA, Regional Council and Dallas District TxDOT

NTTA, the regional council and Dallas District of TxDOT say they have finalized an interagency project agreement for SH121. Jorge Figueredo the new executive director of NTTA signed the draft agreement and submitted it to TxDOT. After it is signed by the executive director of TxDOT NTTA will have 45 days to financial close and delivery to TxDOT of over $3.3b – $2,500m plus $833m representing 49 future annual payments. In return they get a 50 year lease of SH121 and the rights to the toll proceeds in a kind of public sector concession.

Bill Hale of TxDOT Dallas office and Michael Morris of the RTC said in statements today that fuel tax funds are not doing the job of generating revenues needed. They see monetization of toll projects like SH121 as the only way to build needed new roads.

SH121 is 42km (26mi) long running northeast-southwest in the northern part of the greater Dallas area from US75 toward Dallas Ft Worth Airport. It crosses the Dallas North Tollway at about its midpoint and somewhat parallels the Pres Geo Bush Turnpike some miles to its north. It runs through Collin, Denton and Dallas counties.

SH121 is being built as a 12 lane highway with 2×3 toll lanes in the center as expressway and a pair of 3-lane one-way frontage roadways on either side which hit cross streets at signals. Slip lanes will connect the toll expressway roadways with the frontage roadways for access and egress from the tolled lanes in a common Texas configuration.

Tolling will be all-electronic at highway speed – no cash collection.

The vast passions and political energy invested in controlling SH121 should give it a place in tollroad history.

Feds threaten sanctions if don't give Hwy 121 back to Cintra!

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Link to article here. Link to PDF of FHWA letter here.

Federal highway administrator sent blistering letter to Texas on SH121
Toll Road News
August 23, 2007

Richard Capka federal highway administrator has sent a blistering letter to Texas authorities saying the US Government will subject it to extra scrutiny for a period of two years – read: long delays – if it persists with procurement on SH121 in violation of federal contracting laws. FHWA legal counsel Robert Rae several weeks ago made criticisms of the proposed cancellation of the toll concession with Cintra in favor of the North Texas Tollway pointing out the legal problems posed. But Capka’s new letter turns up the heat substantially threatening serious sanctions against Texas.

Texas DOT’s procurement for the 121 project in accordance with Texas law SB792 “violates federal law” the letter says bluntly.

The letter dated Aug 16 spells out two breaches of federal law involved in the state’s handling of SH121:

– acceptance of the NTTA bid after the competitive procurement process had selected Cinta

– acceptance of a public sector bid in competition with private bids

TxDOT’s procurement process in SH121 “works against the very foundation” of federal provisions for competitive procurement, Capka writes. This is because NTTA was permitted to bid after the terms of Cintra’s bid had been public released – at the time TxDOT said it had selected Cintra.

“Allowing a bid submission after closure of a project’s selection is an egregious violation of the basic requirements of a fair and competitive process. Here the final bid submitted by Cintra, along with many other proprietary details of Cintra’s submission had been disclosed and were publicly available at the time NTTA submitted its proposal.”

This contravenes 23USC112.

The letter accuses of TxDOT in its implementation of SB792 of having introduced “uncertainty and doubt” into the procurement process.

TxDOT’s second violation of federal law, the Capka letter says is allowing a public entity to bid against a private entity: “Federal regulations specifically prohibit a public entity from bidding again a private entity,” says Capka citing 23CFR636.112

FHWA regulations do not allow federal aid funds to participate in any violation of federal law, therefore a variety of sanctions will be imposed.

The letter announces:

– withdrawal of the special exceptions program (SEP-15) waiver granted to expedite SH121 and two other unnamed highway projects for accelerated environmental clearance

– withdrawal of approvals for TIFIA federal loan and Private Activity Bonds support

– a request for reimbursement of the US Government for its expenses in incurred in considering and evaluating the TIFIA loan associated with SH121

– no future federal funds for SH121

– additional oversight and approval requirements for future Texas applications so long as Texas breach of federal law is not remedied

– more “far reaching compliance measures” if Texas violates federal law again

The letter ends on a conciliatory note saying that FHWA believes that TxDOT can come into compliance with federal law even at this late date – an apparent allusion to the Texas Transportation Commission not having signed off on the NTTA deal for SH121. The letter appears to be saying Texas can still be in compliance with federal law if it calls off aborting the Cintra procurement, and rejects the proposed long term lease to the NTTA.

That very subject is up for discussion at the Texas Transportation Commission today.

The letter leaked in Texas and is the subject of a Texas newspaper report this morning.

Washington Times: The Three amigos, erasing borders?

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Link to article here

The Three Amigos, Erasing Borders?
Insider Scoop

Wesley Pruden / The Washington Times:
Published: 08-22-07
Some of the folks who gave President Bush a country lickin’ on his immigration “reform” are spoiling for another round with him. The reason why is on display at the “Three Amigos” summit in Canada. Mr. Bush and President Felipe Calderon of Mexico are guests of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper for another workout of a vaguely described scheme called the Security and Prosperity Partnership, which the White House says is nothing more than three amigos getting together to swap yarns, pull a cork and talk about NAFTA writ large.
But a remarkably diverse group of skeptics, including congressmen of both parties, critics of unrestrained global trade, conservative activists and left-wing academics and trade unionists, say it’s free trade run amok.
The mysterious partnership is known only to the few by the acronym SPP. Most of the reporters at the Canadian summit can barely hide their languor, treating SPP as just another boring economic story White House reporters can’t be expected to understand. The Associated Press describes SPP merely as “a way for the nations to team up on health, security and commerce.”
Twenty-one Republicans and one Democrat have written to President Bush to tell him of “serious and growing concerns” in Congress about the “so-called” Security and Prosperity Partnership, and the House has adopted legislation barring U.S. transportation officials from even participating in meetings of the partnership.
The congressmen mostly seem miffed that the White House is undertaking far-reaching agreements with Canada and Mexico without telling them about it. The conservative skeptics say these agreements chip away national sovereignty — that the aim is to establish a North American Union, like the European Union, with unelected bureaucrats empowered to form a super-government to dispossess everyone but the elites. The liberal skeptics argue that “the super-government” would be a tool of the multinational corporations, eager to drive down wages and make wetbacks of everyone without a corporation big enough to plunder cheap labor.
The Mexican government, eager to export penniless Mexicans, is the most enthusiastic about the partnership and the billions of expected yankee dollars. Just two days after his election in 2000, Vicente Fox talked of his vision of a North American common market, a customs union, a common tariff, joint monetary policy and the “free flow of labor” across borders. It’s difficult to imagine what Mr. Fox calls a “free flow” of labor if what we’ve had for decades hasn’t satisfied him.

Bush chooses to ridicule opposition rather than deny charges of NAFTA Superhighways

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…that tells me something. When the President was directly asked if he denies there is a plan in place to merge the 3 countries, he DID NOT DENY IT, but rather tried the ol’ distraction method…look over here, aren’t my opponents a bunch of wild-eyed nut jobs? Read this article and look at the comprehensive areas where they seek to “harmonize,” “streamline,” and “integrate.” Notice who IS at the table, since we already know the public isn’t…Corporations!

This sort of elitist snobbery is an insult to Americans and the citizens of the other countries as well. Something else I noticed they agreed upon in the closed door meeting, to obligate the American taxpayer to fight Mexico’s drug war for them (rather than secure our border and get the Mexican government to do its job of rooting out their own drug cartels..Mexico is now the home of the richest man in the world, they have the resources, they just choose to allow their citizens to live in abject poverty while the wealthy ruling class ask the United States for hand outs). This provision showed up in the immigration bill under SPP. The grassroots defeated it, so what does Bush do? He unilaterally incorporates it into SPP policy AGAINST the will of Congress and the citizens of the United States.

What’s the pricetag? To what does it obligate the U.S. taxpayers? Was this provision EVER debated by our elected representatives in Congress?….NO! We live under the Bush-Perry elitist oligarchy (it’s no coincidence Perry gets a hit piece on the opposition in the Houston Chronicle today doing the same, ridiculing concerned citizens), and it’s high time we start calling for impeachment while we still have a country!

Link to article below, here.

PREMEDITATED MERGER
Bush doesn’t deny plans for N. American Union
President avoids question, ridicules ‘conspiracy theorists’ who believe it

Posted: August 21, 2007
 © 2007 WorldNetDaily.com


The leaders of the United States, Canada and Mexico conferred over the Security and Prosperity Partnership

MONTEBELLO, Quebec – President Bush today sidestepped a direct question about whether he’d be willing to categorically deny there is a plan to create the North American Union.

Instead, he ridiculed those who believe that is taking place as conspiracy theorists.

The exchange came at a news conference held by Bush, Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon, and Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who met at a resort in the rural woods outside of Ottawa, Quebec, to discuss their latest work on the Security and Prosperity Partnership.

After the trio presented their prepared statement about the SPP, several reporters who had been selected in advance were allowed to ask questions.

When it came time for a question from a Fox News reporter, Bush was asked if he would be willing to categorically deny that there is a plan to create a North American Union, or that there are plans to create NAFTA Superhighways.

“As you three leaders meet here, there are a growing number of people in each of your countries who have expressed concern about the Security and Prosperity Partnership. This is addressed to all three of you. Can you say today that this is not a prelude to a North American Union, similar to a European Union? Are there plans to build some kind of superhighway connecting all three countries? And do you believe all of these theories about a possible erosion of national identity stem from a lack of transparency from this partnership?” was the question, according to a White House transcript.

Reporters at the news conference said he sidestepped, instead adopting the tactic that those who are arguing the European Union model of integrating nations into a larger continental union is being used in North America should be ridiculed.

He called it an old political scare tactic, to try to create a wild conspiracy and then demand that those who “are not engaged” prove that it isn’t happening.

Bush’s answer was:

“We represent three great nations. We each respect each other’s sovereignty. You know, there are some who would like to frighten our fellow citizens into believing that relations between us are harmful for our respective peoples. I just believe they’re wrong. I believe it’s in our interest to trade; I believe it’s in our interest to dialogue; I believe it’s in our interest to work out common problems for the good of our people. “And I’m amused by some of the speculation, some of the old – you can call them political scare tactics. If you’ve been in politics as long as I have, you get used to that kind of technique where you lay out a conspiracy and then force people to try to prove it doesn’t exist. That’s just the way some people operate. I’m here representing my nation. I feel strongly that the United States is a force for good, and I feel strongly that by working with our neighbors we can a stronger force for good.

“So I appreciate that question. I’m amused by the difference between what actually takes place in the meetings and what some are trying to say takes place. It’s quite comical, actually, when you realize the difference between reality and what some people are talking on TV about.”

Harper joined in. There’s not going to be any NAFTA Superhighway connecting the three nations, he said, and it’s “not going to go interplanetary either,” he said.

Harper said the SPP discussions that were held concerned such pressing issues as jelly beans. He said the business interests expressing their desires for progress on the SPP noted there were different standards in the United States and Canada, and there was a discussion about whether those standards could be made uniform for the U.S. and Canada.

Bush’s comments echoed the comments published just a day earlier in the Ottawa Citizen by David Wilkins, the U.S. ambassador to Canada.

“While conspiracy theories abound, you can take it to the bank that no one involved in these discussions is interested in, or has ever proposed, a ‘North American Union,’ a ‘North American super highway,’ or a ‘North American currency,'” he wrote.

“The United States, Canada and Mexico are three distinct, sovereign countries that practice democracy differently,” he wrote. “Each proudly defends its own interests. But our leaders also recognize that we share a continent in this post-Sept. 11 world, where terrorism is but one threat. We have a vested interest in working together to prevent potential threats outside North America – like those posed by pandemic flu or improperly labeled foods, for example – from penetrating our borders.

Wilkins wrote that the nations also are “exploring ways to detect radiological threats and coordinating emergency efforts along our borders in the event of a man-made or natural disaster. It just makes sense when you share thousands of miles of common border to share a common emergency-management plan.”

He said another goal is to reduce the cost of doing business across national borders.


“The Late Great USA,” which was criticized by President Bush at the conclusion of the SPP summit in Quebec

However, Jerome Corsi, a Harvard Ph.D. whose newly published book, “The Late Great USA,” uses the government’s own documentation to show the advance of a North American Union, said ridicule is the “last resort of someone who is losing an argument.”

Such tactics, Corsi said, “underestimate the intelligence of people listening, and people realize that the argument wasn’t answered.”

At the news conference, he noted, Bush failed to respond to the Fox News question with a denial of the plans for a North American Union.

And, Corsi said, “Bush did not address the fact that Texas Gov. Rick Perry vetoed a two-year moratorium on the Trans-Texas Corridor project,” believed to be the starting point for an eventual continent-wide grid of NAFTA Superhighways.

“Just to ridicule the idea, when he had a chance to categorically deny it, raises doubts in peoples’ minds, especially when these meetings aren’t transparent,” Corsi added.

The meeting this week, which focused on economic issues, was attended by representatives of dozens of multinational corporations anxious to have their manufacturing and sales processes smoothed.

However, Corsi said, “not one person who objects is permitted inside the room.”

At the same time, Bush did affirm that there is a plan under consideration for the United States to provide military assistance to Mexico’s military in its battles in the drug war, although officials were not ready to announce what that plan includes.

The three national leaders simply affirmed that drug trade is a continental problem and would demand a continental solution.

The formal statement from the three leaders referred to the “opportunities and challenges facing North America and [the need] to establish priorities for our further collaboration.”

They said the three nations already have agreed to a North American plan for avian and pandemic influenza, a “Regulatory Cooperation Framework,” an intellectual property action strategy and a “Trilateral Agreement for Cooperation in Energy Science and Technology.”

“The North American Competitiveness Council (NACC), announced last year in Cancun, has provided us with thoughtful recommendations on how we could strengthen the competitive platform for business,” the statement said.

The statement said the Regulatory Cooperation Framework will allow various rules to be streamlined across borders.

“In the coming year, we ask our ministers to consider work in areas, such as the chemicals, automotive, transportation, and information and communications technology sectors,” the statement said.

And the Intellectual Property Action Strategy “also gives us an invaluable tool for combating counterfeiting and piracy, which undermine innovation, harm economic development and can have negative public-health and safety implications,” the three said.

Food safety and border security also were discussed. “Our governments will continue to address the safety of food and products imported into North America, while facilitating the significant trade in these products that our countries already have and without imposing unnecessary barriers to trade,” the leaders said.

“It is sometimes best to screen goods and travelers prior to entry into North America. We ask our ministers to develop mutually acceptable inspection protocols to detect threats to our security, such as from incoming travelers during a pandemic and from radiological devices on general aviation,” the statement said.

But protesters who staged events in Ottawa as the meetings were moving forward, warned of the integration and harmonizing the SPP seeks.

“The SPP is pursuing an agenda to integrate Mexico and Canada in closed-door sessions that are getting underway today in Montebello,” Howard Phillips, the chairman of the Coalition to Block the North American Union, told an earlier press conference in Ottawa.

“We are here to register our protest,” Phillips added, “along with the protests of thousands of Americans who agree with us that the SPP is a globalist agenda driven by the multi-national corporate interests and intellectual elite who together have launched an attack upon the national sovereignty of the United States, Canada and Mexico.”

Connie Fogel, head of the Canadian Action Party, agreed with Phillips.

“Canadians are complaining that the SPP process lacks transparency,” Fogel told the press conference. “Transparency is a major issue, but even if the SPP working groups were open to the public, we would still object to their goal to advance the North American integration agenda at the expense of Canadian sovereignty.”

Conservatives alongside many others denounce SPP Summit, North American Union

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Link to article here.

Leading Conservatives Denounce Bush on ‘North American Union’
 By Nathan Burchfiel
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
August 21, 2007

Ottawa, Ontario (CNSNews.com) – President Bush is meeting with other world leaders in Canada this week to establish, in part, a “New World Order” that subverts national sovereignty, according to some leading American conservatives who have taken a hard stance against the president over the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP).

President Bush is meeting in Quebec Monday and Tuesday with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon to discuss the SPP, which the U.S. government’s Web site describes as a cooperative effort among Canada, the United States, and Mexico to “increase security and enhance prosperity … through greater cooperation and information sharing.”

Yet Howard Phillips, chairman of the Conservative Caucus, said at a news conference in Ottawa Monday that Bush is trying to develop a “New World Order” of centralized world government controlled by super-national bureaucracies. Phillips said some of the bureaucracies already exist, including the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and United Nations.

“George Bush and his daddy [former President George H. W. Bush] have both used the term ‘New World Order.’ It was used by Woodrow Wilson. It was used by Adolf Hitler. It was used by a number of people, and the New World Order relates to the desire of many people in the world to submerge national sovereignties to international institution.” (See Video)

Other conservatives who joined Phillips at the news conference included author and columnist Jerome Corsi; John McManus, president of the John Birch Society; Tom DeWeese, president of the American Policy Center; and Bob Park, founder of Veterans for Secure Borders.

The SPP meetings (the fourth since 2005) have afforded little access to the media and no access to the general public except for leaders of some large corporations taking part in the concurrent North American Competitiveness Council. The secrecy has led activists on both sides of the political aisle to develop ideas about what might be happening behind closed doors.

Responding to protests staged in Ottawa Sunday by leftist, anti-government, anti-corporate activists, Phillips acknowledged a difference of approach. But, he said, “if we’re all firing in the same direction, let’s work together.”

Conservative author Jerome Corsi criticized supporters of the SPP for labeling opponents “conspiracy theorists.” (See Video)

“We’re the Internet black helicopter conspiracy theorists?” asked Corsi. “What’s going on over in Montebello behind closed doors? Is that not the real conspiracy?”

“Only to call us names does not answer the arguments we’re making,” he said. “We’re called names because those supporting the Security and Prosperity Partnership wish to keep their secret agenda being advanced in secret, and we’ve ruined the party by exposing it.”

Most recently, U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins called the opposition to the SPP “conspiracy theories.” In an editorial in the Ottawa Citizen Monday, Wilkins said that “while conspiracy theories abound, you can take it to the bank that no one involved in these discussions is interested in, or has ever proposed, a ‘North American Union,’ a ‘North American super highway’ or a ‘North American currency.'”

Wilkins further wrote that “security with prosperity remains the defining vision of the leaders’ meeting” and that “each [nation] will continue to protect its own interests, but it makes sense, as friends and neighbors, to sit down together and see what we might accomplish better together.”

Phillips responded by noting that Wilkins was appointed by Bush and represents an administration that “does not have a reputation for straight talking or accuracy … .” And it’s high time for the SPP organizers to “tear down the wall of silence and let the people see what you are scheming to do,” he said.