Link to article here.
If the price of gas isn’t about to break your bank, the price of food will. Food prices went up 10% in 2006 alone (no wonder why my grocery budget is busting at the seams for my family of eight) due to the push for ethanol to help fill the need for fuel. Our Nation’s irresponsible lack of a viable energy policy for more than 30 years is coming home to roost and consumers are paying dearly for it. Couple this with an entire year with a national negative savings rate, and we’re headed for a crash course in economic devastation beyond mere recession.

Dash for green fuel pushes up price of meat in US
By Carl Mortished
Business Times Online U.K.
April 12, 2007
The price of meat is set to rise in America as the nation’s helter-skelter dash to convert corn into road fuel begins to take its toll on the supply of food.

The US Department of Agriculture has said that meat supply will fall this year because of the high cost of feed. Output of beef, pork and chicken is expected to decline by one billion pounds as farmers react to the soaring cost of feeding their livestock.

Typically, meat production in the United States rises by about 2 per cent a year, but the pressure from American ethanol producers manufacturing road fuel from corn has sent the price of maize soaring to $4 a bushel.

The USDA is predicting that the 2006 corn crop will sell for an average of $3.10 a bushel at the farm gate, the highest for a decade. Faced with extortionate feed costs, cattle and poultry farmers are rearing fewer animals and slaughtering them early. That means a sudden reversal in the annual meat production gain, representing a fall of 1.7lb per person.

“There is a new demand component,” Shayle Shagam, a livestock analyst at USDA, said. “Livestock producers have to bid against the ethanol industry to get supplies of corn.”

The biofuel revolution’s unpleasant negative consequence was first felt south of Rio Grande, when the escalating price of corn affected a food staple. Mexico’s tortilla inflation crisis is spreading north to the heartland of rib-eye steak and chicken wings. The USDA predicts that food prices will rise by up to 3.5 per cent this year as farmers rein in output in response to feedstock costs.

In Washington, the International Monetary Fund added its warning about the consequences of a mass conversion of food crops into fuel. Mounting political panic over carbon emissions has encouraged politicians in European and America to raise targets for the biofuel content in a litre of petrol.

Food prices rose by 10 per cent worldwide in 2006, said the IMF in its World Economic Report, owing to a surge in corn, wheat and soybean prices. The pressure on prices will increase, says the IMF. The EU’s target of a minimum biofuel content of 10 per cent will require 18 per cent of agricultural land to be set aside for road fuel production.

Corn is a vital component of the human food chain, used as cornmeal for baking bread and tortillas, as cooking oil and corn syrup in processed foods and as animal feedstock. Vast US government subsidies for the production of ethanol, used as a petrol additive in America, has encouraged the expansion of ethanol distilleries.

Link to the Florida bill that takes effect July 1, 2007 here.

The text states:

GENERAL BILL by Economic Expansion & Infrastructure Council and Cannon and Aubuchon (CO-SPONSORS) Ambler; Glorioso
Transportation: Revises provisions for agreements by DOT with private entities; authorizes DOT to advance certain projects in Strategic Intermodal System Plan using funds provided by public-private partnerships or private entities; authorizes department to lease toll facilities to private entities; provides that procurements of public-private partnerships are not subject to specified provisions unless they are part of procurement agreement or public-private agreement; provides for disposition of excess toll revenues; removes provision for speed of certain fixed-guideway transportation system; provides for toll rate increases that are tied to certain inflation indicators; provides for increases beyond inflation amounts. Effective Date: July 1, 2007.

Get set for a Florida Toll Party!

Link to Express-News article on our victory here.

In what can only be the most unexpected turn of events this session…a totally underfunded group of ORDINARY concerned citizens managed to pull off one of the biggest upsets in House history. The CDA moratorium passed the House by a breathtaking 134 to 5 vote (the rest either didn’t vote or were absent) with the final heavily amended bill garnering a convincing 123 to 17 vote. All of the San Antonio reps voted FOR the moratorium, but some voted against the final bill…Ruth McClendon-Jones and Edmund Kuempel.This VICTORY is a total repudiation of Rick Perry, his Transportation Commission, and his cronies in the House, Mike Krusee, Fred Hill, and Larry Phillips. They lobbed “points of order” (parliamentary tricks to kill bills) and amendments (a total of 22 amendments were offered, not all bad) to no avail.

Most notably for San Antonio folks, Frank Corte huddled with the enemy prior to the debate of the bill in an apparent strategy session on how to keep the bill from coming to a vote. Remember his position prior to the floor debate today? He kept emphasizing that he’d only support the moratorium if it made it to the floor for a vote. Then on the floor, he was seen with those who worked tirelessly to kill the bill. You decide whose side he’s on. Actions speak louder than words. When scarcely a colleague would even speak to Krusee on the floor (he’s been totally marginalized due to his power trip, carrying the highway lobby’s water to the detriment of all Texans, and defending the indefensible), this “huddle” was VERY obvious.

Nonetheless, the moratorium was successfully attached to Rep. Wayne Smith’s bill and BYPASSED the Krusee bottleneck. Krusee and his cabal not only looked weak, they were severely weakened after the bruising they took on the floor tonight.

Powers stripped from TxDOT

All Texas counties got an enormous infusion of authority if the language of this bill survives. An amendment offered at the end of the debate moved to give ALL Texas counties with population of at least 2,000 the authority to acquire alignment, right of way, and access to the state highway system now under the control of a rogue agency…TxDOT, WITHOUT HAVING TO PAY TXDOT FOR IT. Read more about this attempted extortion by TxDOT here.

The original bill allows counties to negotiate their own CDAs, which is horrible public policy since CDAs cost 50% more than public toll projects and are rife with non-competes clauses, huge penalties and high tolls not to mention loss of public control over infrastructure. But since the moratorium is attached to it, this provision will not take effect for 30 months and only AFTER the good and bad aspects of CDAs will be revealed in the report to the Legislature. We can take comfort in the fact that at least county commissioners are elected and closer to the PEOPLE than the unelected, arrogant bureaucrats who currently pull the strings at TxDOT.

Perry, Williamson, and TxDOT got their teeth kicked in!

This MAJOR victory took place AFTER an amazing morning event. It may well be the first time a sitting Governor ever planted himself at a House Transportation Committee hearing. Yes, you read that correctly, Rick Perry, dubbed “the dictator” by many Texans these days, showed up at Krusee’s committee hearing, I suppose to give moral support to his battered Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson as he spewed the tired ol’ “the sky is falling” threats and talking points.

Perry already trotted out Transportation Secretary Mary Peters last week to try to intimidate the Senate Transportation Committee into NOT passing the moratorium out of committee (which it did by a unanimous vote), and today all he had left was a feckless and weak “me, myself, and I.” There just isn’t anybody else for them to trot out in support of their corrupt scandalous toll deals, so the Governor had to do it himself. Their taxpayer funded lobbying is unethical and an abuse of office at best and illegal lobbying at worst.

It’s been a rough couple of months for this Governor and TxDOT, and when the moratorium becomes law, months will be years.

Who are the heroes?

Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, the author of the original CDA moratorium bill is the real deal. She worked the floor of the chamber today and has fought tirelessly behind the scenes educating reps and getting this supermajority on board. It’s no small feat to bring 111 co-sponsors to a controversial bill under threat of heavy-handed repudiation from the Governor and TxDOT. This superceded party lines…this is a TEXAS issue!

Here’s a few of her outstanding comments:

On sending the toll revenues overseas and selling off our highway system…

“No one defends the free market more than I do, but I believe government has a basic commitment to build infrastructure.”

On how TxDOT cannot be trusted and has grossly mismanaged public funds…

“TxDOT has spent $19 million of $25 million from the Hwy 130 upfront payment by Cintra.” AND “Just a handful of CDA private toll deals are projected to net a half a trillion dollars and all this money comes from our citizens!”

On the suggestion that government not citizens know best…

“Some may think at times that we’re smarter than our citizens, but Texans know best.”

On the transfer of public assets to the private sector…

She quoted Fred Hill of all people who said, “You never sell a producing well.”

Other heroes were Nathan Macias and David Leibowitz who sprang into action when an amendment was accepted to the moratorium to allow managed lane projects to be excepted from the moratorium, ie – the CDA toll project for 281/1604 in San Antonio. They worked with the author of that amendment who then added an amendment to her prior amendment ensuring Bexar County projects ARE part of the moratorium. Leibowitz also made many good points to defend the bill from hostile amendments which helped other members vote to fend off some ridiculous attempts to overreach.
Also, our thanks to Joe Pickett, Linda Harper-Brown, and the bill’s author, Wayne Smith for carrying this bill to victory.

Thanks to the Grassroots!

We’ve proven this taxpayer revolt is no small nor fleeting movement. We’re not going to stand idly by and allow unelected bureaucracies to run roughshod over our elected officials forgetting who they work for, nor will we allow this sort of public fleecing to enrich a few shareholders. The taxpayers are the shareholders who count, and we NEED to be back in the driver’s seat! Thanks to your vigilant calls, emails, faxes, and overall relentless barrage of correspondence on this issue, we are now over the biggest hurdle in bringing this toll madness to a halt.

HOWEVER, it’s not law yet…never let up, and never give up until it’s law.

Note in the deal mentioned below that Harris County’s (which is the Houston area, for those unfamiliar) fight with TxDOT isn’t about to toll or not to toll, but rather who gets the pot of gold at the end of the toll proliferation rainbow. It’s not about the devastating economic effects of increasing the cost of transportation for businesses and commuters alike, but about government growing itself and holding motorists hostage to go to work, school, or shop for necessities. Though this “deal” may reduce the need for CDAs, it’s not likely to take a back burner for the greedy highway lobby who wields more influence over transportation policy than hardworking taxpayers!

Plan would break logjam on toll road, freeway projects
State and county would share in proceeds collected from drivers
By RAD SALLEE
Houston Chronicle
March 30, 2007
Tolls paid by local drivers would pay for new area freeways as well as toll projects under an arrangement state and county officials are negotiating.

The plan, subject to approval by Commissioners Court and the Texas Transportation Commission, would break an impasse that has stalled three projects the Harris County Toll Road Authority wants to build promptly.

It could also reduce the likelihood that future toll roads in the area will be developed by private companies that might ship most of the toll revenue elsewhere, said Art Storey, the county’s infrastructure director.

Gary Trietsch, district engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation, presented the proposal recently to elected officials on the Houston-Galveston Area Council’s Transportation Policy Committee.

A 56-project list

Trietsch listed 36 toll projects and 20 non-toll projects planned through 2035. He said these could probably be built, using toll funding, within 30 years and possibly as little as 12 years.”I don’t look at it as a wish list,” he said. “I think we can implement it in a reasonable amount of time.”

Storey and Trietsch said they roughed out the concept for sharing toll money at the urging of newly appointed Texas Transportation Commission member Ned Holmes of Houston. He asked them to resolve a stalemate between the Toll Road Authority and TxDOT that began last year.

Ending free rides

After decades of allowing the county to build toll roads on state right of way for free, TxDOT told the Toll Road Authority in May that it would have to pay $1 billion up front, plus some share of its future toll revenue, to use state land for toll projects on the Grand Parkway, Beltway 8 and Hempstead Highway.The new proposal would waive up-front payment to TxDOT, but calls for the county to spend a share of its toll funds on various TxDOT projects now classified as “unfunded” in the region’s mobility plan.

The share of the 56 projects’ cost that the county would pay remains to be negotiated. Storey said the authority’s annual revenue is about $400 million, which is only about 2 percent of the $22 billion total price tag.

That revenue will increase, however, as more toll roads are built, and the cost would be leveraged by bonds supported with toll revenue. Also, other counties in the Houston area are invited to join in similar agreements, Trietsch said.

Instead of viewing the concept as a way to siphon county toll revenue for state projects, Storey said he sees it as expanding the Toll Road Authority’s role. If the county does not participate, TxDOT has said it will build and operate new toll roads itself or seek bids from private firms to build and run them for profit.

Priority for toll projects

Although the sequence in which the projects are built has not been worked out, Storey said toll projects on the list will likely get priority so they can begin generating revenue for the non-tolled ones.Janelle Gbur, TxDOT spokeswoman, said the department still plans to build other projects over the years using federal dollars from fuel taxes.

“But we are looking for a way to fund all the needed projects, and federal funding is woefully inadequate to being these forward fast enough,” she said.

Storey and Precinct 3 Commissioner Steve Radack — both of whom were indignant when TxDOT said it would require payment for use of its right of way — praised the new proposal.

“This gives HCTRA the ability to analyze and build things that will bring in revenue, and it doesn’t allow that income to go to the private sector,” Radack said.

Storey described the idea as “visionary” and called it “the biggest single concept I’ve worked on in the 50 years I’ve been in this business.”