Link to article here. This corridor is also known as La Entrada.

Alternative Funding Considered for Ports-to-Plains Project
Source: McGraw-Hill Construction

TxDOT will study private investments and partnerships in an effort to expedite the completion of the proposed Ports-to-Plains Corridor.

TxDOT Considers Alternative Funding For Ports-to-Plains Corridor

With funding scarce for the long-sought Ports-to-Plains corridor, state transportation officials are looking at opportunities for private investment and partnerships to pay for moving freight and utilities along the trade corridor.

TxDOT will consider Ports-to-Plains funding alternatives in a study that should be completed early next year.

The research will look at how local governments and regional entities can partner with the private sector to finance needed infrastructure. The potential for utility transmission along the corridor will be assessed, as well as the role of rail and the trade relationship among the nation’s plains states.

Ports-to-Plains is a proposed divided highway corridor stretching from Laredo through West Texas to Denver, Colo. Designated as a High Priority Corridor by Congress in 1998, the Ports-to-Plains corridor is intended to expand economic opportunity and serve international trade from Mexico to Canada.

Despite the congressional designation, adequate federal funding has not been provided to cover the cost of the project.

Using Ports-to-Plains as a case study, TxDOT will research the best potential applications of the Trans-Texas Corridor concept for routes that may not attract tolling as a primary revenue source.

“The utilities industries have found a home in West Texas, and we want to study what potential opportunities are available for attracting private sector investment for utility transmission to other parts of the state,” said Mike Behrens, executive director of TxDOT. He added that such an investment could help pay for road improvements “needed to make Ports-to-Plains a reality.

http://www.portstoplainscorridor.com/

http://www.portstoplains.com/

Link to article here. The whole reason there’s such a dust-up in Austin and the reason why Senator Robert Nichols took it upon himself to halt any further CDAs from being signed is due to the non-compete clause and other horrific details of the Hwy 130 CDA with Cintra. TxDOT is in for a fight!

Privatization a done deal
Pat Driscoll
Express-News
March 29, 2007

Happening quietly in Austin last week, amid a clamor over whether to freeze toll privatization agreements, was the signing of just such a contract — the state’s first, and yet nary a peep was made.

The deal to extend Texas 130 to Seguin was signed Thursday, just one day after the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee held a hearing on a moratorium bill that would halt tollway privatizations for two years.
More than two thirds of legislators have signed on to the moratorium bill. But Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, and Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock, chairmen of Senate and House transportation committees, are sitting on the measure.

Meanwhile, the Texas Department of Transportation is working at least half a dozen other possible privatization deals (called concessions), including one for 47 miles of toll lanes planned for U.S. 281 and Loop 1604 on San Antonio’s North Side.

The Texas Transportation Commission actually approved the Texas 130 agreement with Cintra-Zachry last June pending negotiations on 23 items. The 192 pages, plus 476 pages of support documents, were posted on TxDOT’s Web site since last summer.

Cintra-Zachry will pay to buy land, build, operate and maintain the 40-mile, four-lane tollway from south of Austin to Seguin. The consortium also pledged $25 million up front to the state plus potential profit sharing.

In return, Cintra-Zachry will collect toll fees for 50 years, which are supposed to start at rates comparable to fees for the northern 49-miles of Texas 130, of which the first segments started opening late last year. Increases will be capped to annual growth of state domestic product.

Construction on the southern leg could start next year and finish by 2012, said Frank Holzmann, TxDOT’s engineer over the project.

Yesterday the Senate Finance Committee added riders to the state budget that would FORCE TxDOT to get approval from the Legislative Budget Board in order before entering into a Public-Private Partnership (known as CDAs in TX) or any agreement with a non-compete clause. We applaud Senator Ogden for his leadership and creativity on this since Senator John Carona who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee has stalled the effort to move a CDA moratorium bill out of his committee. The Legislature is just as frustrated with the two transportation chairmen in the Senate and House as citizens are since they’re stonewalling the will of more than two-thirds of our elected representatives who are FINALLY listening to the PEOPLE!

Keep watching…this battle is FAR from over and TxDOT isn’t likely to get the last word when the Governor would have to shut down state government in order to veto such measures!

Link to article here.

Budget add-ons would give lawmakers sway over tolls
‘Riders’ offer second way to skin tollway cat if other legislation falters
By Ben Wear
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Looking to rein in a Texas Department of Transportation that one powerful legislator says has “run amok,” the Senate Finance Committee unanimously passed measures Tuesday that would give legislative leaders direct control over some toll road policies.The riders attached to Senate Bill 1, the Senate’s version of the state’s next two-year budget, would give legislators unhappy with the Transportation Department what amounts to a veto-proof mechanism for rolling back the agency’s toll road powers.

(enlarge photo) ‘Selling highways is not politically correct in this state. I don’t care how much you get for it.’ Rep. Warren Chisum Appropriations committee chairman, R-Pampa

Dozens of bills have been filled this session with that in mind. But with toll road advocate Mike Krusee, R-Williamson County, in charge of the House Transportation Committee and tollway supporter Gov. Rick Perry wielding a veto pen, it’s possible that few, if any, of those bills will become law.

Putting similar controls in the budget, which is the only legislation lawmakers must pass and Perry must sign to avoid bringing state government to a halt, would solve that problem.

The budget riders, among other things, would require the Transportation Department to get approval from the Legislative Budget Board to:

•Enter into “comprehensive development agreements” with private companies to build and operate tollways.

•Include in such agreements non-compete clauses that trigger state payments to those companies if the state makes highway expansions and reduces tollway revenue.

•Spend any money paid to the state by the private companies under such contracts, such as the billion-dollar-plus payments dangled by Spanish tollway operator Cintra.

The Legislative Budget Board has six members: the lieutenant governor, the House speaker, and the chairmen and vice chairmen of the Senate Finance and House Appropriations committees, which write the budget.

State Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, the Finance Committee chairman and author of the bill riders, was asked whether the measures in effect put the budget board in charge of the Texas Transportation Commission. The five-member commission is appointed by the governor and has been aggressive — overly so, in the view of many legislators — in using the powers granted it by the Legislature in the past three sessions.

“You could conclude that,” Ogden said. “My intent is just to provide more oversight.”

He said that this new, more activist role for the budget board — assuming the riders survive negotiations with the House over the huge budget bill — might mean the board’s six leaders would have to convene with some regularity when the Legislature takes its typical 19-month hiatus between regular sessions.

But Ogden said it was necessary “until we’re satisfied TxDOT is acting in the best interest of the State of Texas.”

Will the riders survive on the House side?

State Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, the Appropriations Committee chairman, said Tuesday that he wasn’t familiar with specifics of the Senate budget riders. But he is among more than 100 House sponsors of a bill that would ban private road contracts with Texas for two years.

“Selling highways is not politically correct in this state,” Chisum said. “I don’t care how much you get for it. . . . When you have an agency that’s run amok, you have to exercise the oversight authority of the Legislature.”

Link to article here.

DANGER AHEAD

Toll roads a good deal for shareholders, but a bad bargain for Texas taxpayers

March 24, 2007

By STATE SEN. ROBERT NICHOLS
The Houston Chronicle
Copyright 2007

Few issues have become as emotionally or politically charged over the past few years as toll roads. As a Texas transportation commissioner for eight years and current sitting state senator, I have a well-documented history of supported toll roads to ensure our transportation infrastructure meets the demands of our growing population.

However, supporting toll roads does not equate to supporting a plan that prohibits competition or agreeing to policies that enrich a few shareholders at the expense of the taxpayer.

Gov. Rick Perry, the Texas Transportation Commission and the Legislature exhibited bold leadership and vision by embracing the toll road concept. Using toll roads enables the state to build more roads faster without raising fuel- or other taxes. Few Texans realize that current state fuel taxes do not cover the cost of maintaining current roads, much less to building new roads.
As is usually the case, the devil is in the details. As the Transportation Commission began negotiating contracts with private companies to build and operate new toll roads, the commission hit several bumps.

Most companies require at least a 50-year contract to operate and collect tolls. So the decisions we make today will affect taxpayers for the next half century. In the event the state needs to “buy back” the road during the 50-year period, it is imperative for us to have a clear buy-back provision to protect taxpayers.

The private companies prefer to put off addressing the buy-back issue until another day. This means the private companies would be free to hire experts to determine what they think the road is worth. It does not take a genius to figure out the companies will calculate the price in a way that enriches their shareholders and leaves taxpayers holding the bag. Therefore, before any contract is signed, the state should negotiate an agreed-upon formula.

Imagine if you could make a deal with the state to build a store in your hometown, use the state’s power of eminent domain to take the land needed for your store and then get the state to agree to refrain from building another store in your hometown for 50 years.

Now, imagine your hometown was projected to have double-digit population growth. While it may be hard to fault any business for pursuing such a deal, the taxpayers would hold elected officials accountable.

When the Transportation Commission announced the proposed corridor along I-35 in 2004, both Cintra-Zachary, the company chosen to build the system, and the Transportation Commission publicly stated there would be no “no-compete” clause in the contract.

Fast-forward a few years later and reality is like a cold glass of water in the face. With few exceptions, the Cintra contract contains a non-compete clause stating no alternative roads can be built within miles of either side of the toll road for 50 years without paying penalties. Many similar contracts are being negotiated that would give private companies exclusive rights to many-mile wide areas of land in Texas’ highest growth areas.

Put simply, the state is enacting a policy that forces Texans to drive on a toll road with very few alternatives. In high-growth areas, the private toll operator would be free to increase tolls as demand for the road increases. New road construction by the state would be penalized, thereby setting up a classic monopoly, agreed to by the state, forcing Texans to pay ever-increasing tolls. There should be incentives to relieve congestion, not penalties.

Texas’ transportation policy is too important to determine without open debate. Moving fast to meet today’s demand does not merit shortsighted decisions.

I filed Senate Bill 1267 to place a two-year moratorium on private equity toll projects. Toll roads can be built in the interim by the local authority or TXDOT; however, the government may not contract with a private company to operate toll roads until the Legislature ensures adequate protections are in place.

Surely we can agree that signing away our ability to expand our transportation system for 50 years in the name of expediency is not a wise decision.

Nichols, a Republican from Jacksonville, represents Texas Senate District 3 in East Texas. He is a retired engineer and former Texas Transportation Commissioner.

© 2007 Houston Chronicle: www.chron.com

Link to article here.

Commerce chief pushes for ‘North American integration’
Communiqué shows SPP far more than just ‘dialogue’ with Canada, Mexico
By Jerome R. Corsi
World Net Daily
March 24, 2007

Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez

While the Bush administration insists the controversial Security and Prosperity Partnership is just a dialogue with Canada and Mexico, a State Department cable released to WND shows Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez pressing to implement major trilateral initiatives to help “capture the vision of North American integration.” The cable was among some 150 pages of State Department SPP documents recently released to WND under a Freedom of Information Act request.

Howard Phillips, who has formed a coalition to block development of a “North American Union” and formation of NAFTA superhighways, told WND the document “makes clear that the agenda of SPP is to pursue major economic integration that redefines U.S. businesses into a ‘North American’ definition.”