Category: General

Message to Senator Carona from a member of his Party

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Senator Carona,

I am writing you as a political ally with a dire warning. There is a huge backlash awaiting the Legislature if private toll roads are allowed. We will not forget those who sold us out: how can we, when we will be forced to pay foreign corporations every day for the rest of our lives for the privilege of driving roads we already paid for? This is not something that will go away with the passage of time.

Please, for the sake of the future of the GOP in Texas, immediately move SB 1267 out of committee. It’s unacceptable to thwart the will of two thirds of the Legislature who are doing the will of the people! Also, continue to address the needed reforms such as non-competes, foreign management, length of contracts, buy-outs, and up-front payments and MOVE THOSE BILLS AS WELL!

Finally, address transportation funding with accountability and transparency. It is the Legislature’s duty to rein in this out of control agency including tying their funds to certain measures of accountability PRIOR TO ANY INCREASE IN GAS TAX OR OTHER FUNDING. TxDOT is a corrupt, unaccountable agency that has already defrauded the public by cooking the books and halting GAS TAX FUNDED road projects to use CDAs. Their spokesmen have deliberately lied to the public and the Legislature, and have not been called into account for doing so. They are laughing at you, senator!

TxDOT’s high handed methods are provoking the population to anger with their government, and that does not bode well for the party in power, the GOP. King Perry and his appointed cronies are living proof of the worst charges liberals level against Republicans: Big Business, Big Payoffs, and economic tyranny for the working class.

The people will not forget, and 39% does not a mandate make, whatever King Perry would like to think.

–Grady S. and Rachel McClung

The "Suits" aren't the majority on moratorium bill

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It seems Peter Samuel has had a break with reality. We attended the SAME hearing he’s referring to in this article, and it’s all spin. The Senate Transportation Committee didn’t fall for the entourage orchestrated by the BIG MONEY and TxDOT. In fact, the senators were quite contentious with many of the local government representatives and TxDOT. At one point, Senator Shapleigh essentially called a County Judge a liar and Senator Shapiro was practically yelling at the Judge for advocating she vote to “gouge our citizens for the next 50 years” on the Hwy 121 project in Collin County. This is hardly the glowing report Samuel tries to paint.

Senator Nichols in particular was sharp, on point, filled with supporting facts, and a stalwart defender of the moratorium. He also made perfectly clear that the moratorium DOES NOT HALT ALL ROAD PROJECT or even toll projects, it simply puts private toll road deals on hold. In fact, this committee has spent nearly two full hearings discussing how the tolling authority in Dallas can do the 121 deal WITHOUT using a controversial and exponentially more expensive CDA (private toll equity deal for 50 years).

Every one of those committee members knows that taxpayer funded trips to the Capitol to testify in favor of increasing government and taxes is nothing new for local governments and that the “suits” can’t come close to representing the majority of scores of grassroots citizens who managed to get two-thirds of the legislature to support this moratorium! They’re paid to be there. Your average citizen cannot take a day off work, get to Austin AT THEIR OWN EXPENSE, and wait around all day to be called to testify in favor of a bill. That’s because they’re out working to pay the taxes these guys are spending! The PEOPLE have already garnered support by calling their representative to SIGN-ON to the bill…a veto-proof two-thirds majority in each House is proof positive of the support for this bill (not a pre-meditated plan to bring in “suits” by the road lobby and local governments drinking the privatization Kool-Aid)!

We know the road lobby is paying top dollar to change minds and peel off votes, but WE THE PEOPLE will also keep the pressure on until the moratorium becomes LAW!

Link to Toll Road News article here.

Texas concession freezer melts – Carona wants compromise, won’t move SB1267
By Peter Samuel
Toll Road News
March 22, 2007

State senator John Carona chair of the Texas senate transport committee says he won’t move SB1267, the bill which would block the signing of any toll concessions over a 30 month period until Sept 1, 2009. Carona was one of the early signatories to the freeze bill and has been a fierce critic of the concession process and has clashed bitterly with Texas Transportation Commission’s Ric Williamson and the TxDOT establishment.But in a major turnup he told the Austin Statesman newspaper today: “I don’t intend to move (SB1267, the freeze bill).”

Carona won’t allow a vote on the very bill he promoted and signed onto!

His explanation: he now sees a need for a compromise bill.

From someone who ran into Carona informally yesterday and talked the freeze bill with the senator we get the impression he has completely turned against the bill.

Carona told him bluntly: “This moratorium would just be bad public policy.”

Carona represents the area of north Dallas where local officials are thoroughly invested in toll concessions and he has been feeling the heat from them over the past week.

At one point yesterday Carona said: “With North Texas in need of so many major road projects, a moratorium at this time in my opinion would be disastrous.”

“A stake through the heart for many of us”

One local official in Dallas Ft Worth says the proposed freeze “is like a stake in the heart for many of us.”

And Michael Morris the transport director at the local council of governments calls it “devastating” in its impact on planned road improvements in the whole region around Dallas Ft Worth.

The largest concession agreed to – for SH121 – is alone worth $3.5b to the region. Several other concessions are in the selection pipeline worth probably $10b or so in total.

Senate hearing gets pro-concession sentiment

At a public comment session of the senate transport committee yesterday in Austin the majority of speakers were against the freeze.

Carona and other compromisers are talking indexing the gas tax, but that would only provide pennies by comparison. Concessions are for now the only generator of real project money. And why, opponents of the gas tax say, should people who won’t use the new roads pay higher gas taxes when user fees (tolls) would fund them?

The freeze makes sense for those who want to kill all major road improvements, but a lot of Texans think they are needed.

It now looks more likely that there will be a compromise bill tweaking the concession process than the sweeping moratorium. But nothing is assured. The political battle is just beginning.

TOLLROADSnews 2007-03-22 11:00

Freezers react with outrage: ADDITION

Who can blame them? The freeze organizers have reacted with howls of outrage to Carona’s turn-around.

Corridor Watch’s David and Linda Stall ask under a headline Has Senator Carona Been Crushed by TxDOT Special Interest Toll Pressure?:

“What the heck is going on? You may have a plan senator but right now we feel ripped off and sold out.” (see http://www.corridorwatch.org)

Sal Costello leader of the movement in Austin (see http://salcostello.blogspot.com/2007/03/2-year-moritorium-creators-killing-slam.html) says he is sickened and that the creators of the moratorium bills are killing what they called “slam dunk bills.”

Costello contrasts a quote from Carona in December in which he said toll concessions would “bring free roads in the state to a condition of ruin” with his statement yesterday that there are too many urgent projectsHe initially hit out at Sen Robert Nichols as having deserted the cause, as well as Carona.

Nichols says he remains faithful to the freeze

Nichols is sticking with the freeze and wants SB1267 to go forward. He issued this statement this afternoon:

“The effort to halt private toll road deals is not over. We will continue working to prevent Texas from entering into bad agreements that will hold our transportation system hostage for the next half century.

“Pursuing a short-term solution with dangerous long-term consequences is not the answer to alleviating traffic congestion. A two year cooling-down period gives us a chance to get these contracts right before we sign away control of our transportation system.”

Nichols has never explained why it should take two years to cool down and get the concessions “right”. And of course Sept 1, 2009 is 25% more than two years by our calendar.

Carona issues press release late afternoon

Carona’s office released this reproduced in full below:

“”I have received a number of calls about the status of Senate Bill 1267. Many of these callers seem to be under the impression that SB 1267 kills the Trans Texas Corridor, and they cannot understand why the bill has not yet come out of committee. The bill does not do that.” [see excerpt from Legislative Budget Board analysis, below.]

“Some callers think that if this bill passes, it solves our transportation problems. But there are necessary items this bill does not address. It does not address the things that we need to change about the Comprehensive Development Agreement (CDA) laws, such as noncompete agreements, up-front payments, and duration of contracts. There is no reason to wait years to fix those problems.”

“It does not say how we will address our mobility problems in the meantime. There are things we need to accomplish this session, such as stopping or reducing diversion of transportation revenues, and indexing the motor fuels taxes. If all we do is pass SB 1267, then we have told TxDOT it is okay to build all future roads as toll roads, just not CDA toll roads. That is not the message the Legislature should send.”

“We have heard the public loud and clear about toll roads, public private partnerships, and the Trans Texas Corridor. We have also heard from Tarrant County and others for whom SB 1267 creates a hardship, and we have an obligation to listen to them as well.”

“I appreciate the public’s input and concern and would compare where we are to fixing a car. If your car is broken, you might have to pull the engine block, but you don’t stop there and say you have fixed the car. We have a huge task before us, and this is the part of the session that inspired someone to compare watching the making of laws to watching the making of sausage. I greatly appreciate the public’s attention to the session and patience as we work to get the best legislation we can for mobility in Texas.”

Excerpt from summary of SB1267 provided by Nichols:

“The bill would amend the Transportation Code to impose a two-year moratorium on certain provisions in contracts between a private entity and a toll project entity, including the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), a regional tollway authority, a regional mobility authority, or a county. The bill would specify that a toll project entity could not enter into a comprehensive development agreement (CDA) containing a provision permitting a private participant to operate and collect revenue from a toll project or enter into a contract to sell a toll project to a private entity. The bill would create a legislative study committee to study the public policy implications of such agreements with private participants and submit a written report of the committee’s findings to the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The committee would be abolished on December 31, 2008. The provisions of the bill would expire on September 1, 2009. Source: Fiscal Note, SB 1267.

TOLLROADSnews 2007-03-22 21:30

TxDOT throws Congress' Texans into tizzy

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Link to article here.

Yet another example of how TxDOT continues to burn bridges and make enemies out of friends.

TxDOT directive drives Congress’ Texans into tizzy
By MICHELLE MITTELSTADT
Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
March 22, 2007

WASHINGTON — Texas Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill are hopping mad at the Texas Department of Transportation, accusing its leaders in Austin of trespassing on Congress’ most prized power: doling out federal dollars.

A letter this month from TxDOT’s executive director tells members of Congress that the department will no longer support their individual road projects unless they obtain state and regional approval before pursuing federal funding.

“Arrogant,” fumed Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco. “A letter like this is not a way to build relationships,” complained Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston.

Said Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble: “TxDOT needs to understand the elected representatives make the decisions on what projects we do — not the bureaucrats.”

Financial constraints

In his March 9 letter, TxDOT Executive Director Michael Behrens said that because of state funding limits, lawmakers need cited financial constraints in telling lawmakers to run individual projects past TxDOT district offices and local Metropolitan Planning Offices.”Most, if not all, projects require matching funds,” he wrote. ” Earmarks subsidizing only a portion of a project simply do not justify that project’s advancement if funding is not available to provide the remaining balance.”

That message did not resonate with lawmakers who are proud of delivering millions of dollars in roads and bridges for their districts — with federal funds defraying a big chunk. Forty percent of TxDOT’s funding last year came from Washington.

“To send a letter like this, it’s almost saying, ‘Well, members of Congress, we’ll take your money, but we’re going to decide what to do with it,’ ” said Green, estimating he’s delivered $30 million to $40 million in federal highway money to his district.

Preparing a response

Delegation members are readying a response to be sent to TxDOT Chairman Ric Williamson to complain about the agency’s stance.”We are concerned that your letter reflects an unwillingness to work with us to secure future federal funding,” says a draft of the letter obtained by the Houston Chronicle. “Considering the Texas congressional delegation provides almost half of your funds, we are surprised by the tone of your letter and sincerely question whether Texas commuters sitting in congestion share your perspective.”

TxDOT spokesman Randall Dillard denied any attempt to intrude on lawmakers’ turf.

“Certainly, we did not mean to offend any member of Congress,” Dillard said. “We are simply trying to ensure that we are all working together to advance transportation improvements that provide the most benefit to Texans.”

He noted the budget climate is a tight one — with TxDOT being ordered to return $288 million in federal funds by mid-April because of congressional cuts. That’s on top of the $305 million lost through other cuts in the past 15 months, he said.

The lawmakers are irritated by the suggestion they don’t already work closely with TxDOT district engineers and others.

Said Edwards: “TxDOT has certainly burned its bridges with a lot of members.”

Lesson in politics: Choose your words carefully!

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Today, both the grassroots and Senator John Carona learned a lesson…choose your words carefully. It can be easily interpreted from yesterday’s Austin American Statesman article that Carona turned on the citizens with this statement about the CDA moratorium bill SB 1267: “I don’t intend to move it.” Though a compromise bill is supposedly in the works, a bill with two-thirds of the Legislature signed on in support simply must move out of committee. It’s a no brainer.

CONTACT DEWHURST TO GET SB 1267 OUT OF COMMITTEE!

Contact Lt. Gov. Dewhurst at (512) 463-0001 to ensure he gets the message. We EXPECT a bill with 81% of the Senate as co-authors to make it to the floor for a VOTE!

Plenty is going on behind the scenes, and EVERY taxpayer protection and reform needs to continue to be addressed and become law, but let’s get this moratorium OUT OF COMMITTEE and to the floor for a vote!

Read the following and YOU DECIDE:

Link to Carona’s official statement in response to the uproar from the Statesman article here.

Some calls in protest seem to have indicated that the public thinks the moratorium will kill the Trans Texas Corridor or mean that further needed reforms won’t be tackled. Truth is, taking away the CDA financing mechanism of the TTC will be put on hold and the study committee the bill requires will bring forward the concerns with CDA financing and likely KILL the TTC once and for all.

Also, let it be clear, that we expect ALL reforms to continue to move ahead in tandem with the passage of the moratorium. Those reforms cannot wait 2 more years. Let’s also clarify that the moratorium DOES NOT put ALL toll roads nor ALL road projects on hold, it simply puts the controversial private financing (toll equity) deals ON HOLD pending further study.

Senator Robert Nichols makes clear that SB 1267 is NOT DEAD!

For immediate release, the following is statement from Sen. Robert Nichols (R-Jacksonville) on SB 1267:

The effort to halt private toll road deals is not over. We will continue working to prevent Texas from entering into bad agreements that will hold our transportation system hostage for the next half century.

Pursuing a short-term solution with dangerous long-term consequences is not the answer to alleviating traffic congestion. A two year “cooling-down” period gives us a chance to get these contracts right before we sign away control of our transportation system.

Carona runs afoul of anti-toll crowd

By Ben Wear | Thursday, March 22, 2007, 04:00 PM

State Sen. John Carona has learned in the last 24 hours how quickly a politician can go from champ to chump in the anti-tollroad blogasphere.

The Dallas Republican, chair of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee, has become something of a rock star in those circles for his direct — and surprisingly effective — challenge of what had become the new orthodoxy in Texas transportation circles. In the past few months Carona had described the Texas Department of Transportation and Texas Transportation Commission chairman Ric Williamson as “arrogant,” filed bills to rollback some of the agency’s toll road tools and held an all-day hearing March 1 where toll opponents got their best chance to fire back in the past four years.

And he signed on as co-sponsor of SB 1267 by state Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, which would allow no more private toll road contracts with the state for two years. When more than 125 legislators signed on to the House and Senate versions of the bill, a seeming veto-proof majority, toll opponents saw a chance to deliver a crippling blow to Gov. Rick Perry and his Trans-Texas Corridor plan, if not to his whole toll road agenda.

Then Carona was quoted in this paper and the Dallas Morning News today indicating that, well, he didn’t plan to let SB 1267 come up for a vote in his committee. Tarrant County officials, at yet another Carona hearing Wednesday, had made it clear they don’t want a moratorium because it could delay for years some road projects they were counting on to get going.

People like David Stall, with anti-Trans-Texas Corridor group Corridor Watch, and Austin toll opponent Sal Costello went into action. Carona’s office was flooded with demands that he give the bill a vote, and some of his staffers said, well, he’d been misquoted.

No, Carona’s office, later said, the news stories got it right. But he issued a statement at mid-afternoon trying to put his position on SB 1267 in context.

“There are things we need to accomplish this session, such as stopping or reducing diversion of transportation revenues, and indexing the motor fuels taxes,” the Carona statement said. “If all we do is pass SB 1267, then we have told TxDOT it is okay to build all future roads as toll roads, just not (private) toll roads… . We have heard the public loud and clear about toll roads, public private partnerships, and the Trans Texas Corridor. We have also heard from Tarrant County and others for whom SB 1267 creates a hardship, and we have an obligation to listen to them as well.”

Link to the original Statesman article here.

Tollway freeze bill frozen

Committee chairman, a co-sponsor of moratorium on private road contracts, says no vote likely on bill