Link to article here.

This article demonstrates how both TxDOT and lawmakers ignore the law. Once again, TxDOT admits they’re lobbying, this time members of Congress specifically, and no one in the Legislature, Congress or law enforcement is doing a single thing about it! TxDOT leaves out the fact that they stopped hiring outside lobbyists because they got hauled into court by TURF to enforce the law prohibiting them from doing so. Read our press release laying out the laws TxDOT is breaking with impunity, despite our lawsuit!

TxDOT tries to bridge rifts with Texans in Congress

By BENNETT ROTH and STEWART POWELL

May 25, 2008

Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — The Texas Department of Transportation, long viewed as hyperpartisan and arrogant by some members of the state’s congressional delegation, has been trying to soften its image by reaching out to lawmakers of both parties in the nation’s capital.

But while state transportation officials are having some success in easing the personal animus, they still face a stiff challenge in selling their policy agenda to the state’s elected officials in Washington.

Many Texans on the Potomac cringe at the agency’s embrace of toll roads, the controversies surrounding the Trans-Texas Corridor and TxDOT’s resistance to many of the highway earmarks they deliver to constituents.

“I think it’s a marriage that’s on the rocks,” said Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, who sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “TxDOT has burned some bridges with the Texas delegation.”

The charm offensive comes as Congress begins work on the reauthorization of the massive transportation legislation that expires in 2009. The reauthorization effort will chart priorities for federal highway spending and for programs into the next decade.

Transportation officials in Texas, who have been warning of highway funding shortfalls, hope to increase their share of federal dollars, which amounted to $3.6 billion in 2006. But they also want the flexibility to tap other sources of revenue, such as toll roads and private leasing of highways.

TxDOT has a lot of animosity to overcome. Democrats hold a grudge against the agency for ignoring them during the years of GOP dominance in the House and for using state taxpayer dollars to hire a lobbyist linked to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land.

“They bought the Kool Aid and thought Republicans would be in the permanent majority,” said Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, referring to the GOP lobbyists hired by TxDOT. “It is no secret they didn’t talk to Democrats.”

Thawing relations

Lawmakers say the thaw in relations with state highway officials began last fall when the late Ric Williamson, the hard-charging and very partisan chairman of the state Transportation Commission, flew to Washington to make peace with the delegation after Democrats regained control of Congress. That effort continued after Williamson’s death in December.”There may be hard feelings about things that happened in the past, but we have significant challenges in the future,” said Deirdre Delisi, appointed by Gov. Rick Perry to lead the five-member Transportation Commission, which oversees TxDOT and the state’s extensive highway and bridge system,

TxDOT also has taken action that appears to be aimed at placating Texas Democrats and acknowledging the party will likely remain in control of Congress for the near future.

In February, the agency quietly ended outside lobbying contracts, worth $117,692 a month, including one held by the Federalist Group, which is run by Drew Maloney, DeLay’s former chief of staff.

Democrats had been miffed at the contract in part because Maloney had contributed $15,500 to Republican congressional candidates — including $5,500 to DeLay — since 2003, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Maloney also gave $750 to an opponent of Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, the top Texas Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.

The same month it canceled the outside contracts, the transportation agency hired Rebecca Reyes, the daughter of Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, as one of its two staffers in its Washington office. Silvestre Reyes is an ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, who named the Texan to head the House Intelligence Committee.

The moves, said Chris Lippincott, a TxDOT spokesman, were not taken for political reasons. He said that the outside contracts were terminated because of budget cuts and that Rebecca Reyes was hired because she has a background in lobbying.

Silvestre Reyes defended the hiring of his daughter, saying she “went through the same rigorous hiring process as every other applicant who applies to work for the state of Texas.”

Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Stafford, said it was “probably true” that TxDOT had experienced problems adapting to the new Democratic congressional leadership.

“There has been an expression of interest in coming here and building relationships,” he said, “but I (still) haven’t seen that happen at this point.”

Lawmakers from both parties have a litany of grievances about the transportation agency’s approach to Congress.

Edwards complained that agency officials “have been instructed to blame Congress for the inability to improve highway projects.” In reality, he said, federal spending for highways in Texas has risen faster than state spending.

The friction with state highway officials came about, Poe said, “when TxDOT wanted to tell us what should be built in Texas. It doesn’t work that way.”

The Trans-Texas Corridor

Many lawmakers do not support plans for the Trans-Texas Corridor, envisioned by Perry as a project stretching from Texarkana to Mexico that would be operated by a private consortium. The corridor would include toll lanes for cars and trucks; tracks for freight and passenger trains; and space for pipelines, power lines and communications.Landowners and local governments whose property would be affected by the project have angrily protested the routes in a series of town hall meetings.

“It is public enemy number one in my district,” said Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands.

Some lawmakers have signaled a willingness to meddle with plans for the corridor.

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Lake Jackson, has introduced a bill that would prohibit federal funding for the project. The proposal is backed by Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, whose district runs from Austin to western Harris County and is a hotbed of opposition to the corridor.

As a pre-emptive move, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, inserted a provision in an appropriations bill that barred the state from putting tolls on existing highways for a year. The bill subsequently became law.

Texas’ other senator, Republican John Cornyn, who is up for re-election, said he doesn’t believe the corridor is a good idea.

“Obviously, we need more transportation infrastructure in Texas,” he said. “But I don’t think we need to plow up a bunch of new ground on private property across the state to get there.”

Earmarks criticized

Another area of dispute has been the willingness of lawmakers to insert earmarks — orders funding projects — into transportation bills.Lippincott said the earmarks, totaling $208 million for the state, often force the delay of other projects.

But some Democrats, such as Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Dallas, believe the earmarks are necessary to ensure a fair distribution of state highway funds.

“I’m going to support earmarks as long as I am here breathing,” Johnson said.

Ned Holmes, a transportation commissioner and Houston businessman, said he believes the rift between TxDOT and the Democrats can be repaired through better communication.

Although he is a Republican, Holmes said he has remained on good terms with congressional Democrats and noted that he contributed $2,000 to Edwards’ re-election campaign in March.

For years, Holmes said, “TxDOT was one of the most respected state agencies.

“I think it will be again.”

Link to article here.

Pro-toll former City Councilman turned Greater Chamber President Richard Perez, has turned into the whiner-in-chief on behalf of the Chamber’s big dog, Zachry. This propaganda campaign is a bankrupt attempt to blame those looking out for the taxpayers and advocating for the economic survival of families for the greed of government and road contractors. The overpasses we’ve advocated for 3 years could be built tomorrow for one-quarter the cost, use half the footprint, take half the construction time, and 281 would remain a freeway we can ALL use.

If the big business community understood anything about economics, they’d know paying a toll to get to and from work equals a pay cut for employees. Good luck getting/retaining employees if you’re located in a tolled corridor. I just talked to a guy the other day who works along 281. He told me he’d have to get a new job and move since he can’t afford to pay tolls on top of high gas prices that are already killing him. Let’s start telling their stories…

These rabidly pro-toll whiners who stand to make four times the money off toll roads as freeways can cry wolf all they want. At the end of the day, San Antonio cannot afford toll roads. TxDOT’s own studies (toll roads aren’t viable at $3 a gallon for gas), the bond market (increasing cost of borrowing), and the declining dollar prove it.

Economic Leaders Fear Job Losses from Latest Anti Toll Move
Worry latest lawsuit will show a ‘polarized city unable to solve its infrastructure problems’
By Jim Forsyth
Thursday, February 28, 2008

Lose your job, or can’t find a job? Blame anti toll road groups.

That’s the powerful new message coming from the city’s business and economic development leaders as Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, an anti toll group, and the environmental organization Aquifer Guardians in Urban Areas, filed a federal lawsuit this week seeking to block plans to build toll lanes on U.S. 281 outside Loop 1604, claiming the construction would threaten the Edwards Aquifer and endangered species, 1200 WOAI news reports.

Several economic development groups tell 1200 WOAI news that now that the decision has been made to proceed with toll lanes as a way to fight congestion, any attempts to delay the process threaten the entire region’s economic growth.

“I think what they’re doing through this lawsuit is hurting families,” Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce President Richard Perez said from India. The Greater Chamber has long supported toll road construction.

“At the end of the day, it’s families that need to get out of their homes to work, to shop, to live their lives.”

The argument among economic development officials is that the issue of toll lanes on U. S. 281 has been the subject of a robust debate over the past two years, with lawsuits filed before to attempt to block the toll lanes. Despite widespread opposition, the Metropolitan Planning Agency voted in December to begin construction of toll lanes this year, and now that the debate has happened, lawsuits have been settled and the decision has been made, it’s time to move on.

“All of this is going to cost us an additional millions and millions of dollars that we just don’t have right now,” Perez said.

Several economic development officials cited the weakening national economy, and pointed to the fact that congestion on the city’s north side can be accepted by companies looking to locate in the region if those companies know that the city has planned ahead and relief is on the way. But if companies see a city where transportation solutions are tied up in court, potentially for years, and traffic gridlock on one the most desirable sections of the city getting worse and worse, the image will be of a polarized community which is unable to solve basic infrastructure problems.

One person who helped with the latest lawsuit conceded that the group’s real goal is to tie up the toll lane construction indefinitely, in hopes of forcing the RMA to accept non toll alternatives for U.S. 281, including a long dormant plan to build overpasses at Evans, Marshall, and Stone Oak Roads.

“The last thing we need to be is alienating people who are putting our people to work,” Perez said.

Link to article here. TxDOT’s spin doctors are spinning alright, and Mr. Wear seems to be buying it. The statute says a state agency cannot hire a registered lobbyist, it doesn’t matter how TxDOT defines that lobbyist’s activities, or if they are federal lobbyists or not (there’s a federal law forbidding it as well), just “taking notes” or otherwise, it’s abundantly clear what a registered lobbyist does….LOBBY! That’s why the statute forbids them from hiring one. They did. They broke the law. No amount of spin can change it.

Getting There: Ben Wear
Is TxDOT illegally lobbying? No, it’s ‘outreach’
Anti-toll groups say agency flouting state prohibition on agencies paying to influence lawmakers.
Austin American Statesman
Monday, February 4, 2008
But the question is: Did TxDOT break the law by lobbying? The answer, despite toll opponents’ certitude, is not so clear.

The hubbub began Jan. 22, when Texas Transportation Commissioner Ted Houghton took the mike at a public hearing in Hempstead (about TxDOT’s proposed super-tollway, TTC-69, from Brownsville to Texarkana) to answer a question. The moment, inevitably, is now on YouTube.

Yes, Houghton said, “we hire lobbyists up there (in Washington) to represent the interests of the State of Texas.”

Aha, Comal County tollway opponent Terri Hall said in a news release titled “Smoking gun,” Houghton “admits TxDOT violated the law!” Houghton, of course, confessed to no such thing.

Hall was depending on state law that bars state agencies from spending money to “employ, as a regular full-time or part-time or contract employee, a person who is required by Chapter 305 to register as a lobbyist.”

If you read Chapter 305 of the state Government Code, it basically refers to lobbying the Legislature and the executive branch of Texas government. The four lobbyists named by TxDOT in response to a lawsuit filed by Hall’s Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom — including former Land Commissioner Garry Mauro — work their magic in Washington, not Austin. None are registered lobbyists in Texas.

Now, TxDOT did pay the Rodman Group at least $65,000 to have Gary Bushell, a registered Texas lobbyist last year, spend much of the first half of 2007 talking to local elected officials along the Interstate 35 and Interstate 69 corridors. This was right when the Legislature was considering banning private toll road contracts of the type TxDOT wants to use to build TTC-69. A bunch of TTC-69 local folks came to Austin about that time, asking that their road be exempt. They got what they and TxDOT wanted.

Was Bushell lobbying for TxDOT? No, he was doing “outreach,” spokesman Chris Lippincott and Bushell say, taking notes about the local folks’ concerns and answering questions. If he had, Lippincott said, “we would have fired his (behind) on the spot.”

Lobbying or not, TxDOT has certainly been an active political player the past few years. The late Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson at times last year seemed to be a 182nd legislator. He and Houghton, usually accompanied by TxDOT’s entire senior executive team, were all over the Capitol last spring. TxDOT’s efforts to overturn that session’s adverse results (from its point of view) have taken a variety of forms since.

Williamson is gone now, and TxDOT faces a battery of legislative committees looking to tame it, starting with two hearings Tuesday. Lobbying charges may soon be the least of TxDOT’s problems.

Link to article here. TxDOT’s spin doctors are spinning alright, and Mr. Wear seems to be buying it. The statute says a state agency cannot hire a registered lobbyist, it doesn’t matter how TxDOT defines that lobbyist’s activities, or if they are federal lobbyists or not (there’s a federal law forbidding it as well), just “taking notes” or otherwise, it’s abundantly clear what a registered lobbyist does….LOBBY! That’s why the statute forbids them from hiring one. They did. They broke the law. No amount of spin can change it.

Getting There: Ben Wear
Is TxDOT illegally lobbying? No, it’s ‘outreach’
Anti-toll groups say agency flouting state prohibition on agencies paying to influence lawmakers.
Austin American Statesman
Monday, February 4, 2008
But the question is: Did TxDOT break the law by lobbying? The answer, despite toll opponents’ certitude, is not so clear.

The hubbub began Jan. 22, when Texas Transportation Commissioner Ted Houghton took the mike at a public hearing in Hempstead (about TxDOT’s proposed super-tollway, TTC-69, from Brownsville to Texarkana) to answer a question. The moment, inevitably, is now on YouTube.

Yes, Houghton said, “we hire lobbyists up there (in Washington) to represent the interests of the State of Texas.”

Aha, Comal County tollway opponent Terri Hall said in a news release titled “Smoking gun,” Houghton “admits TxDOT violated the law!” Houghton, of course, confessed to no such thing.

Hall was depending on state law that bars state agencies from spending money to “employ, as a regular full-time or part-time or contract employee, a person who is required by Chapter 305 to register as a lobbyist.”

If you read Chapter 305 of the state Government Code, it basically refers to lobbying the Legislature and the executive branch of Texas government. The four lobbyists named by TxDOT in response to a lawsuit filed by Hall’s Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom — including former Land Commissioner Garry Mauro — work their magic in Washington, not Austin. None are registered lobbyists in Texas.

Now, TxDOT did pay the Rodman Group at least $65,000 to have Gary Bushell, a registered Texas lobbyist last year, spend much of the first half of 2007 talking to local elected officials along the Interstate 35 and Interstate 69 corridors. This was right when the Legislature was considering banning private toll road contracts of the type TxDOT wants to use to build TTC-69. A bunch of TTC-69 local folks came to Austin about that time, asking that their road be exempt. They got what they and TxDOT wanted.

Was Bushell lobbying for TxDOT? No, he was doing “outreach,” spokesman Chris Lippincott and Bushell say, taking notes about the local folks’ concerns and answering questions. If he had, Lippincott said, “we would have fired his (behind) on the spot.”

Lobbying or not, TxDOT has certainly been an active political player the past few years. The late Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson at times last year seemed to be a 182nd legislator. He and Houghton, usually accompanied by TxDOT’s entire senior executive team, were all over the Capitol last spring. TxDOT’s efforts to overturn that session’s adverse results (from its point of view) have taken a variety of forms since.

Williamson is gone now, and TxDOT faces a battery of legislative committees looking to tame it, starting with two hearings Tuesday. Lobbying charges may soon be the least of TxDOT’s problems.

Kens5 News, a CBS affiliate, did a fantastic story on TxDOT’s illegal hiring of lobbyists. Greg Abbott happened to be in San Antonio yesterday, so perfect timing to get face time with the Texas Attorney General. TxDOT is now on notice with the highest law enforcement officer in the state of Texas. Sadly, Abbott chose the wrong side of this issue last fall when he chose to side with TxDOT against the taxpayer in TURF’s lawsuit to stop TxDOT’s PR campaign and political advocacy. Let’s see what he does now that he knows TxDOT’s broken the law!

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Link to article here.

TxDOT toll efforts rapped
01/23/2008
By Peggy Fikac
Express News
Austin Bureau

AUSTIN — A state Senate committee chairman said Wednesday the Texas Department of Transportation may have stepped over a legal line as it pushes the controversial Trans-Texas Corridor and toll roads.
“There is a possibility they may well have crossed a legal threshold because of the restrictions that exist in lobbying by state agencies,” said Sen. John Carona, Transportation and Homeland Security Committee chairman.

“The even greater issue is just why they would continue with an agenda that is so unpopular with the public. That is the most distressing thing of all,” Carona, R-Dallas, said after an anti-toll activist group released documents obtained from TxDOT in an ongoing lawsuit against agency officials.

The TxDOT documents include invoices from a firm that the agency contracts with totaling $63,450 including lobbyists and a poll, and an e-mail on “draft quotes” sent to local officials for their approval or edits.

The poll was conducted by Baselice & Associates. Mike Baselice also is Gov. Rick Perry’s pollster.

Noting a Feb. 5 joint hearing on TxDOT by his committee and the Senate Finance Committee, Carona said, “TxDOT has a lot of explaining to do.

“In this next legislative session, I look to see even tighter reins placed upon TxDOT and the commission by both the House and the Senate, and I think that’s regrettable” because it shows a loss of trust, he said.

Ted Houghton of the Texas Transportation Commission, which oversees TxDOT, said he’s confident the agency hasn’t violated the law as it works to secure resources and inform the public.

“We rely on outside expertise to guide us and help us,” said Houghton, of El Paso.

Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, or TURF, contends in its lawsuit that TxDOT officials violated a ban on lobbying and on using their authority for political purposes.

The lawsuit was sparked by the agency’s estimated $7 million to $9 million Keep Texas Moving campaign to promote toll roads and the proposed highway network, both championed by Perry, who appoints the Transportation Commission. The lawsuit also was fueled by agency efforts to get more state tolling authority from the federal government.

Backers of the corridor and tolls say they’re necessary in the face of congestion and insufficient gas-tax revenues. Critics have blasted the potential corridor route and the state’s partnering with private firms to run toll roads, which lawmakers sought to rein in last year.

The state agency is holding a series of public meetings on the corridor, and TURF used one as a forum to release the documents.

The documents “show a concerted, premeditated effort on the part of our highway department to directly lobby elected officials, which is against the law. They are pushing a political agenda and legislation that would give them the Trans-Texas Corridor and privatized toll roads and an open door to an endless revenue stream from Texas taxpayers and motorists,” said TURF’s Terri Hall of San Antonio.

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Hempstead, TX, January 22, 2008 – TxDOT hired 4 federal lobbyists and paid $5,000 and $10,000 monthly retainers to Chad Bradley, Drew Maloney, Garry Mauro, Billy Moore and one state lobbyist with Alliance for I-69, Gary Bushell, to lobby elected officials and solicit them in selling the public on the controversial Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69 privatized toll project. On March 23, 2007, Bushell met directly with 4 Waller County Commissioners Glenn Beckendorff, Bill Eplen, Terry Harrison, and Milton Whiting.

It apparently didn’t do TxDOT any good since the Waller County Commissioners passed a resolution against the Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69 project coming through Waller County. But that’s not the case in other meetings where elected officials raced to the microphone to sing the praises of the TTC-69 to their constituents like they did in Texarkana, January 15.

As part of TURF’s lawsuit against the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) for its ad campaign to advocate toll roads and the Trans Texas Corridor (in violation of Texas Government Code Chapter 556), new evidence uncovered this taxpayer-funded lobbying by TxDOT.

TURF discovered detailed logs showing a concerted campaign to lobby politicians, particularly newly elected officials, which is a BIG no-no for a state agency that must remain apolitical. Bushell personally lobbied more than two-dozen elected officials in the path of TTC-69 prior to the Town Hall meetings.

Houghton admits TxDOT violated the law!
At the packed Town Hall meeting in Hempstead tonight (estimated 800-1,000 people in attendance), Transportation Commissioner Ted Houghton said he also personally met with every county judge in the path of the Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69 as he defended the “necessity” of TxDOT hiring lobbyists to “lobby” elected officials (he used that exact word multiple times).

This action is in DIRECT VIOLATION OF THE LAW!

Texas Government Code:
§ 556.005. Employment of Lobbyist

(a) A state agency may not use appropriated money to employ, as a regular full-time or part-time or contract employee, a person who is required by Chapter 305 to register as a lobbyist. Except for an institution of higher education as defined by Section 61.003, Education Code, a state agency may not use any money under its control to employ or contract with an individual who is required by Chapter 305 to register as a lobbyist.

“Where’s the Travis County District Attorney? TxDOT has now publicly admitted, on camera, that it has violated the LAW!” says an incredulous Terri Hall, Founder of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (or TURF).

Zachry sends observer
Trouble in the private toll paradise?
Another first at tonight’s Town Hall was the presence of a Zachry employee taking meticulous notes on his laptop. Zachry Construction is one of the private consortiums seeking the development rights to the TTC 69 project.

“This is a first,” said Hank Gilbert, a TURF Board member attending the Town Halls. “I’ve never seen a Zachry employee at a single public meeting in my 3 1/2 years fighting this thing.”

This may indicate trouble in Governor’s Perry’s world of private sector control of our public highways. The 80th Legislature passed a private toll moratorium (SB 792) in 2007 and the public-private partnership lobby has been jittery ever since. The public opposition is growing more fierce and more organized.

TURF also discovered in a memo to TxDOT dated November 8, 2007, that Rodman & Co. marketing gurus seem to have drafted quotes on behalf of elected officials in order to place them as positive quotes in press releases about the TTC-69 project.

TxDOT also hired Governor Rick Perry’s political polling outfit, Bacelice & Associates, to conduct a poll that included asking one’s political party affiliation in its questions.

“What does a person’s political party have to do with a supposed ‘public information’ campaign? Nothing, it’s clear this ad campaign is about pushing a political agenda and brainwashing the public with pro-toll talking points like ‘tolls are better than gas taxes to fund roads’. C’mon, this is politics run amok and an agency run amok. Who’s going to rein them in?” criticizes Hall.

“TxDOT has patently and repeatedly denied that they’ve been illegally lobbying elected officials, yet they secretly and knowingly hired registered lobbyists to do the Governor’s dirty work in ramming toll roads and this Trans Texas Corridor down the taxpayers’ throats! It’s an outrage and we intend to put a stop to it since no one else will,” promises Hall.

“The LAW forbids TxDOT from using taxpayer money for a political purpose, only to find they’ve blown millions on PR firms and are currently using OUR MONEY to put up more than 2 dozen TxDOT employees as they galavant all over the state in a series of Town Hall meetings. The Town Halls are for purely political purposes, and they’re more akin to a propaganda-filled dog and pony show than a real dialogue giving the public veto power over this project,” notes Hall.

TxDOT is holding this series of Town Hall Meetings ahead of the official LEGAL public hearings for TTC-69 in order to win over an unsuspecting public and to divert critics AWAY from registering their opposition on the official LEGAL record at the public hearings to follow.

TxDOT’s behavior demonstrates why there are laws prohibiting the government from using its power and OUR money against the taxpayer. The citizens have the deck stacked against them when their own government forcibly takes their money and uses it to clobber them.

What TxDOT calls “outreach” is, in reality, an ad campaign (www.KeepTexasMoving.com) using public relations firms and political strategists to “sell” the public on a privatized, tolled trade corridor from Laredo to Texarkana.

Like TTC-35, TTC-69 plans to convert some existing highways into privately controlled toll roads, making Texas taxpayers pay twice for the same stretch of road as well as to force Texas landowners to give-up their farms and ranches for a massive new stretch of road in order to complete the entire TTC-69 project.

Read the latest in TURF’s lawsuit against TxDOT’s misuse of taxpayer money for an ad campaign advocating tolls and against its lobbying activities here.

Read TURF’s formal complaint against TxDOT’s illegal use of taxpayer money filed with Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle here.

Link to article here.

Link to article here.