Category: Lawsuit Info

US 281 Toll Road Stopped and it’s in Black & White!

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VICTORY NUMBER ONE! The Federal Highway Administration DELAYS 281 asking for further review!

Working together with (ofttimes unlikely) partners in a cross-partisan effort to stop the tolling of existing highways, People For Efficient Transportation (legal arm of Texas Toll Party) and AGUA (Aquifer Guardians) along with many of you as individual plaintiffs, have DELAYED the tolling of 281! The Federal Highway Administration, who is also named in our lawsuit, took one look at all of TxDOT’s missteps and has withdrawn their environmental clearance for 281 and is forcing TxDOT to perform a better assessment (and hopefully with our help a full IMPACT STATEMENT) of the impact of a 16 lane toll corridor right up against homes and over our sole source of water!

Most importantly, they’re requiring more public hearings which will lead to putting more alternatives on the table, like using TxDOT’s own original plan for 281 to put 4 overpasses at the stop lights and get traffic moving. The original plan is less expensive, less invasive and quicker than the toll plan, AND it doesn’t DOUBLE TAX us for an existing FREEway or put storefronts out of business.

Read the article in the Express-News today.

Injunction filed to halt construction of toll road on 281!

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Congratulations to the army of volunteers and citizens who made this legal action possible! We’re all in your debt! TxDOT and our elected leaders who have failed us will now have to answer to a Judge for their inexplicable behavior of attempting to put a 16 lane toll corridor over our sole source of water when a less costly, less invasive altenrative not only exists but is FULLY FUNDED WITH GAS TAXES and has been in the works for the last 6 years!

Read the press release from today…

For immediate release December 21, 2005

Injunction Filed to Stop Construction of US 281 Freeway Toll Road
Irreparable harm and lack of consideration of less costly and less damaging alternatives cited

Aquifer Guardians in Urban Areas (AGUA), advocates for protection of the Edwards Aquifer, and highway program watchdog People for Efficient Transportation, Inc. (PET) have joined together again to file an injunction in federal court today to ask that work on converting US 281 to a toll road be stopped.

This injunction is the next logical step following a lawsuit filed by AGUA and PET on December 1, 2005 that asserts that an Environmental Impact Statement should have been prepared for the expansion of highways over the recharge zone. In the meantime, TxDOT has been clearing trees and vegetation from the right of way.

“People are already experiencing increased traffic noise levels in their neighborhoods due to the loss of trees in the proposed right of way.” said Annalisa Peace, Vice President of AGUA. “Unless we stop this project soon, irreparable damage will be done to this sensitive area and its residences and businesses.” Documents filed by the Texas Department of Transportation show that residences will experience noise levels from the toll road in excess of federal health standards. At these levels, traffic noise is more than a nuisance, it causes hearing impairment, sleep disturbance, cardiovascular and physiological effects, and mental health effects. Not surprisingly, residential property values plummet.

“TxDOT already has a lower cost and less damaging plan than what they are building, “said Bill Barker, local transportation consultant, “and there are other options that would probably be even cheaper and quicker to build while in the long term helping to preserve the residential character and natural assets of the Hill Country. It doesn’t make sense that a massive, 16-lane toll road is the only feasible alternative.”

“The US 281 project is totally funded by taxpayer dollars, and the charging of an unnecessary toll by TxDOT will only hurt local businesses and residents who have invested in the corridor. This is double taxation and taxation without representation.” said Sal Costello, founder of People for Efficient Transportation Inc. “It is time for people to stand up to the special interests who will profit from these tolls.”

The Edwards Aquifer is a karst aquifer that is highly vulnerable to water pollution because surface water quickly enters the aquifer through recharge features without significant filtration. Many toxic pollutants, such as benzene, are being found in aquifer wells and are common components of highway and parking lot run-off.

The plaintiffs are represented by Save Our Springs Alliance. SOS Alliance’s litigation docket and information on the adverse affects of highways can be found at www.sosalliance.org. For more information on AGUA go to www.aquiferguardians.org; PET go to www.stopdoubletax.com
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LAWSUIT GIVES MPO TRANSPORTATION BOARD A BLACK EYE

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Citizens demand accountability, open and responsive government

MPO TRANSPORTATION POLICY BOARD STATEMENT
October 24, 2005

Concerns about the toll plans for Bexar County and across the state have birthed a far-reaching movement that crosses party lines and socioeconomic status. Our local group has more than doubled in size in just the last 4 weeks. Everyone is affected by the higher cost of transportation!

Our group of concerned citizens has PLEADED with this body to stop the toll plans and to do the right thing. We’ve asked you to order an independent review of the toll plans. We’ve asked you to consider reconfiguring the composition of this Board. We’ve asked you to change meeting times to allow for greater public input. We’ve asked you to fight for our fair share of the gas tax to return to this region. We’ve asked you to properly study the impact of high gasoline prices on toll feasibility. You have stubbornly IGNORED EVERY ONE of these practical and reasonable requests. Now you have a lawsuit against you for violating the constitutional separation of powers and for privatizing and tolling our tax funded public highways.

An ounce of prevention equals a pound of cure. You ought to heed that advice. The taxpayers will not stand idly by and allow you to hold Texas families’ hostage to pay a toll just to drive to work, school, or shop without our consent!

We’re advocating a good government solution to a very prolific problem. Our government has lost touch with those whom it is called to and paid to serve. We’re suggesting the current dysfunctional and unconstitutional MPOs be replaced with legal entities composed of seven-member boards serving two year terms. Texas citizens should elect five “at large” seats, the Governor appoints one member, and the local transit organization appoints the seventh member of each regional board. At the very least, only elected members should be vested with voting powers and be who constitutes a quorum.

The Governor is coming under fire from some members of the press who see his scheme as bad for Texas. Rick Perry’s “innovative financing” made Texas Monthly’s “Top 10 ways to Fix Texas.” The article includes “Stop the toll road menace” at the #2 position. It states, “Turning planned freeways-that’s freeways-into toll roads in urban areas and holding commuters hostage is downright un-American and un-Texan,” –Texas Monthly, August 2005.

We’re a nonpartisan grassroots watchdog organization seeking efficient transportation solutions, good government and accountability. The Texas Toll Party is not opposed to traditional toll roads that are designed and built as whole new highways that complement free expressways. Traditional tollways are primarily funded with investor dollars. In contrast, “freeway tolls” are funded with tax dollars to create a revenue-generating machine that does not solve traffic congestion. Freeway tolls shift public highways to tollways and hold drivers hostage to pay a fee to drive to work, school or play.

This scheme is illegal, unconstitutional, un-American and definitely un-Texan! We await your decision to make this very wrong situation right again, which is the only thing that will restore the public trust.

TOLL PARTY FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST PERRY, TxDOT, and MPOs!

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

GOV. PERRY LACKS AUTHORITY TO COMPLETE HIS UNLAWFUL PLAN TO PRIVATIZE AND TOLL PUBLIC HIGHWAYS!

Austin, TX. — People for Efficient Transportation, Inc. filed a lawsuit today in the District Court of Travis County, on behalf of taxpayers throughout Texas against Governor Rick Perry. The lawsuit takes Gov. Perry to task, as the state’s Chief Planning Officer, for allowing unlawful Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) to allocate federal dollars, which includes allocating funds for Perry’s plan to privatize and toll our tax funded Texas public highways.

NO AUTHORITY TO ALLOCATE FEDERAL FUNDS
Governor Perry has mandated that MPOs shift our public freeways into tollways across the state; however, MPOs simply have no authority whatsoever to dispense funds for such an unpopular and unconstitutional scheme. That includes allocating tax dollars to Gov. Perry’s unelected, unaccountable Regional Mobility Authoritys (RMAs) which will set the toll rates for our already tax funded public highways! It’s important to note that public highways have never been shifted to tollways in the history of our country.

TEXAS CONSTITUTION VIOLATED
Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO – www.campotexas.org) and San Antonio Metropolitan Planning Organization (SAMPO – www.sametroplan.org) are also named in the suit as two of the many MPO boards in Texas are violating the Texas constitution. The constitution clearly states there must be a “separation of powers between the legislative and executive branch”, however, the MPOs have legislators, yes, State Representatives and Senators, serving on these administrative boards.

The first leg of Rick Perry’s Trans Texas Corridor, a 4,000 mile plan of supertollways, was approved by Capital Area MPO in 2000 without the MPO having one statute that allowed it to allocate tax dollars to the 130 Corridor just east of Austin.

DOUBLE TAX WITHOUT AUTHORITY
“The Governor has no clothes.” said PET officer and founder Sal Costello, “At this moment, a Texas law simply does not exist to allow Rick Perry to complete his plan of converting our public highways to tollways.”

Costello added, “Rick Perry’s Double Tax tolling scheme takes existing public highway projects that are fully funded with gas tax dollars, some on the verge of completion, and turns them into toll roads at the last minute. It’s a double tax. It’s morally and ethically wrong. The Governor is being deceptive when he tells the public that he won’t toll existing highways. This deception allows billions of dollars worth of taxpayer-funded roads, and right of way in Texas to be shifted to toll roads, to hold Texas families hostage to pay a toll to drive to work, school or shop. On top of that, he’s doing it without following Texas law.”

Sal Costello continued, “Gov. Perry calls his scheme to toll our already tax funded roads ‘innovative financing’. We call it Highway Robbery!”

MPOs such as CAMPO represent a hodge podge of board members. With State Representatives and Senators serving unconstitutionally on these MPO boards, State Representative Terry Keel has stated there is “an inherent conflict of interest.”

A GOOD GOVERNMENT SOLUTION
Backed by outraged taxpayers throughout the state, PET Inc. is suggesting a good government solution to the current dysfunctional and unconstitutional MPOs: 1) Dismantle the current unconstitutional MPOs. 2) Replace the current MPOs (http://www.dot.state.tx.us/tpp/mpo/map.htm) with legal entities composed of seven-member boards serving two year terms. Texas citizens should elect five “at large” seats, the Governor appoints one member, and the local transit organization appoints the seventh member of each regional board.

The Governor is coming under fire from some members of the press who see his scheme as bad for Texas. Rick Perry’s “innovative financing” made Texas Monthly’s “Top 10 ways to Fix Texas.” The article includes “Stop the toll road menace” at the #2 position. It states, “Turning planned freeways-that’s freeways-into toll roads in urban areas and holding commuters hostage is downright un-American and un-Texan.,” Texas Monthly, 8/05.

People for Efficient Transportation, Inc, is a nonpartisan grassroots watchdog organization seeking efficient transportation solutions, good government and accountability. PET is not opposed to traditional toll roads that are designed and built as whole new highways that complement free expressways. Traditional tollways are primarily funded with investor dollars. In contrast, “freeway tolls” are funded with tax dollars to create a revenue-generating machine that does not solve traffic congestion. Freeway tolls shift public highways to tollways and hold drivers hostage to pay a fee to drive to work, school or play.

People for Efficient Transportation, Inc. is represented in this suit by the Texas Legal Foundation and its President and General Counsel, former Texas Supreme Court Justice Steve Smith.

It’s clear where the Perry administration stands on toll roads. The Governor and his appointees want to turn a great many of our highways into tollways. Consider this quote from Ric Williamson who was appointed by Rick Perry to govern TXDOT: “In your lifetime, most existing roads will have tolls.”

Contact: Sal Costello, Founder of PET Inc.
Tel: 512/371-9926
Email: imacsal@aol.com

People for Efficient Transportation, Inc.
9901 PO Box 90715
Austin, TX 78709-0715

END

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Texas Legal Foundation
710 West Avenue
Austin, Texas 78701

10/05/05

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Texas Legal Foundation (“TLF”) today filed suit on behalf of People for Efficient Transportation, Inc. against Governor Rick Perry, the Texas Department of Transportation, Capitol Area Metropolitan Transportation Organization (“CAMPO”) (www.campotexas.org) , and the San Antonio-Bexar County Metropolitan Transportation Organization (“SAMPO”) (www.sametroplan.org).

Former Texas Supreme Court Justice Steven W. Smith, who is TLF’s president & general counsel, said: “The purpose of the lawsuit is to make these local public entities more accountable to the voters.”

David Rogers, TLF’s policy director, said: “This lawsuit is exactly what the Texas Legal Foundation was chartered to do. A supermajority of Texans oppose tolls on taxpayer-funded highways, and want government to be accountable for toll decisions, but those desires have been ignored by government.”

Smith added: “Even though polls show that more than 80% of central Texans oppose the governor’s toll-tax plan, CAMPO and SAMPO have repeatedly chosen to endorse that fundamentally flawed plan.”

In the suit, People for Efficient Transportation, the plaintiff, makes the following legal allegations: (1) Neither the governor nor the Texas Department of Transportation has authority under Texas law to create special districts like CAMPO and SAMPO; (2) Legislators serving on the CAMPO and SAMPO boards violate the separation of powers provision of the Texas Constitution; and (3) neither CAMPO nor SAMPO have authority under Texas law to appropriate the tens of millions of dollars they spend each year.

The plaintiff does not request injunctive relief at this time, but expects that the Legislature will respond to a declaratory judgment in the plaintiff’s favor by adopting, in a timely manner, legislation that properly authorizes CAMPO and SAMPO. The plaintiff, TLF and others will pressure the Legislature to pass legislation that, in addition to fixing the constitutional flaws raised in the suit, makes those entities more accountable to the Texans they serve.

The Texas Legal Foundation is a nonprofit corporation chartered to advocate “conservative public policy positions that are held by a majority of Texas citizens but that have not been implemented by the government.”

END

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