Category: MPO

Senate Transportation Committee debates road funding, questions market valuation

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Overall, today’s Senate Transportation Committee hearing studying several interim charges on public-private partnerships (PPPs or CDAs in TX), market valuation, the Trans Texas Corridor and road financing, at least began a much needed evaluation of the many areas of concern to the taxpaying public. That said, there were also plenty of political bombs dropped and even ultimatums like “over my dead body” to keep the marathon hearing nerve rattling for what’s become one of the most politically radioactive issues in the State.

Of the nine committee members, 6 showed up: Kim Brimer, John Carona, Robert Nichols, Florence Shapiro, Kirk Watson, and Tommy Williams. Notably absent, as usual, was San Antonio & Hill County Senator Jeff Wentworth. Our favorite comments came from Senator Williams who told TxDOT that it’ll be “over my dead body” before TxDOT takes toll revenues from Houston to fund northern or southern segments of the Trans Texas Corridor. His message: keep your mitts off our region’s money.

This discussion occurred during the CDA panel where the Committee trotted out Jose Maria Lopez of Cintra, David Zachry of Zachry Construction (Cintra’s partner on many toll projects and the Trans Texas Corridor), the Associated General Contractors, and an attorney who represents the public sector on public-private deals who said the decision on the maximum toll rate and escalation formula cannot be left to the private sector. Amen!

Lopez and Zachry agreed that:

1) It’s difficult to determine a “market price” for a toll road without a previous sale price (like a home)

2) That the private sector can offer more up-front cash than the public sector despite its tax-free, low interest loans

3) That there is no single market value for any given toll project since competitors would use varying formulas and criteria and would naturally arrive at different numbers.

Senator Nichols, former Transportation Commissioner, had offered up a new way to do buyback provisions in CDAs that would give the State a guaranteed not to exceed buyout price in the contract so there’s no guesswork or court battle over the pricetag of a toll road should the State need to buy it back from a private entity.

MARKET VALUATION CHALLENGED

Then TxDOT hinted they could raid “excess toll revenues” (code for profit) to fund non-toll viable segments illiciting Williams’ ultimatum. “Once you redistribute money it’s no longer a user fee; it’s a tax,” Williams said. We’d argue that ANY money forcibly taken from taxpayers and given to the government is a TAX, not a fee to begin with, but his point is well taken.

In TURF’s testimony, we addressed that aspect of the new “market valuation” scheme, which the Governor injected into his counterfeit moratorium bill SB 792, calling a spade a spade. Market valuation is nothing more than a Robin Hood scheme to milk taxes from one set of motorists to pay for other projects elsewhere, which is horrific public policy and smacks of a slush fund for politicians to raid for any number of projects without accountability or a direct path to track the tax collected to the tax spent.

It was clear that “market valuation” and the words “financial terms” (to be agreed upon) had any number of definitions even among lawmakers who voted for the bill. Senator Nichols expressed concern that 3 bidders could give 3 totally different market values to the same toll road making TxDOT’s insistence on locking local toll authorities into a single market value pricetag for the life of a contract was as foolish as it was impractical. There was much debate over TxDOT’s interpretation of the market valuation language in SB 792 versus lawmakers’ and local entities’ definition.

In fact, the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) revealed new details in the prolonged Hwy 161 market value fight with TxDOT showing TxDOT tried to force the NTTA to agree on no less than 200 different financial terms before agreement could be reached so the project could move forward. And the 200 items delved into insignificant minutiae like grass-cutting measures and requiring no more than 20 pieces of litter on the roadside.

WASTE AND ABUSE

This is what our hard-earned tax dollars have been wasted on…more than 60 meetings of taxpayer-paid bureaucrats fighting over the amount to gouge motorists to use a public highway. In the end, TxDOT believes they could have extracted an additional half BILLION out of our pockets in up-front cash on the project (that the taxpayers would then have to pay back with INTEREST if TxDOT had had its way).

Williams rightly agreed that pulling the “excess revenue” out of a toll project on the front end carries interest and debt (versus extracting excess revenue when and if the toll road produces the cash at a later date), not to mention higher toll rates (though TxDOT insisted it wouldn’t increase the toll rate…yeah right!). He repeatedly said they (the authors of the bill) didn’t want the market valuation language in the bill (inserted by Dictator Perry, but they certainly could have stood up to the Governor and told him NO), and that he’d be more than happy to see it go away next session. Here, here!

Senator Carona also dispelled the myth that private operators take the risk from the State on public-private toll projects therefore justifying the guaranteed profit in these contracts. He said: “Private investors don’t want the risk either, only the most profitable, low-risk projects like we do.”

TxDOT’s TWO-STEP

Senators Carona and Shapiro were flabbergasted that Houston’s Grand Parkway negotiations with TxDOT allowed a non-CDA approach when TxDOT FORCED the NTTA into an up front cash payment in competition with the private sector (Cintra) for Hwy 121. The Harris County Toll Authority attorney then explained their approach, “we weren’t trying to milk this project.” It’s clear TxDOT milked North Texas, though. TxDOT apparently backed-off in Houston, but stuck it to the taxpayers insisting on $3 billion in quick cash (in borrowed cash, no less, based upon future profits) from the Hwy 121 deal in North Texas.

TRANS TEXAS CORRIDOR

All of these revelations preceded the Trans Texas Corridor discussion where Senator Shapiro asked the burning question: why 1,200 feet wide and why not expand existing highways instead of building the Trans Texas Corridor? Of course TxDOT gave it’s usual convoluted ramblings trying to convince the senators they may not use that much right of way and “assured” them they’d expand existing right of way first wherever possible. Who are they kidding? Their environmental documents submitted to the feds will clearly authorize 1,200 feet of right of way regardless of what TxDOT tells the senators in some hearing. The same is true of utilizing existing right of way first. That alternative isn’t even on the table in the current draft environmental study for TTC-69. TxDOT can do a dance for the senators today and steal our land and livelihoods tomorrow.

A suggested solution: Make it law to limit the right of way to 400 feet (the standard for a fully built-out interstate highway) and make it law to force TxDOT to expand existing right of way before embarking on ANY new corridor ventures.

TxDOT also tried to assure Senator Nichols that it will listen to and heed the advice given to it by the TTC Advisory Committees and Working Groups, but then said that tomorrow the Transportation Commission would vote on policy changes to the Trans Texas Corridor regarding use of existing right of way, bisecting land, and converting non-tolled highways into tolled highways (ie – SH 59 and SH 77) among other things, WITHOUT hearing word-one from these Advisory Committees!

Also of note, the counties who had representatives before the Committee today singing the praises of the TTC and toll roads all have goodies being granted to them in tomorrow’s Transportation Commissioner Meeting. Quid Pro Quo? Sure looks like it.

That was the most appalling aspect to today’s meeting, overall. Listening to elected officials and bureaucrats alike promote the Trans Texas Corridor, knowing the destruction it’ll bring. Senator Williams said he supported the TTC-69 despite the farmers with pitchforks! The Lufkin Mayor Jack Gorden said the TTC-69 would increase the standard of living in East Texas. Oh really, Sir, how does increasing one’s taxes and stealing one’s land and livelihood increase someone’s standard of living? Then, Bowie County Judge James Carlow welcomed the TTC to his community saying: “we’re ready to give the land right now. Come build it.” It’s not YOUR land to give, Mr. Carlow. What a slap in the face to his constituents. This deplorable behavior is easy to explain however. These officials have been heavily lobbied USING OUR OWN TAXPAYER DOLLARS by registered LOBBYISTS and TxDOT, and no doubt promised the moon to get on board. Just look at the goodies the Commission is doling out at their meeting tomorrow.

Let the taxpayer revolt kick it up a notch. Let these elected officials hear from you with your thoughts on their “representation” of YOU before this committee.

Hope Andrade of San Antonio to serve as Interim Chair of Commission

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Link to news clip courtesy of Sal Costello, Texas Toll Party here.

Hope Andrade Named Interim Chair of TxDOT

Hope Andrade, who has served on the commission since 2003, has been appointed to a term to expire “at the pleasure of the Governor”.

According to the Governor’s Office, Gov. Rick “39-percent” Perry appointed San Antonio’s Hope Andrade as the interim chair of the Texas Transportation Commission today – to replace Ric Williamson who died from a heart attack just weeks ago. Andrade is expected to continue to ignore Texans and the Texas lege, to force freeway to tollway conversions (as well as the TTC land grab) just as Williamson did.
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To see what a bully Andrade is, go here. She removed a blind, disabled veteran from the San Antonio MPO Board for voting against tolls! How mean!

Waco gets hits with proposed tolls on I-35

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Link to article here. Now Waco gets hit with proposed toll lanes on EXISTING INTERSTATE I-35! Read the comments we submitted after this article…

Local residents comment on proposed toll lanes
Monday, January 14, 2008
By David Doerr
Tribune-Herald staff writer

Area residents have one more day to get in the last word on a proposal to add two toll lanes to Interstate 35 through Waco.

After receiving 14 submissions, the Waco Metropolitan Planning Organization is accepting written comments on the staff recommendation it made in December to build the toll lanes along the 13-mile stretch between South Loop 340 and Elm Mott. All written comments received by 5 p.m. Tuesday will be submitted verbatim to the MPO’s policy board, which will make the decision on the toll lanes later this month.

Last month, Waco MPO director Chis Evilia announced that cuts in state and federal transportation funding were forcing local road planners to look at toll roads as a possible option to finance highway expansion projects.

Evilia said the MPO was forced to ax 13 of its 23 highway expansion proposals in McLennan County after Texas Department of Transportation officials announced last fall that there would be no money available to add capacity to the state’s road system after this year.

TxDOT officials have blamed the funding crisis on rising construction costs, federal cutbacks, state diversions of gas tax revenues and new restrictions on private investment in toll road projects.

Evilia has said that while state and federal transportation funding is in turmoil, one of the only ways to pay for road construction is through publicly managed toll projects. He expects out-of-towners driving through Waco to be the motorists who most often use the additional lanes and pay the tolls.

The MPO staff estimates that tolls would provide up to 40 percent of the funding to expand the highway to eight lanes. TxDOT officials say state coffers could pay the remaining 60 percent.

Tolls also could generate an additional $5.7 million to $10.9 million that could be used for other projects in McLennan County, according to MPO planning documents.

Evilia said the Waco City Council has requested a briefing on the toll road proposal and the overall highway funding problems during its meeting Jan. 22. He said he hopes the meeting starts a discussion about the local financing of highway projects, such as the expansions of Ritchie Road and Panther Way.

Comments can be hand-delivered to the Waco Metropolitan Planning Organization office at the Dr. Mae Jackson City of Waco Development Center, 401 Franklin Ave. They also can be sent via e-mail to mpo@ci.waco.tx.us.

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TURF Comments:

Tolling an existing interstate highway is a DOUBLE TAX. No matter how the pavement gets re-arranged when “new lanes” are paved down the middle, the taxpayers will be paying twice for the same stretch of road. The controversy surrounding the tolling of existing interstates has recently gone all the way to the halls of the U.S. Congress. In a recent appropriations bill, tolling existing interstates was prohibited in a one year moratorium.

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison said this:“The purpose of having an interstate system is so that we could have seamless and free transportation into every State of our Union.” She also said: “…we are one step closer to protecting Texas taxpayers from paying twice for a highway. I will continue working with my colleagues to push for a permanent prohibition of tolling existing federal highways.”

Congressman Ciro Rodriguez said this: “Using toll roads to double-tax Texans is just plain wrong…The citizens of Texas have spoken and they do not want the federal highways they have already paid for to be converted into toll roads.”

Inside and outside Pennsylvania, citizens are up in arms that an interstate highway built with funds from ALL 50 states will be tolled, thereby double taxing not only Pennsylvanians, but ALL interstate traffic without voter approval by the taxpayers.

“I hate paying tolls,” said Anthony Foote. “It eats up my profit. If this goes through, you’ll have a lot of truckers avoiding Pennsylvania — including me.”

Pennsylvania officials plan to build up to 10 toll areas along the 311-mile stretch of Interstate 80 in the next three years to help pay for road, bridge and mass transit projects and subsidies.

The move has sparked a political war between the bipartisan coalition of state legislators who approved the plan and two Republican congressmen who say it is a “shell game,” taking revenue from rural Pennsylvania to bail out the state’s urban areas.

— The Bulletin, October 9, 2007
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“It seems that Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell is pushing a scheme to impose tolls on the Pennsylvania section of Interstate 80.

I’m pretty steamed, too. If Pennsylvanians want to charge tolls on the roads they built with their own money, such as the Pennsylvania Turnpike, that’s none of my business.

But I-80 was built with my tax dollars under a program begun by the esteemed Republican president Dwight Eisenhower. Now this Democrat wants to use the road as a cash cow.

Like Rendell, Corzine also flirted with the idea of putting tolls on our sec tions of I-80 and I-78, but Jersey drivers made it plain to Corzine that this was political suicide. So Corzine has to content himself for now with making a buck off our existing toll roads.” — Paul Munshine, New Jersey Star-Ledger, August 16, 2007

No one argues that I-35 is the primary north-south artery in the state of Texas and that it needs new capacity. However, let’s examine the the proposed funding. If only 40% of the project is toll viable and the state of Texas needs to subsidize the rest of it with public money, the project is not a self-sustaining toll road thereby making toll lanes on I-35 a TRIPLE TAX (one tax paid for what’s there today, then more public money to subsidize the project, and a third tax, toll tax to drive on it). This is horrific public policy!

Then, TxDOT has made known that NO NEW projects will be let in 2008 and likely 2009. So makes the Waco MPO believe that the money being promised in matching funds will ever come to fruition? The Waco MPO and City Council ought to carefully consider the source of the promises that have been made to them by TxDOT. This is the agency who enticed the Capitol Area MPO (CAMPO in Austin) into casting a politically controversial vote in FAVOR of toll projects only to yank the funding a few months later (Austin American Statesman, Dec. 17, 2007). TxDOT cannot be trusted.

The Texas Transportation Institute study shows we DO NOT Need a single toll road in the State of Texas to meet our future transportation needs. All that’s needed is a simple indexing of the gas tax. TxDOT didn’t like those conclusions, so it tries to dismiss the report as “flawed.” Also, a State Audit report last year showed that nearly HALF of TxDOT’s supposed “funding gap” figures (the amount of money for road project that the gas tax can’t cover) are pure fiction. The Governor even admitted in a news article in September of 2006 that the “funding gap” was based on a wish list, not needs (Austin American Statesman, August 20, 2006).

We have been hearing a steady cry for accountability and sanity to be injected back into transportation policy, not just in Texas, but the country. Taxpayers and voters see the staggering rise in fuel prices with no end in sight and can’t fathom how a new tax on driving can be squeezed out of the family budget. The cost of transportation is going up at a faster rate than people’s ability to pay it. TxDOT’s own studies have shown toll road aren’t even financially viable at $3 a gallon for gas. We are at that price today, so public servants ought to take a step back and ask themselves why are they promoting a financially unsustainable approach to transportation.

When the cost of transportation increases, it HURTS the economy. Even those who don’t take the toll road will still pay for it through the higher cost of goods, not just in Waco but throughout the state since most Texas goods and service providers use I-35. The decision you will make effects motorists and taxpayers far beyond Waco. The vast majority of citizens are not even aware of the proposed toll lanes on I-35. There have been NO TxDOT public hearings or any reliable means for seeking public comment prior to the MPO’s vote.

There has been no small uprising over tolls on existing corridors all over this state. Show courage and do what’s right by the taxpayers and say “NO” to tolls on I-35 and elsewhere. Every project with such sweeping costs and consequences ought not to be approved without a vote of the people.

– Terri Hall
Founder/ Director
Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom
A non-profit grassroots group defending Texas taxpayers from unaccountable new toll taxation and the Trans Texas Corridor

Bait & Switch: TxDOT pulls projects after CAMPO Board stuck their necks out to toll FREEways

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Now even the pro-tollers are beginning to experience what the rest of us do in dealing with TxDOT….betrayal, empty promises, and an elaborate shell game. Just like Bexar County Commissioner Lyle Larson said, working with TxDOT is like working with a “snake oil salesman.”

Wear: What did TxDOT not know, and when?
Steamed senator wonders why TxDOT pulling funding for toll road plan after politically risky vote in October
By Ben Wear
Monday, December 17, 2007
Kirk Watson is not happy.

State Sen. Watson, you see, and 14 of his Central Texas colleagues pretty much put their posteriors on the line in October, approving a toll road plan despite gathering evidence that voting for tollways can be hazardous to your political health.

Then, in late November, less than two months later, the Texas Department of Transportation decided to cut off spending on new construction starting in February, a move that could threaten those Austin toll projects.

What Watson has asked TxDOT, and what others are wondering: What exactly did TxDOTnotknow about its financial pressures around Columbus Day, when the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization board he chairs was authorizing five toll roads that TxDOT had conceived and pursued for four years?

That toll road vote, as Watson repeatedly pointed out in a letter last week to Texas Department of Transportation Executive Director Amadeo Saenz, was based upon a commitment from TxDOT that it would furnish up to $700 million of the $1.45 billion cost.

In fact, the words “committed,” “commitment” and “commitments” appear a total of nine times in the three-page letter from Watson. The senatorial grinding of teeth jumps off the page.

Watson’s angst results from the TxDOT decision late last month to issue no more construction contracts for new or expanded roads after Jan. 31. That would include the five Austin toll roads, in theory, but it would also knock out several key nontollway projects, including a widening of FM 1460 that helped persuade Seton to build a hospital on the two-lane road east of Round Rock.

“What specifically has changed in the mere two months since the Department committed to providing $500 million to $700 million to fund the highway improvements it requested?” Watson asked in the letter, one of 21 questions he had for the agency.

TxDOT officials had been saying since the legislative session ended in May that money was tightening up, due, they said, to rapid inflation of highway costs, cutbacks in federal transportation grants and increased maintenance costs. And also because of — the element that conspiracy theorists believe is motivating all of this — the Legislature’s decision in the spring to block some of the private toll road contracts the agency had in mind.

The Transportation Department says that its financial plans were based on raking in billions of dollars in concession payments from the private companies that would build and operate a couple of dozen Texas tollways for a half-century or more. Much of that money, unless and until the Legislature loosens the reins, would be gone.

But the immediate crunch also was affected, to the tune of $1 billion, by a decision made by TxDOT itself. The agency, saying highway pavement was deteriorating, elected in the past few months to spend $2.1 billion on maintenance this year rather than $1.1 billion.

The agency put out a report in the spring on pavement conditions (right during the heat of the legislative toll road debate) showing that the percentage of Texas roads rated “very good” or “good” had decreased from 87.93 percent in 2005 to 87.22 percent in 2006. That 0.8 percent degradation was enough, apparently, to spur a near doubling of maintenance spending.

The state has also lost $666 million in federal funding over the past year, with another $259 million cut imminent and strong prospects for another $700 million loss next year. All told (or tolled, if you will), that’s another $1.6 billion gone.

TxDOT officials have been talking about those federal cutbacks, the whole thing, for the past year, and the pavement discussion dates to the spring.

Even so, the commitment for the Austin toll road plan was presented as solid, as money in hand.

Saenz hasn’t replied to Watson’s letter, though he and his staff are working on it. Twenty-one answers to a steamed senator can’t just be dashed off.

But I asked Texas Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson about this last week. Williamson, who usually can be counted on to offer a fascinating mix of political polish and combativeness, didn’t disappoint.

“We fully expect to be treated to another round of nonsense from people who don’t want to accept responsibility for their actions,” Williamson said, prefacing that with an assurance he wasn’t talking about any specific individual. Of course. “So TxDOT becomes the repository of fear and suspicion and whatever else.”

D’oh! Watson, along with an overwhelming majority of the Legislature, voted for the bill that limited private toll road contracts. Then Williamson opened his fist, figuratively speaking, and gathered up an olive branch.

“We don’t blame Kirk for being mad,” he said. In fact, Williamson said, cities like Austin, San Antonio, Dallas and Fort Worth that have made “aggressive and perhaps painful efforts” on tollways can expect favor from the commission.

Not quite a guarantee to give Austin the promised money, but close.

As for what changed in the past two months, well, TxDOT’s basic explanation is that the agency has been trying to analyze and react to a rapidly changing fiscal picture and that it took until November to decide what to do.

That’s unlikely to be much comfort to any CAMPO board members who find themselves giving concession speeches on election night in the next year or two.

Toll rates for 281 approved by MPO Board

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Link to article here. See the Toll Party assessment of what happened at the MPO here.

ARROGANCE: “Nobody wants to pay tolls,” tolling authority board member Reynaldo Diaz said. “It’s just a fact of life, it’s going to happen.” That’s the attitude of UN-elected appointees of the tolling authority (Alamo RMA). You’re gettin’ these toll roads rammed down your throats whether you want them or not….we’re the elitists and we know best. Public vote? Bahumbug…we aren’t going to trifle with a little thing like democracy! Of course, he doesn’t tell you the overpasses have been paid for since 2003 and we don’t need toll roads to fix 281, period! This is a money grab!

The article misstates how many pro-tollers showed up. The reporter was sitting in the front, I was standing in the back. When the tollers stood up, only the first 5 or 6 rows stood. A good chunk of the last several rows were filled with city and county employees as well as TxDOT staff. I only counted about 40 people in favor. Also, at least 40 of our supporters were stuck outside and not allowed in due to the room reaching capacity.

This is not representative government. Critics outnumbered proponents (who will profit from the roads) 3 to 1, yet they Board still voted in favor. What does that tell you? As long as 9 appointees whose jobs depend on them voting for the establishment, we’ll NEVER have representation!We’ve been in front of this MPO for more than 2 years and no matter how many people turn out to oppose tolls, these bought and paid for board members continue to ram toll roads through! Let the people vote!
See the voting record of the MPO Board members after the first story.

First toll lanes on 281 set for December 2010
Patrick Driscoll
Express-News
12/04/2007

Just one day after getting more public funds to help pay for a planned U.S. 281 tollway, a local agency Tuesday set a schedule to open the first toll lanes in December 2010.

Those 4 miles will run from Loop 1604 past Stone Oak Boulevard, according to the timetable approved by the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority board.

Another 4 miles, to Comal County, would open in June 2012, six years ahead of a calendar used in a finance study that had all 8 miles opening in stages from 2011 to 2018.

“The timeline schedule that we set on this is just screaming,” authority Chairman Bill Thornton said.

The tollway could open even sooner if the contractor works fast, collecting $10,000 for each day shaved off of each of the project’s two segments.

But if the contractor’s late, daily penalties would be $10,000 for the first 4 miles and $20,000 for the rest.

Motorists will ride free the first two months and pay just half-price the third month when each section opens. Full fees in 2012 will be 17 cents per mile for cars and will rise annually with consumer inflation.

The existing highway lanes will be replaced with non-toll access roads.

“Nobody wants to pay tolls,” board member Reynaldo Diaz said. “It’s just a fact of life, it’s going to happen.”

On Monday, the Metropolitan Planning Organization, an intergovernmental board that signs off on area tollway and highway projects, voted 12-4 to approve U.S. 281 toll rates.

The MPO board also shifted $43 million in public funds from other toll projects to help pay for U.S. 281 toll lanes. A total of $112 million in public money will subsidize the $476 million cost to ramp the system up.

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December 04, 2007
Board sets U.S. 281 toll rates
Express-News
It took toll roads to turn a quiet planning board into a red-hot public forum, and it took a vote Monday on setting toll rates to pack in a record crowd.

11545196 - TOLL ROAD 1 JD - 12_03_2007.jpg
(John Davenport / Express-News)
Toll critics, who mostly congregated on the east side of the aisle at a VIA Metro Center room Monday while advocates stuck to the west side, applaud one of more than 30 speakers at a Metropolitan Planning Organization board meeting Monday.

The Metropolitan Planning Organization, an intergovernmental board that until a couple of years ago was familiar mostly to policymakers and road industry officials, voted 12-4 to approve rates for the proposed U.S. 281 tollway.

Unlike years ago, before “toll” became a buzzword on talk radio and in the media, the vote didn’t happen in a sedentary meeting where officials fought back yawns.

How they voted

FOR

  • Windcrest Mayor Jack Leonhardt

  • Selma City Councilman Bill Weeper

  • County Commissioner Sergio “Chico” Rodriguez

  • County Infrastructure Director Joe Aceves

  • San Antonio City Councilwoman Sheila McNeil

  • San Antonio City Councilwoman Diane Cibrian

  • San Antonio Aviation Director Mark Webb

  • San Antonio Deputy City Manager Jelynne Burley

  • Texas Department of Transportation engineer David Casteel

  • Texas Department of Transportation engineer Clay Smith

  • VIA Metropolitan Transit board member Ruby Perez

  • VIA Metropolitan Transit board member Hank Brummett

AGAINST

  • State Rep. Carlos Uresti

  • State Rep. David Leibowitz

  • County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson

  • County Commissioner Lyle Larson

ABSTAINED

  • AACOG Director Gloria Arriaga

ABSENT

  • San Antonio City Councilman Philip Cortez

  • San Antonio City Councilman Justin Rodriguez

Carlos Guerra: Crowded meeting, lots of e-mails show the passion over toll roads

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Link to article here. One correction to the article, the toll lanes will replace all 6 of the current freeway lanes, and there will be overpasses and 6 non-toll access roads added with stop lights and lower speed limits. So the plan is not adding 2 lanes down the middle of the existing corridor, the entire freeway is being converted to a toll road. And you can see TxDOT can come up with money to toll a road, but they refuse to give us FREEways with the tax money we already pay. This state had a $14 billion surplus and left $8 billion unspent AND sales tax revenues are beating projections, yet they sit there and tell us there’s no money for roads. It’s a tax grab, pure and simple.

Carlos Guerra: Crowded meeting, lots of e-mails show the passion over toll roads
San Antonio Express-News
12/03/2007

After getting a bunch of e-mails from toll road opponents — and a forwarded e-mail apparently sent out by the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce — urging people to show up in force, I knew that Monday’s meeting of the Metropolitan Planning Organization would be worth watching.The organization is a local intergovernmental agency that approves all transportation projects, and Monday’s meeting was called to unveil how much the toll trolls will extract from travelers once two toll lanes in each direction and a tolled interchange are built on U.S. 281 north of Loop 1604.

It is expected that the toll structure set for San Antonio’s first toll road will set the price for the rest of this area’s 70-odd miles of planned toll lanes.

After 15 minutes looking for a place to park, I showed up 33 minutes before the 1:30 meeting. Even so, I had to wade through a crowd of 42 people who were being kept outside the VIA building by a stern-faced security guard at parade rest, guarding the door.

A sign proclaimed that the fire marshal had limited attendance to 208 people, though this rule apparently did not apply to journalists, who were welcomed in. This was the first time they had to turn the public away from a meeting, said Scott Ericksen, who is, ironically, the agency’s public involvement coordinator. But rules are rules.

Inside, the crowd was peppered with familiar faces from both sides of the issue. But it differed from other public meetings convened to discuss toll roads, especially the “hearings” convened to unveil the Trans-Texas Corridor, in which well over 90 percent of the speakers condemned tolling. This time, the toll advocates’ attendance was impressive.

The meeting, Metropolitan Planning Organization board member and County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson said, was being held “at a very inconvenient time” for working people, and he urged City Councilwoman Sheila McNeil, the chairwoman, to get the show going so the public could be heard on this increasingly acrimonious issue.

The Greater Chamber, I was told, mounted a major effort to get its people to attend.

“I got 442 e-mails generated by the Chamber,” County Commissioner Lyle Larson mused, pointing to a breakdown of the senders. “You’ve got engineering firms, 86; real estate firms, 67; construction and engineering, 37; homebuilders, 33 …

“These are all folks that have a vested interest in getting construction under way. But I can tell you that the lion’s share of correspondence I’ve gotten over the last 31/2 years has been opposed to (toll roads), and I mean by the thousands.”

Like others, Larson doesn’t buy into the notion that tolling is the only option for alleviating traffic congestion. And he questions the numbers the Texas Department of Transportation has issued to support its pro-tolling arguments.

“On the state level, at least, they’re focused on revenue,” he said.

“It’s not about building capacity, it’s about revenues.

“That’s why you are seeing the state come in now to subsidize the (U.S.) 281 corridor by about $112 million,” he added. “They have been indicating all along that there was no money available for 281, and all of a sudden, they found $112 million.”

At $35 million each, he said, “If they had the $112 million in 2003 when (TxDOT) was supposed to start construction on the first three overpasses, we would have gone a long ways at building overpasses at all seven intersections that have traffic lights (on U.S. 281) and alleviated a lot of the congestion by now.”

As for the argument that Houston, Dallas and Austin have embraced tolling options, Larson said, “Well, I’ve always thought San Antonio was unique. I don’t want to be like Houston, Dallas and Austin (in the) way they developed their urban areas, and adding toll roads is nothing to be proud of.”

MPO BOUGHT & SOLD…SEE WHO VOTED TO RAISE YOUR TAXES!

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NON-COMPETE WILL PROHIBIT EXPANSION OF SURROUNDING FREE ROUTES!
These sorry excuses for elected representatives voted to limit ANY new roads or expansion of existing roads surrounding the the 281 tollway which undoubtedly includes, Stone Oak Pkwy, Bulverde Rd., Red Land Rd., and Blanco Rd. (up to a 4 mile area around the tollway by law, yep that counterfeit moratorium Perry rammed through allows it)!

MPO BOUGHT AND PAID FOR

Who voted to increase your taxes
Sheila McNeil,
Councilwoman, Dist. 2, called northsiders “those people” who can afford the tolls while taking thousands in campaign contributions from pro-toll interests like Zachry and Red McCombs
Diane Cibrian,
Councilwoman, Dist. 8, campaigned on lowering taxes but just voted FOR the largest tax increase in TX history! Today is the first day we enlist Jacob Dell to take her seat! Better yet, a RECALL!
Jack Leonhardt,
Windcrest Mayor, said he received 5,000 emails FOR and only a few hundred against (we confirmed that over 1,200 emails AGAINST were sent using our email alias)…so he lied!
Chico Rodriguez,
Bexar County Commissioner who has an opponent in the primary in March
William Weeper,
Claimed he received more emails in favor of tolls and was compelled to “do what the people want” and vote FOR a TAX INCREASE!
Joe Aceves,
county employee who did what pro-toll Judge Wolff told him to do even though 2 of the 3 commissioners on the MPO voted AGAINST and the county has twice passed a resolution AGAINST tolling existing freeways (which are smoke & mirrors and worthless apparently)
Two TxDOT votes (David Casteel & Clay Smith, one of the TxDOT employees seen walking into the Oct. 19 Valero meeting where the highway lobby strategized on how to win approval of the toll roads at today’s mtg)
Two Via Votes (Ruby Perez, who’s also chummy with Sheila McNeil, and Hank Brummet, who previously voted WITH us when he was on the MPO years ago…guess that proposed Park & Ride at Marshall Rd. was enough to co-opt them into voting FOR more highways against their own stated mission of mass transit)
Two City employees (one, Mark Webb, is the boss of a Via Board member Ruby Perez, and Jelynne Burley is the other)

The few heroic GOOD GUYS
Commissioner Tommy Adkisson (wait till you see his impassioned speech when we get it on YouTube, a true advocate of mass transit and simple solutions like contraflow lanes, etc.)
Commissioner Lyle Larson (noted the Legislature is just as guilty for raiding gas taxes)
Rep. David Leibowitz (he’s a fabulous litigator and got the RMA to admit to a non-compete and to tolling existing roads)
Senator Carlos Uresti (poked holes in the RMA’s numbers, logic, determined their plan doesn’t achieve congestion relief AT ALL for those who cannot afford tolls)

THANK YOU FOR THE CALLS, EMAILS, AND COMING TO THE MEETING
YOUR SUPPORT STILL MOUNTED A HISTORIC, FORMIDABLE FIGHT

Many of your fellow citizens have spent countless hours handing out fliers, driving around mobile billboards, making phone calls, and helping turn out the show of force at today’s meeting. We all owe them a debt of gratitude! It did make a difference, the highway lobby had to work their fingers to the bone to get these toll rates passed. They’ve never had to mount such a defense before, we’re making progress and many of the pro-tollers, especially McNeil, took a MAJOR beating in today’s meeting.

In an astonishing marathon 5 hour meeting, more than 200 people filled the room IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WORKDAY! That’s BY FAR the most we’ve ever been able to muster during the workday! CONGRATULATIONS! The vast majority of those in attendance were against tolls. When the highway lobby was asked to stand in favor of tolls by the new SAMCO President Terrell McCombs, I didn’t even count 40 of them. Many of the seat warmers that always seem to gravitate to the right side of the room are TxDOT staffers and City and County employees (all sitting there on the public’s dime, of course). We had at least 150 people there, plus approximately 40 more outside who were initially turned away since the room hit capacity. There was standing room only in the back and around the edges of the room, but they eventually let our folks inside as people started to leave.

DOG & PONY SHOW
It was nearly 2 full ours before a single ordinary citizen was given the chance to speak. Of course, Chairwoman “Those People” McNeil, allowed the RMA to go up there and make some long-winded pointless “presentation” that was nothing more than tolling authority Chair and ex-Mayor Bill Thornton spinning all the reasons why a $475 million toll road is the best and ONLY option compared to the $170 million FREEway fix (when adjusted for inflation from 2004 dollars). They showed their fancy “simulation” of the proposed project which shows a completely inaccurate corridor with gobs of grassy, empty buffer between the toll lanes and the access roads. It also showed free flowing traffic on the frontage roads with no traffic stopped at the stop lights (it shows the sparse vehicles hitting all green lights).

Then TxDOT did it’s jig just to try and outlast the public at the meeting on their lunch hours. The highway lobby and their puppet politicians orchestrated quite a dog & pony show, including a scripted exchange between Councilwoman Diane Cibrian (who is officially a DOUBLE tax toller even though she ran on lowering your taxes, we need Jacob Dell to rescue Dist 8 from tax and spend Cibrian!), RMA Director Terry Brechtel and her sidekick Pat Irwin (the engineer who brought you the 28/410 debacle). Cibrian took offense to the SA Toll Party doing automated calls in her district to alert them to her campaign promise and today’s MPO vote to toll existing freeways. The call urged folks to call her to ask her vote NO on toll taxes. So rather than do what she told her district she would do, lower taxes, she equivocated and called tolls a “user fee” and tried to get Brechtel and Irwin to say they weren’t tolling existing right of way or roadway already paid for. They threw in a totally preposterous contention that a 20 lane toll road is better for the aquifer than the current 4-6 freeway (ever heard of impervious cover, Councilwoman?)!

A ZINGER!
That is until Rep. David Leibowitz, a litigator by profession, finally pinned down Terry Brechtel and got her to admit they’re tolling EXISTING right of way/roads ALREADY PAID FOR BY THE TAXPAYER!

CITIZEN CONCERNS:
STILL MORE SECRET THAN KNOWN
A bus load of folks came in from Sheila McNeil’s district to tell her they didn’t want toll roads for ANYONE, northside or not. A very articulate college student chided the MPO for voting on the completely wrong issue….the price of gas will have far more to do with shaping future transportation than ANY road. What they’re building will likely be obsolete by the time it’s finished, because the energy crisis will force a change in vehicular travel unless our failed leadership acts to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. The Federal Highway Administration stats show vehicle miles travel in Texas is slowing and remaining flat, not increasing as the MPO and TxDOT aggressive traffic demand models project.

So I essentially said this: if all of their financial “assumptions” are based on a constantly changing set of variables that is more akin to trying to shoot at a moving target than accurately assessing the amount of growth on the northside, and the price of gas could impact those assumptions/projections very quickly with a steady rise in the price of oil. We have yet to see ANY reports that show the impact of high gas prices on toll viability.

It’s absolutely UNBELIEVABLE that these officials carrying the water for the highway lobby voted for financial terms when they didn’t even know what they were!

Senator Carlos Uresti, Rep. David Leibowitz, and Commissioner Tommy Adkisson grilled the RMA (who wouldn’t answer a direct question for 6 of the 7 hour meeting) and Uresti poked so many holes in Terry Brechtel numbers you drive a truck through them! Those who witnessed the do-anything-but-answer-a-question-and-let-the-cat-out-of-the-bag dance by the RMA were incredulous at how corrupt and dishonest our government officials are from top to bottom. The highway lobby is in complete control of that MPO Board and our government. They’ve figured out how to exploit government power for their private interests. We live in a “corporatocracy.”

Rep Nathan Macias, on the House Transportation Committee, addressed the Board and expressed his frustration that the MPO decisions to toll Bexar County adversely affect EVERY county he represents yet Dist. 73 HAS NO REPRESENTATION ON THE MPO! He’s found 95% of the folks in Comal, Kendall, Gillespie, and Bandera counties OPPOSE TOLLS! Macias is a TRUE WARRIOR for our cause in the Texas Legislature. He mentioned his distaste for the propaganda TxDOT spews instead of having a meaningful dialogue and working toward genuine solutions.

NEVER, EVER GIVE UP! LET THE PEOPLE VOTE!

TURF & Toll Party Testimony prior to MPO vote to approve 281 toll rates

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NOTE: Unedited version
Testimony limited to 9 minutes, then 3 minutes

MPO Statement
281 Financial Terms & Texas Mobility Funds Vote
December 3, 2007

This board is about to cast one of the most controversial in its history.

Let’s evaluate the leadership of this Board. I have had a flood of email, blog comments, and phone calls expressing shock and outrage at the biased, divisive, and inflammatory comments made by Councilwoman McNeil about the northside and about those who cannot afford toll roads.

First, her comments were completely inaccurate, in fact, only the top 1% of income earners make $300,000 a year. Ms. McNeil tried to back away saying she meant average home value, but that’s also inaccurate. The average home value is only $159,000, and, in fact, you can hardly give away a home in Stone Oak right now. She repeated these comments TWICE, and referred to those who have worked long hours and sacrificed much to live up North, as “THOSE PEOPLE.” Ms. McNeil said exactly what she meant to say and no amount of spin can change it.

Second, her comments were extremely divisive in nature, pitting one side of town against another when we’re all in this together. These are the public’s highways and we all depend on them to live and work. What was most astonishing about her comments was the ease with which she told her own constituents that if they can’t afford the tolls (with the average income in her district at $14,000 a year, it seems few if any can afford tolls) they can be relegated to second-class citizens and take the congested access roads! Knowing I-35 is already in the toll plans, she defended her plan to vote to toll the northside, but indicated she wouldn’t be as eager in her own backyard. That isn’t leadership; it’s outright hypocrisy.

We ask that Ms. McNeil resign as Chair immediately and not preside over this vote since she’s clearly biased the Board and has used flagrantly false data to skew the debate in a discriminatory manner. I’ve received dozens of letters like these since her comments were made public:

“The MPO Chair has breached her duty to the citizens of San Antonio. She should resign. Neither my income nor my home value approaches $300K and even if they did, that is not justification for confiscating an existing right-of-way. Does the MPO Chair think that 281 is used only by the ‘rich’? Disband this atrocious body.”

“The MPO Chair has been exposed for what she really is. Put an end to this divisiveness. She should resign.”

“The video of Sheila McNeil’s presentation to her ‘constituents’ was an eye-opener…Ms. McNeil should not be on the MPO given her clear bias in favor of toll roads. She should be as embarrassed in making those comments as was in watching her make them. I was never motivated one way or the other about the 281 tolls, but incidents like this make it hard not to get involved.”

“I am extremely disturbed by (these comments)…(they) are not only totally inappropriate, they are completely inaccurate. I am a Mexican-American blue-collar worker who lives on the Northside. I acquired my home and my income level through hard work (10 to 12 hour days). Nobody has given me ANYTHING. EVERYTHING that I have, I have worked (my ___ off) to acquire. I do not appreciate your assertion that because I have what I do and live where I do, I should, therefore, be required to pay tolls on the roads that I use… Please resign your position on the MPO.”

You get the idea…Ms. McNeil needs to resign from the Board. A KSAT 12 poll last Friday showed 86% of respondents think McNeil should NOT preside over the toll road vote today.

Next, it’s DOUBLE TAXATION to toll an existing road:

“We have lived in the north central part of San Antonio area for 10 years. In that time TxDot promised to improve traffic conditions on 281N by building overpasses. The money was projected, the promises were made, taxes were collected, and nothing.

Meanwhile, the city and county has approved thousands and thousands of homes to be developed up and down the 281 corridor. Still no traffic relief. No overpasses. Nothing.

For the last few years the new idea is tolling 281. Why? Where are the overpasses? IF they had been built when promised we would know definitively if they improved traffic (which in all theory they would.) However, (TxDOT says) the monies for overpasses have been spent elsewhere.

We do not need toll roads. We need what has been promised, funded and denied.”

Hwy 281 needs overpasses, not a toll road. The ORIGINAL gas tax funded plan promoted in public hearings in 2001 included overpasses AND expanding the highway to 6 lanes, AND adding access roads to get to existing businesses. This plan as evidenced in the MPO’s and TxDOT’s own documents was supposed to be let in 2003, and TxDOT FAILED to install the promised fix, which has NOTHING to do with a lawsuit filed in late 2005.

The pricetag for the gas tax plan, $100 million in 2004 dollars. TxDOT has confirmed repeatedly in several news stories that it has $100 million in gas taxes for 281. They had the money and failed to fix the road. So the blame for the situation on US 281 rests solely at TxDOT’s feet. As Ms. McNeil so nicely stated, they have targeted where they think the money is, on the northside, and they want to extort money from commuters and make them buy back the road they’ve already bought and paid for.

That brings us to today. Let’s adjust the cost of the original gas tax plan using the construction index to today’s dollars, it’s up to $170 million. TxDOT is NOT making an apples to apples comparison when it compares the gas tax plan cost to today’s estimated toll road costs. The toll road is up to 20 lanes, the original plan called for only 10. They’re not the same plans; therefore, the cost of the gas tax plan cannot be compared to toll road costs as if they were the same plan. Given the Texas Mobility Funds available, there is NO EXCUSE to spend $475 million to toll 281 when a $170 million gas tax plan would do the job. With FHWA stats showing the growth has slowed in this corridor, this plan is indeed more than sufficient to fix the road and keep it a FREEway, though TxDOT will always claim otherwise, either though the gas tax plan is their own plan based on aggressive MPO growth patterns in the first place. The only thing that changed was TxDOT’s leadership who is shoving toll roads down our throats and asking you politicians to follow them into your own political ruin.

Given the information in an Express-News article on the Park & Ride controversy at 281 and Marshall Rd. just yesterday, portions of this toll road will traverse over the most sensitive area of the Edwards Aquifer Recharge zone and yet TxDOT after one lawsuit and more than a year later has FAILED to do an Environmental Impact Study and claims there is “no significant impact” in building a 14-20 lane toll road over the aquifer. Clearly, the facts say differently as Carlos Guerra’s column addressed yesterday.

NEXT, CONFLICTS OF INTEREST:
This Board ought NOT to give equal weight to what started as a stealth email campaign by the highway lobby. It was hatched in a backroom at Valero, October 19, and meant to give the appearance of legitimate public opinion in favor of tolls when supporters should have come clean and stated where they work and that they have a financial interest in toll roads when corresponding. When a person has something to gain financially, they need to DISCLOSE IT when trying to influence the vote. A public official or RMA board member has to recuse him or herself from any votes or even the debate they have financial ties to what’s being discussed.

The emails you received in favor of tolls have to be considered on this basis. In contrast, what does count is the LEGAL RECORD at the 281 & 1604 NEPA public hearings with over 90% of the OFFICIAL public comment being opposed. There was no official, nor announced process for this MPO to collect public comments for this vote.

But in response to the SAMCO and Chamber-led email campaign, you received nearly 1,200 emails opposed to tolls. Over 35 businesses including dozens of CPAs and Independent consultants wrote in opposition to tolls as well as active duty & retired military and public school teachers.

Then, I personally witnessed Sheila McNeil and 2 TxDOT employees, one that sits on this board, Clay Smith, enter that closed door meeting at Valero where the stated purpose (in this SAMCO memo: READ EXACT WORDS) was to win approval of the terms and funding for 281/1604 toll projects on December 3. Since Vic Boyer who is also an ex-officio member of this board, was also there, this starts sounding an awful lot like collusion to me.

SECRECY/FINANCIAL TERMS:
Despite a sham letter from David Casteel to a few of our elected officials, the meaningful financial guts of the 281 toll rates are still secret. It’s tantamount to malfeasance to vote on this without knowing whether or not there is a non-compete agreement, what the impact of gas prices are on toll viability since other studies have shown toll roads are NOT viable once gas hits $3 a gallon, and what other factors can potentially affect toll rates if the assumptions used change! Essentially, you’re being asked to make a FINAL decision to approve a “draft” document without reviewing a single Traffic and Revenue Study and without knowing CRITICAL financial terms and impacts.

What’s most egregious is the study that has been done says that given the toll term assumptions made, “US 281 has a negative net present market value” and a “tax subsidy” would be required to complete the project. They repeatedly say these toll rates are based on the assumptions made but what happens if those assumptions don’t become reality and we have an oil embargo, or development slows or traffic continues to stay flat and fails to grow at the rate both TxDOT and MPO demand models show?

Here is a chart of the FHWA TX stats that shows traffic (VMT) has NOT GROWN and remained FLAT since the steady of rise in the price of gasoline began in 2005. (SHOW SLIDES)

The Government Accountability Office points out that benefit-cost analysis can be a valuable tool for helping decision makers. Local and state officials here have been denied this tool having never even conducted one, they’ve only taken the benefit-cost ratio as gospel with no documentation of it whatsoever.

Richard Perez’s op ed yesterday notes that “…costs for roadway construction projects have risen 72 percent in the last five years.” Instead of cutting back, Perez says “We can’t wait.” At some point, the cost of a project exceeds the benefits. We don’t know the full costs and benefits of any of these projects and whether the benefits exceed the costs.

When the toll road only goes the same distance that should have built in 2003 and you’re being asked to scramble today in order to extend the RMA project to the county line using a hefty tax subsidy that roughly equals the cost of the ORIGINAL gas tax plan, it’s clear tolling this freeway is a tax grab. There’s a viable, more affordable, less invasive and most importantly QUICKER option, so there is NO ACCEPTABLE EXCUSE to do this toll project when your own study says it’s a net LOSER! The highway lobbyists in this room are the ONLY reason to proceed because that’s who will make money off this boondoggle!

At this point, there’s more that you as decision-makers don’t know than you do know. You don’t know whether there’s a BIG FAT GOTCHA in these plans, but judging by everything else TxDOT touches, you can bet there is one. You ought to know by now the devil is in the details, and you don’t have the details upon which to make an informed public policy decision.

TxDOT and the RMA will say and do ANYTHING to get toll roads. Remember The State Auditor and the Texas Transportation Institute both found TxDOT’s figures are bloated and the Auditor specifically stated their figures “cannot be relied upon to make public policy decisions.” Commissioner Larson called them snake oil salesmen for a reason. You cannot trust what they say or believe any assurances they give you. If this is truly the best option, when why the secrecy? Why can’t they be open about it with the public and even MPO Board members and legislators who have oversight over TxDOT?

Leroy Alloway of the RMA alluded that there is a non-compete agreement and he tried to assure opponents that it wouldn’t prevent TxDOT or the City from expanding the roads, only the RMA. But the City is rabidly pro-toll and TxDOT has a policy that all new capacity will be tolled, too! This will guarantee congestion on our neighborhood streets, this is an OUTRAGE, and you can’t let it happen on your watch!

Among our politicians on the federal level –

Senator Hutchison and Senator Cornyn are opposed to the state tolling existing federal highways. The entire South Texas congressional delegation opposes the state plan.

Hutchison who passed a moratorium on tolling existing interstates said:
“My bill will protect drivers from paying tolls on roads that were already paid for by taxpayers.”

“Tolling existing freeways — the lifeblood of moving goods and services — is bad public policy, and states like Pennsylvania and Texas would incur irrevocable economic damage,” said Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa.

Then, Congressman Ciro Rodriguez who was instrumental in getting the moratorium passed said:
“Using toll roads to double-tax Texans is just plain wrong. I am very pleased that the final Transportation conference agreement contains an anti-tolling provision for federal highways in Texas. The citizens of Texas have spoken and they do not want the federal highways they have already paid for to be converted into toll roads. Working with Senator Hutchison, we put progress over politics for the benefit of Texas.”

We urge the Board to do just that, put special interest politics aside for the benefit of ALL Texans. Do not make the Texas taxpayers pay tolls for what’s already paid for. Give us the gas tax plan NOW!

We notified the public what is happening here today by doing over 200,000 automated calls over the weekend. We will also notify them how each of your voted tomorrow.

Will those who were able to take off work to be here to stand against the toll tax increases today, please stand to be recognized by the Board? This concludes my remarks…
__________________________________________

Texas Mobility Funds discussion –

At the May 2006 TX Bond Review Board Meeting, the record states TMF funds DO NOT NEED TO BE TIED TO TOLL ROADS, they can be used to build FREEWAYS. Prop 15 that the voters passed explicitly states they can used for FREEways. It is merely a TxDOT policy, NOT LAW, that is strong-arming this Board into applying them strictly to leveraged toll projects.

Use these funds to fix the most critical areas of 281 and 1604 NOW! This MPO designated these highways as high priority yet refuses to fund them other than as toll roads, which is the same method TxDOT uses. So how is this Board or the RMA “locally controlled”?

This $325 million total available TMF funds combined with the $100 million in gas taxes for 281 could build all of the needed improvements to 281, the interchange at 1604, and the most critical overpasses on Loop 1604 giving us the most critical fixes without endebting generations with risky bond debt at a time when gas prices continue to rise and put toll road viability at risk.

We all know the Legislature MUST address transportation funding next session. Sen. John Carona, Senate Transportation Committee Chairman, is already calling for indexing the gas tax and stopping the hemorrhaging of those gas tax revenues by ending the diversions through Constitutional Amendment to bypass Governor Perry. And we can all be thankful Mike Krusee, the single biggest impediment to getting meaningful funding addressed, spared us the time and expense of booting him from office by resigning first. If only the other tollers would do the same. If not, we’ll work hard to remove them.

Given that previous toll viability studies for 281 show 20 cents of every dollar collected in tolls goes to administration, it’s the very same problem we have now with the gas tax….diversions, not all of the money collected goes to transportation. So building more toll roads means we’re not actually fixing anything, we’re playing a more expensive ponzi scheme than we have now.

Then, the Sunset Review, a top to bottom review of TxDOT’s books, will also reveal the waste, fraud, and abuse of this agency run amok and allow Legislators to accurately determine the true transportation needs we need to fund, not bloated wish lists that are totally unrealistic at a time when concrete and asphalt prices will force changes to our government’s road building and toll road frenzy and force a change to driving habits now that even the International Energy Agency says cheap and easy access to oil has disappeared. We need GENUINE and REALISTIC transportation options, not more of the same, which is MORE DEBT and the biggest, most expensive toll road the highway lobby can dream up to enrich their own pocketbooks at the expense of the taxpaying public.

Toll roads cost anywhere from 10 to 40 times more money per mile than we pay now in gas taxes. Increasing the cost of transportation only HURTS the economy by sucking more money out of taxpayers pockets to travel to where they need to go, AND extracts more money from businesses who then have to charge their customers more which makes us all have to pay more for everything whether or not we take the toll road.

Why? To enrich a single industry, road contractors and their financiers? It’s downright criminal to crush our economy, and levy the largest tax increase in TX history to benefit the special few. We need to retain our seamless, efficient, freeway system EVERYONE CAN USE, not chop up our highways into a two-tiered system of expressways for the wealthy, and congested access roads for everyone else.

Use these TMF funds to fix 281 and 1604 as FREEWAYS NOW!

A representative list of businesses (whether the owner or its employees) who wrote in opposition to tolls:

Bill Reiffert & Assoc., Inc., Structural Engineers
Macina, Bose, Copeland and Associates, Inc.
TXCO Resources Inc. formerly: The Exploration Company
TEXAS INDUSTRIAL RUBBER & GASKET COMPANY
Food Safety Concepts International
Brandt Engineering Co.
Santex Ltd.
Kersey and Associates
Kirk Kothmann, DVM
Potters Wheel Productions
Edgar Chew & Associates
A-Bear Air Conditioning L.L.C.
Ince Distributing, Inc.
Findling, Milam & Pyle
Barrett & Sons, Inc.
Training, Rehabilitation & Development Institute
Corporate Express Business Interiors
Trinity University professors and employees
Groomer Seafoods
Methodist Healthcare
Scientific Aerospace Research Consulting (SARC), LLC an SDVO SBC (Service-Disabled, Veteran-Owned, Small Business Concern)
Pratt & Whitney, Serviceable Military Assets (SMA)
dNovus RDI
USA Cycling
T3 Technologies
SWTEC, Inc.
FCE Benefits
COMCO Systems
Traugott, Inc. Painting & Decorating
CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT SPECIALTIES, INC
Macina, Bose, Copeland and Associates, Inc.
CDF Properties, Real Estate Investments

Dozens of CPAs, active duty & retired military, public school teachers, and Independent consultants like pre-paid legal, Arbonne, Desktop Graphic Systems Consulting, etc. wrote in opposition to tolls as well.

Perez' pro-editorial only tells one side, and it's filled with half truths

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Link to article here.

Richard Perez was the local waterboy for the highway lobby as Councilman and MPO Chair. He knows who butters his bread and he’s going to use the financial resources and backing of the Greater Chamber to get the toll road road heist done.

First of all, it isn’t “progress” to take on massive public debt nor is it “progress”to subsidize a toll road that can’t even pay for itself! Secondly, his wording is very misleading. He gives the illusion the existing expressway lanes that are there today will still be there when they’re done adding toll lanes. Not true, as was published in the Federal Register, the official legal notice for US 281, EVERY SINGLE HIGHWAY LANE will be converted to a TOLL LANE and the NEW lanes will be access roads with stop lights and slower speed limits which will be the ONLY non-toll option. There will be NO toll-free highway lanes!

Lastly, TxDOT’s resources are hardly “tapped out.” The Legislature just doubled TxDOT’s bonding capacity, transferred more general revenues to TxDOT, and voters just gave them an additional $5 billion in bonds November 6. Then, 281 overpasses have been funded since 2003. TxDOT REFUSES to build them toll-free with the gas tax money it already has in hand because they want to raid the wallets of the poor chaps unfortunate enough to live and work in the 281 corridor. It’s money grab, pure and simple. This is anything but progress or speeding up road projects, rather, road contractors and complicit politicians have teamed up to jam up traffic everywhere until motorists submit to their plan to rip-off taxpayers!

Richard Perez: Toll road plan will enhance S.A.’s future

Web Posted: 12/01/2007 07:11 PM CST

Richard Perez
 If we look 10 years into the future, few decisions will impact our city’s road safety, economic development and quality of life more than the Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Board decision scheduled for Monday. Which direction will we go? Will it be years of waiting, lawsuits and growing traffic, or will the city move forward?

The plan before the board is better than when we first discussed toll roads. When I served as chairman of the San Antonio-Bexar County MPO Transportation Policy Board, we included a toll system in the region’s long-range transportation plan. We were anxious that the system would be controlled in Austin. But now, the system is controlled locally by the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority. We were concerned that a foreign company would build the road and take the profits out of the U.S. But now, all profits stay in our region and will be used to maintain and expand future roadways.

We already see improvements. Through the hard work of Texas Transportation Commissioner Hope Andrade, we see remarkable construction on Interstate 10, the I-10/Loop 410 Interchange, the U.S. 281/Loop 410 Interchange, and Interstate 35 South from Military Drive to Division Avenue, to name a few. But these resources are tapped out.

We must take our next step toward progress. On Monday, members of the MPO Policy Board can pass a vote that provides long-term solutions to our traffic nightmare.

I support the MPO vote to add tolled lanes and direct connectors to the existing free expressway lanes. Here’s why.

We will always have free travel on U.S. 281 and Loop 1604. No one will ever be required to pay a toll. We will always have a free alternative adjacent to the toll lanes.

The free lanes on U.S. 281 will be in better shape once the toll roads are constructed. This design calls for adding lanes in the middle (where lanes currently do not exist). In order to do this, the design actually requires upgrades and enhancements to the current free lanes on U.S. 281, making free travel faster.

Traffic in San Antonio is getting worse every day. Congestion at key locations along U.S. 281 and Loop 1604 has already reached a level of “F” — the worst congestion ranking on a scale from A to F. And traffic continues to grow at 15 percent per year.

We have witnessed continued and significant federal and state transportation funding cuts; these cuts mean shrinking dollars for highways. Help is not coming any time soon from Washington, D.C. or Austin. Just this November, federal rescissions were announced, and the money once earmarked for transportation projects is no longer available. This also means that a significant portion of transportation projects the MPO Policy Board scheduled for 2008 will not happen or will be scaled back. We must solve this problem using our own resources.

The costs for roadway construction projects have risen 72 percent in the last five years. Intense global competition for raw materials such as cement, copper, steel, rubber and petroleum products has been a major factor in this rise. For example, a $100 million project in 2002 dollars now costs $172 million in 2007. We can’t wait.

When I served on the San Antonio City Council, my charge was to represent not only my district, but all the good people of our community. I always did my homework and acted in the best interests of San Antonio. As I take the reins of the chamber, my mission has not changed.

The chamber’s mission is to implement a long-term vision for a vibrant San Antonio. The plan before the MPO is our means. It is a fair solution, and at the end of the day, the only solution.

Richard Perez is president and CEO of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce. He formerly served two consecutive terms on the San Antonio City Council from 2003 – 2007.

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Jaime Castillo:"Those people" comment discriminates against people based on where they live

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Link to article here. View McNeil’s comments on YouTube here.

Jaime Castillo: McNeil just doesn’t get the toll-related frustration of ‘those people’
12/02/2007
San Antonio Express-News

I’ve been invited in the past by immigration hawks to “go back to Mexico,” even though I’m a third-generation U.S. citizen.And, from time to time, I’ve been lumped in with that vast media conspiracy which supposedly takes its p’s and q’s from an unseen deity named “Liberal.”

But, to my knowledge, last week was the first time I was branded one of “those people” merely because of where my family lives.

For that, I have City Councilwoman Sheila McNeil to thank.

In an attempt to ease the fears of her East Side constituents, McNeil last week added another chapter to the ongoing public relations nightmare perpetrated by toll-road proponents.

She did so by telling a gathering of homeowners that they need not worry about proposed toll rates on U.S. 281, which could be made official today, because the folks who live and drive on the north central corridor can afford it.

“Most of the people who use this road live out in that area. That’s who it impacts,” she said in videotaped comments Wednesday that are now part of Internet lore. “Now when they start coming over here on (Interstate) 35, then we can talk.

“But right now the decision we’re making next week is 281 and the folks who live and drive out there,” she continued.

“And those people can afford a toll, because the average income out there is probably around two, three hundred thousand dollars a year.”

At best, McNeil possesses an alarming ignorance of the city. At worst, she will stop at nothing to further her argument, including making up facts.

Express-News transportation writer Pat Driscoll, who blogged about the episode last week, noted the following:

“City stats say four out of five households in Council District 9, where half of the U.S. 281 tollway will be, earn less than $100,000 a year. More than half the district’s households make less than $60,000.”

Oops.

To be clear, as a resident along U.S. 281, I don’t believe McNeil was trying to start class warfare. But her comments reveal that toll-road backers, after months and months of public discourse, still don’t get the primary source of frustration for those who will be tolled.

It’s not about whether someone can afford to pay 17 cents a mile to travel on a tollway. Heck, I can afford to pay parking tickets, but I don’t rack them up on purpose just to save myself a few blocks worth of walking.

The issue, which admittedly is lost in the incessant frothing displayed by organized toll opponents, is that state transportation officials have never dealt from the top of the deck on the toll-road issue.

When it came to divulging financial details about the private partnership looking to build a section of the Trans-Texas Corridor, Gov. Rick Perry and his handpicked leadership of the Texas Department of Transportation did not just tell the public “no.”

They also told the office of Attorney General Greg Abbott, which ruled that the information was public record, to go fly a kite for more than a year and half.

Similarly, it has long been known that the state’s highway funding crisis is in large measure worsened by the fact that state lawmakers keep spending supposedly dedicated highway funds on non-road purposes.

So, acknowledging the anger that the practice generates, did Perry and toll fans lay down the law last legislative session?

Of course not. The biennial budget crafted earlier this year diverts another $1.6 billion from the fund.

Pardon me, Councilwoman McNeil, the issue is not whether a certain group of residents can afford something.

The issues is whether you, as chairwoman of the Metropolitan Planning Organization, will ever put your foot down for anybody outside your council district.