Category: MPO

MPO Chair: "Those people can afford the tolls"

Posted on by

In an outrageous display of bias and class warfare, Chairwoman Sheila McNeil who chairs the MPO Board that will take a vote to toll 281 and shift tax money to build toll lanes on 281/1604 on December 3, proclaims to her constituents that “those people can afford the toll roads. The average income up there is $300,000 a year.” The City of San Antonio’s web site says the per capita income in District 9 is only $31,000! What a lie! She’s fine voting to toll the northside, just not in her backyard!

See it on YouTube below.

McNeil attended a cozy, closed door meeting at Valero Oct 19 that the Chamber of Commerce crowd called to rally the business community to gain approval of the toll roads at the MPO on December 3…a clear conflict of interest for her as MPO CHAIR to participate in such a meeting.

Object to such blatant pandering to the highway lobby by McNeil who then fulfilled her marching orders by Zachry to ram toll roads down her constituents throats and essentially tell them if you can’t afford tolls, you can become a second class citizen and take the congested access roads. I don’t think that’s the kind of equality Dr. King had in mind.

Email the MPO and tell them to VOTE NO TO TOLLS and NO on using TAX MONEY to build toll roads! It’s a TRIPLE TAX!

Larson: Republican Party now the "tolling party" & tolls largest tax increase in TX history!

Posted on by

Bexar County Commissioner Lyle Larson is right about this:
“The Republican Party in Texas will become known as ‘the tolling party,’ and that image will damage the party’s ability to win future elections. ”

AND

Tolls are “the Largest Tax Increase in Texas History.”

But he’s wrong about the battle over toll roads being over if the MPO votes to approve tolls Dec. 3. There’s no policy, law, or contract that’s approved that cannot also be undone. The taxpayers through our elected officials and at the ballot box ALWAYS have the FINAL say! This is no time to sound defeated!

Larson blasts MPO for ‘secrecy,’ says battle to stop toll roads in Bexar County is ‘probably over.’
By Jim Forsyth
WOAI Radio
11/16/07

Long time toll road opponent Lyle Larson says the proposal that the Metropolitan Planning Organization will vote on next month, to begin the process of building new toll lanes on US Highway 281 north of Loop 1604, amounts to the ‘largest tax increase in the history of Texas,’ and unlike other tax increases which are approved by elected representatives, because the MPO is unelected, there is nothing Texans can do to stop it, 1200 WOAI news reports.

The Bexar County Commissioner made his comments to the Bexar County Republican Men’s Club, and later, to 1200 WOAI news.

“If the vote is successful to use toll equity to build the 281 project, I’m afraid there’s nothing we’re going to be able to do to stop it,” he said.

And if the vote is to give the go-ahead to the 281 tolls, as Larson expects will happen, he warns that is just the beginning.

“Then, God knows what else they’re going to toll. There’s a lot of projects they’re looking at.”

Larson expressed a concern that the Republican Party in Texas will become known as ‘the tolling party,’ and that image will damage the party’s ability to win future elections. He says the vast majority of Texans disapprove of the aggressive toll road building policy promoted by Governor Perry and Texas Department of Transportation Chairman Ric Williamson.

He also blasted the MPO for its ‘secrecy’ and said the unelected agency has a responsibility to lay out for the public the details of the contract agreement on the 281 tolls it will vote on December 3. TxDOT is using a legal ruse to avoid revealing the contents of the contract. It refers to the proposal as a ‘draft,’ while local officials have said the plan up for a vote next month as ‘the final agreement.’

“There’s a lot of things that are built into the contracts that we are unaware of, especially when it comes to building other roads that would potentially compete with the toll lanes for capacity,” he said.

Larson said if that language is in the 281 toll contract, it could prohibit the state from funding any improvements on Blanco Road, Stone Oak Parkway, of Bulverde Road, allowing those routes to deteriorate to make the toll lanes look more attractive to motorists.

1200 WOAI news revealed exclusively more than a month ago that the contract to build State Highway 130 from Marion to Georgetown allows the state to ‘consider’ lowing the speed limit on Interstate 35, to encourage more drivers to take the toll road, and fill the pockets of toll road contractor Cintra Zachry.

Larson warns that next month’s vote of the unelected MPO is probably the last time toll roads can be avoided.

“The only people then that could stop this would be people at the upper level of state government,” Larson said. “I don’t see them doing that in the future.”

Larson also revealed that in addition to the 17 cent a mile toll on the roughly four mile stretch, it will also cost you 50 cents to drive though the new Loop 1604/US 281 cloverleaf which is part of the project.

© 2007 WOAI.com: www.radio.woai.com

TURF seeks injunction, alleges MPO a “front” for toll road builders, operating outside Constitution

Posted on by

See news coverage (more here.)

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MPO a “front” for toll road builders
TURF files injunction to stop MPO’s Dec 3 vote to approve toll rates

San Antonio, TX, Monday, November 19, 2007 – From the steps of the John Wood U.S. Federal District Court in Bexar County, TURF announced its motion seeking an injunction against the San Antonio Metropolitan Planning Organization (SAMPO) for violating the citizens Constitutional rights (in the First and 14th amendments) and hijacking the Board to benefit road contractors.

“By filing this injunction today, we hope to put transportation decisions back in the hands of the people,” said Terri Hall, Founder/Director of the grassroots group TURF.

TURF is asking the court to intervene before December 3 where SAMPO is to vote to approve the financial terms (toll rates and rate increases) for the US 281 toll project as well as to shift yet more tax money to building toll lanes on EXISTING corridors, amounting to a TRIPLE TAX (once for what’s already there, a second for building the toll lanes, and a third toll tax).

TxDOT is keeping vital financial information on the 281 toll project SECRET ahead of the MPO’s vote to approve the financial terms. Board members are being asked to vote on information that has NOT been disclosed, including whether or not a non-compete agreement will prevent free roads surrounding the 281 toll lanes from being expanded.

MPO Board members State Representative David Leibowitz and Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson submitted affidavits (see links below) to the court with ample evidence to prove the MPO has violated the First Amendment and 14th Amendment as it relates to citizens opposed to toll roads.

TURF attorney David Van Os described the actions of the MPO this way: “The self-serving business interests that will reap huge profits off toll roads are manipulating the processes of the MPO to stack the deck against those opposed to tolls. They’re keeping their voices from even being heard which violates their Constitutional rights.”

Adkisson, who has been prevented from representing his constituents’ opposition to toll roads by the MPO’s bullying tactics used Thomas Paine’s words to describe the corrupt practices at the MPO, “A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it the superficial appearance of being right.”

He went on to object to unelected members of the MPO serving on the Board which, in effect, dilutes the votes of elected officials. “Unelected members aren’t accountable at the ballot box,” said Adkisson.

The injunction seeks to halt all activity of the SAMPO Board until it’s reconfigured to have only elected officials with voting powers. TURF’s lawsuit against the SAMPO was originally filed on October 22 and TURF is now seeking an injunction as the next step in that lawsuit to force the unconstitutional composition of SAMPO to be re-configured to have only elected officials with voting powers.

SAMPO allocates tax dollars to transportation projects in Bexar County and approves toll rates and toll projects. The lawsuit alleges that the composition of the SAMPO Board is unconstitutional and Chairwoman Sheila McNeil has been a party to denying the First Amendment right of free speech to the constituents of elected MPO Board members like State Representative David Leibowitz by blocking an agenda item and any debate on an issue brought up at his request (see on YouTube here read about it in his affidavit, link below).

TURF recently scored a victory in STATE COURT in a different lawsuit against members of the Texas Transportation Department and Transportation Commission.

Read TURF’s motion for preliminary injunction here.
Links to affidavits below:

State Representative David Leibowitz

Commissioner Tommy Adkisson

TURF Founder Terri Hall

-30-

Despite law that forbids it, TxDOT still looking to give 1604 toll project to foreign companies

Posted on by

Link to article here. The article mentions SB 792, the private toll moratorium bill that KILLED the 281/1604 private toll deal. But true to form, TxDOT is breaking the law and pursuing foreign control of 1604 toll lanes anyway. The article also notes that up to nearly $200 million in GAS TAXES may subsidize the toll lanes, making the tolling of these existing corridors a TRIPLE TAX (we’ve paid a tax for what’s already built, our tax money will be used to build the improvements, and then a lifetime TOLL TAX on top of that)!

Three to bid on U.S. 281 toll road project
10/24/2007
By Patrick Driscoll
Express-News

Three private groups are now in the hunt to build U.S. 281 toll lanes, but two big foreign companies competing just a short while ago to build and lease a larger toll network here have dropped out.The Alamo Regional Mobility Authority board voted Wednesday to let all three teams submit plans to rebuild U.S. 281 north of Loop 1604 into a tollway with free access roads by 2012. It’s the fledging agency’s first project.

“Goodness knows we have been two and a half years getting here,” board member Bob Thompson said. “Maybe it’s even more important to see the confidence of these three large companies. It adds some credibility, it adds some stature to what we’re trying to do.”

The three teams include 29 construction, engineering and public affairs companies.

Fluor Enterprises Inc. of Irving and Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Inc. of Atlanta lead the Cibolo Creek Infrastructure team. Both joined to develop the Texas 130 toll road east of Austin.

Zachry Construction Corp. of San Antonio and Texas Sterling Construction Co. of Houston lead the other teams.

Zachry joined with Cintra of Spain to produce a plan for Trans-Texas Corridor toll lanes and rail lines that would parallel Interstate 35, and in 2005 offered to build and lease a 47-mile toll network on U.S. 281 and Loop 1604 in San Antonio.

But Cintra isn’t part of the group angling to add U.S. 281 toll lanes now.

A tolling bill from last spring’s legislative session busted plans for the San Antonio network by banning privatization of U.S. 281 toll lanes.

Now Texas Department of Transportation officials say they’re working with Cintra and Zachry, as well as the other international bidder, Macquarie of Australia, to see if privatizing Loop 1604 toll lanes would make financial sense without U.S. 281 in the package.

Mobility Authority officials, saying they want to keep toll rates “reasonable,” want to develop Loop 1604 toll lanes without leasing them and losing some of the profits.

On the U.S. 281 tollway, motorists would pay 17 cents a mile at the start, with fees rising 2.75 percent a year until 2017 and then 3 percent annually after that, under a plan the authority board approved Wednesday.

The toll lanes would go from Loop 1604 to Marshall Road or Comal County, depending on whether regional planners allocate $69 million or $112 million in state funds to subsidize the project. Another $80 million subsidy could be needed for five interchange connectors at Loop 1604.

“There isn’t surplus revenue in the case of 281,” authority Director Terry Brechtel said.

The latest estimates for the U.S. 281 tollway — in 2006 dollars — are $426 million for construction and $220 million for upkeep over 40 years.

On Monday, Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom filed a lawsuit to challenge the makeup and procedures of the Metropolitan Planning Organization, which oversees federal transportation dollars and is set to approve U.S. 281 toll rates in December.

The lawsuit, which claims that discussion and debate are being shut down, seeks to remove nonelected officials from the planning board.

Toll road advocates call the lawsuit frivolous.

Wolff: Toll Opponents "Crazy," "Dangerous"

Posted on by

Link to story here. The pro-tollers have come unhinged! Look who can’t win on the arguments and feels the need to drag a political debate into the mud and muck with name calling…Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff. First, we’re called PIGS now “crazy” and “dangerous.”

Here’s what’s crazy:
-Charging us over and over again for what’s already built and paid for.
-Taking our gas tax plan for overpasses on 281 that’s been funded since 2003 and turning it into a cash cow, targeted, DOUBLE tax toll scheme.
-The Legislature stealing $10 billion from our gas taxes and later saying there’s no money for roads.
-Twice passing a Bexar County Commissioners Court Resolution AGAINST TOLLING EXISTING ROADS and then allowing them to toll existing corridors all over Bexar County.
-Exploding the cost of transportation at a time with record high gas prices which will further hurt the economy and the County’s sales tax and property tax base.

Here’s what’s dangerous:
-Throwing up stop lights, orange cones, and cement barriers all over the county causing hazardous road conditions, delays, and accidents.
-Allowing continued development in Northern Bexar County without keeping up with road capacity which ensured the intersection of 281 and 1604 would sit atop the city’s “Top 10 Crash Locations” list, where it has stayed since 2004.
-Refusing to install the overpass at a DANGEROUS intersection, 281/Borgfeld, where people have DIED when they’ve had the money to do it since 2003!

Apparently our elected officials are finally taking notice of the public outcry, but it’s clear they haven’t gotten the message. We don’t want or need toll roads…stop raiding our gas taxes, stop spending our money on illegal ad campaigns and hidden cameras in orange barrels, install the overpasses that are already paid for, index the gas tax, and be done with it.

Wolff: Toll Opponents “Crazy,” “Dangerous”
Judge rips into toll critics in ‘State of the County’ speech
By Jim Forsyth, WOAI
October 25, 2007

Bexar County Judge Nelson W. Wolff used his State of the County address today to tear into opponents of toll roads in Bexar County, saying they are ‘crazy’ and ‘dangerous’ and suggesting once that if he ‘named the other members of Commissioner’s Court who support toll roads it might endanger their lives.’

Wolff said toll roads are ‘the right way,’ and he urged the Chamber of Commerce audience to cheer Metropolitan Planning Organization Chair Sheila McNeil, who was sued along with the MPO this week by toll road opponents who claim that the organization is illegally pushing for toll roads.

“We have some people who have had to take a lot of heat,” Wolff said. “One of them is Sheila McNeil who is the head of the MPO. Sheila, stand up. We owe you a round of applause for taking the heat from these crazy people who are jamming it down your throat every day!”

Wolff has been a long time supporter of toll roads, and he has mentioned the importance of building toll roads in his previous two State of the County speeches. But the vehemence of his denunciation of toll road opponents surprised some in his generally pro toll audience. Wolff didn’t mention by name which toll road opponents he thinks are ‘crazy’ or ‘dangerous’ but he did cite an incident following a meeting to discuss toll roads.

“We had an incident not too long ago, where the anti toll road people were here and sort of jumped (Regional Mobility Authority Chairman) Bill Thornton and I in the parking lot. I tried to get away from him and he kept following me. I finally turned around and asked him to get away from me, and he said ‘give me your best shot.’ I called the deputy across the street, and he came over and kept him away from me. Let me tell you, they are dangerous people.”

“We’re barely holding on with a three two vote on Commissioners Court supporting this project,” Wolff said. “I won’t tell you who the other two commissioners are, I don’t want to endanger their lives.”

Lyle Larson and Tommy Adkisson are toll road opponents on Commissioner’s Court.

Then, Wolff suggested that residents should be grateful that toll roads are being built.

“The roads on the side will be free, the toll lanes will be in the middle, you don’t have to get onto the toll lane, you should be happy we’re building it, because there will be less traffic on the free lanes.”

Wolff said he opposes any concessions agreement which would allow “a company from ” to build the toll roads, a reference to the Cintra-Zachry partnership which has the contract to build 40 miles of the State Highway 130 toll road.

“TexDOT wants to give it (the US 281 toll lane construction contract) to a company from Spain,” Wolff said. “We prefer that the public be involved. We need to stick with the public sector, we need to keep the tolls as low as possible, and allow that money to stay right here and not go someplace else, whether it be or someplace else in

Elsewhere in his State of the County speech, Wolff said he anticipates suggestions on an estimated $300 million dollar venue tax renewal proposal to be submitted to Commissioners Court by December, and a vote could be called on the issue next spring. He says officials are considering four potential uses for the venue tax money. Sports complexes, including facilities at UTSA, which could be built inside the existing Municipal Auditorium, expansion of the Riverwalk south and north, and improvements to the AT&T Center.

Lawsuit against MPO makes front page, top of the fold!

Posted on by

Link to article here. FYI, the 281 lawsuit filed in federal court in December of 2005 required a new environmental study, but NOTHING prevents TxDOT from moving forward with the FREEway improvements to 281. It only stopped the TOLLWAY! The blame for any cost escalations rest solely on TxDOT and the politicians who enable them. We’ve done everything humanly possible to force TxDOT to revert back to the gas tax plan (like this MPO vote in January 2007) and get the fix installed years ago!

Tollway foes suing again
By Patrick Driscoll
Express-News
10/23/2007
With a U.S. 281 tollway plan racing toward the finish line, critics Monday filed yet another lawsuit they hope will slam on the brakes.

This time, they went to a federal court in San Antonio and reached back to the First and 14th amendments of the Constitution, which protect freedom of speech and provide equal protection under the law.

The lawsuit seeks to remove non-elected officials from the Metropolitan Planning Organization board and to ban Sheila McNeil, a city councilwoman who serves as chairwoman, from squelching some discussions on toll issues.

“The people of Texas are fed up with out-of-control, abusive government,” said Terri Hall of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom. “This is taxation without representation.”

Planning organization Director Isidro Martinez said federal law dealing with local oversight of transportation funds calls for staff officials from major agencies as well as elected leaders to serve on such boards.

On the Web
• Blog: Move It!
More coverage
KENS video: Toll road opponents file second lawsuit against city

Eleven of the 19 members of the planning board have been elected to city councils, the Bexar County Commissioners Court and the Legislature.

“It’s just the way we’ve always done it,” he said. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

McNeil said it’s disappointing that no one first tried to resolve differences with her.

“Whoever’s filing a lawsuit has not come to me and asked me to reconsider or do anything,” she said. “It’s a waste of court time.”

Board member David Leibowitz, a state representative, said McNeil has repeatedly blocked consideration of a resolution that would advise the Texas Department of Transportation to stop spending up to $9 million to promote toll roads.

McNeil put the resolution on last month’s agenda but, she said, pulled it after reading it. She said an unwritten policy lets the chairwoman set the agendas.

“It got inadvertently put on the agenda,” she told the board last month. “It is not a matter for this MPO. We’re a planning organization. We don’t tell other organizations or entities how to spend their money.”

The maneuver was just the latest to spark the lawsuit, Hall said. Others include a split vote in July to push aside a toll critic and install McNeil as chairwoman, and a sudden policy change in May to try to keep a toll advocate on the board despite leaving elected office.

San Antonio has four council members on the board, more than any other entity. The city also has two staff officials who serve, and they typically vote with their bosses.

“We’ve done everything in our power to exert the political pressure to change this unconstitutional board,” Hall said. “But when a powerful unelected voting bloc is allowed to persist unchecked, we have no choice but go to court.”

The lawsuit’s lead attorney, David Van Os, who last year ran as the Democratic candidate for state attorney general, said he’ll ask for a hearing before the planning board meets Dec. 3.

In December, the board plans to set U.S. 281 toll rates and shift more public money to subsidize the toll road, from $69 million allocated now to $112 million. With the extra funds, the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority could build 8 miles of tollway instead of 4.

The mobility authority hopes to start construction next summer and open the toll road in 2012, with express lanes running from Loop 1604 to either Marshall Road or Comal County. Toll rates might start at 17 cents a mile for cars and rise 2.75 percent a year through 2017 and then 3 percent annually.

But that’s if the project doesn’t get shoved into a legal ditch. A 2005 lawsuit filed in a state district court forced more environmental study, which stopped work for more than two years. Construction costs have since gone up by a third.

TURF sues SAMPO for unconstitutional composition & actions

Posted on by

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: David Van Os, Attorney at Law representing TURF, (210) 821-1700

View press conference on You Tube here.

TURF to sue transportation board for equal protection
MPO Board composition violates First and 14th Amendments to U.S. Constitution

San Antonio, TX, Monday, October 22, 2007 – In what could change the way toll roads are decided and approved in Bexar County, TURF filed a NEW lawsuit in FEDERAL COURT to put the power over transportation decisions back in the hands of the PEOPLE. TURF recently scored a victory in STATE COURT in a different lawsuit (read it here) against members of the Texas Transportation Department and Transportation Commission.

A lawsuit has been brought against the San Antonio Metropolitan Planning Organization (SAMPO) Transportation Policy Board that allocates tax dollars to transportation projects and approves toll rates and toll projects and San Antonio Councilwoman and MPO Chair Sheila McNeil. The lawsuit alleges that the composition of the SAMPO Board is unconstitutional and Chairwoman McNeil has been a party to denying the First Amendment right of free speech to the constituents of elected MPO Board members like State Representative David Leibowitz by blocking an agenda item and any debate on an issue brought up at his request. This novel lawsuit cuts to the heart of how toll roads are approved.

It’s based upon the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, 28 U.S.C. §1331, and 28 U.S.C. §§1343(3) and (4). The section of the post-Civil War civil rights enactments codified as 42 U.S.C. §1983 provides the Plaintiff’s enabling cause of action. A faction of governmental officials with the help of unelected board members have shut citizens and voters who oppose toll roads out of equal participation in the political process. The case will also argue that actions like Chairwoman McNeil’s removal of an agenda item asking for the funds TxDOT is spending on the Keep Texas Moving ad campaign be returned to building roads.

By way of recent example, in a SAMPO Transportation Policy Board meeting of September 24, 2007, Defendant McNeil, using the badge of authority of Chairmanship of the Board, arbitrarily removed from the meeting agenda a motion by State Representative and MPO Board member David Leibowitz calling for SAMPO to object to certain expenditures of public money by TXDOT promoting toll roads, which expenditures Representative Leibowitz believed to be inappropriate.

Defendant McNeil, acting under color of law, removed Representative Leibowitz’s motion from the meeting agenda even though Representative Leibowitz had properly and legitimately placed it on the meeting agenda and SAMPO had included it in the public posting of the agenda pursuant to the Texas Open Meetings Act. Defendant McNeil, acting under color of law, refused to permit Representative Leibowitz to present his motion because of her disfavor of his attempt to provide a voice for his constituents who oppose turning free public highways into toll roads.

TURF will be asking for both a temporary and permanent injunction to suspend ALL activities of the MPO until the case is decided and the Board’s composition is changed to reflect proper Constitutional representation allowing equal protection under the law per the 14th Amendment.

The unconstitutional MPO has blocked agenda items, voted against an independent review of toll plans that would bring accountability to the gross misuse of taxpayer money in these toll plans, voted against restoring the gas tax funded overpasses on 281 (281 in particular DOES NOT NEED TO BE TOLLED, what’s needed are overpasses and they’ve been paid for since 2003, the money is STILL there, they could do it tomorrow, but this un-Constitutional Board persists in preventing the simple solution that’s already paid for!

The MPO Board has also delayed votes, blocked the succession of the next Chair, and changed the bylaws to allow yet more illegal representation on the Board.

“The people of Texas are FED-UP with out-of-control abusive government. We’ve done everything in our power to exert the political pressure to change this unconstitutional Board, but when the deck is stacked and a powerful unelected voting block is allowed to persist unchecked, we have no choice but go to court to address our grievances. This is taxation without representation and we cannot and will not allow it to continue,” says Terri Hall, Founder and Director of TURF.

For a history of the efforts of the pro-toll faction blocking citizens from equal representation:
Click here and scroll to bottom for links to each action.

Chairwoman McNeil strips agenda item requested by State Representative David Leibowitz on expenditures for toll roads (click here.)

-30-

TURF sues SAMPO for unconstitutional composition & actions

Posted on by

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: David Van Os, Attorney at Law representing TURF, (210) 821-1700

View press conference on You Tube here.

TURF to sue transportation board for equal protection
MPO Board composition violates First and 14th Amendments to U.S. Constitution

San Antonio, TX, Monday, October 22, 2007 – In what could change the way toll roads are decided and approved in Bexar County, TURF filed a NEW lawsuit in FEDERAL COURT to put the power over transportation decisions back in the hands of the PEOPLE. TURF recently scored a victory in STATE COURT in a different lawsuit (read it here) against members of the Texas Transportation Department and Transportation Commission.

A lawsuit has been brought against the San Antonio Metropolitan Planning Organization (SAMPO) Transportation Policy Board that allocates tax dollars to transportation projects and approves toll rates and toll projects and San Antonio Councilwoman and MPO Chair Sheila McNeil. The lawsuit alleges that the composition of the SAMPO Board is unconstitutional and Chairwoman McNeil has been a party to denying the First Amendment right of free speech to the constituents of elected MPO Board members like State Representative David Leibowitz by blocking an agenda item and any debate on an issue brought up at his request. This novel lawsuit cuts to the heart of how toll roads are approved.

It’s based upon the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, 28 U.S.C. §1331, and 28 U.S.C. §§1343(3) and (4). The section of the post-Civil War civil rights enactments codified as 42 U.S.C. §1983 provides the Plaintiff’s enabling cause of action. A faction of governmental officials with the help of unelected board members have shut citizens and voters who oppose toll roads out of equal participation in the political process. The case will also argue that actions like Chairwoman McNeil’s removal of an agenda item asking for the funds TxDOT is spending on the Keep Texas Moving ad campaign be returned to building roads.

By way of recent example, in a SAMPO Transportation Policy Board meeting of September 24, 2007, Defendant McNeil, using the badge of authority of Chairmanship of the Board, arbitrarily removed from the meeting agenda a motion by State Representative and MPO Board member David Leibowitz calling for SAMPO to object to certain expenditures of public money by TXDOT promoting toll roads, which expenditures Representative Leibowitz believed to be inappropriate.

Defendant McNeil, acting under color of law, removed Representative Leibowitz’s motion from the meeting agenda even though Representative Leibowitz had properly and legitimately placed it on the meeting agenda and SAMPO had included it in the public posting of the agenda pursuant to the Texas Open Meetings Act. Defendant McNeil, acting under color of law, refused to permit Representative Leibowitz to present his motion because of her disfavor of his attempt to provide a voice for his constituents who oppose turning free public highways into toll roads.

TURF will be asking for both a temporary and permanent injunction to suspend ALL activities of the MPO until the case is decided and the Board’s composition is changed to reflect proper Constitutional representation allowing equal protection under the law per the 14th Amendment.

The unconstitutional MPO has blocked agenda items, voted against an independent review of toll plans that would bring accountability to the gross misuse of taxpayer money in these toll plans, voted against restoring the gas tax funded overpasses on 281 (281 in particular DOES NOT NEED TO BE TOLLED, what’s needed are overpasses and they’ve been paid for since 2003, the money is STILL there, they could do it tomorrow, but this un-Constitutional Board persists in preventing the simple solution that’s already paid for!

The MPO Board has also delayed votes, blocked the succession of the next Chair, and changed the bylaws to allow yet more illegal representation on the Board.

“The people of Texas are FED-UP with out-of-control abusive government. We’ve done everything in our power to exert the political pressure to change this unconstitutional Board, but when the deck is stacked and a powerful unelected voting block is allowed to persist unchecked, we have no choice but go to court to address our grievances. This is taxation without representation and we cannot and will not allow it to continue,” says Terri Hall, Founder and Director of TURF.

For a history of the efforts of the pro-toll faction blocking citizens from equal representation:
Click here and scroll to bottom for links to each action.

Chairwoman McNeil strips agenda item requested by State Representative David Leibowitz on expenditures for toll roads (click here.)

-30-

Express News: SECRET MEETING spurs citizens to get a briefing FIRST!

Posted on by

An Express News story touches on the SECRET MEETING for BIG business, but focuses more on the 281 toll rates.

Of course, the article doesn’t mention that we only pay 1-3 cents a mile in gas taxes and the national average for toll rates is 9 cents per mile. So 17 cents per mile is a BIG tax hike we’ll all pay, since trucks and businesses will pass on the toll costs to customers. AND let’s not forget that the improvements to 281 are ALREADY PAID FOR with gas taxes (see proof here and here) so WE DO NOT NEED TOLLS! We’ve been told it’s necessary to convert 281 into a tollway to accelerate improvements. They’ve had the gas tax money for the first 3 miles since 2003, for the rest of the fix to Borgfeld by 2004, and now as a toll road, it’ll cost 4 times the price and only get to Marshall Rd! It also fails to mention SAMCo is taxpayer funded and represents the HIGHWAY LOBBY, so don’t let the non-profit tag fool you!

The article states…
The authority will brief the nonprofit mobility coalition at a private meeting Friday at Valero Energy Corp. to strategize support for toll plans.

“We want everyone to have a chance to see this, to ask questions,” Boyer said. “We were on the ball and asked for it.”

When Hall heard about Boyer’s meeting, she called Reed to set up a presentation for toll critics, which will be held at 6 p.m. today at Chester’s Burgers at 16609 San Pedro Ave. She said she wants to know how much profit U.S. 281 toll lanes will generate.

“That’s the real crux of the matter,” she said. “That’ll be interesting.”
______________________________

17 cents will get you a mile

Web Posted: 10/16/2007 12:04 AM CDT

Patrick Driscoll
Express-News Noisy, anxious speculation over how much motorists will pay to use toll lanes on U.S. 281 has ended with a silent revelation.Barring legal action and a dramatic turnaround in the courts, drivers in two- and three-axle vehicles could pay 17 cents a mile when the first four miles of U.S. 281 toll lanes open in 2012, according to documents posted on the Web without fanfare Monday.

Rates might increase 2.75 percent a year through 2017 and then 3 percent annually after that, about as fast as consumer inflation has been rising.

The Alamo Regional Mobility Authority, which will develop the U.S. 281 tollway, negotiated for months behind closed doors with the Texas Department of Transportation to set the toll rates and had carefully kept the numbers hushed.

But the local Metropolitan Planning Organization must sign off on the deal, and following its habit of releasing information before meetings, posted the proposed toll fees. The organization meets next Monday.

“There you go,” spokesman Scott Ericksen said. “It’s just our process.”

Now that the rates are out there, a furious long-running debate over toll roads will now shift to new ground.

“I’m just glad we’re finally getting down to the nitty-gritty,” said Jim Reed, a mobility authority board member.

Terri Hall, founder of San Antonio Toll Party and Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, said the fees, while comparable to Houston and Dallas, are higher than some other states — a claim borne out by a recent state audit.

“Texans have to be asking themselves, ‘Why do we have to pay so much?'” she said.

Vic Boyer, director of the public-private San Antonio Mobility Coalition, said business and road industry officials are so far warm to the rates.

“I think they feel fairly comfortable with what they’ve seen,” he said.

Rebuilding U.S. 281 into a tolled expressway with nontoll frontage roads from Loop 1604 to Marshall Road is just a start for the mobility authority.

The agency hopes to use $258 million in public funds and sell bonds backed by decades of toll fees to add $1 billion worth of toll lanes to highways:

The first 4 miles of U.S. 281 — which officials say will cost $200 million, a third more than estimates earlier this year. Construction starts next summer.

U.S. 281 toll lanes to Comal County. No timetable has been set.

Loop 1604 from Culebra Road to U.S. 281. Construction starts in late 2009.

Plans also call for tolled interchange ramps along Loop 1604 to give motorists faster shots to other freeways such as U.S. 281. The proposed toll rates under consideration for 2012 suggest charging 57 cents for each ramp.

Emergency and military vehicles would get free passage on toll lanes. VIA Metropolitan Transit would get a $42,000 a year break, enough to allow buses and vans to ride free, but the agency would have the option of spreading its exemption among other vehicles, such as vanpools.

In 2012 trucks would be charged 46 cents a mile on toll lanes and $1.15 per interchange ramp.

There would be no tollbooths. Instead, motorists would pay via an electronic scanning system.

“Our goal is to be reasonable, to keep it affordable,” mobility authority Chairman Bill Thornton said.

The authority will brief the nonprofit mobility coalition at a private meeting Friday at Valero Energy Corp. to strategize support for toll plans.

“We want everyone to have a chance to see this, to ask questions,” Boyer said. “We were on the ball and asked for it.”

When Hall heard about Boyer’s meeting, she called Reed to set up a presentation for toll critics, which will be held at 6 p.m. today at Chester’s Burgers at 16609 San Pedro Ave. She said she wants to know how much profit U.S. 281 toll lanes will generate.

“That’s the real crux of the matter,” she said. “That’ll be interesting.”

EXCLUSIVE: SECRET briefing on toll rates for BIG BUSINESS before public gets access

Posted on by

The San Antonio Mobility Coalition, SAMCo, run by Joe Krier, along with the San Antonio Free Trade Alliance will be hosting a secret meeting October 19 at the Valero campus prior to even the PUBLIC getting access to toll rates and the toll rate escalation for 281 on October 22. The highway lobby that feeds at the public trough was slated to get advance access the PUBLIC hasn’t been privy to. This is especially distressing considering SAMCO and the Free Trade Alliance are taxpayer funded. Citizens have to take time off work and head downtown to a place where parking is scarce (MPO mtgs at Via) just to hear this information on their own dime, yet our public agencies bring this vital toll tax information right to the business community’s doorstep while they’re all on the clock (some of whom are on the taxpayer’s dime, too!).

It’s an outrage that those who will profit off these toll plans get special treatment at the taxpayers’ expense! However, through a turn of events, we asked that the tolling authority brief citizens FIRST on the toll rates at our Tuesday meeting and they AGREED! The taxpayers demanded transparency, sunshine, accountability, and that the public get TOP PRIORITY, and now the PUBLIC gets to scoop the HIGHWAY LOBBY!

Government ought to be operating without even the APPEARANCE of impropriety, this SAMCo meeting smacks of corporate cronyism and backroom deal-making which has become the norm with Perry and his highway dept.

Not only will the hogs at the trough be treated to the potential pricetag road contractors can reap for tolling our public highways, the stated purpose of the meeting is to strategize on how to influence the upcoming MPO vote that must approve the toll rates to move forward.

The purpose of the briefing is to provide:

1) An advance preview of the US 281 and Loop 1604 financial plans prior to these critical MPO meetings;
2) A forum to discuss cooperative action and joint strategy to support the financial plans and SMP amendments at the October 22 and December 3 MPO meetings.
3) Coordination of supportive resolutions, letters, emails, testimony, editorials, etc. prior to the final MPO votes.

Read the entire invitation here.

This meeting is significant because we caught them with their hands in the till using taxpayer money to lobby against the taxpayer and caught BIG BUSINESS getting special privileges NOT afforded the public until an MPO mtg Monday, Oct 22. Why does BIG BUSINESS need to know the toll rates and 281 profit levels before the general public?
SEE LIST OF CORPORATIONS GIVEN A SEAT AT THE TABLE BELOW

Mad yet? Read the list of the corporations involved in SECRET meetings with the U.S., Canadian, and Mexican governments to push for a North American Union in what amounts to forming a trade cartel. Time to dust off the anti-trust unit at the Justice Department!

Full World Net Daily article here.

As WND previously reported, the North American Competitiveness Council, or NACC, dominated the SPP closed-door meetings with the SPP trilateral working groups, the trilateral cabinet members in attendance and President Bush, Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon, and Harper at the third annual SPP summit in Montebello, Quebec, on Aug. 20-21.

WND has also reported the NACC is a shadowy council of 30 top North American multinational corporations self-appointed by the Chambers of Commerce in each of the three countries to constitute the sole outside advisory to the SPP.

The 30 companies composing the NACC are listed on a memo posted on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce website.

In the United States, the companies on the NACC are:

* Campbell Soup Company
* Chevron Corporation
* Ford Motor Corporation
* FedEx Corporation
* General Electric Company
* General Motors Corporation
* Kansas City Southern
* Lockheed Martin Corporation
* Merck & Co., Inc.
* Mittal Steel USA
* New York Life Insurance Company
* Procter & Gamble
* UPS
* Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
* Whirlpool Corporation

No union leaders, public interest groups, environmental advocates or news media have ever attended the closed-door of the NACC with the SPP.

According to a document on the Commerce Department’s SPP website, the organization of the NACC was agreed upon by the three leaders on March 31, 2006.

“We are pleased to announce the creation of a North American Competitiveness Council,” the White House announced the same day.

“The Council will comprise members of the private sector from each country,” the White House said, “and will provide us recommendations on North American competitiveness, including, among others, areas such as automotive and transportation, steel, manufacturing, and services. The Council will meet annually with security and prosperity Ministers and will engage with senior government officials on an ongoing basis.”

Read these to open your eyes to other secret meetings for special interests:

Secret meeting on TTC 69, corporations invited, public/press is not.

More secret meetings with corporations invited, public/press shut out.
here, here, and here.