10/20/2005

Aus Chron says NO to 1 & 9! The "Texas Rail Relocation and Improvement Fund" sounds just "TERRIF!" Let the railroads pay their own way.

at 10/20/2005

1 comment:

Sal Costello said...

More from Aus Chron today:

Today, council votes to approve a study of the Capitol Area Metropolitan Planning Organization's "Mobility 2030 Plan." While you're absolved if you're unacquainted with the plan, you've undoubtedly heard of its problem child: toll roads. In this case, the toll roads under discussion are the plan's "Phase 2" ones, proposed to run along stretches of U.S. 183, 290, Loop 360, SH 71, and SH 45.

City Council optimistically gave a finish date of July for the study (which was called for in March), yet it was repeatedly pushed back as other stakeholders were sought to add their input (and funding). Today, council approves an interlocal agreement between Hays, Williamson, and Travis Counties; the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority; Round Rock; and Austin, which picks up $144,000 of the $354,000 study tab. "I believe [the agreement] will work, and I'm gonna fight hard to make sure that it will," said Council Member Brewster McCracken.

McCracken, who, along with Betty Dunkerley, sits on the study's steering committee, also noted, however, that public incredulity concerning the plan's tolls is one of the big reasons for the study. "My big skepticism is, just in reviewing their proposals, these [toll roads] don't make sense from a financial standpoint," said McCracken, who characterized the plan's tolls as costing as much as seven times the national average per mile. "Getting agreement on the numbers is a good first step," he said. "But I don't think we should be foisting costs on drivers to make a New York bond house happy."

While McCracken is certainly toll road weary, he lacks the pathological toll hatred embodied by Sal Costello, whose Austin Toll Party made its hairsplitting, ball-busting distrust of the study known early on. Dismayed by the study's delay, Costello charges the committee has been "hijacked" by pro-toll forces, telling the online newsletter In Fact Daily, "The committee, virtually a mini-CAMPO, can decide not to accept the study results … How can the toll authority [CTRMA] review themselves?"

McCracken said the board can't "deep-six" its own findings. "Sal Costello and I, and [committee member and Austin state Rep.] Mark Strama, and everyone who has skepticism … we're all going to have access to the report." McCracken attributes Costello's animosity to a possible misunderstanding, saying his fears "would be a legitimate concern if one of the purposes of the steering committee was decision making," an authority he says the committee doesn't have. "We have not had the public process begin yet," he added, saying the controversy is over "a hypothetical process until it starts." McCracken imagines initial organizational meetings beginning in November, and study consultants from Boston-based CRA International coming to Austin in December.

AND MORE:

Date Received: Wed., Oct. 19, 12:49PM
THE FOUNDER SPEAKS OUT AGAINST TOLL ROADS

Dear Editor,
Austin Council Member Brewster McCracken is pushing for a taxpayer-funded "independent" review of the toll plan. But, documents illustrate that the review has been hijacked, and it is neither independent nor balanced.

A March 3, 2005, city resolution for the taxpayer-funded independent review promised "the study is not to be delayed.� That was seven months ago.

For months, McCracken promised all the meetings would be made open to the public, that a citizens' committee would steer the neutral company hired to produce the study, and the community would have full opportunity to speak up in this very public independent review. Brewster said, "Everything will be open and in the sunshine.�

The truth is shown in the draft of the interlocal agreement: The supermajority, if not all of the steering committee, are pro-tollers who already voted twice for the toll plan, secret meetings by the steering committee are allowed, the public cannot speak at all meetings, the agreement claims the steering committee is not subject to the open meetings act, and the toll authority (CTRMA) is the project coordinator!

That's like Enron auditing itself.

And here's where the pro-toll steering committee, including McCracken, who has voted twice for the toll plan, can trash the study altogether: They can decide not to accept the study results!

TxDOT documents show most of the roads in the Phase 2 plan are already funded with tax dollars. To place tolls on already-funded roads is highway robbery. Pretending to perform an independent study with our tax dollars is just plain offensive.

Sal Costello
Founder of People for Efficient Transportation
and TexasTollParty.com

8:07 AM, October 20, 2005

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