3/17/2006

CBS VIDEO: Battle Over North Texas FREEWAY Tolls Continue, some say "Highway Robbery".

at 3/17/2006

1 comment:

Sal Costello said...

...
Hello Jack Fink,

I saw your video/story on the toll battle in North Texas.

There is a battle because public highways have never been shifted to tollways. Gov. Perry's toll plans are funded with our gas tax dollars (Perry calls it "innovative financing") .

Since the tolls don't go to pay for the road - it produces an unaccountbale slush fund that politicians are now fighting over.

Sincerly,
Sal Costello
Founder of People for Efficient Transportaion
Austin, TX

MORE:
PET PAC, and most Texans have no objection to traditional tollroads, where toll revenues on Turnpike A are tied to the investor financed Turnpike A, and Turnpike A is designed and built as an ALTERNATIVE to our public expressways.

In contrast, the special interest freeway tolls - privatizes and tolls our public highways as well as:

• Permanently take public expressways from drivers.
• Create a growing Class System, separating those who can pay from those who can't.
• Double tax drivers since the freeway tolls are funded with gas tax dollars.
• Create more congestion on our frontage roads with stop lights and other parallel roads.
• Fail to provide important viability studies (that investors demand with traditional toll roads).
• Cost much more for construction, right of way, utility relocation, maintenance and service than nontolled roads.
• Create corporate welfare as privately owned corporations profit off publicly owned assets.
• Add more bureaucracy: Regional Mobility Authority.
• Allow nonelected people (toll authority board members) to set the tax rate (toll tax) for our public highways with no limits.
• Create unfair taxation as one portion of a region pays a toll to drive an expressway while others drive their expressways free.
• Produce a second inefficient, unaccountable tax on top of the gas tax.
• Will never be removed, as the sloppy slush fund gets spent on other politicians favorite pet projects (not good government).
• Give road project location decisions to the private sector to be based on profitability rather than need.

11:59 AM, March 17, 2006

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