9/12/2007

Hundreds of anti-tollers locked out of Toll Road Hearing.


SOUND OFF IN THE COMMENTS AREA, AND READ WHAT OTHERS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT SEN. WATSON'S TOLL HEARING AND THE AUSTIN AMERICAN SNAKESMAN!


In today’s Statesman article, Ben Wear creates the impression of grand support of the freeway to tollway plan - as hundreds of anti tollers were locked out of the main auditorium.

It is important to note that Belinda Gaudet, General Manager of the Austin American-Statesman is a Vice Chair for the executive committee of the Austin Chamber of Commerce (also known as Take on Traffic - pro tollers).

The Statesman has continued to squelch the citizens who speak out against the freeway to tollway plan with it’s articles, pro toll editorials and by keeping hundreds, if not thousands of letter to the editor from being published on the subject in the past years.

TOLL LOBBY AND WATSON STACKS
THE DECK TO PAINT FALSE REALITY

The toll lobby profiteers (also known as Take on Traffic - Developers, Bankers, Lawyers, Construction Industry people and their employees) arrived at the Capitol at 4:00 to 4:30 just to line up, to get on the sign up list to speak. The CAMPO sign up list was scheduled to begin at 5:00.

This strategic plan for toll profiteers to arrive early worked very well in conjunction with Sen. Kirk Watson’s choice to hold the meeting in an undersized auditorium where hundreds of anti-tollers were locked out. This illusion in the auditorium gave some of the press the impression that the pro-tollers had a larger presence than they actually had. Our presence was clear, and we called out the profiteers over and over.

Tollers continue to say there is not other choice, that we must toll our freeways. The smart solutions are right HERE.

CAMPO chair Sen. Kirk Watson is also a former Austin Chamber of Commerce president, and I would expect Watson conspired to help stack the deck with pro-tollers since the 2006 Austin Chamber of Commerce annual report, on page 23 (www.austinchamber.com/WhatsNew/2006OAAnnualReport.pdf), reveals that Sen. Kirk Watson, and Hughes and Luce, the law firm he is a partner in, have both contributed money to the Pro Toll Chamber.

During the meeting, Kirk Watson proclaimed many times to the press, the public, and the profiteers, "Everyone will get a chance to speak" - as hundreds of anti-toll citizens, who came directly from work and arrived after 6pm, were turned away and told they could no longer sign up to speak at about 6:15pm.

WATSON FINALLY OUTED

In my opinion, the campaign I created in the past few weeks bared the best fruit last night on TV news, as the smooth talking Sen. Watson was forced out of his hole into the light of day - as he was finally forced to publicly support tolling our freeways.

Records from the City of Austin show Sen. Watson is being paid to lobby for numerous developers (toll lobby) in Central Texas - all while Watson is chair of CAMPO, an organization that directs billions of taxpayer transportation dollars in Central Texas. A blatant Conflict of Interest. As a partner of Hughes & Luce law firm, Watson has yet to disclose how many toll lobby clients represents.

I'd like to personally thank the hundreds of great citizens who took a stand against Watson's corporate subsidy toll scheme last night. You guys and gals rock! Stay tuned to this blog and keep talking to your neighbors about the theft of our $700 million tax dollars to shift our freeways to tollways.

Read what others have to say and
sound off in the comment area here.

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

It was a very interesting night at the Capitol. It is kind of a rush to stand up and speak to these CAMPO members you mostly see on TV and in the news, who have so much influence regarding the future of Austin commuters.
I like taking note of the members reactions to the citizens they serve. For example, Brewster McCracken is a complete caricature of a politician. Can't you just see him winding himself up to run for Austin mayor? He sits there with his bottom jaw pushed out and makes "monkey faces" all night... That is, when he is not popping some kind of pill or whispering to Betty Dunkerley. I truly think these meetings give him a headache. But he IS Kirk Watson's Right-Hand Man, as such that he is sitting to Watson's right and ready to jump into that more powerful position.
You could replace Gerald Daugherty with one of those life-size cardboard cut-outs of himself, since I never saw him move, or blink even. I think he must be a statue, and definately an expert at disguising any emotion at all. He must be one great poker player.
Kirk Watson is just comical. He is not particularly adept at regaining control of the room, as was evident when one of the public speakers demanded the meeting come to an end or be recessed and postponed, as the auditorium was not adequate in size for all of the public that wanted to participate. This same guy interrupted Kirk Watson again later on, and it was clear that Kirk was annoyed by his insistance on being heard...loud and clear. For those of us that stayed throughout the entire meeting, this guy finally got his say, as the last speaker on the list for the night. He lashed into Watson, claiming disgust for having to be here to "babysit" the board. Quite a show...really, that was pure entertainment.

Anonymous said...

Who were all those "Take On Traffic" people? I wonder if they got paid under-the-table by CAMPO/TXDOT... Seems suspicious to me that ANYBODY would come out to support tolls over existing highways (unless they had some kind of a private financial interest).

Anonymous said...

Sal,

Thanks for staying on the ball. I'm sickened by all the tollroads that keep cropping up. I live in Round Rock and a former stretch of 620 has now become a tollroad! Yes, it's the exact same road I used to drive on FOR FREE. It hasn't been widened or anything either.

Sure, there are frontage roads you can take, but those frontage roads were already there. So now you're FORCED to deal with the stoplights, plus all the inane, confusing twists and turns to avoid the tollroads. Blink an eye or don't understand the signs, and voila, you're now on the tollroad! It almost seems intentional.

There's a couple things I'd like to mention.

First of all, about Nyle Maxwell. I see you have a boycott proposed for the Maxwell dealerships. FYI, Mr. Maxwell sold all of his dealerships a few years ago to a Houston company (I believe), but the name Maxwell still remains. The last I read he no longer has any affilliation with his former dealerships whatsoever. However, a couple years he started up a new dealership, "Nyle Maxwell Pontiac GMC" in Round Rock. It's the only dealership he currently owns and runs.

Also, I emailed you awhile back about a different tactic to combat the tollroads. You didn't agree, but I want to propose it again since it seems like these tollroads are only going to keep coming. And I don't think that the existing roads are going to be shut down any time soon. That's the sad reality.

My proposal is this-- Propose to politicians that the laws are rewritten so that all tollroads will revert to free roads once the supposed initial cost is paid for (I realize that some of this roads were already paid for, but stick with me for a minute).

This tactic will accomplish two good things-

- It will turn the roads to free roads in a few years.
- It will expose politicians' of their true intentions; which is, to create a permanent revenue source, not simply pay for the roads.


Please consider this tactic. I don't see how ANYONE could make an argue against it without looking bad, because it's simply the fair thing to do. If we're really having to pay tolls because there isn't enough money, then once the roads are paid for, DROP THE TOLLS.

Thanks,

Darrell Lowrance

Anonymous said...

I read the Statesman article this morning and was sickened by how much they tried to portray the crowd as largely pro-toll. I did a google search on the guy pictured in the article that wore a 'take on traffic' hat...identified as Harry Savio. He's the HBA (Home builders association) executive VP. Not exactly your average Joe. So these so-called toll supporters are people with a vested interest in pushing tolls and that's the bottom line.

Anonymous said...

The Austin Statesman is certainly lying when they portray the crowd as "mostly" pro toll road.

That ludicrous statement simply is not going to be believed by anyone with half a brain.

There were approximately forty five white hats in the crowd, and about three hundred folks that were not wearing white hats, and all yelling about how CAMPO had set up the system to allow the white hats to speak first, and when the white hats were done, the media packed up and retreated to the the hoots and hollers of the actual non paid citizens who went to speak.

I stayed through the whole thing, and spoke about how the elected officals who were appointed to the board may want to consider that many of us are going to work hard as possible to unseat anyone on the Board (of their elected offices) if those elected officials such as the Hays County Judge, etc. vote in favor of this unconstitutional measure. We voted out our last Judge over this. We voted our current one in, based on her promise that she was against toll road schemes.
Now we will see how she votes, and we will vote accordingly in the next election for County Judge.

Anonymous said...

It was clear to me as soon as the first "pro" toll speaker addressed the board and audience that the "white" hats were there to stuff the meeting. They all seemed to be reading from the same script while the anti tollers spoke from their heart.

Luckily, I arrived around 5 p.m. and had no trouble getting on the speaker's list or securing a seat in the auditorium. This was my second attendance at a public hearing and in the end, I felt just as frustrated as the first hearing I attended regarding the US 183 upgrade several years ago (before this tolling scheme).

Being a rocket scientist is not required to see through the transparent veneer of the CAMPO Board. It was clear to me that opposition to the tolling scheme was far greater than that of the stacked pro gang. This only makes it crystal clear to me that corruption, self interest, greed will likely prevail rather than the politicos playing fair with the taxpayers/voters.

As I stated during my less-than-three-minute long comment, I am relatively new to Austin with only eighteen years in the area. My comments centered very briefly on three concerns:

A) I had no problem with toll roads so long as they were totally new construction but could not understand the reasoning being employed to toll existing highways. This has never occurred anywhere that I know of and I originate from New England. In fact a number of toll roads back there are now "freeways."

B) Pro vs. Con as outlined above.

C) My final concern was simply how an appointed board could finalize such costly and involved projects without voter approval was beyond me. Certainly, if voters have the right to approve funding of parks, schools, etc., shouldn't they have the same right to approve/reject billion dollar highway projects?

I think that "C" should be given a lot of consideration by Texas so that accountability to the taxpayers can be made whole. Clearly, this meeting was not an exercise in freedom but more in the order of frustration...

Sal Costello said...

Take On Traffic is the toll lobby profiteers! (Austin Chamber of Commerce Developers, Bankers, Lawyers, Construction Industry people and their employees)

CAMPO chair Sen. Kirk Watson is the former Austin Chamber of Commerce president

Read pages 21-24 of the 2006 Austin Chamber of Commerce annual report to see who funds Take On Traffic!: www.austinchamber.com/WhatsNew/2006OAAnnualReport.pdf

Anonymous said...

I've never trusted the over-glossy Take on Traffic flyers in the mail. Too much money spent to pretend that money would be saved by you & me.

What seems like the biggest hole in the pro-toll argument, to me, is that none of it, at all, will address maintaining current roads. Unless they get tolled. So we never really dig up out of the hole created by capping taxes at an early 1990s rate!

Anonymous said...

As one who has dealt with Watson on annexation of our area, I assure you he has only one thing in mind and that is his political career! At our meeting we had no say, it was a done deal. Most Council members at the hearing were either reading the paper or taking a nap. The meeting last night brought back many memories. Rest assured, the Senator didn’t really want to hear from you! I don't think this morning’s traffic snarl would have been relieved by toll roads. It is the "Smart Growth" that Watson created during his term as Mayor that has things all messed up. Wise up Austin, this guy is out for one...maybe two things....lining his pockets and his political future! Toll roads in his plan are not the way to go, at least the way he and his buddies have them planned!

Anonymous said...

Get onto the toll roads and form a blockade, it worked for the truckers a few years back up on I-40. Drive 45mph and block all lanes during rush hour. Make a statement or just give the hell up on this. That would make the news I promise you that.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry but we in Texas need to stop parcelling up our State for the highest bidder. This CAMPO group and TXDOT are carving up Texas for the highest bidder and it's a quasi- governmental organization making
land-grabs while they think the public has lost interest. If you are
along for the ride with this group then you are carving out your
destiny and ruining the lifestyle of the people of Texas. Government
must learn to stop and listen to the building outrage of it's citizens.

Yes something must happen but setting up costly systems and paying
contractors who present you with miracle cures is pure
shortsightedness. Short term gain to allow momentary cure while
creating a bureaucratic abyss for the rest of our taxes. Enact a
short-term tax to pay for the construction WITH A END DATE. You see it
doesn't matter what you do, once you open the money gate, government
gets drunk on it and it never goes away and it causes waste. So you (CAMPO) and
your team will be remembered as the chaos-bound team that brought this
blight to the state. Thank you. Oh and my children thank you.

Anonymous said...

Quirky Kirty aka Kirk Watson is one sly politician. He is very adept in making people he is with them then turn around and do the opposite. Many people believe that he is after a higher position in politics. This sounds credible and whatever Watson does, it will be in his pursuit in poolitics. I voted for him as a mayor and in his run for the state Attorney General. He lost my vote for any position in the future.

Anonymous said...

Why pay a phase two toll? Would a few hundred dollars in unpaid tolls result in a bench warrant? Would the accused stand trial with a jury of "our" peers? Wouldn't a lawyer have fun and get lots of free press in defense? Wouldn't court tv rush to air the trial when dozens of corrupt officials get exposed? Hell, Sal has done all the research!

Anonymous said...

Who the hell does CAMPO think they are to take $700 Million of our tax dollars to toll our freeways?

CAMPO is the biggest bunch of crooks I've ever seen! If people only knew how much of that is going straight into toller pockets.

Joseph

Anonymous said...

Hi Sal,

Thanks for all you do on this issue. I just wanted to point out that we have to go after Kirk Watson and every memeber on the CAMPO Board through the strategy of conflict-of-interest. I mean, for God's sake, Watson is a State Senator who works on a Transportation Committee and sits on the CAMPO Board - this is ridiculous and unacceptable.
I'm sure you are perpetually fuming about the stooges on the CAMPO Board and their incestuous ties to government dollars, and the fact that your major source of print media in Austin for getting the word out - the Statesman - also has a pro-toller in the upper ranks, creating yet another instance of conflict-of-interest.

Seems like a chart of many colors is in order with each CAMPO Board member being highlighted through their conflicts-of-interest. This story is so sick and obvious it seems that many national online mags, newspapers and blogs would be willing to run it.

The toll issue here in Austin/Central Texas reveals the quasi-Bush administration takover of government where corporate cronies infest in key positions and acquire huge sums of taxpayer money to enrich themselves and their friends for political and financial gain. I just don't see how we can't take Watson down (and, by extension, his prince-in-waiting McCrackhead), his conflict-of-interest being so glaringly obvious by the fact that he is a Senator on the following Committees: Transportation and Homeland Security(think Trans Texas Corridor here), Business and Commerce, and the
Subcommittee on Emerging Technologies and Economic Development.
Keep up the good fight!

Anonymous said...

Here is an interesting question. If CAMPO steals 700 Million Bucks of our Tax Dollars, if we simply drive on the tollways till the DPS issues a citation, perhaps some of you lawyers out there could tell me if a defense couldn't be that you couldn't possibly owe, as a citizen whose tax dollars were heisted, any fine imposed by the State would be bogus to the prorated amount that you paid in, of the heisted $ 700 MM in toll charges? In other words, how could I owe a toll, if my tax money had already "PREPAID" to the tune of my portion of the stolen $ 700 MM Bucks?

If everybody who was at the CAMPO meeting night before last were to do that, I estimate there would be about 350 people a day, not paying the un-owed toll. After a while the Judges might get tired of their dockets being filled with people demanding jury trials, and the Judges having to simply do nothing but listen to voire dire all day long, for two or three years.

Would be a lot of fun, and would serve these thieves right!

Anonymous said...

150 individuals and groups giving hundreds of thousands of dollars for the pro-toll road lobbying effort ??!??!

Do you really need to know any more?

This is a huge rip-off of the taxpayers and (ironically) will only make traffic worse for the people of Austin.

Anonymous said...

I'm terribly sorry I couldn't make this so-called public forum. I wanted to bring some pictures of the traffic nightmare up in Round Rock due to the alterations for the Texas 130 toll road. They've removed on and off ramps for I-35 and forced huge numbers of cars through the nearby intersections causing ridiculous wait times. This, of course, was done without public recourse.

It makes me sad to see the corruption in our fair state climb to the level of Massachusetts or Illinois. Ever drive around Chicago? It's now a hundred small townships that started as bedroom communities outside the city crime, cost and density. (Think Round Rock, Pflugerville, Cedar Park, Leander, Georgetown, Hutto, Taylor, Kyle, Buda, Dripping Springs) Because these towns started offering tax abatements and other incentives to lure big businesses to locate there, there were soon major traffic issues going in any direction. Then, to placate a variety of moneymen, toll roads were shoved down the people's throats there, just as they are here, although some roads were supposed to have the tolls removed once paid for. You guessed it. A common quip in Chicago is, “I’m still paying for this damn highway 20 years after it was paid for”. The politicians weren't worried, they were setting themselves up for retirement with a variety of unique friendships with developers, builders and businesses. That's where the money is and that's their real and only constituency. The end result is still the same though. Without regional planning for mass transit the gridlock will continue unabated. During a recent trip to Chicago, I paid several dollars in tolls, so I could have the privilege of averaging 4 miles per hour while trying to get to the airport, only to eventually miss my flight. Ask someone in Chicago how to get somewhere. At no time will they mention using the highways.

I think about how Rick Perry approached this last election. You know he had some very bright pollers and mathematicians working all the angles and realized that without a wildcard, he would be out. Enter Kinky Friedman. He was the perfect solution to draw enough idealistic or just plain naive (stupid) voters away from the only candidates with a chance to beat him. Perfect strategy. It was no surprise after the election when Rick suggested he would invite Kinky to work with him and his staff. No mention of any other opponents receiving such an offer, eh? It was payoff time. I guess Kinky can bum around for another decade or so. Thanks Kinky, you jerk!

Sal, we need to start plastering our car windows with stickers prompting people to go to your website. Maybe we can find an enterprising UT college student that could start spamming the word around and/or use one of those fax/spam services. The only hope we have is to grow the ranks. I already email everyone I can think of.

In my opinion, we should also consider altering our strategy to accept tolls only to pay for the building of the roads. Once paid for, the tolls come off, to great fanfare. The gas tax would have to index to inflation to properly provide for maintenance. The wording of any bills to support this would have to be airtight, but is this adopting a somewhat defeatist attitude?

Sal Costello said...

EMAIL FROM DAVID:

I can't believe those clowns had the chutzpah to claim that buying a toll-tag makes you a toll supporter. I bought a toll tag because I know I will have to use those roads sometimes, and I want to save money and time when I do it.

I bought a measles immunization, too, but that doesn't mean I support measles.

Good Grief.

David

Anonymous said...

Sal,
Keep up the fantanstic work. I am grateful by all the effort you put into this and it inspires me to keep informed, write politicians, attend CAMPO meetings, etc. Thank you!

For those people who have stated they'd like to see tolls removed once the road is complete, refer to the SENATE COMMITTEE ON
TRANSPORTATION AND HOMELAND SECURITY document at www.senate.state.tx.us/75r/Senate/commit/c640/c640.InterimReport79.pdf

On page 63, it shows one of many recommendations coming out of this report. One of which states:
"Tolls should be set to cover costs and debt service on a given road. When the debt is retired, the toll should be eliminated or at least lowered to the amount needed to cover the road's maintenance costs. Toll equity levels should also be subject to legislative approval."

Whether or not the Senate acts on the recommendation is another story, but at least someone is thinking about it.

BobS.

Anonymous said...

It's unfortunate that the focus here seems so anti-Fix It. No Texan wants to pay tolls, but since:
-the legislature froze gas taxes a decade ago (before the tech boom)
-there are 300,000+ new motorists in TX every year (most found between Houston-DFW-Austin/San Antonio)
-all those new cars get significantly better mileage than those on the road during those years we fondly remember as having less traffic (so people bought a LOT more gas per car)
-there are many more large trucks that each cause as much wear as 100s of cars
-the construction costs have shot sky high
...how would you propose we deal with out-of-control highway usage when the budget has effectively shrunk over the past decade?
The whining needs to stop. Solutions don't come from this.

Sal Costello said...

Hey dipshit (and I say that with all due respect),

We are NOT saying don't build it.

We are saying is to use the $700 million tax dollars Sen. Watson wants to steal to pay for toll roads and build the free roads that cost 50% to 25% as much.

Just learn to read, and then come back and read my blog - find the smart solutions posted just a couple days ago.

Once the tolls are placed on our freeways, they will NEVER be removed. Soon after - TxDOT will sell those freeway toll roads to corporations - after our tax dollars paid for them.

What do you think they will charge us to drive on our freeways then - for that monopoly?

CAN YOU SAY CORPORATE WELFARE?

Anonymous said...

Hi Sal...

What good work you do on this site! I've been reading it for well over a year.

I attended the CAMPO meeting on Sept. 10th at the Capitol. While there, I really felt like it did not matter what anyone said, the CAMPO Board members have already made up their minds, and no matter how many people bitch and complain, or scream in their face, (which I really want to do), it is to no avail. They do not care what WE say or what WE think. They feel that with enough money to run a slick campaign, most Austinites (not us, of course) go into the voting booth and push the button for the candidate who has run the fanciest ads and has the most expensive signs, and the most TV time. They rely on the money given to them from those "Take On Traffic" guys in the white hats. Because of this, I really feel defeated.

I agree with the person who said that increasing our ranks, and getting the average citizen to really care about this issue is seriously important. I really want to stick, like a thousand "NO TOLLS" signs in the front yards of Kirk Watson, Brewster McCracken, and the other notorious "tollers" on the Board, sometime in the midnight/early morning hours the night before Oct. 8th. I want to write letters to each of these guys wives, pleading with them to speak with their husbands on my family's behalf. (Wives can have a lot of influence over their spouses at home.)

I think a large "Austin Toll Party" is not a bad idea. I don't know if anyone could put together a few good live bands at some venue to shed some light on The Cause and get some positive media attention. We are not getting good attention from the Statesman, since they have certainly chosen the side of tolling our roads. And it would be interesting to know if any of our local celebrities, like Lance or Matthew support tolls or not. People love to listen to celebrities talk about an issue. I just think it is time to really blow this up big. It does not look as though there will be any help in going over Kirk's head with the federal government...Kay Hutchinson bailed out on us today, you know.

Sal Costello said...

VTH,

Been there, done that:
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A268515

Trust me, it's not worth the hundreds of hours of work.

If you'd like to help, I've got work that will get real results that needs to get done.

So folks - email me at sal@austintollpaty.com

Thanks!
Sal

Sal Costello said...

FROM DAVE:

Sal

I was listening to that infuriating "five-year-old" commercial from "Take on Texas... er, Traffic" this morning, and it occurred to me that the Chamber clowns want to tax you and me for roads, so that they can profit. . .

Maybe the thing to do is propose a business tax instead of tolls to pay for new roads. These clowns are insisting that we need "new money" (i.e., taxes) for roads. How about they cough it up? Maybe a special "developer surcharge" to build new roads?

After all, if the gas tax is going to be siphoned away from roads, the ones who are pushing the inefficient tax should be ones paying, don't you think?

Dave

Anonymous said...

I have put together a video of Brewster's many faces of he evening. He was definitely bored!
Since he had already decided how he was voting, I guess he could not
tolerate listening to Austin citizens.

Brewster kept sniffing and coughing. I thought maybe it was allergies until I noticed the teeth grinding, jaw clenching.

Could McCracken be on Crack?