I mentioned this report was coming out a couple days ago.
As Gov. Rick Perry goes ballistic, the Dallas News article today states this of new federal Study, "If recommendations are passed into law, fewer tolls would be necessary than are currently planned in Texas".
Hundreds of news reports have come out today across the country about this report, which will effect the Gas Tax vs. Toll Roads dialog here in Texas. Read the whole federal report that suggest boosting the gas tax over tolling everything: Transportation for Tomorrow: Report of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, here.
Toll roads cost MORE to build and maintain than free roads. That doens't even consider the added bureaucracy, debt and the corruption that comes with tolls. Toll roads need a larger footprint - which means extra right-of-way land must be acquired and utilities must be relocated. This can be surprisingly expensive. For example, TxDOT is on record as saying that Austin phase II tolls would cost over $100 million more than if the same roads were built as non-tolled roads!
Indexing the gas tax is simple and the most fair way to pay for our roads.
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1/16/2008
Gov. Rick Perry Goes Ballistic Over New Study That Hits Tolls
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5 comments:
Couldn't happen to a nicer guy!
Perry and wants his contributor cronies (mainly construction firms and investment banks) to make huge profits from privatizations.
The panel recommendation is a major threat to their planned profit machine.
Perry is surely concerned that he won't be able to pay off his cronies by selling off our roads. But luckily someone is standing up for the interests of the public.
"The panel wants Congress to raise the federal gas tax – currently at 18.4 cents a gallon – by 5 to 8 cents a year for five years"
Suppose your car gets 20 mpg and you drive 15000 miles a year. 20mpg *750gallons/year = 15000 miles per year.
a 10 cent gas tax increase at this rate is only an extra $75 a year. A 5 cent gas tax increase is only a $37.50 increase per year. BIG DEAL. If you can afford a car then you can afford this tax increase.
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/interactive_sm/01/tollroadcalculator.html
A round trip on 183A costs $3 a day with a tx tag, if a TxDOT software error doesn't double charge you. Do this for 2 weeks and you've already paid $30. And that's only for the trip to and from work! Forget your laptop at home? Sorry- cough up $3 more for another round trip. Need to fight the tollers' software error in court? Well, you may pay $10 to park your car downtown.
Another article on the same subject:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120044978989593159.html?mod=politics_primary_hs
They have us discussing and dialoging about what they dictate to us as what needs to be discussed. That is a set-up.
The increased gas tax vs. toll roads is a set-up folks.
Get to the bottom of this. Why is either one supposedly needed.
Do we have a shortage of highway funds?
Maybe not if we got some truth about state highway funds and how they are messed with by the Governor and TxDOT. We the people cannot get honest money numbers from TxDOT yet all these spoonfed set-up choices are based are TxDOT's and the governor's lies.
I won't get into here, but the whole availability of oil and price of gasoline is a huge lie and scam too.
One of my favorite foundational lies goes something like this...
"State transportation officials appear to have a tough sales job ahead as they try to pave the way for new highways — mostly toll roads — to deal with the booming Texas population."
Anyone care to back up that "booming Texas population" claim? That claim does not bear close inspection and those of us who learned to look deeper than Ric Williamson's b.s. know it.
And no, state transporation officials never have a tough sales job on their hands. They just lie and have their public "debates" and meetings where they have all their shills in their average Texas citizen costumes sit up front and center to lie on the record (and probably for pay). No sales are needed and no sales take place. TxDOT has a long history of manipulating the public, lying to the public, stealing from the public and then just ignoring the public and going on their corrupt way.
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