9/19/2008

The Trans-Texas Corridors, eminent domain abuse, and the Texas Toll Road Rebellion

To see the latest toll and TTC News HERE

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

(1) Yeah ATPE!!! Perry tolling consortium can now read some union handwriting on the wall if they continue to be deaf to citizens' complaints. (2) NTTA can increase their revenue if they forsake all their own gratis toll tags they granted unto themselves beyond citizens' oversight and approval (never happen otherwise).

Anonymous said...

glad to read that article. How irresponsible to invest retirement funds in tolls. Glad there's opposition to it.

Anonymous said...

I received a collection notice from a collection company stating that the Texas Department of Transportation referred my acct to the collection agency office.

I was stunned by the notice, because I was unaware about the fact that I have toll fees to pay. The notice listed my toll violations with time, date, fees and highways. The highway which I got charged for toll was SH121. And the total toll fee is $2.20 and extra charge which says 'administrative fee' for $175, so the total bill is $ 177.20 for $2.20 toll fee. Well, when I was driving over SH121, from 11/07 to 2/08, I did not know I was getting charge for tolls, because there is no toll booth at all. I called my sister and she told me there is signs stating that they will send a bill for toll by mail, but even she did not received any bills yet. I never received any bills or notices from TxDot or Dept of Transportation. Never! And they sent my acct to collection with some outrageous fees and ruining my credit.

Since it was weekend I opened my mailbox and found this collection notice, I could not contact the 'Texas Tollways Customer Service Center, but sent an e-mail to them via web. I will contact 'Texas Tollways customer Service Center' on this Monday, but if they don't consider the fact that they did not send me any bills for a year and still charge me for all the fees and leave the collection history on my credit, is there anyway I can get help about this?

I heard from my friend that there are cases people get charges for violation without receiving any bill for amount of time. Do you have any report regarding this situation, and if so, can you make media report on this tollway crisis?

Anonymous said...

Since the Austin American Statesman has been preening their help hotline as front-page items, perhaps "6:20 AM" should solicit The Statesman assistance and then The Staesman can publish this item as a front-page article,too -- as a conscientious public service (alert).

Anonymous said...

A Statesman.com article actually critical of Prick Perry??? Unbelievable!! Watch out Kelso you might be getting a pink slip...

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/09/23//0923kelso.html

OR

http://tinyurl.com/4xbalr

(Check it out before it gets removed!)

Anonymous said...

Is everyone taking note that it is the derivative bunch on Wall St. that has our country's finances so screwed right now that wants to finance goodhair's plan that takes our free and paid for roads and turns them into toll roads and corridors owned by foreigners?

Also note that it is former Texas Senator Phil Porn-O-Gramm that slipped in the legislation legalizing this unregulated derivative mess back around 2000. Mr. Porn-O-Gramm is John McCain's go-to man for his would be administration's fiscal policies.

Anonymous said...

hey anon 1:20pm sept 23.

you're fooling yourself if you think it's going to be any different with Obama. remember he wants even MORE socialization/nationalization, not less. which means MORE government control.

there's a time and place for regulation and DEregulation. in this case things got out of control because everyone thought the housing boom would never end. just like the dot com BUST of the late 90s. was that Clinton's fault?

Anonymous said...

Anon 4:02,

I don't pretend to have answers. But I think my observations are fair.

The dot.com bust of the 90's was something that was contained; it didn't threaten the whole economy and people's homes along with it. Putting people with shot credit into balloon mortgages that depended on double digit annual gains to work was plain stupid.

Obama hasn't claimed he represents me. McCain does, and Bushie did. We believed the lie that they are looking out for us and are threatened with losing our homes and farms to build roads that we have to pay foreigners to drive on. That's the rub.

The history of Republican sellouts goes back to when Bush41 pledged no new taxes and we all know what he did. The crime was he got nothing for his concession in return. And with his son running things, that family trait has continued; money, assets, infrastructure, ports, jobs, you name it goes out and we get nothing in return.

So I guess my election choice this year is between someone who doesn't give a fig about me and someone who will write me off for a chump and sell me out. You tell me, what's the best pick?

Anon 1:20

Anonymous said...

Anon 1:20

I could be wrong but wasn't the housing boom and bust limited to just a handful of states? Namely- CA, FL, AZ, NV?? (And perhaps WA, UT, NJ, NY).

The vast majority of the country has not experienced the insane rise in house prices with double digit appreciation rates year over year. Here in TX we are a perfect example- there hasn't been a crash here because we were not a part of that out of control boom. And by the way, I would imagine that at least 90%+ of the country still has a (non subprime) mortgage and still pays that mortgage on time.


"The dot.com bust of the 90's was something that was contained; it didn't threaten the whole economy and people's homes along with it."

Not necessarily. The economic sentiment back then was dire and quite gloomy from what I can remember. Millions owned stock that instantly became worthless. Millions lost jobs that evaporated because their companies were actually unprofitable and merely being sustained by venture capital-which vanished overnight. There were also millions of foreclosures as a result.

EVERYTHING works in cycles. Always has, always will. Clinton blamed GHWB for the economy when it was already starting to turn around in late 1992. The 90s would have boomed regardless of who was president- mainly from the commercialization of the Internet in 1991. Clinton capitalized on making the public believe he would change things and won the presidency- although I would argue Ross Perot really was the reason that Clinton won.

Anonymous said...

This is not the great depression. People starved- literally did not have enough to eat during the depression. There was rationing of all kinds of food and materials. Not so today. Plenty o cheap fast food, plasma tv's, bikes, cars, and other stuff you need and don't need at stores all over. The only thing that's being artificially rationed these days are our fucking paid-for roads by the tollers, and as we all know this is engineered public misery for private profits. There is plenty of food to go around and plenty of people in Austin have jobs and are happy and healthy. Like earlier posts, maybe Austinites are luckier than residents of other cities.

Anonymous said...

The tolling is going to drive people out of Austin. Only the people to moved in from Lousiana will remain. Good luck at collecting the tolls on them.