Update from Sal

Hey pals!

Just a quick update. I think I'm getting to where I wanted to be when I left Austin about a year ago.

Between my recent vacation (my first one in 2 years) and this fantastic book called "The Joy of Living" by Mingyur Rinpoche, I've stumbled upon a major reset in my life.

Buddhist master Rinpoche combines Buddhist wisdom with the latest breakthroughs in Western medicine to reveal the scientific basis for how one can achieve enlightenment, relaxation, and happiness through meditation. I love every page.

Also, I'm on facebook. So, if you are looking to know what I'm up to, you'll find updates there if you want to select me as a friend.
: )

YOU pay for the Toll Tax Bureaucracy

News 8 Austin has a great report called "Toll road billing continues to take its toll on drivers", read the whole article HERE.

"The complaints were so varied and complicated, we had to break them down into recurring themes.

The complaints most prevalent include: accusations of inaccurate billing, exorbitant administrative fees, inaccurate record keeping and promises made by customer service that were not fulfilled.

To be fair, these claims have yet to be substantiated.

For weeks, News 8 has asked TxDOT to respond to these claims. We were told Turnpike Authority Director Mark Tomlinson was just too busy to talk to us.

We wouldn't settle for talking to one of TxDOT's media representatives because, by their own admission, one of them had already given us inaccurate information.

We took the e-mails to TxDOT to be presented to Tomlinson. News 8's Bob Robuck delivered a packet of e-mails, with names and contact information redacted.

We included a note that we would get in contact later this week.

And, remember Lisa Coleman, who TxDOT billed for nearly $4,000, and Samone Murray, billed for more than $11,000?

A TxDOT spokesperson told us each woman received an offer to have her penalties forgiven as long as she paid the tolls.

Murray said no one made her such a deal and Coleman claims customer service made the offer at the very beginning of her nightmare, when TxDOT couldn't provide documentation that she even owed the tolls."

Governor Rick Perry Slanders Me

The Texas Governor, Rick Perry, must be obsessed with me.

Months after I moved out of Texas, the Governor of Texas is spinning tales about me to to the Dallas Morning News. Perry says I tried to make a living off opposing the corridor, and since I couldn't do so, I had to leave Texas.

What a crooked liar!

Perry says this in the article:

"....And if the grass-roots toll groups and bloggers had substantial influence, we wouldn’t be building any roads at all — they would have killed (our efforts) — and we are. Sal Costello had to move out of the state, it got to be such a poor way to make a living."

The writer Michael A. Lindenberger, of the Dallas Morning News, deserves credit, as he tries to set the record straight within the article (although he's off by a couple of months with when my announcement took place) — But it's a better effort than the toll loving Austin American Statesman would ever do (Otherwise known as the Snakesman). Dallas news says this after Perry reimagines the facts:

"Note: Costello, founder of a group called Austin Toll Party, is credited with helping stop some taxpayer-funded roads in Austin from being converted to toll roads. His blistering attacks made him a prolific anti-toll road gadfly. He announced earlier this month he had moved to a small town in Illinois and given up what he called his costly “obsession” with campaigning against toll roads."

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I hope you are all well.

We are doing well here.

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Your Pal Sal
: )