Scandal Plagued Toll Authority Charges 12,000 Drivers for “Free” Ride

The CTRMA toll authority admitted today that 183A drivers are being overcharged.

Drivers with TxTAG’s were promised they could test drive the new 183A toll road for free this month. But now we learn over 12,000 drivers have been overcharged. Steve Pustelnyk, spokesman for the toll authority blames the overcharging on computer errors.

This overcharging is only the latest problem for the bureaucratic toll authority that has lost a lot of credibility with the community.

Years before other Phase I toll roads opened up in Austin, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority promised the public they would only be paying 15 cents a mile. But, just weeks ago the Statesman revealed sections costing as much as $1.50 a mile. Ten times the promised cost!

And Texas Comptroller’s investigative report showed the same toll authority giving out NO BID contracts to themselves and their friends. The report also found “Double Taxation Without Accountability”.

And the toll authority gave "pay off" contracts to the sister of State Representative Dawnna Dukes, the day before Dukes made a very unpopular vote to toll Austin freeways.

This also isn’t the first time the CTRMA has overcharged drivers.

With all of it’s problems the toll authority just rewarded it’s executive director, Mike “deadbeat dad” Heiligenstein, with a 25% raise!

Spanish corporation buys toll collection company with ties to Central Texas Tollers

Abengoa SA's IT unit Telvent GIT SA said its US arm Telvent Traffic North America Inc has agreed on the acquisition for an undisclosed sum of Texas-based Caseta Technologies which develops road toll charging technology.

Caseta Technologies is a privately held company established in 1995 by Founder, Glenn Deitiker. Glenn Deitiker is currently President & CTO of Caseta. Sources say that Deitiker has close ties with Mayor Will Wynn, who voted to toll roads we've already paid for in Austin. County records show that Glenn Deitiker resides in the same building as Mayor Wynn, the Austin City Lofts (800 W. 5th St.), just 5 floors away from Mayor Will Wynn's front door.

Caseta was selected for CTRMA's 183A toll system and the Caseta website list these Customers:

Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA), Austin, TX
TransCore
MTA Bridges & Tunnels (MTA B&T), New York, NY
New York State Bridge Authority (NYSBA), Highland, New York

TransCore, one of Melinda Wheatley’s transportation clients received a multimillion dollar contract with TxDOT in Sept. 2005. The contract allows for the initial release of 500,000 eGo Plus RFID tags, branded locally as TxTag, with a total of 2 million tags over two years. Wheatley has landed multimillion dollar transportation contracts while keeping an intimate relationship with the House Transportation Chair, State Representative Mike Krusee.

Toll Authority Shark Gets 25% Raise!

Mike Heiligenstein, executive director of the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA), just got a big fat raise, from board members who were caught profiting off toll roads.

Heiligenstein will make $190,000 in base salary, as well as receive $40,000 in deferred compensation (which he could take now) and other cash payments - not to mention numerous perks such as car allowance.

Heiligenstein got a 25% raise, when most people would be fired. It’s been documented that he lied to elected officials and central Texas communities about toll rates.

For years, Heiligenstein promised that our tolls would only cost 12 to 15 cents a mile. A recent Statesman article exposed the Heiligenstein that tolls are costing as much as $1.50 a mile. 10 times the promised rate!

The Comptroller’s investigative report lays out how Heiligenstein and the his crooked pals (toll authority board members) hijacked our tax dollars and our roads for their own profit with the unaccountable quasi government agency they created:

"Mike Heiligenstein was a member of the Williamson County Commissioners Court until December 2003, and in that capacity voted for the formation of CTRMA and for the appointments of four of its board members.”

Then, those board members hired Heiligenstein as Executive Director.

The comptroller’s investigative exposed Heiligenstein’s toll authority for “double taxation without accountability” and giving out NO BID contracts to themselves and friends (see Appendix 5).

Heiligenstein is plagued with a history of failing to meet his financial responsibilities. Heiligenstein’s bankruptcy from 1990 (#90-14004 Williamson County) included two debtors which were also two of Heiligenstein’s board member selections, James Mills and Mike Robinson.

And, in 2004, deadbeat dad Heiligenstein refused to pay child support. District Court Judge Jergins signed the order (case # 03-556-f395) for income to be withheld in the amount of $1,500 per month. More about Heiligenstein, and his constant irresponsible behavior HERE.

Toll Authority Admits it Impedes Traffic

Citizen says toll authority is impeding traffic. Toll authority (CTRMA) admits, in an email, that it impedes traffic on free roads close to toll roads (even after it promised that additional lights would not be added to free roads to make tolls more attractive.)

Dear Toll Authority,

Just what in the heck are you doing with 183 just south of the San Gabriel river? It appears, from I map I've seen, that you are going to direct all 183 traffic through a new stop light on 183A, instead of leaving the old road intact?

Malcom Terry

Toll Authority Responds:

From: spustelnyk@ctrma.org
Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 8:38 AM
Subject: RE: Contact Page Request, CTRMA.org

Dear Mr. Terry,

Thank you for visiting the Mobility Authority Web site. Your observations regarding US 183 are correct.

As you head south on US 183 from Liberty Hill you will automatically be shifted onto the new 183A frontage roads. If you want to stay on US 183 you will have to make a right hand turn at a traffic signal that is currently being installed. The 183A corridor will be the primary corridor for traffic in that area once it opens. In order to safely merge the two roads together we had to install a traffic signal. If I can answer any further questions, please let me know.

Sincerely, Steve J. Pustelnyk Director of Communications
Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority
(512) 996-9778(Office) (512)680-9997 (Cell)

Citizen replies:

Mr. Pustelnyk,

183A is not the primary corridor for those of us who have business in Leander and Cedar Park. If this was purely to improve mobility, then there would be seamless flyovers to minimize the impact on existing roads.

183A is way over-priced with rates as high as $1.50 a mile in some places. The rate of $1.80 for the whole 11.6 mile trek, around Leander and Cedar Park, is still outrageous considering that the "free" frontage road system on the northern section will be just like Parmer Lane, in that drivers will have to go through traffic signals every few miles. I just don't see how you can charge that much for and incomplete expressway. If you don't want to see a revolt, you had better advise those private investors to consider pricing the toll roads at a reasonable rate, put toll booths (with cash options) at every exit so that drivers pay for only the section they drive on, and to quit messing up the existing roads to favor the toll ways.

It has become obvious to me that this whole toll road system has less to do with improving mobility and more to do with lining the pockets of private toll road investors and property developers along the old and new routes. We were sold a bill of goods by being told that the toll roads would lighten the load on existing roads. What we were not told (although we should have known) is that the existing roads were going to have more traffic impedance via more signals, an explosion of development and therefore more traffic than ever before. I will be contacting Senator Steve Ogden, Representative Dan Gattis, and Governor Rick Perry about this. You and I both know that the government can do whatever they want and if we turn-up the heat on those good ole boys who made this sweet deal for private investors, we may just get the roads put back into the hands of the people. I suggest you keep your resume updated.

Sincerely,
Malcom Terry

Toll Tax Zombie/Vampires Hide within Layers of Toll Road Bureaucracy.

The national average of tolls per mile is only 9 cents a mile.

The unaccountable revenue hungry Central Texas toll authority promised citizens a cost of 12 to 15 cents a mile.

But they lied.

Drivers will pay 40 cents, 64 cents and even $1.50 a mile! The toll roads induce traffic congestion to profit. A dollar here and the quickly adds up to $1,000's a year.

New Texas Tolls as
much as 16X the
National Average!

This is the complete article from the Statesman today. It fails to use the word “Bureaucracy”, nor does it mention the millions of tax dollars (intended for free roads) that were diverted into these toll roads:

Toll roads:
Paying a lot to drive a little
$1.50-per-mile spot near Lakeline Mall illustrates fee discrepancies.

By Ben Wear
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, February 12, 2007

So, what does it cost you to drive on Central Texas' emerging toll road system?

Well, about 12 cents a mile. Unless it's 18 cents, or 40 cents, or 64 cents. Or, in one notable spot near Lakeline Mall, a cool $1.50 a mile.

State and local toll officials chose to install a system that is based on paying every so often, rather than a more old-fashioned "closed road" system in which drivers pass toll plazas on the way in and out and pay a set per-mile amount for their exact mileage. Inevitably, the "open road" approach introduces sizable inconsistencies, with longer trips on the tollway typically more economical than a short jaunt.

Other decisions by toll authorities, particularly choosing to have almost all ramps cost 50 cents for cash customers, have only exacerbated the situation. For some drivers in an area unfamiliar with toll roads in any form, the system has been a source of puzzlement and consternation. Why are there some exits and entrances that are free, drivers wonder, while others nearby have booths and electronic gantries? How can it possibly be fair, they ask, to pay 45 cents to gain just 500 yards?

That will be the situation at the southern end of the 183-A tollway, just north of RM 620, after the road opens in early March and begins charging drivers in late spring.

Northbound motorists will be able to get off at Lakeline Mall Drive, ominously posted as the "last free exit." If they do, they'll have to get through a stoplight on the frontage road before proceeding north.

Or they can go to the next exit, Lakeline Boulevard. In that brief interval, however, they'll pass an electronic toll gantry and be hit with that 45-cent toll. To make it even more confusing, drivers without electronic toll tags are not even supposed to be on the road at that point and will get a violation notice in the mail if they are.

Total distance traveled between the two exits: about three-tenths of a mile. That equates to $1.50 a mile.

"It's just not right," said Cedar Park resident Tom Nehmzow, who would dearly love to exit for free at that second ramp because he takes Lakeline Boulevard home. The Lakeline Mall exit, he said, will be inundated with people looking to avoid paying.

"What they're going to create there is a tremendous traffic jam at Lakeline Mall Drive," he said. "You've got a stoplight at the very bottom of the ramp, so it's going to back up onto the tollway. It's got to."

The irony is that Nehmzow, a manufacturer's representative who drives a lot around the area, has a toll tag and supports toll roads in general.

"Overall, I would say the toll road system is pretty cool. I really enjoy it," he said. "I just think this particular situation is a rip-off."

Officials with the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, which is building and will operate 183-A, have been bracing for this sort of reaction.

They have an even broader problem, however.

The startup agency originally was going to build 11.6 miles of tollway, all the way from RM 620 to U.S. 183 north of Leander. But a traffic and revenue study done about three years ago indicated that, in the road's first decade, traffic north of RM 1431 would not justify the additional $100 million or so necessary to build express lanes all the way.

So the agency decided instead to build about 4.5 miles of tollway on the south end and then free two-lane frontage roads for the seven northernmost miles. But to pay back money borrowed to build all this, the agency will charge $1.80 for that 4.5-mile tollway trip. That's 40 cents a mile.

Of course, if you happen to live in Leander or points north, or have other business up that way, you'll be able to drive the whole 11.6 miles for that $1.80, stopping at a few stoplights in the free part. Cost: 15.5 cents a mile.

"Admittedly, it does get confusing," said Mike Heiligenstein, executive director of the mobility authority since shortly after it was created in 2002. He compared the situation to a water system, in which early users of the system might have to pay for more of the startup costs of water mains but people in more outlying areas developed later get lower costs.

"We tried to hit the middle ground and give everyone a little something," he said. "Not everything's always fair."

As for that Lakeline Boulevard anomaly, Heiligenstein points out that originally the Lakeline Mall Drive exit was going to carry a 50-cent charge (45 cents for people with toll tags). But that would have put the last free exit on northbound U.S. 183 well south of RM 620.

"We added that as a sort of convenience, as a courtesy," he said.

And Heiligenstein pointed out, as did others, that if people stay on 183-A for those extra 500 yards and pay that 45 cents, they're actually purchasing time rather than distance: the time saved by avoiding a stoplight.

That same logic applies on the Loop 1 tollway just north of Parmer Lane, one of three new toll roads built in Central Texas by the Texas Department of Transportation, where going through a toll point south of Wells Branch Parkway for 45 cents gains just seven-tenths of a mile. That equates to 64 cents a mile. But those drivers won't have to stop at the Scofield Ridge Parkway traffic light on the frontage road.

The state and mobility authority could reduce these disparities, of course, by lowering the toll rate at particular ramps. But to satisfy the bond holders looking to get paid back, they then would have to raise the toll rates somewhere else.

And then there's the matter of quarters, dimes and nickels.

When the state was designing the Loop 1, Texas 45 North and Texas 130 toll roads more than five years ago, electronic toll technology was a generation behind where it is now. The bond community, recognizing that a sizable portion of the customer base would never get an electronic toll tag, demanded that the three roads have facilities at every tolling point to collect cash.

Toll authorities increasingly have been setting rates in multiples of 25 cents, because automatic coin collection machines operate better with a single coin size and because it simplifies the coin scramble for drivers. That shortens time at booths and thus reduces toll plaza traffic congestion.

So, to diminish the per-mile disparities, couldn't the toll on some ramps have been just 25 cents? The state Transportation Department decided against that, said Bob Daigh, the Austin district engineer. Daigh was in the agency's turnpike division when the Austin roads were in the final planning stages.

"It's driver expectation," Daigh said. "They need to know, 'This is a ramp plaza, and it's 50 cents.' If you make that one 25 cents, you've introduced a question in the driver's mind as he goes to the next one. He has his quarter out, and it's really 50 cents, so you stack up traffic while he's searching for a second quarter."

Joseph Giglio, a professor of corporate strategy at Boston's Northeastern University and an expert on toll systems, said drivers will sort all this out soon enough.

"We're not talking about introducing the metric system," Giglio said. And if people don't want to pay for a few hundred yards and an avoided stoplight, they won't.

"That's a discretionary choice. There's a willing buyer and seller. Nobody is insisting you pay that 45 cents."

Inconsistent toll rates

The approach taken by the Austin area's two tollway operators means that the cost per mile varies widely, depending on the length and specifics of any given turnpike trip.

Trip Length Toll cost* Cost per mile

183-A

Lakeline Mall Drive to Lakeline Blvd. 0.3 $0.45 $1.50

RM 620 to RM 1431 4.5 $1.80 $0.40

RM 620 to South San Gabriel River 11.6 $1.80 $0.16

Loop 1

Wells Branch Pkwy. to Parmer Lane 0.7 $0.45 $0.64

Loop 1/45 North

Parmer to I-35 in Round Rock 4.5 $0.68 $0.15

Loop 1/45 North/130

Parmer to U.S. 79 15.5 $1.80 $0.12

130/45 North

I-35 to U.S. 79 9.8 $1.13 $0.12

130

I-35 in Georgetown to U.S. 290 25.6 $2.70 $0.11

I-35 in Georgetown to U.S. 183** 49 $5.40 $0.11

* Cost for passenger vehicle with 10 percent toll tag discount. Vehicles with more than two axles are charged an additional toll amount for each additional axle.

** Full length of Texas 130 when final two segments are completed later this year.

Source: Published toll rates, staff research

Freeway Tolling Authority Board Member Steps Down!

BREAKING NEWS!

After 4 years of conflict of interests,
and profiting off the system,
Johanna Zmud finally resigns.

Just weeks ago, I wrote a blog article (click here) about how two CTRMA board members had refused to step down a year after they were asked to resign.

About a year ago, Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn called for the resignation of Chairman Robert Tesch and Johanna Zmud because of conflict of interest.

According to an Austin Business Journal article today, Johanna Zmud, has agreed to step down. Of course, her resignation came with the usual politico excuses. But we know the real story. Thanks to many of you, and your letters to her demanding she step down. She finally listened!

WE HAVE MORE WORK TO DO!
Public records show that Chairman Robert Tesch’s property valuation (less any improvements) of an 18-acre tract, which lies about 2,000 feet east of future US 183-A right of way, has already increased by 612% percent since the time of his appointment to the CTRMA board, another piece of land has increased 989%!

ASK Robert Tesch to Resign - CLICK HERE.

Email about Tesch printed with permission

Sal,

What do you hear on the scum bag Robert Tesch (CTRMA toll authority)? I see his name and my blood runs cold. The way he ripped off old people at his property in Plano, not to mention his 48 employees he ran out on and let us all work for 8 days, running his business, racking in the rental fees of $2500 a month & UP, and didn't pay us.

Many of his employees at the assisted living facility in Plano, worked for barely above minimum wage--and then the multi-millionaire, crook, schister, left all of us holding the bag and no pay checks.

Gov. Perry has appointed Tesch as his director of the highway mobility team, which will include Tesch's property when the highway is built, thus making him all the richer...and he won't even pay his employees. Many of us have filed with the Labor Board, but as I talk with them they tell me they have a "process" that takes some time. They tell me they are trying to freeze his assets. I keep telling the State of Texas Labor Board--THIS MAN IS A MILLIONAIRE IN AUSTIN--GO FIND HIM--WE NEED OUR MONEY.

As I read the article on him, he and his wife Sandra, are listed as creditors and paid as he files bankruptcy..What a crock...and the Oakmont Services, that is racking in all that money, has one employee --the poor schmuck--and pays him $36k. The guy is his "yes" man, Randy was a schmuck as well.

I just want my money..he owes me a little over $2000 which is a drop in the bucket to a millionaire, but means alot to me..Is there NO justice in this great State? Come on Aggie Perry--I was at A&M when you were yell leader...show some compassion and oust out Tesche..

JJ

Toller Gonzalo Barrientos, CTRMA's Lowell H. Lebermann & Ray Brimble

Pro-Toll Guru spanks inept Freeway Tollers!

Peter Samuel, the father of traditional toll road privatization and the biggest supporter of tolls you can find, speaks out about Texas Tollers lack of studies and principles, and says Texas Tollers like Gov. Perry, TxDOT and Rep. Krusee are inept and arrogant over tolling public highways in his newsletter this past Thursday.

The Defeat of Texas Prop 9 spurred Samuel to comment, "the vote is a political blow to tolling since it suggests a lack of public confidence in the way tolling is being handled in the state." Samuel is the editor of the worlds premier pro-toll newsletter called TollRoadsNews.com.

Thursday's article includes the following quotes about shifting tax funded public highway projects to toll roads:

"Political support in TX has also been sapped by a bewilderingly unprincipled and unexplained intermixing of funding of projects by TxDOT.

"In Texas the tollers are behaving arrogantly and with extraordinary political ineptitude"

"There's something sleazy too in that term "regional mobility authority". It's a toll authority. Why run away from that? Only people without the courage of their convictions or who are too tongue tied to explain themselves resort to silly euphemisms. Does it fool anyone anyway?"

"TxDOT's promiscuous approach to raising funds and their promotion of projects without even a semblance of study has been the anti-toll groups' major recruiter."

Samuel has also stated recently in his newsletter,

"It has no coherent explanation for its project selection, or for the way tax and toll monies are mixed. It has been cavalier in proposing tolls on highways already funded - breaching a long-established piece of political wisdom about tolling."

"TxDOT produces precious little analysis of costs and benefits, yet it is pressing ahead with a huge array of toll projects."

Click on the envelope below to automaticly send this article's link to others (INCLUDING YOUR ELECTED LOOTING REPRESENTATIVES).

"Independent" Review Hijacked by Toll Authority.

The foxes decide they will guard the hen house.

Last spring, the City of Austin unanimously approved an Independent Review of the Toll Authority's plan for Austin. As the City resolution states, phase 2 toll roads (tolls placed on public highways) have "generated controversy and division in our community", and "there is widespread desire for independent review of the information related to that plan". The review did not begin last spring, even though the resolution from March 3, 2005 promised the study would NOT be delayed,

"The city manager is directed to inquire if the RMA (toll authority) or other government entities would be willing to participate in the cost of the study, however the study is not to be delayed"

City of Austin Councilman Brewster McCracken has spent many months looking to "expand the study" by searching out more funds. Mind you, the city had the bare bones study fully funded with $150,000. But, Brewster said he wanted the study to include alternatives. Today the additional funds are lined up with the toll authority putting up to $125,000 or 35% of the funds for the review.

For months McCracken said ALL the meetings would be made open to the public, that a citizens committee would steer the neutral company hired to produce the study, and the community would have full opportunity to speak up in this very public independent review. Brewster said "Everything will be open and in the sunshine"

A draft of the interlocal agreement shows the truth. The process has been hijacked by the toll authority:

• City pays majority of the study but majority
of votes come from outside the city, and the
same people that voted to toll roads we've
already paid for!

• The Toll Authority (CTRMA) is the
Project Coordinator!

• Process not open: Secret meetings are
allowed, public cannot speak at all meetings,
and review committee not subject to
open meetings act.

GET THIS: The pro-toll committee can decide NOT to accept the study results!

How can the toll authority do an "independent" review on themselves? Who are they kidding? McCracken's Independent Review could not be more of a sham, or less "independent". These greased weasels really must think we are stupid. They keep wasting more of our time and our tax dollars. It's like ENRON auditing themselves.

RMA board member resigns while Johanna Zmud refuses to resign over same conflicts.

***UPDATED FRIDAY 16TH, 5PM***
North East Texas RMA board member Jay Stokes resigned on Wednesday, because of state statutes that prevent officials from cities that might benefit from RMA projects from serving on RMA boards.

So why has Johanna Zmud refused to resign from the CTRMA after 6 months since she's was caught with her hand in the cookie jar? The Comptroller asked that Zmud resign since her company (NuStats) has a contract with TxDOT, and Zmud benefits from that contract. The press release from March 9, 2005 clearly states,

"Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn today called for the resignation of Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority board chairman Robert Tesch and board member Johanna Zmud."

It continues, "Zmud is part owner of a business that contracts with the Texas Department of Transportation, which makes her position on CTRMA's board an apparent violation of the Texas Transportation Code."

JUST WEEKS AGO, knowing that last March, Comptroller exposed this Zmud conflict, Travis County Commissioners Sam Biscoe, Karen Sonleitner and Gerald Daugherty REAPPOINTED Johanna Zmud!!!!! Biscoe, Sonlietner & Daugherty also voted to toll roads we've already paid for at a tune of well over hundreds of millions of dollars. This is an outrage!

CTRMA Robert Tesch bankruptcy Hearing

No camera's were allowed in the building for the CTRMA's Tesch meeting of creditors bankruptcy hearing. So, I took a few pics of what I could outside. The Gov. Rick Perry appointed Robert Tesch recognized me, and smirked, came right over and shook my hand and said "Who's paying you to do this?". I responded "Nobody".





I guess this guy just can't understand that people don't want our freeways tolled. And, we certainly don't want some unelected con artist setting the rates for roads we already paid for! At the end of the hearing I actually heard Bob Tesch say his bankruptcy was "the result of a miscommunication". That's rich. Pics by Sal, story by Roger. Thanks Roger!

The Judge was Valerie Winger was a fill in for her boss. It was called the first creditor hearing in bankruptcy court. Joe Martinez was the lawyer. The Cedar Park development deal was intended as part of a long range real estate development plan that did not pan out as planned. The debt changed hands between banks. Tesch is trying hard to sell the properties or refinance. Don or Dan Quick & Co. is the real estate broker. Tesch considers himself a manager for the debtor. The outfit has one employee named Randy Vaninger.

The one building on the apparently much larger property is 93% occupied with about a three year average lease. Tesch and Associates Inc. is a creditor. (sounds like he may have screwed things up on the whole property by building and leasing just one building in the middle). "Skyline" sent a rep there so they must be a major creditor. There are no final offers yet. They have opened creditor accounts.

There are both capital infusion and sale options being considered. Its chapter 11. The creditor purchased the note but is apparently being intolerant of Tesch's situation. Apparently the speculative debt went through these stages of changing hands: Jefferson Heritage Bank, Union Planter, Mercantile, Regional Bank

Tesch claimed that he thought there would be a $100 payoff to debtors to be resolved shortly, now that the real estate market out there looks so good. Yeah, sure. -- Roger

UPDATE: CTRMA's Robert Tesch bankruptcy records show himself and more as creditor.

Cedar Park Associates, wholly owned by Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority Chairman Robert Tesch and his wife, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week. Robert Tesch bankruptcy records show himself, his wife Sandra L. Tesch and another Tesch Company - Oakmont Retirement Services as creditors. Bankruptcy attorney is Joseph Martinec (512.476.0750).

Cedar Park Associates owns 1490 East Whitestone Blvd, Austin TX and shows annual revenues of $324k with 1 employee at 36k a year.


Robert Tesch's business has failed to pay:

• $3 million to Regions Bank
• $50k to Manuel Zuniga
• $92k to Skyline Ventures, Inc
• $6k to Stoker Management dba Jani-King
• $3k to Pendernales Electric
• $2k to K.I.S.S., Inc
• ? to Oakmont Retirement Services (NOTE: THIS IS ANOTHER TESCH BUSINESS!)
  
• ? to RGD Builders

Meeting of Creditors is August 30, 2005 at 11:30am. Location: Austin Room 118, Homer Thornberry Bldg. 903 San Jacinto, Austin, TX 78701. For more information contact the Bankruptcy Clerk's Office at 512.916.5238. Case number 05-14359-frm.

FBI shows Bankruptcy fraud is a growing national problem.

* COMPTROLLERS REPORT ON TESCH *: "...public records show that the property valuation (less any improvements) of an 18-acre tract Tesch owns, which lies about 2,000 feet east of future US 183-A right of way, has already increased by 612% since the time of his appointment to the CTRMA board."

Judge rules: RMA's are Unconstitutional.

7/14/05 - For Immediate Release (Click on last line for Judge executive order)

Today, Travis County District Judge Darlene Byrne not only ruled that the statute that establishes the boards of directors for Regional Mobility Authorities violates the constitution, the Court also enjoined any member of the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority Board from serving more than a two year term, thus insuring that these toll authorities must take the first step toward accountability.

People for Efficient Transportation, Inc. filed the lawsuit March 1, 2005 in State of Texas District Court against Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA - Toll Authority).

The lawsuit exposed how RMA's (FREEway tolling authorities) throughout Texas are unconstitutional. Under House Bill 3588 an RMA board has 6 year terms. But, a provision in the State of Texas Constitution says a regional entity must be 2 years or less. The state constitution trumps state law.

Since the lawsuit was filed March 1, 2005, it caused a chain reaction in an attempt to fix the problem. State Representative Mike Krusee, who also authored HB 3588, the freeway tolling bill that caused the issue, proposed a constitutional amendment in the last session. HJR 79 will appear on the November 8, 2005 ballot for the public to decide whether the unlected RMA terms should be two or six year terms.

PET Officer and founder, Sal Costello said, "This is a great victory for Texans who deserve more accountability. Texans now have an opportunity to come out in droves this November to say NO to extending the unelected, unaccountable RMA board members terms. An unelected toll authority setting toll rates for our freeways is taxation without representation, the comptroller's report "A Need for a Higher Standard" proves that. We need to get rid of these bureaucratic mini-TxDOT's and not extend their terms. And politicians like Governor Rick Perry, who forced this taxation without representation freeway toll scheme on Texans, should pay the price next year at the polls."

Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn's RMA investigation called "A Need for a Higher Standard" reports that the RMA, being an unelected board allowed to privatize and toll our freeways, creates "double taxation without accountability", and that the RMA's loose management practices cost all Texans more. NOT surprisingly, Comptroller also found favoritism and self-enrichment as board members gave contracts (without bids) to their friends and their own companies.

PET Attorney, Phil Durst of Deats, Durst Owen & Levy said, "The Texas Constitution was designed to serve as a check on government authority and to make sure that government boards cannot be insulated from public accountability. We are very pleased that Judge Byrne ruled that the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority was set up in an unconstitutional way that did not provide enough pubic accountability."

The lawsuit, along with a recent focus on other RMA issues is causing a ripple effect for RMA's across Texas. Regions are now thinking twice about creating RMA's. "It opens the door to open-ended new taxation that will amount to THE LARGEST TAX INCREASE IN TEXAS HISTORY. said Lyle Larson, Bexar County Commissioner

Executive Order from Judge IS HERE.