Another power struggle between Gov. Rick Perry and the Legislature over TxDOT's direction is expected

TxDOT's Challenge

Under Scrutiny as FY '09 Kicks Off

By Richard Williamson, The Bond Buyer

DALLAS - The Texas Department of Transportation begins its fiscal year this week with new leadership, a record $8.3 billion budget, and $1.5 billion of newly mandated bonds amid a challenging political environment.

With another tough legislative session coming in four months, the department must justify its existence in the Sunset review process after taking sharp criticism in a special audit for a $1.1 billion accounting error.

The Sunset Review Commission, a 12-member legislative body that reviews the policies and programs of more than 150 government agencies every 12 years, may have already set up a power struggle between Gov. Rick Perry and the Legislature over TxDOT's direction.

Under its current structure, TxDOT is supervised by the Texas Transportation Commission, a five-member board appointed by the governor. The current TTC chairwoman, Deirdre Delisi, is Perry's former chief of staff, replacing the late Ric Williamson who shared Perry's enthusiasm for privately financed toll roads and the mammoth Trans Texas Corridor.

If the Sunset Review Commission's report is adopted, the TTC board would be replaced by a single commissioner appointed for two years instead of the current six-year terms for board members. The Sunset report also recommends another review in four years instead of the standard 12 years to reconsider whether TxDOT should continue to exist.

"The Sunset review of the Texas Department of Transportation occurred against a backdrop of distrust and frustration with the department and the demand for more transparency, accountability, and responsiveness," the report stated. "Many expressed concerns that TxDOT was 'out of control,' advancing its own agenda against objections of both the Legislature and the public."

Read the whole article HERE.

Gov. Rick Perry and Sen. Kirk Watson Pimp Out Texas Highways

"TxDOT has been prostituted by high-level
state politicians with agendas directed toward
providing for wealthy corporate benefactors."

Read the whole Weatherford Democrat article called "Taking the Low Road" (yes, it's Ric Williamson's hometown) HERE.

CorridorWatch Responds to Governor Rick Perry's Speech

by David Stall, CorridorWatch.org

Today Governor Perry used the podium at a TxDOT conference to deliver a verbal assault on the Texas Legislature and every citizen of Texas.

We can certainly agree that the last few years have been challenging times at TxDOT. Finally, TxDOT is in the public eye, and the result so far has been a real poke in the eye to anyone looking.

The heat TxDOT receives today is the direct result of the direction they have been forced to take by two powerful men, Governor Rick Perry and his late best friend Ric Williamson. It is their planning, not TxDOT's, that has people puzzled.

It is their insistence that a projected population growth somehow justifies anything they want to do, anywhere they want to do it, using any financial scheme available.

It's building roads from where no one lives to where no one works that leaves us puzzled.

No matter how many Aggies you put in Kyle Field you still don't need a 1/4-mile wide Trans Texas Corridor in Pecos County.

Yes, companies are moving to Texas in droves, but will they continue to find our state as inviting when the toll cost of driving to work or moving their goods to market skyrockets? Texas is a big state and tolls here will add up to big money in a big hurry.

Perry accuses the legislature of abdicating their responsibility when in fact they are among the few who are acting responsibly.

We believe the Governor's headlong rush to public-private partnerships could lead to disaster.

Wall Street firms are just now starting to describe these deals as financially-engineered infrastructure models that should raise great concern. We agree. Does anyone remember the marvelous financial model that led to the rise and fall of Enron?

Today Perry described this private financing as something that you would have thought too good to be true. Then claims, "But it is true." Really? And if Texas is such a powerhouse economy why is it that the only way we can afford to build highways is with one of these private partners?

We have not lost sight of the facts, even though they are hard to find among the something for nothing public-private partnership rhetoric. And when was there ever any honest debate to stifle? When was there any debate?

One thing we know for sure is that market-driven solutions will, by design, produce the highest possible tolls to maximize revenue. A good deal if your on the collection side of these state sanctioned monopolies. Not so good for the travelling public and those who will pay the added cost for goods and services using these maximized toll roads.

Read the rest of the article HERE.

Gov. Perry sticks to privatization for toll roads

By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER, The Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry promised to keep fighting for private toll roads and his other transportation priorities Tuesday during his first major speech on the subject since the death in December of transportation commission chairman Ric Williamson.

"This is a place for big challenges, not big excuses," he told state Transportation Department employees and highway experts from around the country at the annual Transportation Forum.

Next year's legislative session, he said, can't be anything like last year's.

"The Legislature must understand that 'no' is not a solution," Mr. Perry said. "It is an abdication of responsibility."

Before last year's stormy session, lawmakers had steadily expanded Texas' ability to partner with private firms to develop toll roads in Texas.

"There remain many, many financial institutions who are ready, willing and able to invest their money to build the roads we need," Mr. Perry said Tuesday.

Across America, states from Georgia to Indiana to Pennsylvania – all facing huge road-funding deficits – have actively considered following Texas' example and seeking out private toll road deals. The results have been mixed, but since last year, those same companies' welcome in Texas has been uncertain.

In 2007, legislators rebelled over Mr. Perry's ambitious push for toll roads and privatization, demanding greater roles for public agencies such as the North Texas Tollway Authority.

Mr. Perry said lawmakers and voters alike reacted too quickly to an idea they may not have fully understood.

"Too often these debates over highways have been driven by emotion and not reason," he said. "As a result, honest debate has been stifled, and progress has been sacrificed on the altar of politics."

With Texas adding 1,500 people a day, Mr. Perry said the cost of building and maintaining the state's roads is far beyond what tax revenues will pay for. Only by inviting private firms to invest their billions in toll roads can Texas build its way out of its increasingly congested traffic jams, he argues.

Mr. Perry and his transportation department have said private companies often are willing to pay more for toll road contracts. They also agree to take on risks that have traditionally been borne by the public, such as the risk that traffic will be less than expected on a toll road.

In addition, he argues that competition with private companies helps boost toll rates, and forces even public toll authorities such as NTTA to pay more for the right to collect tolls.

Critics, however, have said it is the transportation department that has insisted for too long on building highways its own way, with too little input from the Legislature.

Read the rest of the article HERE.

EXCLUSIVE BREAKING NEWS: Tollers Fight Tollers For Tax Dollars

Sen. Kirk Watson vs. TxDOT!

The war is on! - Heated letters went out this week between TxDOT and Sen. Kirk Watson of CAMPO.

But, it's not a fight over whether Austin freeways are toll taxed or not toll taxed.

The fight is about which pot of your tax dollars pays for the double tax tolls! Just last fall, Sen. Kirk Watson and others voted to divert $910 million tax dollars promised from TxDOT, to shift Austin public highways like 183, 290E, 290W, 71E and 71W, into toll roads.

But soon after the CAMPO toll vote last October, TxDOT cried wolf and said they didn't have the $910 million, that CAMPO would need to find the tax dollars themselves, since CAMPO would benefit from the revenue generation scheme of tolling freeways. I wrote about this flair up between Sen. Watson and Ric Williamson in December HERE.

A reliable source now says all or most of the MPO's in the state have coordinated and produced a similar letter to Sen. Kirk Watson's. I would guess that it was Watson's idea to coordinate, since he's been trying to wrestle tax dollars from TxDOT for freeway toll roads for months.

The letter from Sen. Watson (CAMPO), dated 3/24/08, to TxDOT includes these interesting lines, exposing that TxDOT is hiding money:

"It is my understanding that TxDOT has accumulated a balance of Transportation Development Credits approaching $110,000,000, and that these credits are available."

" ...(these) credits are eligible to be used as the 20 percent local match..."

"...with the state producing additional credits every year."

This ongoing toller vs. toller battle over our tax dollars has slowed the process of shifting our freeways to tollways. You could call it a slow dance of thieves, or a negotiation over which pot of money to divert tax dollars from. It's all the same unaccountable crap.

EXCLUSIVE: Deposition of TxDOT Top Dog Reveals First Bombshell

(l-r) Ports to Plains, Amadeo Saenz, Executive Director of TxDOT and the TTC

The term Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) has become wildly unpopular in Texas, since it creates eminent domain abuse of hundreds of millions of acres, all for special interest profits.

Gov. Perry's TxDOT is now pushing another leg of the TTC without calling it the "TTC" according to a deposition of a top TxDOT official. Weeks ago Judge Orlinda Naranjo allowed a number of TxDOT officials to be deposed as part of the lawsuit filed by TURF.

According to a recent deposition given under oath by Amadeo Saenz, Executive Director of TxDOT, TxDOT now considers the "Ports to Plains" as part of the Trans Texas Corridor, says Terri Hall of TURF when asked yesterday.

Years ago, Ports to Plains was promised as a FREE highway relief route to I-35. Selling it off as a toll road is more profitable, which allows more back room deals and corruption. Interestingly enough, TxDOT was fighting the deposition of TxDOT chair Ric Williamson, when he died in December.

Dead Toller Attacks Texans From the Grave.

Like the end of a bad movie, when the audience thinks the bad guy is dead, and everything is safe - Ric Williamson, the late chair of TxDOT, rises from the dead to force tollways down our throats. Well, not exactly, but close.

Mary Ann Williamson, Ric Williamson's the old lady, says Williamson's toll and pave everything policies should continue, and that we don't "have a choice", according to this new Statesman article:

As for Williamson’s policies, Mary Ann Williamson said they should continue.

“Even if you don’t care for some of these things,” she said, “I don’t think you have a choice.”

What? We don't have a choice? Is that arrogant or what? Hell, I was under the impression this was a democracy, not a dictatorship. And, not a dictatorship run by an arrogant corpse.

Go fly a kite lady. We've had enough of your family, Gov. Perry, Sen. Watson and all the rest of the crooks rooting around in our pockets.
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Open Those Crooked Books! (updated)

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick asked TxDOT for a formal audit of "the entire financial process of TxDOT" yesterday - says the Houston Chronicle.

The state auditor will dig deep on this audit. The State Auditor found Billions of dollars worth of lies with TxDOT's numbers, from just skimming the surface last year:

• AUDITOR: $45 Billion in error or undocumented 4/07.
• AUDITOR: TTC-35 alone would cost $105.6 Billion 2/07
  

Via Texas Monthly Burka Blog:

What we are seeing here is that TxDOT without Ric Williamson is a paper tiger. There is nobody who understands the Legislature from the inside out the way Williamson did–or, for that matter, can defend the Perry plan the way he could, as a true believer. I don’t see how Deirdre Delisi or Mike Krusee can fill his shoes. I seriously doubt that the Senate will confirm anyone to the Transportation Commission who is viewed as a Perry sidekick. This letter, and the looming Sunset review of the agency, do not bode well for TxDOT. I don’t think that it is any coincidence that this letter was sent during a primary election. Both Craddick and Dewhurst are hearing from members that the public is still mad as hell about toll roads.

TxDOT F***s Up Bridge Estimate: Costs Taxpayers 300% More

Gov. Perry's TxDOT just keeps screwing up. TxDOT failed to give a correct estimate for a bridge in San Antonio, as the bridge ends up costing Three (3) times as much as estimated. And, TxDOT could not care less.

TxDOT claimed it would cost $6.5 million dollars to build the bridge, and we now find out it costs $20 million! TRIPLE THE AMOUNT! Sure they are incompetent, but there must be a few TxDOT employees getting a taste of the millions of tax dollars they toss around like last weeks trash. From WOAI:

"TxDoT says its engineers did not realize the project is in the 100 year flood plain."

And what does the TxDOT engineer Clay Smith say about taxpayers paying three times as much as planned for the bridge?

"It costs what it costs," said Smith.

Is he channeling Ric Williamson or what? Bexar County Commissioner Lyle Larson chimes in:

"Anybody (who) saw the '98 floods when Macaroni Grill and Rudy's, all of those were washed out. There should have been some intuitive understanding that that area is prone to flooding," says Larson

UPDATED: Hope Andrade Named Interim Chair of TxDOT - BUT, IS IT LEGAL?

Hope Andrade, who has served on the TxDOT commission since 2003, has been appointed to a term to expire "at the pleasure of the Governor".

According to the Governor's Office, Gov. Rick Perry appointed San Antonio's Hope Andrade as the "interim" chair of the Texas Transportation Commission today - to replace Ric Williamson who died from a heart attack just weeks ago. Andrade is expected to continue to ignore Texans and the Texas ledge, to force freeway to tollway conversions (as well as the TTC land grab) just as Williamson did.

UPDATE: A REGULAR BLOG READER, WHO IS ALSO A PRACTICING ATTORNEY BRINGS UP A GREAT POINT about the statements found on the Gov's website, "interim" and "for a term to expire at the pleasure of the governor".

The Gov can appoint who he wishes, BUT state law limits the term of that appointee, AND the appointee must be approved by the Ledge for that position.

So I ask, how is an "interim" appointment to expire whenever the Gov wants even legal?

The Gov. can either appoint someone for the term or not at all.

The Gov has no authority to make "interim" appointments, which I assume was fabricated to run an end-around on the Ledge. After all, The Ledge can't approve or disapprove an "interim" appointment, can they?

DEIRDRE DELISI to replace Ric Wiliamson?

Former Perry chief of staff (9/04 - 6/07) Deirdre Delisi (to the left) is on the short list to replace Ric Williamson as TxDOT chair, according to Quorum Report (who says that they have not gotten confirmation of the actual appointment):

"Reasonably reliable sources tell us that former Perry chief of staff Deirdre Delisi is, at the very least, under serious consideration to replace Ric Williamson as the new chair of the Texas Transportation Commission."

TxDOT's Hot Seat Gets Even Hotter For Feb 5th!

Ric Williamson might be dead, but his
arrogant spirit lives on in TxDOT!

Over the past couple day's I've mentioned three different story lines (TTC-69 hearings, TxDOT illegal lobbyists, Joint Feb 5th Senate TxDOT hearing) - that are now coming together like a fine wine - according to this Houston Chronicle/San Antonio Express article today:

"A state Senate committee chairman said Wednesday the Texas Department of Transportation may have stepped over a legal line as it pushes the controversial Trans-Texas Corridor and toll roads.

"There is a possibility they may well have crossed a legal threshold because of the restrictions that exist in lobbying by state agencies," said Sen. John Carona, Transportation and Homeland Security Committee chairman.

"The even greater issue is just why they would continue with an agenda that is so unpopular with the public. That is the most distressing thing of all," Carona, R-Dallas, said after an anti-toll activist group released documents obtained from TxDOT in an ongoing lawsuit against agency officials.

The TxDOT documents include invoices from a firm that the agency contracts with totaling $63,450 including lobbyists and a poll, and an e-mail on "draft quotes" sent to local officials for their approval or edits.

The poll was conducted by Baselice & Associates. Mike Baselice also is Gov. Rick Perry's pollster.

Noting a Feb. 5 joint hearing on TxDOT by his committee and the Senate Finance Committee, Carona said, "TxDOT has a lot of explaining to do.

"In this next legislative session, I look to see even tighter reins placed upon TxDOT and the commission by both the House and the Senate, and I think that's regrettable" because it shows a loss of trust, he said.

Ted Houghton of the Texas Transportation Commission, which oversees TxDOT, said he's confident the agency hasn't violated the law as it works to secure resources and inform the public."

Gov. Rick Perry's First Book Revealed

So, Mr. 39%, otherwise known as Texas Gov. Rick Perry, has his first book coming out in February. A reader of this blog just sent me a pdf of the newsletter, with all the details, and the pic above. The forward is by none other than Ross Perot. Hmmm.

You might think he wrote about how, as Governor, he did something fantastic, or perhaps how he did something great as a legislator years ago, or about the time, during several session of the ledge, he spent frolicking with his room mate Ric Williamson.

But, you'd be wrong.

He wrote about the Boy Scouts. The book is called, "On My Honor". Maybe the target audience is former Boy Scouts who are now con men pretending to be conservative Republicans?

The newsletter states this of Perry's first book:

"...the sentimental recollection of his formative years in the Boy Scouts, the strong influence of the organization's principles on his life and his assessment of the ongoing attacks by the liberal left on the venerable American organization."

The books website, www.OnMyHonorTheBook.com, includes reviews from Sean Hannity and Newt Gingrich, and touts the Gov's great accomplishments (that I was unaware of):

"Texans are safer because Gov. Perry ordered an aggressive border security initiative..."

and

"Perry has led the fight for better schools"

and

"And in 2005, Perry signed a historic $15.7 billion property tax cut for homeowners and businesses that also includes new taxpayer protections against appraisal increases."

Sounds like fiction to me.

No mention of Perry's double tax tolls (tolling public highways) nor the land grabbing TTC.

Gov. Perry Calls Texans "Dunces"

Gov. Perry thinks you are an Idiot.

Polls have shown Texans are against diverting highway funds to pay for more toll roads, as well as the TTC land grab.

During the eulogy for Ric Williamson, at a Weatherford High School auditorium, Perry took a moment to slam Texans and call us "Dunces" (which means dumbass) since we oppose the TxDOT Road, Tax, Debt and Land corporate give away program:

“When a genius comes into the world, you will know him by this sign: that the dunces are all in confederacy against him,” Perry recited. “Jonathan Swift didn’t know Ric Williamson, but he pegged him.

The unabridged dictionary describes the word "dunce" as "A dull witted, stupid or ignorant person".

You gotta love that Mr. 39%.

Well, you don't actually.

Ric Williamson's Last Toll Road

El Paso Times: Houghton could replace Ric Williamson as TxDOT chairman...

...while Texas Monthly's Paul Burka asks if Krusee will get the job.

Dallas Morning News lauds Ric Williamson and claims 'No one has been able to disprove the argument for building the TTC.'

Shift may loom in toll road debate

Push for higher gas tax could follow chief's death

By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER / The Dallas Morning News

The death of Ric Williamson, the fiery, whip-smart chairman of the state transportation commission, could upend the still-roiling debate over toll roads in Texas in the new year.

Mr. Williamson died Saturday of a heart attack at age 55, sending shock waves through the nearly 15,000-employee department he led as well as the political and policy circles where his combative style and pro-toll-road agenda had engendered enormous change – and criticism.

Always careful to credit Gov. Rick Perry, a close friend and former roommate, Mr. Williamson emerged as a lightning rod in recent years as he pushed to let private companies build and operate toll roads throughout Texas.

"We are [expletive] running out of money," he told The News in a wide-ranging interview a week before his death, allowing his usual thoughtful, precise vocabulary to give way to frustration over continued resistance to the governor's toll road policies. "It absolutely boggles my mind how men and women elected to make courageous decisions in leading this state cannot focus on the simple fact that our congestion is rapidly approaching an intolerable level."

It was Mr. Williamson's sometimes-abrasive approach that has those who clashed with him hoping his successor will take a more conciliatory tone and a balanced approach to the state's problems. One of those critics, Sen. John Carona, D-Dallas, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, said he is hoping that Mr. Williamson's successor will support raising state gas taxes to help reduce the need for tolls.

Even Mr. Williamson's supporters acknowledge that he often bruised feelings. Still, fellow members of the commission say he was indispensable.

"Ric was focused laser-like on the issues, well read and always researched things thoroughly," said commissioner Ted Houghton of El Paso.

Mr. Williamson was focused on finding a way to pay for the new roads and added lanes that Texas' booming metropolitan areas need – even as such traditional revenues as gas taxes failed to keep up with costs. In general, new roads in Texas will have to be toll roads, Mr. Williamson said often in recent months.

Plenty of powerful voices have disagreed, however.

Last session, the Texas Legislature passed a partial moratorium on a centerpiece of Mr. Perry's strategy, slowing his plans to privatize toll roads. Mr. Williamson spent most of 2007 criticizing the moratorium as an example of fuzzy-headed legislative intrusiveness. But he also led a vigorous effort to work around the new rules, and within months of the session's close unveiled a list of more than 80 highway projects eligible for toll roads.

Those stormy debates are expected to carry into 2008.

Read the rest of the article HERE.

More on Ric Williamson's Death

"In your lifetime most existing roads will have tolls"
— Transportation Commissioner Ric Williamson 10/11/04

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: TxDOT chairman Williamson dies

McBlogger: So Sad To See You Go...

Austin American Statesman: Williamson, who led Texas toll road push, dies at 55

Full of Crap Blog: Can't spell PRICK without RIC

MaxConcrete: Chief Toll Henchman Dies of Heart Attack

Burka Blog: Don't Blame Ric Williamson

Dallas News: "Highway to Hell" Tolls for "King of The Road"

A service has been scheduled for 3 p.m. Thursday at the Jerry Durant Auditorium at Weatherford High School, 2121 Bethel Road in Weatherford.

Search 'Ric Williamson' in TTC News Archives HERE

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BREAKING NEWS: Ric Williamson, The Most Hated Man In Texas, Dead

Ric Williamson, Texas Transportation Commission Chairman, "died overnight of a major heart attack" according to Paul Burka's Texas Monthly blog. Williamson was 55.

About 7 months ago, the Statesman did a report that included Burka's thoughts of Williamson, and how his TxDOT work was hard on his health:

"Burka described Williamson as the most hated man in Texas because of his devotion to the corridor.

But the longtime political columnist also wrote that Williamson is one of the most inventive minds in Texas politics, though one with a personality so prickly it courts enemies. In the interview, Williamson said his six years on the commission have been hard on his health.

He said he's had two heart attacks since joining the commission, "and I'm trying to avoid the third one, which the doctors tell me will be fatal."

A Texas Monthly article this summer called him “the most hated person in Texas, public enemy number one to a million or more people.”

Ric Williamson, a Gov. Perry appointee, has been the leading force at TxDOT to push tolls on roads we've already paid for, as well as the TTC land grab schemes - for many years. Many elected leaders have had major problems with Williamson's shocking behavior - see many examples here.

UPDATED

How will Williamson's death effect freeway tolls and the TTC? We'll see. Some have suggested Krusee would take his place. But, I don't think Perry would appoint Krusee. Mike Krusee lacks a college degree, the basic intellect, political savviness, and any gravitas whatsoever for the position.

How do I feel about Williamson's death? I feel for his family. A death in anyone's family is always very difficult. But sadly, and to be honest, the rest of our families will be better off without Ric Williamson leading the charge to place the highest toll rate possible on our freeways.