AUSTIN CROOKS UPDATE: CTRMA chooses partner for Austin double tax toll roads

As you know last October Sen. Kirk Watson and other crooks voted to divert nearly $1 Billion tax dollars to shift our Austin freeways to tollways.

In a new "Austin Town Hall" at AusinatIssue.com, Balcones has a good report of the last CTRMA meeting that took place on Wednesday, and how JP Morgan will get a fat contract to toll tax our families for roads we've already paid for.

UPDATE: Here's something of interest. I've tracked the IP address of the attorneys that work for the CTRMA (Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell - formally Locke Liddell) trolling around on this blog, and clicking on the report link above.

How much an hour do you think they get paid for surfing the web for the toll authority?

Why do you think these unaccountable, freeway tolling, lawyers are trolling this blog?

Related articles on Locke Liddell:

Mike Krusee and his Special-Interest
Travel Agents, Locke Liddell

The “Take On Traffic” Con Men -
More Lies for Toll Profits

Freeway tolling authority
attorney misinforms the media.

Hearing Update 4:15pm

4:15pm
I just got back from the Hearing. The judge did not dismiss the case as WILLIAM "Buddie" STEELE III, the Locke, Liddell & Sapp attorney for the CTRMA requested. The judge said she'd come back with an answer by the 8th of July.

I don't know what attorney school WILLIAM "Buddie" STEELE III went to, but this zany guy actually tried to persuade the judge to dismiss the case based on the Central Texas REGIONAL Mobility Authority NOT being a REGIONAL entity. That was rich! Thanks for the laugh Buddie! Your a peach.

Buddie Steele is the same funny attorney that claimed, in court three months ago, that we were "only taxpayers", and we didn't have the right to file the lawsuit in the first place. Buddie didn't tell the court that our tax dollars allowed the CTRMA to go in business. Gerald Daugherty, Bisco, Sonlietner as county commissioners, all voted to give them about $550,000 of our tax dollars as seed money. And, then of course, it's our tax dollars that are paying for the freeways that the CTRMA will try to toll us for.

BRIAN CASSIDY is the CTRMA attorney from Locke, Liddell & Sapp that handles the RMA's freedom of information requests. I don't know if he was in "the dog house" with Buddie or not, but, he wasn't sitting in the attorneys table. He sat in the audience seats. And, no, I don't think he was part of the "The Village People". Folks, you've got to come to these court hearings. It's truly entertaining.

The “Take On Traffic” Con Men - More Lies for Toll Profits

Gary Farmer and John Langmore assist Sen. Kirk Watson in
the tolling freeways scam with Take on Traffic (TOT).

They call themselves a “coalition of concerned citizens”, but the profiteers from Take On Traffic (TOT) are far from your ordinary citizens, and they've spent gobs of money with a campaign intended with numerous glossy direct mail pieces to trick real citizens. They are special interest profiteers advocating for a toll plan that allow them to line their own pockets.

Who is the local toll lobby?

And, those who fund the exorbitant TOT campaign are unknown, as they hide behind loopholes in the law, so they don’t have to report where the money comes from. These charlatans are so desperate to profit off our families via the unaccountable tolls on roads we’ve already paid for - they can’t tell the truth about the numbers. Just like TxDOT, they have to fluff the numbers to sell tolls.

UPDATED: LYNDA RIFE CONTRACTS FOR TOT CAMPIAGN

TOT FUNNY NUMBERS

TOT throws out absolutely ridiculous numbers that are not anchored in any reality. TOT’s website, created by Mark Nathan (campaign manager for many freeway tollers such as Mayor Will Wynn), says “we need to find at least $12.7 Billion in funding” in the next 20 years. (that’s like $1.7 million a day!)

CAMPO once claimed $13.8 billion as the "funding gap" and then agreed $3.7 billion was a "math mistake". Then the auditor’s office chopped down the number further and said $4.9 billion isn't going to actually improve traffic.

TOT LIES IGNORE THE FACTS!

THE TOT LIE SAYS we’d have to raise our gas tax “between $1.20 and $1.77 a gallon” even after the Texas Transportation Institute report says just pennies of an indexed gas tax would be needed. The TTI report states tolls are NOT needed at all, that indexing the gas tax and placing the incremental revenue in the mobility fund to pay off bonds allows us to build the roads we need now.

Here’s just another example of the cooked up numbers from the profiteers. Actual State Comptroller’s fuel sales numbers:

730 million gallons gasoline annual in 2005
200 million gallons diesel annual in 2005

Compare the actual numbers above to TakeOnTraffic lies found at their website in a calculations link on a page called (get this) “How did we get our numbers” (I think they pulled these numbers out of their ass):

148 million gallons gasoline annual in 2006
345 million gallons gasoline annual in 2006

TakeOnTraffic significantly underestimates the revenue generation from the gas tax to scare citizens into thinking double tax tolls are needed. And they call the double tax a “user fee”, even though the tolls go directly into their pockets, and anything left over goes into slush funds. Who’s being used here?

How many hundreds of thousands of homes have they polluted with these direct mail toller lies?

WHO IS TAKE ON TRAFFIC (TOT)?

The profiteers happen to include the same old snake salesman that tried to force Phase II freeway tolls on Central Texas from the start of 2004 (Toll Lobby). TOT is the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce and it looks like Capital Area Transportation Coalition (CATC) and RECA are there to support as well. TOT is working in conjunction with Sen. Kirk Watson and former leader of the Chamber, to usher in his plan B tolls/managed lanes (coming soon).

TAKE ON TRAFFIC (TOT) is made up of Road Engineering firms, Toll Road builders, Banks, Attorneys, Developers and others who profit off the freeway tolling scam:

John Langmore (TOT Spokesman, TOT Chair and Rep. Mike Krusee associate)
Gary Farmer
Bury + Partners
Carter & Burgess
Heritage Title
HNTB
Martin & Salinas Public Affairs, Inc.
Home Builders Association
JPMorganChase
Locke Liddell & Sapp
Pape-Dawson Engineers, Inc.
PBS&J
RECA
URS
Frost Bank
Jackson Walker LLP
Endeavor Real Estate Group
Temple-Inland, Inc.
Wells Fargo Bank

According to this news report John Langmore is the Chair of TOT.

Langmore played a principal role in formulating and drafting Krusee’s freeway toll bill, HB 3588. Langmore impersonates a Transportation Planning Expert to continue to rake in fat contracts, even though he has NO education in transportation planning, not even an online college course.

John Langmore was the campaign treasurer, campaign manager and PR contact for SafeRail PAC, a political action committee that had success in altering our Texas Constitution in 2005 which allows unlimited tax dollars (blank checks) and debt to be syphon for new corporate rail in the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC). State records show Zachry Construction (of Cintra Zachry), Herzog Construction, HNTB , PBS&J, Carter Burgess, Pate Engineer and TateAustin contributed to SafeRail PAC.

Will the Austin American-Statesman expose the funny numbers? You tell me. The Statesman is on the Chambers executive committee.

When will a reporter ask them where all that campaign money comes from? And, how many hundreds of thousands of dollars they have spent?

Mike Krusee and his Special-Interest Travel Agents

Rep. Mike Krusee is one of the top legislative recipients of private travel gifts, according to Texans for Public Justice (TPJ): The report called "Making Connections: State Officials and their Special-Interest Travel Agents" gives some in-depth details on how Krusee lives large on toller cash.

Governor Rick “Mr. 39%” Perry was the top recipient of private travel gifts, receiving $205,460 worth. The report states this about Mike Krusee:

House Transportation Committee Chair Mike Krusee (R-Round Rock) was another lobby favorite—especially for highway-contractor lobbyists. One lobbyist who paid Krusee’s travel bills is HillCo’s J. McCartt. His clients included Trans-Texas Corridor contractor Fluor Corp. and PBS&J—an engineering firm that has worked on several Texas toll road projects. McCartt flew Krusee to Washington in October 2005 to address a conference on public-private transportation ventures held by the American Road and Transportation Builders Association. Krusee stayed at the Marriott’s Renaissance Hotel.

McCartt also flew Krusee to Las Vegas to deliver the keynote address at a PBS&J toll summit a week after the 2005 regular session ended. The following year federal prosecutors charged PBS&J’s former chief financial officer with running an embezzlement scheme to disguise the source of thousands of dollars in political contributions to U.S. Senator Mel Martinez (R-Florida). Around this time the Texas Department of Transportation blacklisted the firm for suspected overcharges stemming from the scandal. Yet the North Texas Tollway Authority awarded PBS&J a five-year contract to work on a joint project with TxDOT just three months later.

Representing the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA), Locke Liddell lobbyist Brian Cassidy sent Krusee to New York City in December 2005 to attend an awards ceremony held by the Bond Buyer newspaper. The Bond Buyer gave CTRMA the Southwest region’s “Deal-of-the-Year” award for debt-financing a 12-mile stretch of toll road with $238 million in bonds. Krusee authored the 2003 legislation that authorized CTRMA to issue such bonds.

Researchers found Texas’ poor system for disclosing official travel is both overly complex and inadequate. “Sorting out who paid whom to fly where is like flying in the dark,” said Texans for Public Justice Director Craig McDonald. “Despite murky disclosure, it’s clear that some corporate-jet owners operate frequent-flier programs for our state officials.”

The report concludes that Texas’ crazy-quilt system for reporting official travel paid for by private interests is at once too lenient and too complex. It recommends reforms to provide greater transparency and better protect the public interest.

Freeway tolling authority attorney misinforms the media.

An article on BondBuyer.com includes a bald face misrepresentation (or maybe he's mildly retarded?) of events from RMA attorney Brian Cassidy. His false comments were about the constitutional violation lawsuit RMA lost last week. Apparently Brian sees ambiguity in the difference between 6 years and 2 years. Records show Brian Cassidy has also contributed money to the same politicians that have given our tax dollars to the toll authority. Ah, "The circle of Payola". You can get a free 2 week trial of the online BondBuyer.com and see the complete article for yourself.

In the article, Brian Cassidy states:

"The process for correcting any ambiguity in the statute was under way before the lawsuit was filed," said Brian Cassidy, a partner with Locke Liddell & Sapp who represents the CTRMA. "The lawsuit appeared to be an opportunistic attempt to capitalize on those efforts." However, a PET release states that its lawsuit "caused a chain reaction in an attempt to fix the problem," spurring legislative efforts to fix the 2003 statute.

The lawsuit was filed March 1, 2005. The constitutional amendment was filed March 10, 2005.

The Daily Texan also has an article about the constitutional victory for People for Efficient Transportation: "While the majority of the board members are from Williamson County, a majority of the proposed toll projects are located in Travis County, Costello said. PET will be working on shutting down CTRMA because, according to Costello, it is just a "freeway tolling authority." Costello suggested the transportation system would be better off overhauling the Texas Department of Transportation and then leaving the toll roads up to its own division for toll authority