Sen. John Carona unveiled his bureaucratic transportation bill today in the Senate Transportation Committee. The Carona bill was created behind closed doors with Mike Krusee and other tollers. Sidestepping the main problem of the existence of the TTC and double tax freeway tolls - Carona promises more power to local government.
Senate Bill 1929 includes the limited moratorium on secret CDA deals as well as lot’s of new bureaucratic smoke and mirrors that alllow the toll scams to move forward.
Many Senators expressed concern this morning with how SB 1929 "creates 24 mini-TxDOT's" as 24 metropolitan planning organizations would get more power to control secret corporate welfare toll contracts (CDA's) and set toll rates. Carona's bureaucratic bill also creates more CPOs (corridor planning organizations to approve the route of the Trans-Texas Corridor segments) and RPOs (rural planning organizations to give rural low-population areas “representation”).
4/18/2007
NEW SEN. CARONA Bureaucratic BILL CREATES 24 MINI-TXDOTS
5/09/2008
Why does the Lone Star State allow TxDOT's bureaucratic arrogance?
Why does the Lone Star Stateby Retired Col. Ken Allard, as published in the San Antonio Express-News
The headlines might have read, “No Hope, No More,” but we have been on a collision course over the future of TxDOT ever since Gov. Perry's dismissal last week of interim commissioner Hope Andrade.
She succeeded chairman Rick Williamson, whose last wish was that his embattled agency might engage in a creative dialogue with its critics. He even reached out to ask for my help in connecting the agency with “some of the best minds at UTSA,” but his untimely passing prevented those possibilities.
The widely respected Andrade tried to continue his initiative, but certain fundamentals have emerged. Among them: to the extent that it can be controlled at all, TxDOT answers only to its political masters — and then only to some of them. When hauled before the Texas Senate earlier this year, agency leaders had no good explanations for some outrageous failings, including a billion-dollar accounting error and millions more wasted on lobbying for dubious pet projects.
Had a similar situation occurred in Washington, indictments might well have followed. But not in Texas.
Sen. Glenn Hegar recently wrote that lawmakers' “concerns about the Trans-Texas Corridor, the agency's policies, funding schemes, budget and construction priorities have (often) been met with contempt and disdain by TxDOT officials.”
The mystery is why such bureaucratic arrogance is tolerated in the state that produced the legendary “Lonesome Dove” figures of Woodrow Call and Augustus McCrae.
But if you think the agency isn't listening to your concerns, don't feel too badly. They don't listen to the Texas Legislature, either. In an interesting twist, Sen. Hegar also sits on a sunset committee charged with identifying “waste, duplication and inefficiency” among state agencies.
Read the rest of the article HERE.
5/09/2007
How Krusee Cohort, John Langmore, Syphons Tax Dollars.
This is Attorney John H. Langmore, one of the key confidence tricksters behind the Krusee & Perry TTC Land Grab and Freeway Double Tax Tolls. Langmore is a key player for the Special Interests.Attorney John Henley Langmore (DOB 11/30/1962) was the Policy Director for the Texas House Transportation Committee during the 78th Legislative Session in 2003. Langmore played a principal role in formulating and drafting State Rep. Mike Krusse’s HB 3588, one of the most comprehensive transportation bills ever passed in the state of Texas, it completely altered the accountability of transportation projects. New powers were given as unelected bureaucratic mini-TxDOTs were created to toll already funded freeways. This “Frankenstein” law also allowed the TTC to take private land for foreign profits.
Many elected officials had no idea that 3588 was a Trojan horse. Most only skim the summary of a bill and use trust as a barometer.
Today, John Langmore continues the confidence game as he impersonates a Transportation Planning Expert to continue to bilk taxpayers for his special interest pals as well as get insider contracts for himself.
But, shockingly, Attorney Langmore has NO education in transportation planning, not even an online college course.
The snakelike Langmore has gone beyond the call of special interest duty. Since creating HB 3588, he’s slithered his way into the deep nooks and crannies of the unaccountable deals his legal language helped to create.
Langmore's SafeRail PAC Opens the Door for Looters.
Langmore was the one man band for SafeRail PAC. He 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. Prop 1 in 2005 allowed unlimited tax dollars and debt to be syphon for new corporate rail in the TTC.
A quick glimpse of state records show Zachry Construction (of Cintra Zachry) gave SafeRail PAC $10,000, Herzog Construction gave $10,000, HNTB gave $6,000, PBS&J, Carter Burgess, Pate Engineer folks each gave $5,000 each.
TateAustin received over $12,000 for PR and Langmore’s SafeRail PAC spent over $32,000 on a radio buy in Houston to trick voters. Langmore contributed $471.31 in cash and $10,000 of campaign management and public relations services, sure to be repaid with thank you contracts.
The Proposition 1 constitutional amendment that Langmore helped to secure (53% to 47%) is a simple open-ended corporate subsidy scheme --- literally a blank check. Taxpayers will pay unlimited tax dollars (and generations of debt) to move private corporation rail lines into Gov. Perry's Trans Texas Corridor (and this after the governor had promised Texans that no public funds would be used for the TTC). Unaccountable people will decide how the taxpayer based rail fund will be spent, as corporations profit.
Langmore registered as a Texas lobbyist in 2005 representing Toll & Road Lobby companies such as Pate Engineering and Infrastructure Corporation of America. Pate and Langmore contributed to Krusee in 2005. Some say “that’s how the wheels stay greased”. Langmore has contributed to other politicos like Gonzalo Barrientos and Kirk Watson as well.
Is the system built for corruption and incestuous deals?
AND, how does Langmore get himself placed on every committee Krusee is not already on? He's also on the CAMPO Growth Subcommittee.
The address that Langmore submitted to the State for lobbying is interestingly the same address as Mike Weaver’s Prime Strategies, 1508 S. Lamar Blvd. Mike Weaver helped to create the local freeway tolling authority (CTRMA) and gave his own company, Prime Strategies, the first Toll Authority NO BID contract. Comptroller Strayhorn’s report shows Weaver's company billed the CTRMA for well over $600,000 from 2002 to 2005. The NO BID contract was paid for with tax dollars.
In 2006, I witnessed the special interest trio, Mike Weaver, John Langmore and Bill Burnett (former CAMPO board member who voted to toll roads we’ve already paid for) as they told Travis County Commissioners that Hays, Williamson County and two dozen other local governments across Texas are moving forward with a common sense NO TOLL option (pass through financing) while Travis must tolls on roads we’ve already paid for. The Commissioners bought it hook line and sinker.
As a very close associate of Mike Krusee, like Melinda Wheatley, Langmore cleans up on "Good Old Boy" transportation contracts. So many transportation contracts came his way, including Zachry, in 2004 that he needed to create a new business as a Transportation Consultant. He calls it “John Langmore Consulting” and it to offices out of 1508 S. Lamar Blvd. Langmore has also received toll road related marketing contracts through TateAustin, paid for with our tax dollars.
Having NO education in Transportation doesn’t stop Langmore. Hey, Mike Krusee has NO college degree, and that doesn’t stop him. Langmore is a Co-Chair of Envision Central Texas Transportation and Land Use Committee, which is now focused on planning the details of the primer for the TTC, the $1.5 Billion dollar SH 130. Mike Heiligenstein joins Langmore as a board member of ECT.
After graduating from UT’s School of Law and Graduate School of Business in 1989, John began his career working in Akin Gump’s Washington D.C. office. Langmore was Licensed in Texas in 1991 (State Bar Card Number 11922650), but, as of this year his license is inactive. Langmore had an executive role with Caterpillar in Tennessee for 11 years and a short stint as a photographer in San Antonio.
Langmore’s past also includes two (2) DRIVING WHILE INTOXICATED (DWI) CONVICTIONS, at least 24 months of probation and hundreds of dollars in fines.Public records show Langmore and his wife Catherine Langmore owning 1408 Preston Ave. Austin TX 78703-1902, with an assessed value of about $500.000.
John Langmore has altered our Texas Laws and our State Constitution to where it is now legal to steal our roads, our land, our tax's and even generations of debt for the Toll Road Mafia's Personal Enrichment Program.
To this day Langmore, continues to influence where and how our tax dollars are spent, as he skims a bit for himself and impersonates a Transportation Planning Expert.
This article is part 10 of a 10 part series called “Circle of Parasites”. Freeways have never been tolled in the history of the U.S., but that doesn’t stop a close circle of self serving individuals with a long history of looking out for themselves at the expense of others.
Read the other “Circle of Parasites” articles (just click below):
1 of 10: Deadbeat Mike Heiligenstein Runs Freeway Tolling Authority
2 of 10: Two Toll Authority Board Members Refuse to Resign
3 of 10: Austin American Snakesman
4 of 10: Convicted CRIMINAL, Pete Peters, Connected to Freeway Tolls
5 of 10: Rep. Mike Krusee and Lobbyist Melinda Wheatley.
6 of 10: Ghost Organization Voted to Toll Austin Freeways
7 of 10: State Rep. Dawnna Dukes Payolla Toll Vote Ignores Constituents and Federal Law
8 of 10: County Commissioner Limmer and Convicted Criminal formally do business.
9 of 10: TxDOT Engineer, Bob Daigh: Secret Deals, Lies and a Convicted Criminal
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2/15/2007
Costello vs. Williamson
CLICK HERE TO READ Costello vs. Williamson from 2004. The transcript between Ric Williamson and I proves TxDOT's top dog doesn't know his own toll plans. You'll also read how TxDOT says it costs 25 cents (a quarter) to collect a 50 cent or more toll at a cash booth. How's that for bureaucratic waste?
10/11/2007
MORE Texas Toll Roads are Double Billing via TaxTAG
This week the AP reported that Central Texas Toll Roads have double billed 50,000 drivers who are using the TxTAG (Just call it what it is - a TaxTag!). The toll system is the TxDOT operated TxTag brand using TransCore eGo sticker tags. Rep. Mike Krusee's mistress, Melinda Wheatley, was just fined $10,000 for violating state law, and had Transcore as a client.
Late yesterday, another news report on Double TaxTag billings broke, as KETK told of double billing on Loop 49 in Tyler, Texas. The double billing in Tyler involves defense contractor Raytheon.
Everybody knows that their EZ Toll Tag records may be used against them...see this story on how the toll tag was used to prove cheaters ‘took the off-ramp to adultery’.
If you have a TaxTag, I'd suggest you burn it - unless you like to be tracked, traced and enjoy feeding the bureaucratic machine. I'll be picking up my own TxTag - as soon as monkeys fly out of my ass.
3/26/2008
Sen. Steve Ogden and Special Interest Pals Push Multi Billion Toll Pension Scheme!
UPDATED
So, you thought our Texas muddy government waters of massive diversions and special interests skimming off privatization deals couldn't get worse? Think again.
Investment bankers, TxDOT and the unaccountable toll tax loving Senator Steve Ogden, the Senate Finance Chairman, are pushing for a radical plan to intermingle state pension funds and unaccountable toll roads - as they drool over the $130 Billion dollars in the state pension fund.
From the Houston Chronicle:"Investment bankers and a state highway official Tuesday told legislators the state's two largest pension funds should consider investing some of their $130 billion in holdings into building toll roads in Texas."
Thomas Osborne of the UBS Investment Bank was there with his hand out for some Billion dollar crumbs. Ogden's historical love affair with special interests who seek public subsidies and toll tax revenue goes way back.
Sen. Ogden was a Co-sponsor of Krusee's HB 3588 (which made it legal to steal our roads and land - freeway tolls/TTC). Ogden is also a former CAMPO board member who voted to divert our tax dollars to shift our Austin freeways to tollways in 2004 and 2005.
Ogden also supports creating more levels of bureaucratic government so our tax dollars can get lost in the shuffle even faster. More on all this shameful scheme from QuorumReport.com today:
"PLANS TO OPEN TOLL ROAD INVESTMENTS TO STATE PENSION FUNDS GET PUSH IN SENATE FINANCEAnd from Sen. Odgen's (steve.ogden@senate.state.tx.us) Op-Ed in the Austin American Statesman yesterday:
Chairman Steve Ogden said using pension funds to invest in Texas roads a win-win but other Senators sound cautionary notes; Senators also cautioned that funds' focus on high rates of return need to be balanced with risk management.
A joint Senate panel tossed around today a novel way of paying for more roads – getting pension funds to invest in new projects. And to give the discussion an added twist, Senators were also asked to consider creating a new quasi-public entity that would funnel pension fund money from Texas and elsewhere into new road projects."
"...I want to explore the possibility of investing a portion of our state's trust funds (i.e., Employees Retirement System, Teachers Retirement System, Permanent School Fund, Permanent University Fund) in TxDOT toll projects."
7/03/2008
Texas tollers' bureaucratic dispute over cash leads to bottleneck
Unaccountable toll taxes always cost more, especially as toll bureaucracies expand. And, don't forget, when they talk about one agency or another paying money...thats your tax dollars!!!
Gov. Perry (R) and Sen. Kirk Watson (D) and other crooks keep using our tax dollars to shift our public highways freeways to tollways in Texas. THAT'S A DOUBLE TAX!
From the Fort Worth Star Telegram:
The North Texas Tollway Authority will consider paying $26 million to the Texas Department of Transportation to end a dispute that threatens to delay the widening of Northeast Loop 820.
Bidders for the roadwork, which would widen the four-lane bottleneck to six free lanes and four toll lanes, have been critical of the project because the tollway authority would collect the tolls but isn’t required to post a bond guaranteeing that the developer will be paid.
The $26 million would be placed in a special account that would be tapped only if the tollway authority is unable to perform its duties. In that event, toll collection would be turned over to the Transportation Department, which is already capable of collecting tolls electronically.
11/30/2007
KLBJ: Taxpayer Funded Police To Begin Ticketing 183A Toll Violators Monday
More public resources spent on bureaucratic tolls.
11/20/2007
Lawmakers Differ on TxDOT Budget Cuts
by Harvey Kronberg
The Quorum Report
Key Senators say the cuts reflect transpoortation funding crunch, a House member says TxDOT using cuts to get their way on private toll roads.
TxDOT announced last week that it was proposing significant cutbacks in spending, mostly in what the agency spends on engineering consultants and acquisitions of right of way for future highway projects.
The logic is that with the federal government taking back transportation funds (what is known in the bureaucratic jargon as rescissions), the rising costs of construction materials and the increasing inadequacy of the motor fuels tax, many highway projects currently on the books simply won’t get built. So if no new funding is in the offing soon, TxDOT argues that it doesn'’t make sense to hire those engineers or to buy that right of way.
In the Legislature, lawmakers who were active in the highway funding debate last session were alternately dismayed or allayed by TxDOT’'s proposal.
House Appropriations Chairman Rep. Warren Chisum (R-Pampa) said he received no word of the impending cuts, claiming that he didn'’t know anything about them until a reporter called him for reaction. Chisum said such a move was "typical TxDOT. They don’t tell anybody anything; they just do what they want to do."
Rep. Lois Kolkhorst (R-Brenham), author of the original amendment last session placing a two-year moratorium on public-private toll road partnerships, told QR that she, too, was not notified of TxDOT’s proposed cuts.
Kolkhorst was skeptical of TxDOT'’s stated motivation for the cuts. She said that she thought the transportation agency was trying to put the squeeze on lawmakers to force them toward public-private toll partnerships.
The agency thinks it "imperative that they create the crisis so that you can solve the crisis their way," she said. She added that the Texas 161 project in Dallas County was another example of TxDOT creating a crisis to force a resolution favorable to its position in favor of expanded private equity.
Read the rest of the article HERE
11/01/2007
TxDOT Program Placed Medicaid Patients in the Hands of Convicted Criminals and Unlicensed Drivers - Reveals State Audit.
UPDATED BELOW
A new State Auditor's Office report uncovers more problems for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT).
The Audit reveals that TxDOT’s Medical Transportation Program (MTP), created to transport primarily Medicaid patients to and from doctors appointments, has placed patients in the hands of convicted criminals and unlicensed drivers.
The Audit found that 16 percent of the 239 drivers studied had criminal backgrounds and 14 percent had invalid driver's licenses. On top of the blatant safety issue, TxDOT failed to follow government requirements.
The report focused on four transportation providers in the state: American Medical Response, Irving Holdings, LaFleur Transportation and East Texas Support Services. The audit also found some of the subcontractors hired for the program were not even on TxDOT's approved contractors list.
To date the program has transported about 200,000 Texans. The Texas Medical Transportation Program is a $100 million-a-year taxpayer-financed program.
San Antonio Express News also has an article on this issue today:
The state auditors office reported that transportation officials have been inadequately supervising the companies hired to provide transportation services. Auditors said the department had conducted no monitoring of transportation providers in the San Antonio and Rio Grande Valley areas.Just months ago, another State Audit report found that TxDOT overestimated it’s needs by $45 Billion dollars, to support the unpopular idea of shifting existing public highways to toll ways.
"Auditors visited four of the largest transportation providers and determined that a substantial number of their drivers had criminal backgrounds or invalid driver's licenses," the auditors said. "In addition, a large number of transportation providers' subcontractors did not comply with liability or workers' compensation insurance requirements."
U P D A T E:
This MTP program was transfered to TxDOT many months ago, is a result of Rep. Mike Krusee's HB 3588, the same legislation that makes it legal to toll our public highways.
And then there is the connection of convicted criminal Pete Peters and TxDOT District Engineer Bob Daigh reported here last year.
TxDOT is a rogue agency severely in need of some accountability. TxDOT is so focused on becoming a unaccountable taxing authority (through placing a toll tax on our existing highways) that it can't even administer the very basics of a simple program. The bureaucratic TxDOT needs to be totally restructured, beginning with the requirement that TxDOT commissioners are elected, not appointed.
5/06/2008
Toll Authority Spends Fortune on Perks NOT Roads
The North Texas Tollway Authority [NTTA] is spending a small fortune on things that have nothing to do with building roads.
Instead, it spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of your toll money on advertising that comes with a valuable perk, and you don't get to enjoy it. It's an advertisement at the American Airlines Center which reads "TollTag people." This ad is costing you nearly half a million dollars....
Click the arrow above and watch the whole unaccountable bureaucratic waste of money. Also see...
1/31/2008
CTRMA Traps 20%
It's finally revealed that a portion of the CTRMA's first and only toll road to date (183A) is a bureaucratic nightmare. In an effort to force people to buy a TxTAG, a portion of the toll road has NO cash booths. The only way to pay properly for all sections of 183A has been to buy a TxTAG.
Since there are no cash booths, 20% of the toll road users were unable to pay and have been charged a violation penalty of $5 each, according to TRN:
Violations have been running about 20%, nine months after the pike opened.KXAN exposes the toll authorities waste and disregard for what drivers pay, as they give out special interest contracts to pals:
According to the authority, roughly $150,000 is collected in fines and tolls from those violators every month, but it costs almost that much, $135,000, to do it.That's a shocking amount of money per month! But hey, fat cat tollers like Gov. Rick Perry and Sen. Kirk Watson really don't care.
Now, the toll authority plans to pull the rest of the cash booths and do video tolling on 183A, according to KXAN:
Either you pay with a tag or with the help of cameras over the road, you get a twice-monthly bill in the mail for your tolls, plus 20 percent for expenses and $1 administrative fee per bill.You'll pay a "Hefty" fine if you don't pay that video tolling bill says Ben Wear.
10/16/2007
High Tech Big Brother vs. a Rock?
The recent news of 50,000 drivers being overbilled in Central Texas turn out to be a misaligned toll antenna (tag reader), perhaps skewed by a knock, high winds or vibration, according to tollroadsnews.com. Some were double billed, and as I reported some days ago, other drivers were not billed at all.
It’s unknown whether the high tech toll antenna, a flat overhead RFID reader, was a victim of sabotage via an old fashioned rock, or just the wind, or perhaps it was just installed incorrectly.
Other electronic tolling problems have popped up in other areas of the country. Some small cars have been billed at truck rates, which would more than quadruple the billing rate and people don't even notice the quadruple charge!
And, there have been many more billing issues:
- Texas toll road arrests two motorists over $5.50 in alleged unpaid tolls.
- $105,000 in toll camera tickets wrongly issued to toll road users in Virginia.
- Woman Faced $1200 in Charges for Tolls She Already Paid
- Toll transponders overcharging motorists across the country
- Thousands of innocent motorists ticketed face $85 fines and license suspensions.
In this universe, where there is an action, there is often a reaction. Creative sabotage appears to be part of the natural order of things, when big brother practices electronic harrasment.Even celebrity cook Gordon Ramsay, of the TV show Hell's Kitchen, offered his favored sabotage approach for speed camera’s on a talk show last year:
"Bit of a chef's secret really," Ramsay said. "So the secret thing to do is get a catering pack of clean film and about half past two in the morning there's hardly any traffic on the road. Just pull over, jump on the side and wrap the thing in clean film. When it flashes it sort of smudges the number plate and it doesn't look sabotaged."I suggest not using the tolls at all, but if you do use them, look at your bills carefully, and if you find a problem, call your local TV news station to properly shine the light on the bureaucratic crooks who are shifting our freeways to toll ways.
"My favorite is the Dutch trick," Clarkson (the host) said. "There's a tiny hole in the corner and they spray that quick-expanding builder's foam and it just bursts out of everywhere. It's really ruined."
Remember, the double billing of 50,000 drivers was first exposed by one man, Marcus Davis, making one call to one news station. Thank you Marcus!
9/04/2007
Senator Kirk "Freeway Toller" Watson and Our $700 Million Tax Dollars.
$700 million of our tax dollars for a scheme that shifts freeways
to tollways in Austin. The final CAMPO public hearing for this
double tax is Monday, Sept 10th at 6pm at the Capitol.
Be there or pay and pay and pay.
TOP 10 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD TAKE ACTION
AND SAY "NO TOLLS ON OUR FREEWAYS"!
10) The State Comptroller's in depth report calls this scheme "Double Taxation without Accountability". The comptroller also found toll road board members giving out NO BID contracts to themselves and their pals!
9) This crucial vote will cost your family $1,000's of dollars a year - and don't forget, convicted criminal Pete Peters is at the heart of the whole scam!
8) This bloated tax and debt scheme is the most expensive solution for our families - it could cost us 30 times more - and it doesn't even address the biggest congestion problem! - which is found on I-35. It's a revenue generation scheme, not a congestion
reduction plan.
7) 93% of the public feedback in 2004 said NO TOLLS, but these sneaky politicos are trying to slip one by us yet again, to help their fat cat contributors profit off our families.
6) These tax funded public highways have already been promised as freeways but politicians seek an unaccountable taxation scheme that doesn't use the "tax" word.
5) You and your family shouldn't be forced to pay a toll, if you want to drive on the express portion of a freeway to get to work, school or shop! Slow service roads with gtrowing congestion and stop lights (that force us to pay a toll) is not an alternative. With freeway tolls, tollers will have a finacial incentive to NEVER fix the free frontage road congestion.
4) We've already stopped the double tax at MoPAC and Wm Cannon - Drivers drive that overpass for free and save Millions of dollars in bureaucratic freeway tolls every year! We've also stopped tolls on loop 360, and parts of 290 and 71! Take action today!
3) NO OTHER CITY IN THE COUNTRY HAS SHIFTED IT'S FREEWAYS TO TOLLWAYS! Over a Billion dollars worth of our tax dollars and right of way we've already paid for will be used to create a monopolistic unaccountable double tax on our freeways.
2) NO ECONOMIC IMPACT STUDY HAS BEEN DONE (see #2). All goods and services will cost more, as the additional cost of driving on freeway tolls, will be passed down to the consumer.1) CAMPO board members like Sen. Kirk Watson don't want you to speak up or come to the Sept 10th "T-Day" hearing. They want you to stay home and watch TV, so they can use $700 million dollars worth of our tax dollars (intended for free roads) for toll roads! Sen. Watson and others ignore the public so they can harvest our families for special interests pals like Take on Traffic (Chamber of Commerce).
T-Day:
The final CAMPO public hearing for freeway tolls:
Sept 10th at the Capitol (6pm)
2/05/2008
TxTag Alters Customers Check And Gets Caught
The new Texas 121 North toll road announced just weeks ago that they were getting tougher "to get people to pay their past-due bills."
Brian and Debbie Gibbs received a bill from the Texas Tollways Customer Service Center for $5.60. But the bureaucratic TxTag bill was confusing to them. The Gibbs understood the $2.60 charge for tolls, but not the other $3 in charges.
They sent in a check for $2.60, and someone at TxTAG altered the check to $5.60. The Star Telegram has the whole story:It appears that somebody at TxTag changed the amount on the Gibbses' check from $2.60 to $5.60 to cover the extra $3.Then TxDOT's Gabriela Garcia starts her deception and lies routine:The Gibbses got a copy of the deposited check from their bank and compared it with the carbon copy of the check in their checkbook. The numeral 2 in $2.60 was changed to a 5, and the "two" in the written-out amount was also altered to a five.
Did a TxTag clerk alter the check to cover the total fee?
Brian Gibbs called TxTag and spoke to an employee who told him that it did look like somebody had altered the check. The employee promised to call back but never did, Gibbs said.
"We are going to make sure that we have taken due diligence to investigate it properly and find out what happened, and see what the consequences are, if there are any," Gabriela Garcia said. "We don't want to jump to conclusions.
"Nobody went to the cash register and pulled out $3 and pocketed $3. It was just straight paperwork that was processed. Nobody benefited, as far as we can see, initially, if that, in fact, did happen."
Yes, Gabriela Garcia, TxTAG benefited. And, why should TxDOT investigate itself? I hope the Gibbs press charges.
3/18/2007
Toll Transponder Overcharging is Widespread
I received this email about one of the details of the bureaucratic toll tax - The dreaded TxTag (TaxTag):Hi Sal,
And, it's not just cars that you don't own that absorb your time and money. States including Texas, California, Florida, and Maryland toll transponders (that automatically deduct funds from a credit card account) are overcharging motorists all the time.
I had told you about the "invoice" I had received from TexasTollways for a vehicle that I had sold prior to it getting cited.
I have spent several hours and emails trying to straighten it out, and just got another "invoice" - it is up to $4 now. The interesting thing about this invoice is that the section of the invoice that should specify the date and location of the violation - does not contain any information about the original citation.
And to top it off - the font is the smallest possible, not legible to me without magnifying glasses. The reason I point this out is that without the original dates of violation/invoice, a person with multiple charges would have no way to determine if these were accurate or not. In case you have not seen these statments before I have scanned a copy and attached it here for you.
Greg
Often, they will not even know this is happening. For example, the Harris County, Texas Toll Road Authority admitted just days ago that its use of an automatic vehicle classification device designed to catch "toll cheats" was instead cheating law-abiding motorists! Read more HERE.
9/06/2007
Looter Sen. Watson to Divert $700 Million in Taxes to Toll our Freeways
The Chair of CAMPO, Senator Kirk Watson, is pushing a double tax toll scheme that shifts our freeways to tollways. The Watson TxDOT toll plan also diverts $700 million tax dollars - intended for free roads - into toll roads. It is important to note that freeways have NEVER been shifted to tollways in the history of our country.
Conventional toll roads across the country have always been built on new land with investor dollars (after the public expressways had been built) so drivers have a choice between the public highway or the toll road. They are taking what is ours to charge us forever, as the tolls will never be removed even after the road has been paid for 100 times over. Don't let it happen, attend T-Day Monday.
THE FACT IS, the Austin toll plan creates a monopoly by tolling public highways like 183, 71, 290, 45S and MoPAC.
Tollers seek to use our tax dollars (the $700 million) and the right of way we've paid for (Billions of dollars worth intended for our freeways/public highways) - to shift our freeway system into an unaccountable tax system. Period. This is a Double Tax.
These are roads that were always intended to be freeways. Tollers use our money, they use our right of way to charge us again - so special interest pals can profit off our families. There should be no free land and free roads given to toll road interests under the guise of providing maintenance for a bureaucratic double tax.
Help Stop the Double Tax on T-Day!
This Monday, Sept. 10th, 6pm at the State Capitol!
Be there or pay and pay and pay.
T-Day stands for Tolls, Taxes & let's "Tar and Feather those Crooks"!
2/20/2007
The Revolving Door - Professional White Collar Looting
The revolving door, an important tool used for looting from taxpayers, continues to turn for the special interests.
Some folks know about the bigger stories, like how Texas Gov. Perry's transportation advisor, former lobbyist Dan Shelley, was rehired by contract winner Cintra last summer. But there are many hundreds more that take place each year, under the radar, within all areas of our government, especially in the lucrative area of roads and tolls (like PBS&J, Cintra, Macquarie and URS to name a few). TxDOT is a out of control bureaucratic organization that creates traffic congestion - with an unending appetite for revenue.
The problem becomes clear, when it pays too well for public officials to support wildly unpopular road and land grabs.
San Antonio Express reports key (so called) public transportation people in Dallas and Houston moving to the private sector for the pay-off. Including North Texas Tollway Authority Director Allan Rutter resigned Wednesday after a closed-door board meeting. Harris County Judge Robert Eckels announced he will step down.
Just months ago, San Antonio Metropolitan Planning Organization Director, Toller Joanne Walsh, moved to Parsons Brinckerhoff. And, Alamo Regional Mobility Authority director Tom Griebel is now a vice president with Pape-Dawson Engineers.
And, when the individual enters from the corporate side to "represent the public" it's an issue as well.
What do we know about URS?
URS, has one of the most disturbing records of inflating traffic forecasts, which allows doomed toll roads schemes to be built. The taxpayer always foots the bill, while the profiteers profit.
URS has produced inaccurate forecasts for nearly a half-dozen toll road projects in Florida. In some cases, the roads drew only half the cars URS predicted. One of those, the Suncoast Parkway, was projected to make $70 million; in tolls in its first year of operation, and it produced only $7 million.
Forbes, in 9/3/01, offered the following scathing statement:
"It has become painfully clear to bondholders and politicians that many of the public toll-supported projects built in the past decade, the majority blessed by URS and its ilk, have become financial albatrosses."Standard and Poor's bond analysts, after reviewing forecasting case studies for years, have concluded:
"Optimism bias remains a consistent feature of toll road traffic forecasting."City of Austin Councilperson Brewster McCracken's 'Independent Toll Study’, which was hijacked by tollers, hired URS. The study was completed months ago, and has proven to be a complete waste of $300,000. In Central Texas, Sen. Watson’s Toll Task force will have the same fate, if he continues to not allow the public a seat at the table.
URS forecasted the traffic revenue for Camino Colombia at $9 million for the first year - but it only produced $500k. That is about 6% of the URS forecast!
Camino Colombia was quickly sold auction style on the steps of the Webb County Courthouse in 2004, with TxDOT in attendance. John Hancock Financial Services Inc. bought back its investment for $12 million at that auction. TxDOT then paid John Hancock a premium of $20 million, $8 million more than was needed.
Taxpayers keep paying for corrupt failures, while our "leaders" pretend to be working for the public best interest. They continue to profit - and use the revolving door to work both sides of the table - to continue the fleecing of the taxpayer.
5/02/2007
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!
1/24/2007
VICTORY BATTLE!
ALSO: OUR LAWSUIT MOVES FORWARD
CLICK ON BLUE HYPERLINKS TO LEARN MORE.
In early 2004, TxDOT and the new toll authority (CTRMA), presented a $2.2 Billion dollar Phase II toll plan to our elected officials on CAMPO, that would steal and toll our freeways for the first time in our country.
Back in 2004, CAMPO asked for public feedback. Naturally, 93% of the feedback opposed the double tax toll plan. Our elected officials on CAMPO, ignored the overwhelming public opposition, and voted YES for the freeway tolling plan.
That is when AustinTollParty.com was created.
Monday night, with a packed auditorium, after 31 months of battle - and our many accomplishments along the way - the bureaucratic money-hungry corrupt giant, finally said “Uncle”.
This was a huge battle that we won by using political pressure. But the war to keep our freeways free is not over because the special interests are behind the scenes pushing a “Plan B”. The good news is, we’ve already put a dent into “Plan B”, by not allowing Sen. Kirk Watson to be seen as the hero.
Monday, Kirk Watson became chair of CAMPO, as predicted in early December on this blog. And, Watson hijacked CAMPO as I predicted last week, as he now hand selects his own powerful special committee and only that committee decides what can go on the agenda. Watson also altered CAMPO from 23 voting members to 18. The unaccountable Waston, who has a history of back-room deals that costs us millions, refuses to create a citizens committee for crucial input needed for any successful transportation solution. Watson is only interested in controlling the process by having a massive majority of his special interests Krusee/Toller pals run the show.
STEP 1) Monday night, State Rep. Mike “King Toller” Krusee recommended that Senator Kirk Watson chairs CAMPO so Watson can run CAMPO and repackage the toll roads to sell them to the public.
INSIDER FACT) A lawsuit we filed in 2005 will most probably remove Watson from CAMPO within weeks or months.
The constitution states there must be a “separation of powers between the legislative and executive branch”, therefore, the legislative Senator Watson (and others) cannot sit on CAMPO’s executive board. Only City and County officials are allowed to sit on CAMPO. People for Efficient Transportation, Inc. is represented in this suit by the Texas Legal Foundation and its President and General Counsel, former Texas Supreme Court Justice Steve Smith. Next hearing is scheduled for Jan 31st, news here on this blog soon.
STEP 2) Have Kirk Watson stop Phase II tolls and be seen as a hero. That credibility will allow him to sell the newly repackaged toll roads on roads we’ve already paid for, without calling them toll roads.
INSIDER FACT) Kirk Watson has now been exposed as part of the problem in the press. Watson’s past also includes a diversion of our freeway funds for toll roads as $67 Million of his Prop 1 City of Austin Bonds intended for free roads, have been diverted to 45N and 130 toll roads.
Have the Watson “hero” introduce “managed lanes”, and not use the nasty “toll” word.
What are managed lanes exactly?
"Managed lanes" is a marketing term that sounds better than “toll roads”: Express lanes that parallel an existing highway and charge drivers a toll. So, a managed lane on a road we’ve already paid for, is a toll road on a road we’ve already paid for.
"Value Pricing" is another marketing term that goes hand in hand with Managed lanes. The tollers sell it to the public by saying Value Pricing will "reduce congestion".
How does Value Pricing reduce congestion you ask? By increasing the toll cost within the day as the need rises (such as charging more during rush hour). If less people can afford to drive, less people are on the road. Viola, less congestion. And more money into the pockets of the tollers.
And, why didn’t the Statesman report the death of Phase II? The Snakesman endorsed the Austin freeway tolling plan on June 27, 2004. Since then they have failed to do any investigative reporting on the corruption of the privtization and tolling of our public highways. They have even deleted a blog on the Statesman.com website that exposed that corruption. Read about it HERE.
Once again, KXAN's stellar Chris Willis, our good pal, did the story right!
Coming Tomorrow - HOT EXCLUSIVE right here on the Muckraker Blog: Toll Profiteers buy Texas Newspaper Companies to Control the Negative Toll Road News! (This is for real)
Coming Soon - A big thank you article and list of some of the important organizations and individuals that over the past years and months have joined in the successful fight to keep our freeways free.
