Dwight Dallas ThompsonBy MICHAEL RODDEN, Nacodoches Daily Sentinel
While Gov. Rick Perry was in Johnson Coliseum addressing SFA graduates, on the other side of campus a group of citizens were not so happy about his appearance in Nacogdoches.
In the free-speech area of campus, near North Street and Vista Drive, many farmers, property owners and concerned citizens gathered for a Citizens Against the Trans-Texas Corridor Rally.
Holding protest signs and using a tractor as a symbol of the farming community, those who gathered wanted to make their cause heard by the governor, as well as the community. Many vehicles traveling on North Street honked in support of the anti-TTC cause.
Libby community resident Larry Shelton said it's important to keep the opposition alive.
"It's a bad idea for Texas and a bad idea for Texans," Shelton said to a crowd of supporters. "Gov. Perry thinks the TTC is the solution to the state's traffic problems, but the TTC is a problem itself, not a solution."
In fact, many whose property could be affected by the multi-lane mega structure turned out to hold signs and echo the cause.
Kathy Brittain held a "Come and Take It" flag symbolic of one used during the Texas Revolution in 1835. She said it signified their fight with the government, and that they would not freely give up their land — it will have to be taken with a fight.
Brittain said her family's land is located near the proposed TTC footprint, and if her land isn't taken, she is concerned about the pollution and noise issues the corridor might bring.
Steve Chism wasn't as subtle with his message. He referred to the TTC toll road issue as "taxation without representation."
"I believe Perry is part of greed and corruption of the highest order," Chism said.
Read the rest of the article HERE
...hey, it's Mothers day weekend!
Many people will be traveling this weekend. Some will drive out of town to visit mom or granny, some will take mom and family to a restaurant to celebrate, basically a whole lot of traveling will take place.
And, it's commencement weekend for graduates at Texas State University.
We all know the arrogant, ignorant lumbering Frankenstein called TxDOT is not the smartest agency on the block.
Well, TxDOT decided to close up a section of I-35 in Central Texas, one of the most traveled stretches of highway in Texas — from last night (Friday) till Monday morning to do some work. This work is so they can open up a new toll on 45S. Yup, on Mother's Day weekend. Real smart.
UPDATE 5/11: TxDOT only did half the shutdown, which ended before midnight Sat. TxDOT says it was because they were behind schedule.
The Gas Tax is NOT a Tax...say's Texas Monthly's Senior Executive Editor, Paul Burka.
This just in, Comptroller Susan Combs says we have a $10.7 Billion dollar surplus here in Texas. So why are we toll taxing our freeways?
A TxDOT crew removed and mulched a 100+ year old Pecan tree, on a road named after the historic tree, "Pecan Tree Road", in Forreston TX. The community is devestated by TxDOT's error (and the TxDOT finger pointing begins) according to the Waxahachie Daily Light:“Is it going to be Pecan Stump Road now?” said Jeff Browning of Waxahachie, who said he was shocked when he saw a crew taking the tree down.
In the real world, people get fired over something like this. But at Gov. Rick Perry's TxDOT, they can steal your land, toll freeways, tear down historic markers, and even make a $1 Billion dollar accounting error, and not a soul is EVER, EVER fired.
Why does the Lone Star State
In February, we had Sunset Review member Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa blast TxDOT.
Now, we have another powerful Sunset Review member stepping up! Rep. Linda Harper-Brown. This is good news, as the Sunset Review board could severly alter TxDOT as we know it, or even chuck it and start fresh with a new agency! Stay tuned to this blog for the latest. Expect a public hearing soon, and please plan to go.
See who else is on the committee, and how they might feel about TxDOT, here an article I did in January called, "TxDOT critics appointed to Sunset Advisory Commission".
FORT WORTH -- The Texas Department of Transportation has done more harm to the public's trust of state government than any other agency and needs to be overhauled, Rep. Linda Harper-Brown, R-Irving, said Wednesday.
Harper-Brown also told the Tarrant Regional Transportation Coalition on Wednesday that the Transportation Department has failed to build roads necessary to reduce congestion, and has overstated its financial problems to win public support for toll roads.
"TxDot used to be a premier agency in America. It's not any more. Other states have better roads," Harper-Brown told the group.
Harper-Brown is a member of the Sunset Review Commission, which periodically reviews state agencies to determine whether they're still necessary. Commission members are expected to grill Transportation Department officials during hearings this summer.
Harper-Brown said she is researching how agencies in states such as Florida build and manage their transportation projects while sticking to firm deadlines and keeping lawmakers and the public informed about finances.
by David Nason, The Australian News
The Macquarie Group's airport ambitions in the US have spread to Texas, where its infrastructure division is in talks to lease all or part of the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in the Texas capital, Austin.
A Macquarie spokesman confirmed yesterday that discussions with Austin officials were under way but stressed they were at a "very preliminary stage", with no formal proposal for an ABIA takeover on the table.
According to some projections, leasing ABIA to a private operator could earn the city of Austin $US500 million ($526 million) annually.
The airport play comes as Macquarie and its Spanish toll roads partner Centra await a decision on a proposed 75-year lease for the Pennsylvania Turnpike, one of the US's busiest highways.
At least three consortiums have submitted bids with Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, who is expected to select his preferred operator sometime in the next week.
Mr Rendell wants to channel the lease payments -- possibly as much as $US18 billion over the life of the lease -- into Pennsylvania's ageing highways, bridges and mass transit systems. But he is facing opposition from legislators, voters and his own Turnpike Commission.
Opposition to airport privatisation in the US is also expected to be strong, especially if foreign companies are involved.
Under a Federal Aviation Administration pilot program introduced in 1966, US airports can be exempted from federal administration, but until now only Chicago's Midway Airport has actively pursued privatisation.
The program allows for up to five US airports to be leased to private operators, but the hurdles are many, including approval from the FAA and from 65 per cent of airlines using the airport.
Macquarie, which already operates airports in Sydney, Tokyo, Brussels, Copenhagen and Bristol in England, is one of six companies to have lodged a proposal with Chicago officials.
It now sees a second opportunity in Austin, where the push for privatisation is driven by federal laws that compel the city to spend airport revenues at the airport while other city-operated businesses such as Austin Energy and the Austin Convention Centre return their profits to the city.
Austin city councillor Brewster McCracken told the Austin Business Journal he was opposed to privatising public assets but regarded the airport as a separate issue because it provided no revenue to the city's general fund.
ABIA's total operating revenue for the 2007 fiscal year was $US81.9 million with $US17 million of that going back into the airport's capital fund.
Austin-Bergstrom is a former US Air Force Base 8km outside Austin that was only opened to civilian traffic in 1999, to replace a smaller airport. Last year, it serviced almost 8.9 million passengers, a record.
Globally, the Macquarie Group has some $US200 billion invested in infrastructure and it has targeted the US as its major infrastructure growth area.
Read the rest of the article HERE.
Hillary Will Drop Out by June 15, says senior Clinton campaign official and confidante. Hillary Clinton most probably wants to collect as much money as possible from her blue collar working class donors, so her campaign can pay Clinton back for the $11.6 million she's loaned her campaign. Yeah, she cares about the little people.
By Elise Hu, KVUE Political Reporter
Look who I spotted in the parking lot of my ex-gym, Castle Hill Fitness?
It's SO-113, otherwise known as State Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock. Krusee, as you may recall, was charged with DWI last week and spent a night in the pokey. (He did not take a breathalyzer test, which is what most DWI attorneys -- and liberatarians - advise.)
While awaiting a court date, he's still driving -- and apparently stayin' in shape. (Castle Hill trainers give you an excellent workout.) I called Krusee after spotting his car, because a source who first spotted him wondered whether he should still be driving:
Him: Hey, it's Krusee.
Me: Hey, how are ya! Um... I mean.. uh... [awkwardly stammering].
Him: No, no, I'm doing good.
Me: So, can you still drive?
Him: Jason [his attorney] said to refer everything to him, I could answer ya, but Jason said to tell people to call him.
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...
Geez. Gov. Rick Perry has no shame. His new pick to govern TxDOT, old political pal Deirdre Delisi, has NO transportation experience and NO Business experience. None. Nada. Zilch. Maybe she drives to work, other than that, she's got nothing.
TxDOT just posted Deirdre Delisi's bio on the TxDOT website, and it's thinner than onion paper. The bio says she has "international policy studies" and "political science" degrees from Duke and Stanford and experience in political campaigns as well as government.
So, the head of our grand state of Texas transportation agency, in charge of Billions of our tax dollars, has NO transportation background. What's next? Maybe Perry's next appointment for a Texas agency will be Captain Crunch?
But, Sen. Kirk Watson, Gov. Perry's partner in freeway tolls crime, said he believes Delisi, 35 years old, has the substance to do the job.
With the Texas Legislature's help, "T. Boone Pickens essentially created a public utility, giving him the power of eminent domain." Read about HERE.
Delisi Appointment maintains Status Quo at TxDOT"Editorial: Perry errs in choice for top TxDOT job" HERE
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?
By TheNewspaper.com
Electronic toll roads in Texas are confusing motorists and causing significant safety hazards. Old-fashioned cash toll booths are already kown to increase the risk of accidents, but videotape from Harris County toll road officials documents how electronic alternatives create dangers of their own.
KTRK-TV in Houston reported on several cases where confused EZ Tag toll transponder users were confused by the multiple signs directing motorists variously into "Full Service" or "EZ tag" or "Exact Change" lanes, some of which may or may not be working. Instead of attempting to process all of the visual information at speed, some drivers just decided to stop in the middle of the road to figure it out.
"That's like stopping on I-10 in the fast lanes during rush hour and getting out and walking around your vehicle, it's dangerous," Harris County Precinct One Constable's Office Lieutenant Jeff Cook told KTRK.
Others dangerously swerved out of the wrong lane into the proper lane, or attempted to back out of the EZ Tag lanes. The incidents are common and the consequences can be fatal. In January, a three-year old was killed in an accident caused by a constable rear-ending a confused driver.
At times, the confusion is not even the motorist's fault. Grahame Taylor found last June that his EZ Tag toll transponder failed to work at entrance or exit ramps on the Sam Houston Tollway...
Read the whole article HERE.
The booking photo"DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange said a trooper spotted a vehicle in the 1300 block of Briar Hollow Drive near U.S. 183 and RM 620 with an and being expired registration and being driven erratically. Mange said the trooper noticed a strong smell of alcohol and administered a field sobriety test, which she said Krusee failed.
She said Krusee refused a Breathalyzer test."1:00pm: The arrest affidavit. Krusee carried and passed legislation in 2003 that created something called the “driver responsibility program” to help fund the Texas Mobility Fund. That program included a number of surcharges for driving offenses, including $1,000 for a first conviction of driving while intoxicated says Statesman new article.
If you look in the Williamson County Appraisal District records for the street address where Krusee was arrested, you will find that his ex-wife, Leigh, lives on that street at 13231 Briar Hollow Drive. She got the house in the divorce settlement. I will let you figure out the rest of the story"1:45: Houston Chron says:
Krusee was placed under arrest at 10:14 p.m. and transported to Williamson County jail in Georgetown, where he refused a breath test, triggering the administrative license revocation law....4:30pm: I find Paul Burka's (Texas Monthly) take on how this could be an issue for a future appointment:
"...Williamson County is notoriously tough on violators of any sort, especially DUI, and the ensuing trial could imperil a future appointment to the Texas Highway Commission, for which Krusee is widely believed to be in line after his term expires in January 2009. There has always been a question about whether Krusee’s advocacy for the Trans-Texas Corridor would pose a threat to his confirmation by the Senate. He became a pariah in the House in 2007 when members finally realized what they had voted for in 2003 without bothering to read the bill, but his relations with senators did not seem to be impaired."Burka could be right.
by Bennett Cunningham, CBS News,
They say they're busy building new toll roads, but it appears some North Texas Tollway officials have plenty of time to dine out. While gas prices sky rocket, tolls increase, and you count every penny, it appears they're spending your money on expensive dinners, wine and catered lunches.
For the last 5 months, we've been building a database, monitoring how the North Texas Tollway Authority [NTTA] spends your money. We found receipts for thousand-dollar feasts, personalized M&M candies and customized birthday cards. But the one common thread we found is that tollway officials don't like meeting without eating.
Is it a toll booth or a tip jar? Tollway officials are using your money to pay for more than $100,000 in food, entertainment and much more.
Most motorists we spoke to told us things like "that's not what it's supposed to go to," "I don't think it should be spent on that," and "it's supposed to better our roads, not parties."
CBS 11 reviewed credit card receipts dating back to 2006. Here's what NTTA officials did with your money:
$100,000 spent on food--and $40,000 of that was for catering. A lot of that money was spent to feed Tollway board members at monthly meetings. Nearly every meeting was catered with fresh fruit and a full spread for lunch for up to 50 people...Sen. Kirk Watson has acquiesced — and will allow Gov. Rick Perry's appointment of Deirdre Delisi to go forward says Eye on Wilco. Click the link and read - if you want to throw up in your own mouth:"Watson didn’t think that busting a second Perry appointee was a good career move."
Don't you just love these double tax - freeway tolling crooks?
Perry appoints transportation commissioners reports Houston Chronicle
Southern segment of Texas 130 opens Wednesday says the Statesman.
Higher oil and natural gas prices helped Royal Dutch Shell and BP to report record first-quarter profits Tuesday beating analysts' expectations and prompting share gains across the industry says the Herald Tribune.
Hillary Clinton now joins John McCain in wanting a 3 month suspension of the federal gas tax, in a push for votes. Barack Obama calls gas tax holiday "a gimmick". Now some experts say the gas tax holiday could actually push gas prices higher.
US Senators propose using special bonds to raise money for transportation infrastructure projects, reports theNewspaper.com:
"Senators John Thune (R-South Dakota) and Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) last week sought to gather support from US Department of Transportation officials for the Build America Bonds Act. The legislation would allow states to fund various types of infrastructure project through the issuance of thirty-year bonds."
I’m not a procrastinator, but to be honest, I’ve been putting this off. Out of all the kinds of elections there are, I hate city elections. I don’t know if it’s because they can attract some of the worst bottom of the barrel political opportunists, or something else. I just despise city elections.
There are a couple bright spots this year and here they are:
Laura Morrison for Place 4. Morrison has a track record of open, inclusive decision making, and a demonstrated willingness to stand up to the special interests who feed off the Council ignoring citizens.
Jason Meeker for Place 1. Meeker is the long shot who is taking on incumbent, Lee Leffingwell who favors special interest and other insider lobbyists. Leffingwell will run for mayor, along with toller Brewster McCracken next year. Both are bad news for citizens. Leffingwell spearheaded a 100 year secret water deal with the LCRA.
I follow the lead of Better Austin Today (BAT PAC), a broad coalition of citizen group leaders, with the endorsements above. The Statesman just endorsed two of the worst candidates (go figure), Lee Leffingwell, Randi Shade, and then there is Robin Cravey, which is an unknown to me at this time.
Jennifer Kim for Place 3. Jennifer Kim did the right thing, and was in the minority when she voted against Sen. Watson’s plan to shift Austin existing freeways to tollways, just months ago.
Jennifer is far from perfect, she ushered in the red light camera scam. But the fact is Randi Shade is worse, much worse. Shade was moved into this race by tollers, who want to replace Jennifer Kim for her vote against the double tax tolls. Shade is backed by toll scum like Mike Weaver (Created the CTRMA and gave himself a NO BID Contract to do it) and Lowell Lebermann (Vice Chair of the CTRMA). So, even though I’m not crazy about all of Jennifer Kim’s positions, and she’s been rude to me personally, and others I know, Randi Shade makes her look very appealing in contrast.
By RAD SALLEE, Houston Chronicle
Minutes south of Interstate 10 and Sealy, the pastures along FM 1458 are their own silent world in the morning. Mists lift to reveal black cattle, brown and spotted horses, snow-white egrets underfoot in lush green grass.
Then a concrete mixer comes churning down the blacktop.
Just up the road is a small subdivision. More are sure to come as city dwellers, including weekenders and retirees, move out in search of a quieter, simpler life — and relief from city traffic.
Although the gradual influx may bring greater changes in the long run, what disturbs residents most is the planned Interstate 69/Trans-Texas Corridor, or I-69/TTC for short.
If it is built, the corridor likely will start out as a four-lane divided tollway. Eventually, the Texas Department of Transportation could expand it to 1,200 feet in places, with toll lanes for cars and trucks; tracks for freight and passenger trains; and space for pipelines, power lines and communications.
Read the whole article HERE.
by Sonny Williams, Editor of Quarter Horse News
Each day, I make the dreaded drive down Interstate 35 to go to work in Fort Worth. Each day, I slug through the snarl and sludge of ceaseless traffic, which intensifies my growing desire to commit hari-kari, or at least incites a vehement curse of the highway gods. Certainly, we in Texas need more lanes, more roads, more rails, more something to deal with the ever-expanding urban population and growing international commerce. Yet how do we solve our transportation needs without carving up the countryside like some congratulatory cake? Or should the construction of a superhighway-rail-utility corridor even concern us?
Read the rest of this comprehensive article with quotes from Chris Lippincott, media-relations officer for TxDOT HERE.
The Presidency really takes its toll; just look at how George Bush has aged. To see how the current candidates would fare after a term in the Oval Office, Mouse-over the images HERE to see the before and afters of Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and Barack Obama.
by WorldnetDaily.com
But when they did, their voices were clear, with overwhelming majorities opposing the concept, plans and ideas.
The poll was done by the APC, a grassroots activist group in Washington that asked a series of questions about the SPP, the Trans Texas Corridor transportation project and other issues.
"While President Bush and his counterparts in Mexico and Canada continue to deny that the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) is the beginning of a North American Union, Americans around the nation are expressing their growing opposition to the scheme," the center said in introducing its poll results.
Read the rest of the article HERE.
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.
Avis Rental Car company (via parent V.P Holding) got caught up in the Harris County toll road bureaucracy, having to cough up almost $200,000 worth of fines in unpaid tolls, administrative and attorney fees that accrued over the years.
Avis was facing a fat $374,000 bill from Harris County, but it was "settled" this week, for about half the cost, at $190,000, to cover the original $12,116.47 in tolls not paid.
Did Avis get special treatment? Do you think you would get your toll tax fees and fines cut in half?
Dwight Dallas Thompson
TxDOT and other tollers like the CTRMA are on the hot seat right now - all day, as the Senate transportation committee holds a hearing to discuss the future of toll roads in Texas, TxDOT finances and the Trans Texas Corridor. As our elected representatives get political favors, they magically allow more unaccountable toll tax schemes.
Watch it live online now in Room E1.016 HERE.
A new Fort Worth Star-Telegram article, on the costs for the Texas proliferation of tolls (The Perry/Watson plan to toll freeways) has this quote:
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.
Any local elected officials, from any part of the state, can form a commission to ask TxDOT and the feds questions, which will bog down the TTC. Start talking to your elected officials and to get a 391 commission started today.
HOW TO FORM A 391 COMMISSION:
Anyone interested in learning how to form a 391 Commission to require TxDOT to Coordinate the TTC with their local community needs to read the article prepared by attorney Fred Kelly Grant titled "The Creation of the Eastern Central Texas Sub-Regional Planning Commission" on our website a www.stewards.us. This is the most complete explanation of how easy it is to form a Commission, and how effective it can be. A new article below...
Gas prices are getting closer to $3.50 a gallon, as oil hit another high this week — more than $117 a barrel, many experts expect oil to hit $200 a barrel soon.
Now, imagine paying the coming $8.00 a gallon for gas.
For a 20 mpg car that equals .40 cents a mile.
But, don't forget the new hidden tax to drive the freeways - the Gov. Rick Perry (R) and Sen. Kirk Watson (D) toll tax will more than double your $8.00 per gallon.
Add .44 cents a mile for the Perry/Watson freeway toll tax. That's an exorbitant amount of money to pay to drive to work, school and shop. How many miles do you drive?
Right now, if you have a car that gets 20 mpg, you are paying .16 cents a mile. Can you afford .84 cents a mile?
And, don't forget the managed lanes scheme (planned for Austin's MoPAC and other freeways across Texas). Folks in California are paying as much as $1.00 a mile at peak hours, for the managed lane toll tax. Gov. Perry and Sen. Kirk Watson will financially force you and yours out of your cars — you can take the bus for all they care.
In the past many months, the rising gas prices are already causing people to drive less.
And, who will pay when these double tax toll schemes fail, because many people can't afford to drive to work school and play?
All Toll Roads have Traffic and Revenue Studies that carefully map out the viability of the project. The official statement for Austin's 183A toll road states that if gas costs more than $3.00 a gallon over the next 40 years, it will not make a profit.
Austin 130 toll road, which has been behind in it's traffic projections already, has a ceiling of $2.50 per gallon over the next 40 years. We already shattered that $2.50 a gallon mark.
Will the toll roads fail? Most probably, but don't worry, Gov. Perry, Sen. Watson and their ilk will bail them out with your families tax dollars, while you are taking the bus.
The Perry/Watson plan to shift more Austin freeways to tollways will put even more financial pressure on Austin families.
State crooks will share the booty from converting SH 161 to a toll road, says WFFA:
"Friday afternoon, state Senators John Carona and Florence Shapiro helped along with Lt. Governor David Dewhurst helped TXDOT and the NTTA reach a breakthrough in Dallas.They actually begin the SH 161 toll road construction on Monday, with hundred of millions of your tax dollars, which were intended for free roads.Neither side would release precise details about costs and years involved until the NTTA board approves it. NTTA called a special board meeting Sunday afternoon to consider the proposal
NTTA spokeswoman Sherita Coffelt said the agreement reached is similar to one of its own proposals in which the NTTA would turn 161 into a toll road and collect revenue from it for 52 years. After that, Coffelt said, the NTTA and TXDOT will share toll revenues."
Two years ago Senator John McCain, now a presidential candidate, spoke in support of Mary Peters becoming Bush's Transportation Secretary:
"I commend the President for selecting such an outstanding and capable individual to fill this important leadership position."Today, Peters is pushing to shift our freeways to tollways, from the federal level. "U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters’ push for more PPPs and tolling is disheartening." says Land Line Magazine
"Mary Peters is a fourth generation Arizonan and was the director of the Arizona Department of Transportation, known as A-DOT"
"We spent the better part of a year trying to fight local government only to discover that we were up against the much larger forces of the NAFTA/CAFTA legislative sponsors John McCain, Jon Kyle and Ted Kennedy. We’re up against their multinational corporate backers of this internationalist agenda who benefit from the illegal immigration."So, not only does McCain support the continuation of the $10 Billion a month Bush/Iraq war, but the failed Bush economic policy and the Bush/Rick Perry plan to toll freeways, and the TTC/NAFTA superhighways.
After TxDOT's pretend "drop dead" deadline passed, for an agreement on shifting SH 161 to a toll road, TxDOT now says there is more time.
Like hungry tax vampire zombies fighting over the same piece of eternal tax meat, the NTTA (local tolling authority) Lt. Gov. Dewhurst, a Gov. Perry representative and Sen. John Carona are expected to attend a secret meeting, behind closed doors today to fight over who gets more of the toll tax profits according to the Dallas News:"Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and other key legislators are expected to meet behind closed doors in Dallas today to end a deadlock over State Highway 161 that has threatened to derail plans to toll the highway, a development that could cost North Texas more than $1.2 billion in road funds...
What happened? Why did the agreement break down before the pretend deadline?
...The Texas Department of Transportation has insisted for weeks that if no agreement was in place by April 16, the road could not be built as a toll road.
That prospect prompted howls of protest from local elected officials. Senate transportation committee chairman John Carona, R-Dallas, stepped in Thursday to initiate the unusual last-minute involvement of some of Texas' most powerful elected officials."
NTTA tried to slip in one word into the contract, that would allow it to keep the profits of the toll road forever, when TxDOT planned on getting the profits after year 52.
SH 161, a state highway, was always promised to have a free expressway. There is right of way we've paid for involved as well as hundreds of millions of tax payer dollars, intended as a sort of corporate welfare for the tollers.
WHERE ARE OUR TAX DOLLARS GOING?
Read, Draining the Highway Fund
Update: Peter Stern's blog tells folks to contact the AG to file a formal complaint for a lack of "Open Government".
