Yes, I went to the CAMPO meeting last night. Then had to leave because I was LAUGHING too hard at the folks from the Chamber who did mob the meeting, yet still weren't in the majority. One key for you Chamber folks... if you're going to stack a meeting, cut back on the paid people and the buttons.
Specifically, I DIED laughing when some moron got up to speak and talked about the 242k people in Central Texas that have purchased TXTags basically supporting tolls. In fact, I wasn't the only one laughing. Further, I have one of those tags. So do MANY of my friends. None of us like the tolls, but we have the tags because we're going to use them and we're not stopping at some stupid booth. There are a lot of people who don't like the tolls who have the tags. These are the people who almost turned out Mike Krusee in 2006 and will succeed in 2008. Wanna talk about those voters, pal? They're angry. Not happy.
Sal's account is here and very true. I arrived around 6:30 because I was busy underwriting loans. Unlike most of the people who have a vested interest in tolling, I was just an ordinary citizen who found a 6:00 pm start time a little unusual, mostly because at the last CAMPO meeting I attended, we waited FOREVER for the politico's to show up. I should have realized they were stacking the deck with the venue and the start time.
By Faith Chatham crossposted on DailyKos and DFW Regional Concerned Citizens
Governor Rick Perry has used campaign contributions from his Texans for Rick Perry committee to fly to Istanbul, Turkey Friday to address the secret Bilderberg Conference, “a meeting of about 130 international leaders in business, media and politics.” Read more: Meanwhile, in Fort Worth, international leaders met at the Worthington Hotel in a NASCO conference hosted by TxDOT, Tarrant County, The City of Fort Worth and NASCO. Several leaders of the NCTCOG RTC are board members of NASCO.
As we approach the final days of the 80th Legislative session, Governor 39% is well on his way to selling Texas to the highest bidders. This feat has been well-managed by his chief officers on the ground, Speaker Craddick and Lt. Gov. Dewhurst. Both have pushed for 39%'s and Ric Williamson's plans for Texas transportation.
The biggest disappointment to me has been the Senate. This chamber offered the most hope and insight at the beginning of the session, but has completely folded under the pressure in the waning weeks. When SB 1267 was offered, it looked like it had a lot of promise, with proper amendments. Williamson and Perry, with the help of Dewhurst and Craddick, had the bill shelved. This caused a revolt from the grassroots level (of both parties) that led to the creation of HB 1892. This bill called for a 2-year moratorium on the TTC, and made it all the way to 39%'s desk. We all expected him to veto the bill, but we were assured that we had enough support for an override. Two days later, the wheels began to fall off the wagon.
John Cornyn created the Trans-Texas Corridor. In a 7 page Attorney General's opinion, former Attorney General of Texas, John Cornyn created the rules that created the toll roads.
In his March 13, 2001 decision, Cornyn bends and ignores rule after rule in our state constitution. Cornyn, bent the rules to allow federal funds to be used for state toll roads.
TxDOT was allowed to use taxpayer funds to build toll roads with only one requirement-- eventually all money had to be paid back. There is no deadline. There is no payment plan. All the opinion says is, all money has to be paid back… eventually.
As we understand the background to your request, in considering the needs of the state for more highways, you have concluded that construction of additional toll roads would be of benefit. Such roads, you note, "are financed with revenue bonds and generally are supposed to be self-supporting from user fees (toll revenue). . . . However, given the high cost of projects, it is now difficult to find projects that would generate enough toll revenue to pay for themselves in a reasonable amount of time."' Accordingly, you seek a method to invest "state highway revenues in a toll road project without a requirement for repayment."
Cornyn highlights this a main reason for his decision, but also points that voters clearly said no to TxDOT and the Toll Road authority working together to build toll roads.
That proposed amendment "would [have] allow[ed] the state, acting through the State Department of Highways and Public Transportation [now TxDOT] to construct joint projects with the Texas Turnpike Authority and to contribute money from any available source to the Texas Turnpike Authority to pay costs of the authority `s turnpikes, toll roads, or toll bridges. "This amendment was defeated by the same voters who adopted section 52-a."
Why open the door to TxDOT building toll roads throughout Texas when voters have already said no? Why ignore the will of voters in the first place? Are corporate contracts to friends that important? Why can't we see the payment plan now that the roads are being built?
Cornyn's opinion created the possibility for toll roads, plain and simple. His ruling establishes the ability for Texans to get taxed twice, but that's okay as long as TxDOT eventually gets paid back.
From the today's article it seems that Sen. Carona is doing this because he was pressured by his local pro-toll officials. They have been able to get Sen. Carona to buy the concept that waiting two years to make sure all of this is done correctly and the damage that would do to transportation in his local area is worse than, in his words, "..bring(ing) free roads in this state to a condition of ruin."
Sal's pissed and for good reason. CorridorWatch is not happy either and that's totally understandable.
So, Red McCombs, Ford Dealer extraordinaire, has penned a retarded little op/ed for the Schlockman (which is evidently in a race to the bottom with the Fort Worth Star Telegram) in which he's listed as a 'special contributor' instead of the far more appropriate 'used car salesman'.
That's right! He's a CAR SALESMAN. Who the hell cares what the man who tries to sell you clearcoat thinks about transportation??!?!? He picked Ford's to sell... enough said about his intelligence. Red McComb's apparently a very passionate man. He's wild about tollroads. Red, now that I think about it, is kinda trash (sorry, it's the Ford thing... I hate Fords. They're just soooo lame). He's also a little bit senile (what is he, 90?)
By utilizing toll roads and private investment along with traditional funding methods, Texas can get more roads built faster and without a significant tax increase.
By using public-private partnerships or comprehensive development partnerships like the $5 billion Texas 121 project, the state would have the resources for additional road projects because of the billions private companies are willing to pay to build and manage user-financed toll roads.
I would think one bout of looking like an ass would have been enough for the Star-Telegram editors. Turns out, it's not.
Let's look at this odious piece of trash...
First, according to an editorial in Wednesday's USA Today, traffic congestion cost $63 billion in lost productivity and additional gas in 2003, not including the 18.4-cent federal gas tax or other state and local transportation taxes. In other words, relief of traffic congestion is good for drivers' psychological and financial health.
Congestion is a bitch. Roads and public transportation are the solution. The method used to pay or them is largely irrelevant. This is approaching the millionth time I've heard toll roads conflated with easing congestion. It's also the millionth time pro-toll forces have looked like idiots. You'd think they would learn from the mistakes of the irredeemably stupid Ray Perryman.
Second, as Star-Telegram reporter Gordon Dickson wrote last month, state transportation officials reject as absurd the claim of some toll critics that an 8-cent-per-gallon increase in the gas tax could finance regional transportation needs. The actual number, according to state officials paid to calculate these costs, is $1.40 per gallon, which would increase the price of gasoline to more than $3.70 per gallon today. How could this help the poor?
Oh, yes... tolls are cheaper. This is an outright lie. For one thing, the tolls are going to run at least 12 cents per mile (as we've seen in Austin, sometimes they are MUCH more expensive). At 20 miles per gallon, that's a gas tax equivalent of $2.40 per gallon. Even if the State's ridiculous estimate were correct, a gas tax would STILL be CHEAPER than tolls, by at least $1.00 per gallon. That's reality, and I'd like to see Mr. Erler deny that.
However, we all know that the state's estimate is way off and completely meaningless. Why? Because, unlike Mr. Erler, we actually did some research. Bottom line, tolls are ALWAYS going to be more expensive than a gas tax. Period. The State's numbers are 'engineered' to come to a preconceived conclusion. Instead of just blindly accepting them, Mr. Erler, why not actually investigate the assumptions used? Those assumptions include a PROFIT for a private contractor that is paid EVEN UNDER A GAS TAX MODEL. Why would we be paying for that if we shift gears and ditch the tolls and the CDA's?
I'm going to stick to the TTI numbers. They are accurate and unbiased unlike those used by the State.
So what about the public versus private issue? Consider last week's announcement that a private company has been selected to build and manage Texas 121, just north of Fort Worth and Dallas. That company will pay $2.1 billion upfront and another $716 million over 49 years, and it will spend an additional $2.26 billion for construction and maintenance over the 50-year span of the contract.
This deal will, according to local officials, provide "several hundred million dollars" for non-toll roads in our region.
As for the money 'up front' to be used for other projects, that's little more than an acknowledgment that people will have the same problem with tolls that they have with gas taxes (money generated in one spot goes to pay for a project in another). Of course, we could raise that money upfront by selling bonds backed with tax revenues, which is basically what the toll road companies are doing (only in their case, their bonds are backed with massive tolls).
The most interesting thing about this is the money. We already know the state has promised a nice 12% ROE to developers. Annually. That means that these roads will have to pay more $609.1 mn annually, just as a return on invested capital. What's the debt service on $5.076bn? Around $400 mn annually? Combine the two and that means that North Texas drivers who use 121 will have to cough up roughly $1.09 BILLION annually. Of course they won't, so the entire project will end up devolving to Texas taxpayers anyway. Even if $609.1mn is also used to pay down debt, it's still too expensive. Maybe the toll companies aren't looking to make a profit... oh, hell, even Mr. Erler wouldn't buy that argument.
The numbers, any way you slice and dice them, will always come out in favor of a gas tax. I suspect Mr. Erler knows this which is why he's so disingenuous in his op/ed piece. My only question is why the Star-Telegram published it without even bothering to include a counterpoint. It's obvious that Erler believes what he's saying. Unfortunately for him, he's confused belief with truth. As someone far smarter than I once said, "It's not what you know; It's what you know that just ain't so."
A new astonishing State Auditor's Office report, raises grave concerns as the highest ranking Auditor in the state is unable to decipher how much the first part of the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) project will actually cost, even though Cintra/TxDOT contract was signed two years ago.
The report focused on the Texas Department of Transportation's first of many sections of the TTC, the TTC-35 Comprehensive Development Agreement with Cintra-Zachry, LP.
Perhaps the most shocking part of the report is the fact that TxDOT could be required to forgo ALL the revenue it's claimed the state would receive.
The revenue TxDOT promised to members of the legislature, the public and the press, has been one of the key selling points TxDOT's has used time and time again.
This new information ads fuel to the fire as the public is finding out about TxDOT's 90 day forceable eminent domain "quick-take" for over 500,000 acres of Texas land. Charges of "misallocations and exclusions" about the work done to date, on the 50 year contract, are included in the report:
"Weaknesses in the Department's accounting for project costs and monitoring of the developer create risks that the public will not know how much the State pays for TTC-35 or whether those costs were appropriate.
Not adequately monitoring developers also exposes the State to future financial liability."
And, 53% of TTC-35 costs to date were incorrectly allocated to other projects. Invoices included hours billed that could not be tied to any progress reports or tasks performed. The report also states:
"The Department omitted indirect costs of $906,774 in fiscal year 2005 and $583,642 in fiscal year 2004."
Also, from the summery:
"There is a lack of reliable information regarding projected toll road construction costs, operating expenses, revenue, and developer income."
In 2005, the State Comptroller came out with an investigative report showing how Regional Mobility Authority's, by privatizing and tolling public highways, created double taxation, by diverting tax dollars intended for free roads, into toll roads. The report also showed RMA board members giving no-bid contracts to themselves and their friends.
Bureaucracy always costs more.
The Texas Transportation Institute report that came out just weeks ago stated that tolls would not be needed if we indexed the gas tax. Tolls per mile would cost drivers about 20 times more than the additional cost of indexing the gas tax.
