Rick Perry's Texas Department of Transportation -- known as "the most arrogant state agency in the history of the state of Texas" -- is in charge of the TxTag program. The toll roads they've set up in places like north Austin have come under scrutiny because, often times, a driver will be charged with driving somewhere they never went, or sent a fine that was never due to them in the first place.
Now, those and other drivers who owe money to TxDot could be facing exorbitant fees 40-times higher than what the IRS charges for late payments. From a KXAN-TV story last week, "Alarming fees for overdue tolls":
The state of Texas is charging motorists a 4000 percent administrative fee for each toll they don’t pay after 112 days. Some motorists – even those with the proper tags – are finding themselves with thousands in fees for just a few bucks in overdue tolls.
In Central Texas, there are 150,000 motorists who owe $3 million in tolls. With that fee, the state of Texas could collect nearly $60 million from them.
As a matter of comparison, there's federal legislation right now in Washington to crack down on unscrupulous credit card companies who charge interest and fees around 30 percent.
Roads and development go hand in hand, and Kirk Watson has placed himself at the helm of the most powerful organization in Central Texas, while he sits at all the other chairs at the same table.
Soon after Sen. Kirk Watson became Chair of CAMPO, an organization that directs billions of road dollars in Central Texas, records showWatson was put on the payroll of developers who profit from important transportation decisions.
Additional conflicts are now revealed for the first time.
Records show Sen. Kirk Watson, as partner of law firm Hughes & Luce, bills the City of Austin at a rate of $450 per hour for representation on land deals with developers.Over $420,000 has been paid to Watson's law firm, by the City of Austin in the last two years.
Watson is being paid an undisclosed amount of money as a lobbyist for developers, and billing taxpayers at $450 an hour to oppose developers, while being chair of CAMPO - an organization that controls the purse strings for developers roads. How can Watson fairly represent the people while having so many conflicts?
Watson is now pushing an unpopular plan to shift our freeways to toll ways using $910 million tax dollars. Developers see the double tax tolls as an eternal slush fund to pay for more roads to their cheap land.
The 2006 Austin Chamber of Commerce annual report, reveals that Sen. Kirk Watson individually, and his law firm both contributed money to the pro toll Chamber. (see page 23 - www.austinchamber.com/WhatsNew/2006OAAnnualReport.pdf)
TOLL ROAD LOBBYIST
VIOLATED STATE LAW AND
MUST PAY FINE, SAYS COMMISSION.
One of the Most Wanted Delinquent Lobbyists
in the State of Texas signs Commission Order.
AUSTIN - The Texas Ethics Commission (TEC) has determined that toll road lobbyist Melinda Wheatley violated Texas law and must pay a $10,000 civil penalty. Wheatley failed to file dozens of financial reports describing her lobbyist activities over many years, according to TEC records. The order also states that Wheatley failed to pay the Office of the Attorney General for a default judgment for delinquent reports stretching back into the 90's.
For years, Wheatley has been listed as one of the most delinquent filers in the State of Texas on the TEC website.
Melinda Wheatley is also a known associate of State Rep. Mike Krusee, the chair of the House Transportation committee. Wheatley and Krusee began working on education issues together in the late 90s. In 2003, when Krusee shifted gears to transportation and became the Chair of the House Transportation Committee, Wheatley also made the shift and began to lobby on transportation issues.
TransCore, one of Wheatley's transportation clients, landed a multi million dollar contract in 2005 to produce 500,000 TxTAG's for TxDOT toll roads. According to the Comptroller report, "A Need for a Higher Standard", Wheatley also received NO BID contracts from the local tolling authority, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA).
Sal Costello, TexasTollParty.com founder, said, "It's a good day when the most wanted lobbyist in the state, who has been hiding her toll road lobbying activities, is found to have violated Texas law. But we need to be aware that there are still way too many toll road profiteers lurking in the shadows."
The TEC order was signed by Melinda Wheatley on September 10th, 2007.
Senator Kirk Watson and others are now seeking to steal $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) please put it on your calendar
Since 2004, our show of force has proven to push back the corrupt politicos who benefit from tolling our freeways. They fear the voters wrath - if enough of us are there watching them.
T-Day stands for Tolls, Taxes & let's "Tar and Feather those Crooks"!
The sad fact is, our representatives would rather have a summer vacation than do the states business properly.
The so called toll moratorium, SB 792, actually makes things worse for Texans as it allows local authorities to have the same powers we were trying to take away from TxDOT.
That means a bunch of mini TxDOT's out there being able to sell our public highways (freeways) to private companies as toll roads. And, the new “market valuations” in 792 just tightens the noose.
This compromise bill injects “market value” into PUBLIC toll projects, which equals the highest possible tolls! Perfect timing for skyrocketing gas prices.
No wonder why Mr. 39% likes this sham of a bill. And, Perry can claim he signed the toll moratorium bill on the campaign trail when he runs in 2010, to inoculate himself from his dreaded TTC and freeway tolls. And without Amendment #13, this swiss cheese of a toll moratorium bill simply is not worth the trouble - by a long shot.
Citizens who think this a toll moratorium have been sold a bill of goods.
“A further flaw is it allows continuation of current policy, whereby the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) may require up-front “concession fees” in exchange for building some new toll projects. The tolls that pay these concession fees are taxes, not user fees, because concession fees result in tolls over and above the amount required to build and maintain the road. Since the fees are paid back over time from toll revenue, it increases the burden of debt on our children and grandchildren.
In short, concession fees, which are continued by the “market valuation” language in SB 792, allow the government to raise taxes and do off-budget spending in a manner concealed to the public and without proper legislative oversight and authorization.”
So, what should our Representatives do now?
1) Vote down SB 792.
2) Override Mr. 39% with HB 1892 (which will automatically call a special session)
3) We need the Special Session to get the job done right.
None of these will happen because our representatives would rather have a summer vacation than do the states business properly.
So what's the real answer?
1) De-Elect incumbents until they get it right.
Based on the recent Governor's Business Council report, 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, without more toll roads. And this common sense solution costs 30 times less than tolls.
In a response to a Muckraker blog article I published on 5/9/07 (see below), Hillco Partners, one of the most powerful lobby firms in Texas sent a letter to threaten me with a lawsuit.
PRIVATIZING AND TOLLING FREEWAYS IS A COSTLY DEAD END.
Under the guise of traffic congestion relief, the largest taxpayer fleecing in Texas history is now underway.
Elected officials are selling off our assets - our public highways, such as State Highway 121 in Dallas - in a desperate attempt to raise quick cash to build more toll roads.
SH 121 in Dallas is the first freeway in Texas to be sold off. In exchange for a one-time payment, Cintra, a foreign toll road corporation, will charge a toll for the only expressway for miles. Cintra will profit from this monopoly and raise the toll tax rate for 50 years.
Selling our roads today will equal crippling toll rates and more traffic congestion tomorrow. Just ask California.
The first and only other freeway to tollway conversion in the history of the U.S. was California's US 91 deal in the 1990's. A noncompete clause, similar to Cintra's deal for SH 121, kept California from increasing highway capacity on nearby roads. And, after seven years of increased traffic congestion and public unrest, it cost California taxpayers $207.5 million more to buy back US 91. Today, the toll rate on US 91 continues to increase and traffic congestion is worse than ever.
Recently, our legislature has been focused on a two-year moratorium that would temporarily halt private toll road deals like SH 121. The moratorium is now veto proof with over two thirds of both the Texas house and the senate on board. Sadly, the moratorium has been a distraction. The fact is voters were never asked if our freeways should be converted to tollways in the first place.
The real question should be whether we toll freeways or index the gas tax - not whether private companies or our own government should implement a new double tax.
When a freeway is tolled, crucial expressways are not offered as an alternative. In contrast, conventional toll roads in the U.S. are fair, since drivers are offered a freeway as an alternative. With freeway tolls - drivers are forced to drive frontage roads with stoplights and deal with growing traffic congestion if they don't pay the toll. The unfortunate truth is this: there is a financial incentive to NOT address traffic congestion on freeway toll roads since increased traffic congestion provides higher revenues.
The freeway toll cash cow is a severe departure for TxDOT. This should be a major concern of and taxpayer, since TxDOT's focus has always been solving transportation issues - not generating revenue through traffic congestion.
Freeway tolls create monopolies and are the most expensive solution for collecting a tax. According to TxDOT, it costs about 25 cents to collect a cash toll and 11 cents to collect an electronic toll. So, if the toll tax for a short span of road is 50 cents, 50% of the cash paid for that toll goes to collect the toll.
The solution is simple, instead of spending our limited tax dollars (and right of way) intended for free roads on toll roads - index the gas tax to inflation as numerous other states already have. Nearly everything we purchase has an indexed tax - a fair form of taxation.
Assuming your vehicle gets 20 miles per gallon and the increase in indexed gas tax was 10 cents a gallon, you would spend less than .5 cent a mile for an indexed gas tax. Compare that to the 15-cent per mile toll road that would cost 30 times the indexed gas tax per mile. A 20-cent per mile toll would cost 40 times the indexed gas tax, and so on.
Based on the recent Texas Transportation Institute report, 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 without more toll roads. Void of added bureaucracy and new layers of corruption, indexing the gas tax is the simplest and smartest solution.
UPDATE: Rep. Jim Dunnam just now asked a series of questions of Speaker Tom Craddick, making it clear that while Rick Perry is out of state, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is acting governor. Dewhurst could right now fire the Texas Youth Commission Board and place the troubled agency in conservatorship. Gov. Dewhurst?
Legislators vote to fire the Texas Youth Commission Board, despite Rick Perry's continued resistance and refusal to place the troubled agency in conservatorship. The Texas House overwhelming rejects Perry's deal with Merck and his HPV vaccination order.
Lawmakers want a moratorium on the boondoggle-shaped thing called the Trans Texas Corridor. Another Perry "privatization" scam, Accenture, bites the dust after the company fails miserably to get Texas kids the health care they need and deserve. Perry's fast-tracking of environment-destroying coal plants has cratered.
While Perry was refusing to place the TYC in competent hands, it would appear his entire administration is in a kind of conservatorship as the public and the Legislature try to repair the damage from his years in office. No modern governor has approached failures of this magnitude. Roads. Schools. Health care. Public safety. Environment. What is left?
If not yet convicted of moral terpitude, Perry has certainly become moral turpentine, dissolving the social fabric with his administration's lobby-ridden greed, graft and scandal.
It may not be long before the legislative branch realizes that since it is having to run the government, it may be time to get someone new to run the government. Impossible, you say? Probably, but it is no longer an idle question to wonder whether Perry will finish his term. And not because he's become vice president.
Now Perry is on a tour of the Middle East, and one has to wonder whether his passport shouldn't be revoked. If he can do this to Texas, what in hell will happen to that volatile area when Perry arrives?
In 1992, a well known toller, Robert W. Poole, Jr., of the Reason Foundation, stated:
"Congestion pricing-charging a price to use highways that is high at peak hours and low at off-peak times-holds great potential for easing traffic congestion and reducing auto emissions in Southern California."
Today, reality sets in with $8.50 "value priced" toll lanes during rush hour on SR 91 in Southern California (see actual photo of SR 91 during rush hour above). Note the untolled lanes are a dangerous congested nightmare, and even those who pay, must slow down and join the congestion to exit off the highway.
Did the toll roads, managed lanes or value pricing ease traffic congestion?
So when Sen. Kirk Watson, Rep. Mike Krusee, TxDOT or other tollers try to toll roads we've already paid for.
In an effort to deceive the public, slick politico's like Watson say we need "managed lanes". Managed lanes are a marketing term to sell us toll lanes on roads we've already paid for - without using the "T" word!
These comments are from California citizens who have to live with what the politicians sold them, a promise that tolls, managed lanes and value pricing would reduce traffic congestion:
"These lanes were built w/taxpayer money. Should have never been toll road. We are being held hostage by OC and Caltrans. Why aren't our Riverside County reps standing up for us?"
"They are making almost a million dollars every week, and still cannot do anything to relieve the congestion on the 91. Even the yellow "cones" along the FasTrak lanes are old and often times missing. Where is all the money going?"
""Congestion-pricing" is French for fleecing consumers. Oct.'s plan is about making money, not reducing congestion."
"When the Orange County Transportation Authority announced they were going to purchase the toll lanes, they said that the prices were going to drop not go up. Once again, the government lies to get what they want."
"The obscene amount of tax dollars that are TAKEN from us everyday should be more than enough to create and maintain any of these new roads."
"I THINK THIS IS CRAZY. IT KEEPS GOING UP AND UP AND I WILL NO LONGER BE ABLE TO AFFORD THE EXPRESS LANES. MY HUSBAND RECENTLY PASSED AWAY AND MY INCOME IS CUT IN HALF. NOW WITHOUT HIM, I CAN NO LONGER RIDE THE CARPOOL LANES AND MY TRIP TO WORK AND HOME HAS BECOME VERY LONG AND UNBEARABLE ON SOME DAYS."
"They spent a lot of taxpayer's money...they promised reductions in traffic congestion while staying "revenue neutral". About six months later a study showed a drop in traffic of only 0.06 percent, a paltry amount, as compared to an increase in revenue of a whopping 26.0 percent. This kind of double-speak and corruption will continue as long as we, the people, allow it. THROW THE RASCALS OUT!!!"
"Anyone notice all the people who cut into the lanes after the toll plaza. How dangerous is that?"
"Pricing on the 91 Toll Lanes is INSANE! I understand that sometimes it's just as congested as the non-tollroads during rush (hour), but the raise is just too much. I think the price of $8 is too much."
(The past two days at the Capitol can be summed up by two Perry boondoggles- TTC and TYC. Yesterday's TTC protest was huge, and our very own Garnet Coleman did a great job stirring up the crowd. - promoted by Matt Glazer)
You can find links to bills I reference in the video at my website by clicking here.
