Krusee says an election is not legal.
Travis officials call for toll road vote
Law, however, may not allow nonbinding referendum by county.
April 01, 2006
By Ben Wear
Austin American-Statesman
Copyright 2006
The public should vote on toll roads, Travis County Judge Sam Biscoe and Commissioner Gerald Daugherty said Friday. They may not be able to, however.
Biscoe and Daugherty put an item on Tuesday's Commissioners Court agenda to call a nonbinding referendum in November "on the tolling of new lanes added to existing state roads in Travis County."
Specifically, they're referring to four proposed and ongoing projects that are part of a toll road plan approved by local leaders in July 2004.
That plan, which at the time included seven road projects, was approved 16-7 by the board of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization. Biscoe voted for it, Daugherty against.
When the plan was later shaved to five roads, one of them a completely new highway in southwestern Travis County, Biscoe and Daugherty both said yes. Both said Friday that they stand by that later vote and that putting tolls on those improvements will be good for the area by generating money for other transportation projects.
But Biscoe and Daugherty both said that in their dealings with the public, they find people invariably don't understand the toll plan and don't like it.
So, Daugherty said, what needs to happen is an election campaign, which no doubt would generate a high-dollar campaign from toll advocates, with return fire from toll opponents. Then, presumably better educated, the public could have its say.
"Maybe those rabid 20, 30, 50 people who continue to be in our faces, maybe they aren't the barometer," Daugherty said. "I really want to get a true reading on where people are."
The law might not make that possible.
After toll road supporters found out this week about Biscoe's and Daugherty's plans, they unearthed a series of Texas attorney general opinions saying county governments can't hold nonbinding referenda. Counties are a subdivision of state government, and the general theory is that they can do only what the Legislature specifically says they can do.
On the other hand, an elected body such as the Travis County Commissioners Court can do whatever it wants as long as a judge or jury doesn't stop it.
The Houston Metro board, for instance, in 1988 decided to query voters on a $1 billion plan through a nonbinding referendum despite advice that the law wouldn't allow it. No one sued, and the election went forward.
In this case, given the momentum and money behind the toll road plan, finding a motivated plaintiff to try to stop a referendum might not be that hard.
Biscoe said that state Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Williamson County, the moving force on the CAMPO board behind the toll road plan, had visited him Friday and made it clear that such an election is not legal.
Krusee could not be reached for comment Friday.
"We don't want to do anything illegal," Biscoe said. "But there are other ways to let voters tell you what they're thinking."
Such as?
"Well, you don't show all your cards up front," Biscoe said.
The problem, Biscoe and Daugherty said, is that after two years of news stories, scores of public meetings and a fair amount of money spent on public relations, most people still think the plan involves just slapping toll booths on existing roads.
Actually, it mostly involves taking existing four-lane roads with stoplights such as Ed Bluestein Boulevard and replacing them with express lanes that would have tolls and four- or six-lane frontage roads alongside that would be free.
But it's complicated by the fact that in two cases, the north part of Ed Bluestein and Texas 71 east of Interstate 35, those changes are already under way and are funded exclusively with gasoline tax dollars.
Toll opponents consider that double taxation.
"You could never put this on a ballot and make sense of it," said Mike Heiligenstein, executive director of the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority.
The authority, which is building another turnpike not part of this plan, would eventually own and operate the five new toll roads.
"How could you explain it so people really knew what they're voting on? We've gone through all the phases, and at every juncture, it's been approved," Heiligenstein said. "My perspective is that we're moving forward."
bwear@statesman.com; 445-3698
© 2006 Austin American-Statesman: www.statesman.com
Law, however, may not allow nonbinding referendum by county.
April 01, 2006
By Ben Wear
Austin American-Statesman
Copyright 2006
The public should vote on toll roads, Travis County Judge Sam Biscoe and Commissioner Gerald Daugherty said Friday. They may not be able to, however.
Biscoe and Daugherty put an item on Tuesday's Commissioners Court agenda to call a nonbinding referendum in November "on the tolling of new lanes added to existing state roads in Travis County."
Specifically, they're referring to four proposed and ongoing projects that are part of a toll road plan approved by local leaders in July 2004.
That plan, which at the time included seven road projects, was approved 16-7 by the board of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization. Biscoe voted for it, Daugherty against.
When the plan was later shaved to five roads, one of them a completely new highway in southwestern Travis County, Biscoe and Daugherty both said yes. Both said Friday that they stand by that later vote and that putting tolls on those improvements will be good for the area by generating money for other transportation projects.
But Biscoe and Daugherty both said that in their dealings with the public, they find people invariably don't understand the toll plan and don't like it.
So, Daugherty said, what needs to happen is an election campaign, which no doubt would generate a high-dollar campaign from toll advocates, with return fire from toll opponents. Then, presumably better educated, the public could have its say.
"Maybe those rabid 20, 30, 50 people who continue to be in our faces, maybe they aren't the barometer," Daugherty said. "I really want to get a true reading on where people are."
The law might not make that possible.
After toll road supporters found out this week about Biscoe's and Daugherty's plans, they unearthed a series of Texas attorney general opinions saying county governments can't hold nonbinding referenda. Counties are a subdivision of state government, and the general theory is that they can do only what the Legislature specifically says they can do.
On the other hand, an elected body such as the Travis County Commissioners Court can do whatever it wants as long as a judge or jury doesn't stop it.
The Houston Metro board, for instance, in 1988 decided to query voters on a $1 billion plan through a nonbinding referendum despite advice that the law wouldn't allow it. No one sued, and the election went forward.
In this case, given the momentum and money behind the toll road plan, finding a motivated plaintiff to try to stop a referendum might not be that hard.
Biscoe said that state Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Williamson County, the moving force on the CAMPO board behind the toll road plan, had visited him Friday and made it clear that such an election is not legal.
Krusee could not be reached for comment Friday.
"We don't want to do anything illegal," Biscoe said. "But there are other ways to let voters tell you what they're thinking."
Such as?
"Well, you don't show all your cards up front," Biscoe said.
The problem, Biscoe and Daugherty said, is that after two years of news stories, scores of public meetings and a fair amount of money spent on public relations, most people still think the plan involves just slapping toll booths on existing roads.
Actually, it mostly involves taking existing four-lane roads with stoplights such as Ed Bluestein Boulevard and replacing them with express lanes that would have tolls and four- or six-lane frontage roads alongside that would be free.
But it's complicated by the fact that in two cases, the north part of Ed Bluestein and Texas 71 east of Interstate 35, those changes are already under way and are funded exclusively with gasoline tax dollars.
Toll opponents consider that double taxation.
"You could never put this on a ballot and make sense of it," said Mike Heiligenstein, executive director of the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority.
The authority, which is building another turnpike not part of this plan, would eventually own and operate the five new toll roads.
"How could you explain it so people really knew what they're voting on? We've gone through all the phases, and at every juncture, it's been approved," Heiligenstein said. "My perspective is that we're moving forward."
bwear@statesman.com; 445-3698
© 2006 Austin American-Statesman:
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Saturday, April 01, 2006
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