"Members of TxDOT continue to play games with State Highway 121."
Stand up for lower tolls
There are viable alternatives to selling out, says Chris Moss
Thursday, April 6, 2006
The Dallas Morning News
Copyright 2006
People sometimes suspect that politicians or government officials are playing games with certain issues, but it isn't often that you find convincing evidence that they are.
State officials are playing games with State Highway 121, and it seems Frisco city leaders have called them on it.
Get familiar with the acronym "CDA," which stands for Comprehensive Development Agreement and relates to building new highways as toll roads. This has become a code word for taxes in the form of tolls that go to Austin. It is "Robin Hood" for highways.
State Highway 121 stretches from downtown Fort Worth, northeast to U.S. Highway 75 in McKinney and beyond and was designed and built as a free highway. It has been primarily a two-lane road for many years, but explosive growth has required expansion to a freeway.
Despite a gasoline tax that all Texans pay of 38.4 cents per gallon, mismanagement of state funds has left the state with insufficient money to build the critical infrastructures that are needed today.
Recently, local officials were advised by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) that funding was still insufficient to build State Highway 121 as a free road, and that the only solution was tolls. Local officials initially balked at this idea, as you might expect, given all the time, land and money that had already been donated to the project – donations that were made based on representations that the road would be a free road.
After working with TxDOT for some time, local officials realized that there would not be sufficient funds available from the state and that the only solution to building the desperately needed expansion would be to make State Highway 121 a toll road.
However, local officials were measured in their acquiescence; they insisted that the tolls for State Highway 121 should be kept low and would only pay for the design and construction of State Highway 121 and its ongoing operation and maintenance expenses. They did not want tolls going to fund other projects.
That's where pushback from TxDOT began.
Enter the concept of the CDA, which is the privatization of a highway. Under a CDA, a private, for-profit company would construct and manage a highway and have exclusive rights to the revenue stream of all tolls collected from the highway it manages.
You see, TxDOT officials see State Highway 121 as a gold mine to solve its financial woes. It is being referred to as the "Golden Corridor." Utilizing a private company to manage the road, it would be free to "charge what the market will bear."
Members of TxDOT continue to play games with State Highway 121. Despite a completely viable alternative plan from the North Texas Tollway Authority, the organization created by the state to manage complicated highway projects like this one, TxDOT wants to accept bids from private companies under CDAs.
In other words, the revenue stream from tolls you and I will pay is for sale to the highest bidder. It would be in the state's and CDA's best interests to charge the highest tolls possible.
What makes this so obvious is not just the words and actions of members of TxDOT's commission, but the fact that the NTTA proposal is public record, while the CDA bids will be sealed. Staff from the city of Frisco, as well as Mayor Mike Simpson, approached TxDOT to try to communicate with officials about the local preferences and participate in the process.
However, TxDOT commission members treated them quite shabbily, and now Frisco has set withdrawn support for the entire plan, and people need to ask their cities to do the same. It seems clear that TxDOT would like to force high tolls upon us, if they can keep our local officials quiet enough. This is the first stand being taken in Texas against this ill-conceived tactic, and we need to make sure our voices are sufficiently loud.
This is where the public comes in. If you want to avoid high taxes, please contact your state representative and senator, as well as your city council members, and let them know you want the NTTA plan to be used. Even better, contact Gov. Rick Perry's office at 800-252-9600 and voice your concern. It's up to us. For more information, please visit www.121-info.com.
Chris Moss is a Frisco resident. His e-mail address is chris@eaglebendlane. com.
© 2006 The Dallas Morning News Co www.dallasnews.com
There are viable alternatives to selling out, says Chris Moss
Thursday, April 6, 2006
The Dallas Morning News
Copyright 2006
People sometimes suspect that politicians or government officials are playing games with certain issues, but it isn't often that you find convincing evidence that they are.
State officials are playing games with State Highway 121, and it seems Frisco city leaders have called them on it.
Get familiar with the acronym "CDA," which stands for Comprehensive Development Agreement and relates to building new highways as toll roads. This has become a code word for taxes in the form of tolls that go to Austin. It is "Robin Hood" for highways.
State Highway 121 stretches from downtown Fort Worth, northeast to U.S. Highway 75 in McKinney and beyond and was designed and built as a free highway. It has been primarily a two-lane road for many years, but explosive growth has required expansion to a freeway.
Despite a gasoline tax that all Texans pay of 38.4 cents per gallon, mismanagement of state funds has left the state with insufficient money to build the critical infrastructures that are needed today.
Recently, local officials were advised by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) that funding was still insufficient to build State Highway 121 as a free road, and that the only solution was tolls. Local officials initially balked at this idea, as you might expect, given all the time, land and money that had already been donated to the project – donations that were made based on representations that the road would be a free road.
After working with TxDOT for some time, local officials realized that there would not be sufficient funds available from the state and that the only solution to building the desperately needed expansion would be to make State Highway 121 a toll road.
However, local officials were measured in their acquiescence; they insisted that the tolls for State Highway 121 should be kept low and would only pay for the design and construction of State Highway 121 and its ongoing operation and maintenance expenses. They did not want tolls going to fund other projects.
That's where pushback from TxDOT began.
Enter the concept of the CDA, which is the privatization of a highway. Under a CDA, a private, for-profit company would construct and manage a highway and have exclusive rights to the revenue stream of all tolls collected from the highway it manages.
You see, TxDOT officials see State Highway 121 as a gold mine to solve its financial woes. It is being referred to as the "Golden Corridor." Utilizing a private company to manage the road, it would be free to "charge what the market will bear."
Members of TxDOT continue to play games with State Highway 121. Despite a completely viable alternative plan from the North Texas Tollway Authority, the organization created by the state to manage complicated highway projects like this one, TxDOT wants to accept bids from private companies under CDAs.
In other words, the revenue stream from tolls you and I will pay is for sale to the highest bidder. It would be in the state's and CDA's best interests to charge the highest tolls possible.
What makes this so obvious is not just the words and actions of members of TxDOT's commission, but the fact that the NTTA proposal is public record, while the CDA bids will be sealed. Staff from the city of Frisco, as well as Mayor Mike Simpson, approached TxDOT to try to communicate with officials about the local preferences and participate in the process.
However, TxDOT commission members treated them quite shabbily, and now Frisco has set withdrawn support for the entire plan, and people need to ask their cities to do the same. It seems clear that TxDOT would like to force high tolls upon us, if they can keep our local officials quiet enough. This is the first stand being taken in Texas against this ill-conceived tactic, and we need to make sure our voices are sufficiently loud.
This is where the public comes in. If you want to avoid high taxes, please contact your state representative and senator, as well as your city council members, and let them know you want the NTTA plan to be used. Even better, contact Gov. Rick Perry's office at 800-252-9600 and voice your concern. It's up to us. For more information, please visit www.121-info.com.
Chris Moss is a Frisco resident. His e-mail address is chris@eaglebendlane. com.
© 2006 The Dallas Morning News Co
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Thursday, April 06, 2006
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