TxDOT assurances about TTC-69: "Lip service to get people off their backs."

Trans-Texas Corridor:

Stick to existing routes, Victoria residents tell TxDOT

April 1, 2006

GREG BOWEN
Victoria Advocate
Copyright 2006

The message Victoria-area residents had for state highway officials Friday was this: If you build the Trans-Texas Corridor/I-69 through this area, make sure the new roadway follows the route of existing highways.

"They're not making any more wildlands or pasture lands," said Victoria County rancher Bob McCan, to applause.

An estimated 100 attended the meeting at the Victoria County Archives Building to bring together Texas Department of Transportation officials with citizens from Victoria, Jackson and Goliad counties for discussions on the proposed new superhighway.

City Council Member Bill Russell said the Victoria City Council is unanimous on the question of using roadways already in place.

"We would prefer expansion of the existing (highway) routes," Russell said.

Jackson County Commissioner Larry Deyton was another who endorsed the idea of sticking to the current highway routes.

He said TxDOT should stay along Highway 59 "to avoid taking citizens' lands."

Victoria businessman Milton Greeson encouraged TxDOT officials to overlay the new roadway on existing routes "to avoid further land fragmentation and detrimental impacts to our natural resources."

Texas Transportation Commissioner John Johnson said he believed the proposed new transportation corridor would indeed stick to existing routes - because doing so would cut the cost of development.

"I have a high sense of confidence that a lot of this corridor will go over existing developed (highway) facilities," Johnson said.

The possible routes for the new corridor are still being studied. It will take at least another five years to pick the final routes and begin land acquisitions, highway officials said.

Maps distributed at Friday's meeting showed proposed routes for the corridor following U.S. 59, as well as U.S. 77 south of Victoria.

But the maps also showed gray swaths running parallel to 59 and 77 that are also being considered as possible routes for the corridor.

It was those proposed routes that residents spoke out against.

"It's giving us all a lot of angst to see maps with routes moving off existing (highway) corridors," rancher McCan said.

A woman in the crowd called out: "I'm going to lose my home if this (corridor) goes where the gray area is."

Charles Clapsaddle, a Goliad County landowner whose property lies in the middle of a proposed possible corridor route off Highway 59, said he was "skeptical" about TxDot's assurances that existing highway routes are being considered as paths for the new corridor.

"It's lip service to get people off their backs," Clapsaddle said.

The Trans-Texas Corridor is a proposed multi-use, statewide network of transportation routes that will include highways, railways and utility rights of way.

It is proposed to be combined in the Victoria area with a leg of I-69, a proposed trade route between Mexico and Canada.

• Greg Bowen is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact him at 361-580-6519 or gbowen@vicad.com, or comment on this story at www.VictoriaAdvocate.com.

© 2006 The Victoria Advocate: www.thevictoriaadvocate.com

Perry and Williamson "seem to think that they can acquire as much land as they want to make the Trans-Texas Corridor as wide as they want."

Editorials:

Plan to relieve I-35 congestion does make sense

April 1, 2006

The Victoria Advocate
Copyright 2006

As noted before in this space, the Victoria Advocate has serious reservations about Gov. Rick Perry's Trans-Texas Corridor.

But one part of the proposal, as The Associated Press describes it, "to build 4,000-plus miles of tollways and railways that would incorporate oil and gas pipelines, utility and water lines, and even broadband data" does make considerable sense.

The state's main north-south thoroughfare, running from the Red River north of Gainesville to Laredo on the Rio Grande, is already badly congested. And because it runs through the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, Austin and San Antonio, Interstate 35 can only become more crowded.

Over the past few decades, expanding and upgrading portions of the highway has become a perpetual employment machine for contractors, but they can never fully catch up.

So building an alternate, parallel roadway to I-35, bypassing major metropolitan areas, could relieve congestion, particularly through those large cities. Anyone who commutes to and from work on the interstate running through central Austin, for example, knows just how useful that would be.

A 600-mile toll road roughly paralleling I-35 would be the first stage of the Trans-Texas Corridor. The Texas Transportation Commission in late 2004 contracted with Cintra Zachry, a hybrid Spanish-Texas company, to build and operate the first 300-plus miles of that, from the DFW metroplex to San Antonio.

Now Cintra Zachry proposes building a new high-speed freight rail line in that same corridor. The Transportation Commission proposes that the project also have high-speed passenger rail capability.

"The proposed rail line, which likely would be double-tracked and designed for double- and triple-stacked containers going 70 mph, could cost up to $6 billion to build," Hearst Newspapers reported.

And "without a doubt, there will be a passenger line," Transportation Commission Ric Williamson predicted. "You have to do it in conjunction with other assets."

According to a letter from the company to state transportation officials, Cintra Zachry would use private funding to build new rail lines and recoup the cost from user fees. If the commission moves forward with this railway component of the corridor, other proposals will have to be solicited for it, so Cintra Zachry could face competition.

While the state could not force railroads to use the new tracks, Williamson believes "common sense dictates that if Cintra Zachry builds high-speed freight rail, the railroads will be negotiating with them to get their freight onto that line." The freight trains on those tracks could travel as fast as 70 mph.

Being able to move goods more quickly indeed should be an important incentive for railroads to consider using the new tracks. Bypassing cities - with congested rail lines and at-grade crossings - would offer an additional incentive.

As Cintra Zachry proposes it, the tracks through their entire length would pass "under or over any roads in the way," the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

"There would be no at-grade crossings. None," said Ted Houghton, a Texas Transportation Commission member.

That would be a major safety advantage not just for the railroads, but also for drivers crossing the railway.

As important as those benefits would be, an even bigger one is that the rail project - even without the alternate, parallel roadway - would significantly relieve I-35 congestion.

Commission and company officials estimate that the proposed railway could reduce I-35 traffic by about 2,500 trucks each day - as many as 1 million a year - by providing a quicker and safer way to ship goods within and through Texas.

While we continue to question the need for such a large program as Perry and the Transportation Commission envision the Trans-Texas Corridor becoming and the need for new toll roads, we nonetheless do see real advantages from the portion of it that would relieve congestion and improve safety along I-35.

This railway component of it certainly merits further study - including the required environmental impact assessment. And the Transportation Commission needs to begin discussions with the railroads operating in the vicinity of I-35. Inexplicably, that does not appear to have happened yet.

Finally, the commission and Cintra Zachry have to figure out how to build this project using the least amount of land possible. Perry and the commission seem to think that they can acquire as much land as they want to make the Trans-Texas Corridor as wide as they want. That odd notion could doom even sensible, needed components of the corridor.


© 2006 The Victoria Advocate: www.thevictoriaadvocate.com

"How many other ways can we say no?"

Most at meetings down on toll roads

4/01/2006

Patrick Driscoll
Sn Antonio Express-News
Copyright 2006

If it were up to people willing to voice their opinions at public meetings, toll lanes would never get built on U.S. 281.

Dozens of speakers unloaded their grievances about the toll-road plan to raucous applause from hundreds of residents at two meetings this week.

If the Texas Department of Transportation wants to widen U.S. 281 from Loop 1604 to Comal County, they can cancel projects in other parts of the city to come up with the money, two out of three people said in a questionnaire sent back to TxDOT this month.

"How many other ways can we say no?" said real estate agent Nancy Strack, who spoke at Thursday's public meeting at Bush Middle School. "Are you listening to us?"

About 550 people attended the meetings at two North Side schools, and a majority of more than 50 speakers lashed out at TxDOT's proposal to rebuild U.S. 281 into a tolled expressway with free frontage roads.

Critics who stepped to the microphone Thursday outnumbered toll advocates 3 to 1, and many were hot.

"I'm outraged, absolutely incensed by TxDOT's refusal to admit that there are other options other than toll roads," Mike Gravett said. "It's absolutely appalling."

Proponents, who also got some applause — though much lighter — argued that tolls are the best way to speed up needed highway projects.

"I've wasted enough of my life," John Houston said. "I'm an expert at sitting in traffic. I'm tired of it. Enough is enough. We need to do something about this."

Many opponents said TxDOT should have built five overpasses at intersections on U.S. 281 as planned several years ago. The agency has $84 million in gas tax funds to build four overpasses and three miles of express lanes and frontage roads.

By tolling the express lanes, officials said they could get additional money decades sooner to help pay for three more overpasses, four more miles of toll express lanes, toll ramps at the Loop 1604 interchange and new toll lanes for Loop 1604.

"We can fix any one problem but we can't fix all the problems without doing something different," said David Casteel, TxDOT's head engineer in San Antonio.

Most critics and advocates agree there is a traffic problem on U.S. 281.

About 91,000 cars a day traveled the highway just north of Loop 1604 in 2004, up from 8,600 in 1980, according to TxDOT. Nine people were killed and more than 700 injured in crashes on a seven-mile stretch from 1998 to 2001.

Three out of four people say the highway should be expanded, indicates a TxDOT questionnaire given to neighborhood groups, businesses and government officials with a stake in the project.

If more money is needed to widen U.S. 281, then other projects should be canceled, 65 percent of the 97 respondents said.

And forget about raising taxes or waiting up to 25 years to get the work done, 71 percent said.

"No one thinks the do-nothing solution is acceptable," said Clay Smith, TxDOT's planning engineer in San Antonio. "Everybody said do something."

Work on the first three miles of U.S. 281 was scheduled to begin in January, but federal officials pulled their environmental clearances after a lawsuit was filed that says impacts hadn't been studied enough.

Now state officials are redoing their environmental evaluations, which could last two to seven years and cost up to $2.8 million. Work will be pushed back two to 11 years, finishing between 2010 and 2019, and inflation might run the project cost up 5 percent a year.

pdriscoll@express-news.net

© 2006 San Antonio Express-News: www.mysanantonio.com

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

Austin Mayor's boorish behavior needs modification

Is Austin Mayor Using Spin to Cover-up Assault On Citizen?

3-31-06

David M. Bresnahan
Texas Insider
Copyright 2006

Austin, Tex. -- Luke A. Johnson, 26, did not go quietly when Austin Mayor Will Wynn physically removed him from a courtyard, but his complaint that Wynn choked him was disregarded by police.

Apparently the police were using selective enforcement of the law, which states: "A person commits an offense if the person intentionally or knowingly causes physical contact with another when the person knows or should reasonably believe that the other will regard the contact as offensive or provocative." [Texas Penal Code, Title 5, Chapter 22, Assaultive Offenses § 22.01(3)]

Johnson went to an area hospital for examination where he claims he obtained evidence that Wynn injured his neck. Johnson filed an Austin Police Department report against the Wynn for "Assault by Contact." The police have taken no action.

Instead of finding ways to protect citizens from aggressive politicians, the City of Austin is now looking into the possibility of providing Wynn with police protection when he is away from City Hall, according to a news report on KVUE.

Wynn, 44, who is divorced and seeking re-election in May to a second term, had been invited by neighbors to attend the party. Johnson was also a guest, and was reportedly making jokes about Wynn's name.

Wynn has been unpopular because of his vote to place a toll on existing roads in Texas.

"Mayor Wynn does not care that 93 percent of the public feedback opposed tolling our freeways," commented Sal Costello of People for Efficient Transportation. "He's a hot-head who roughed up an out-of-state visitor for poking fun at him at a party where there was drinking going on. Austin needs a mayor who can keep his cool, control his temper, and vote to represent the will of the people."

The mayor did admit his abuse of Johnson, but tried to portray himself as a victim when he issued an apology:

"Unfortunately, I let the situation upset me, and after the man refused my requests to leave me alone, I physically escorted him from the property. I apologize for any embarrassment my actions may have caused anyone involved."

Wynn's Chief of Staff added further spin to the story by trying to make it sound as if Johnson was ejected from Wynn's home. The incident actually took place in a public courtyard that was part of the complex where Wynn has his home. The event was a public party and both Wynn and Johnson were invited guests.

"Asked a series of questions about his name... and was he really the mayor of Austin. The mayor really didn't like the conversation was going and asked him to leave him alone several times, but the man did not leave him alone so the mayor escorted him from his residence," said Richard Arellano, Chief of Staff according to published reports.

Costello said the people of Austin are not fooled by the tactics of the mayor and his staff to down-play the seriousness of the incident.

"Wynn does not need police protection. If the police were there they would have stopped Wynn from assaulting a member of the public who was teasing the mayor about his name. The mayor should be used to it by now. It happens all the time. The people have been taxed once already to pay for our roads, and Wynn wants to charge them a toll to travel roads they already paid for.

"Perhaps Mayor ‘Double Tax' Wynn thinks he is above the law. We need the police protection from him, not the other way around," said Costello.


© 2006 Texas Insider. www.texasinsider.org

Toll revenue makes local leaders salivate

Private firm will likely build SH 121

March 31, 2006

By Amy Morenz
Plano Star-Courier
Copyright 2006

A private company willing to pay upfront construction costs will probably be selected to build State Highway 121 toll lanes, Collin County Commissioner Jack Hatchell said on Thursday.

He made the statement based on Thursday’s Regional Transportation Council workshop. Plano City Councilman Scott Johnson, who also attended the meeting, agreed with Hatchell’s assessment.

The RTC, which distributes federal highway funds, delayed a decision in February and is not expected to reach a verdict until April 13.

A private company could generate $575 million in toll revenue, compared to the North Texas Tollway Authority’s $515 million over a 50-year period, TxDOT engineer Bill Hale told RTC members last month.

Since then, North Central Texas Council of Government transportation director Mike Morris suggested a 14.5-cent-per-mile toll. The suggested rate is based on prices set by other toll authorities.

The NTTA estimates its cost would be 12.6 cents a mile in 2010. RTC members are not expected to reach a rate decision until they analyze inflation estimates and public surveys, Hatchell said.

“The private company is preferred by more of the members because of the upfront payment potential,” Johnson said. “The North Texas Tollway Authority cannot produce that much of an upfront payment.”

Planners are considering using tolls to pay for main-lane construction and interchanges at the Dallas North Tollway and at North Central Expressway. The cost is estimated to be $345 million.

Collin County has fought hard for its preferred solution of having the NTTA, which controls the Dallas North Tollway and President George Bush Turnpike, build and manage SH 121 main lanes. The prospective project would link to two of the NTTA’s two major corridors.

In the newest plan, toll revenues could be distributed to drivers’ home cities, said Johnson.

“That’s a very new concept that we have conceptually agreed to,” Johnson said. “This bridges the great divide of money for the area that is immediately affected. It would help meld things.”

In earlier RTC meetings, Collin County faced intense questioning when it recommended keeping SH 121 tolls within the county’s borders. Thursday’s meeting was more cordial, as panel members gained a better understanding of options being explored, Johnson said.

The NTTA could be selected to manage a toll road built by a private company, Johnson said.

Contact staff writer Amy Morenz at 972-398-4263 or amy.morenz@sctnx.com.

© 2006 Star Community Newspapers www.courier-gazette.com

"It's a different sort of animal when you consider a CDA"

SH 121 tolls could be higher than others

Commission will discuss prospective rates again today

March 30, 2006

By Amy Morenz
Plano Star Courier
Copyright 2006

Drivers could spend as 1.9 cents more per mile to use State Highway 121?s prospective toll lanes in 2010 than users of other North Texas Tollway Authority toll roads might pay down the road.

A rate of 14.5 cents per mile was suggested at a workshop last week by North Central Texas Council of Government transportation director Mike Morris, said Collin County Commissioner Jack Hatchell.

No one is sure what the final rate decision will be, said Hatchell.

"We want a reasonable rate, comparable to NTTA rates, to save taxpayers some money," he said. "Our main thing is to get it built in five years."

Setting prospective toll rates will be one question Regional Transportation Council members will consider again today. Members will also discuss the challenging issue of who will build State Highway 121 main lanes and interchanges.

One rate proposal introduced at a workshop last suggested a higher toll rate that could average 1 cent to 5 cents per mile more than the NTTA's proposed 12.6 cents a mile in 2001. Additional rates could be set for peak times.

The RTC is also expected to weigh allowing the NTTA to bid along with private companies that are working through Comprehensive Development Agreements. The RTC, which distributes federal highway funds, delayed a decision in February and is not expected to reach a verdict until April 13.

Forty business leaders told McKinney leaders last week that they just want the road built, said McKinney Mayor Bill Whitfield.

"I'm just praying that there's an end to this that everyone will be satisfied with," he said. "If the bids were equal and the NTTA got the bid, everyone would be happy. Some people say they don't want foreign investors, but we are part of a global economy.

Critics question selecting private companies because some are owned by foreign companies. Bidders include Skansa BOT, Macquarie Infrastructure Group, Texas Toll & Power, Cintra from Madrid, Spain and team of Pioneer Heritage Partners, Transurban Inc. Fluor Enterprises and Parsons Transportation Group.

"It's a different sort of animal when you consider a CDA (private company) that proposes a cash option upfront," said Collin County engineer Ruben Delgado, who participates in an RTC technical committee.

Planners are considering using tolls to pay for main-lane construction and building the interchanges at SH 121 and the Dallas North Tollway and at North Central Expressway. The cost is estimated to be $345 million.

A private company could generate $575 million compared to $515 million over a 50 year period, TxDOT engineer Bill Hale told RTC members last month.

"We are still interested in building and operating the Collin County section of SH 121," said NTTA spokeswoman Donna Huerta.

Collin County initially supported created a local authority to build and manage the toll road, but now supports the NTTA to handle those tasks.

Transportation experts have worked that SH 121 is at a crossroads as it continues to become more congested.

Contact staff writer Amy Morenz at 972-398-4263 or amy.morenz@scntx.com.

© 2006 Star Community Newspapers www.courier-gazette.com

"Why are we letting a company from Spain build this road for us and have control for 50 years?"

Foreign bid on Dallas to Mexico rail line

March 30, 2006

By: Jennifer Bordelon

News 8 Austin
Copyright 2006

Louis Repa has been farming his land near Granger for almost 50 years. Ten years ago he dodged a proposed light rail line that was to run right through the middle of his corn field.

Now, the Trans-Texas Corridor threatens to do the same.

"If it goes through this piece of property and I have 20 acres on this side and then have another 20 acres on this other side. It's going to be hard to get over here to this other plot that's going to be left. It's just going to make a big shuffle in the farming community. It's not going to be as easy for us to get our grain to town. It's going to be a big mess," Repa said.

On Wednesday the Texas Transportation Commission announced it received a proposal from Cintra-Zachary to build an extended railway from Dallas-Fort Worth to Mexico, a 600-mile line worth $5 billion to $6 billion. The line would be a part of the Trans Texas Corridor.

"The proposal suggests all intersecting roads will go above or below the new railroad," Ted Houghton of the Texas Transportation Commission said.

The company would open the line to any freight rail company interested in paying to use it, the TTC says.

There are several details to be worked out and in the end, another competitor could come in and win the bid.

The project could remove more than 10,000 tractor-trailers from Interstate 35 every day, the TTC says. The new rail line could improve traffic safety and air quality, supporters said.

But if all goes through it would still be a while before any construction would be seen.

"The Texas corridor, 35, the road bid, the whole process took over two years. This would probably take about that long, maybe a little less," Transportation Commissioner Rick Williamson said.

A statement from independent gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn's campaign said it's just a secret agreement for land grabs by foreign companies.

"Our roads, our railways, our bridges, our seaports, our airports and our border crossings are vital to our economy and prime targets for terrorists ... Why take the chance and let a private or public foreign operation control vital Texas infrastructure and property?" the statement said.

Two other of Gov. Rick Perry's political opponents, Democrat Chris Bell and independent Kinky Friedman, have criticized the toll road plan.

Cintra-Zachary is the Spanish and American partnership already working on the first section of toll road for cars and trucks.

"What we don't understand is why are we letting a company from Spain build this road for us and probably have control over this road for probably 50 years?" he said.

Now, Repa said, in addition to praying for rain so he has a good crop, the 61-year-old farmer also prays for his land's safety.

"We build up our value. It's basically in our land that over the years we have acquired. And when you start losing that back to something like this and you don't get a fair market value for it, that's what hurts us in our retirement plan," Repa said.

If toll roads or freight lines plow straight through his future, Repa said, he plans for retirement will be gone.

©2006TWEAN News Channel of Austin, L.P. d.b.a. News 8 Austin www.news8austin.com

"They've taken our voice through these surveys ... yet on they march."

TXDOT Survey: 65 Percent Say No To Tolls

March 30, 2006

KSAT 12
San Antonio
Copyright 2006

SAN ANTONIO -- A study conducted for the Texas Department of Transportation revealed that 65 percent of residents in Bexar County oppose toll roads.

The results of the questionnaire were released at a public meeting Wednesday night.

The research also concluded that residents are concerned about the environmental impact toll road construction would have on the Edwards Aquifer and air quality.

Despite the findings, proponents said that toll roads are the best way to control increasing traffic congestion on Highway 281 north of Loop 1604.

"Toll roads are just one tool in the tool chest for TxDOT," said Terrell McCombs, of the San Antonio Mobility Coalition. "But it's the quickest and most effective tool to get it done fast."

Terri Hall, founder and director of San Antonio Toll Party, said the survey won't stop TxDOT from moving forward with construction.

"They've taken our voice through these surveys ... but yet on they march," Hall said.

The project is currently on hold because of a lawsuit demanding more environmental studies.

© 2006by KSAT.com: www.ksat.com

"The decisions are being made for us by unelected bureaucrats."

Chamber crowd hears tolls' pros and cons

03/30/2006

Amy Dorsett
San Antonio Express-News
Copyright 2006

Some 200 people shelled out $40 for a catered lunch of sandwiches and pasta salad at a downtown hotel ballroom Wednesday to hear a debate on the merits of toll roads.

Although nothing new about current toll proposals emerged in the debate, sponsored by the South San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, the discussion apparently accomplished its main goal.

"It informs people," said Helotes resident Diane Skillrud. "It gets people to think about it."

Skillrud said she hasn't made up her mind about tolls, but believes the U.S. 281 toll project would have an impact on the entire region.

Arguing for tolls were former Mayor Bill Thornton, chairman of the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority; and Joe Krier, president and CEO of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.

They said that assessing tolls on drivers who actually use the roads is more fair than imposing more taxes on everyone, and that traffic congestion relief would come quicker than relying on more traditional ways of highway funding.

"San Antonio has congestion problems and it's worsening every day," Thornton said. "Tolls are paid only by those who choose to drive on toll roads."

Arguing against tolls were Terri Hall, founder and director of San Antonio Toll Party, and Bill Barker, a local travel consultant.

They argued that San Antonio already has a dedicated sales tax supporting road projects, and that toll road rates are being grossly underestimated by toll proponents.

"Building more highways doesn't always result in less congestion and shorter commute times," Barker said.

The Texas Department of Transportation has proposed more than seven miles of toll lanes along U.S. 281, from Loop 1604 to Comal County. Work on the first three miles was supposed to start in January but was halted by a lawsuit filed by Aquifer Guardians in Urban Areas and People for Efficient Transportation.

The project will be delayed for at least a year while additional environmental studies are conducted.

Hall said the decision for toll road should be made at the polls.

"The decisions are being made for us by unelected bureaucrats," she said. "This should be in the hand of voters."

But Krier said the public can easily have its say on the issue.

"The nice thing about tolls is you get to vote for them everyday, anytime you want to use them," he said. "And we have elected officials who are held accountable."

The South San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, which hosted "Toll Roads: The Great Debate" at the Marriott Plaza hotel, has not decided whether or not to endorse toll roads.

"We've had questions from our membership and we wanted to have an informative luncheon to let folks know what is happening," said spokeswoman Suzann Haces. "It's good to know what's going on."

adorsett@express-news.net

© 2006 San Antonio Express-News: www.mysanantonio.com

Stall: Monopoly will use public funds for the corridor while driving up the cost of transportation.

Trans-Texas railway from Dallas to Mexico ready for development

3/30/06

By Anna Ravensbergen
The Daily Texan
Copyright 2006

A 600-mile, high-speed freight rail track running from Dallas-Fort Worth to the Mexico border is ready for development. Cintra-Zachry, a Spanish-American partnership, has offered to spend more than $5 billion to build the track, said Texas Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson Wednesday.

This will be the most extensive addition to the Texas railway system since the early 1900s and should eliminate the need for about 2,500 trucks per day on Interstate Highway 35. Other benefits included a passenger line, safer transport of hazardous materials and improved air quality, according to a department press release.

"The transportation system in our state is in crisis, and we have a plan to solve that crisis," Williamson said.

The track is part of Gov. Rick Perry's 2002 Trans-Texas Corridor plan, a 4,000-mile transportation network that will cost an estimated $175 billion over 50 years. The project will incorporate existing and new highways, railways and utility right-of-ways, according to the plan's Web site.

According to Randall Dillard, spokesman for TxDOT, the Texas population will grow 64 percent during the next 25 years, so there needs to be a road alternative to I-35.

"We want to offer new ways of transportation," he said. "We are excited that a private-sector partner is onboard with us now."

David Stall, co-founder of the opposition group CorridorWatch, said he thinks the corridor is designed to generate revenue first and provide transportation second. He said he disagrees with the state's decision to hire a private company for the rail line's construction and is afraid of a monopoly that will use public funds for the corridor while driving up the cost of transportation.

Williamson said a passenger line can be affordable.

"Without a doubt, there will be a passenger line," he said. "You have to do it in conjunction with other assets."

Designers envision a corridor with a utility zone that will accommodate water, electricity, natural gas, petroleum and telecommunications lines, according to the plan's Web site.

While Stall said the possibility of a passenger line is an interesting element in the corridor plan, he added that since Texas is not a dense, urban district, the line is not appropriate.

It is not yet known on which specific route the railroad will be built. According to Williamson, the road will be built where it will impact community functions the lowest. Environmental issues will be studied around a 10-mile area for two or three years before construction can start.

© 2006 The Daily Texan www.dailytexanonline.com

Tarrant County freeways will have toll lanes

Private sector to get shot at road projects

March 30, 2006

By GORDON DICKSON
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Copyright 2006

The future of proposed car-pool and toll lanes on Tarrant County freeways is now in the hands of private enterprise.

The Texas Transportation Commission formally agreed Thursday to seek bids from the private sector to manage the expansion of Interstate 35W, Northeast Loop 820, Texas 183 and the Texas 114/121 Grapevine funnel. Those projects would feature median express lanes that single-occupant vehicles could use for a toll and car-poolers could use for free, or a reduced rate.

The toll would depend upon time of day.

Several teams of companies are expected to submit bids. The commission is expected to pick a winner by June 2007, and the projects could be under way by late 2007 or early 2008.

The winning bidder would also supervise nontoll lane construction on those roadways. The main lanes of the Grapevine funnel are expected to be rebuilt from 2007 to 2012. The schedule for the widening of I-35W, Northeast Loop 820 and Texas 183 hasn’t been determined.

While the commission was meeting Thursday in Austin, Metroplex leaders gathered in Arlington to negotiate how high they’re willing for tolls to be set.

Gordon Dickson, (817) 685-3816
gdickson@star-telegram.com

© 2006 Fort Worth Star-Telegram: www.dfw.com

"This is really about moving Chinese goods into the U.S. from Mexican ports.”

Corridor rail line proposed

March 30, 2006

Staff and Wire Reports
Temple Daily Telegram
Copyright 2006

AUSTIN - The developer of the first phase of the Trans Texas Corridor super highway toll system says Texas needs an addition: 600 miles of new rail line from Dallas-Fort Worth to Mexico for freight trains.

That’s the proposal from Cintra-Zachry, the Spanish and American partnership already working on the first section of toll road for cars and trucks, announced by state transportation officials Wednesday.

The Trans Texas Corridor is the plan kick-started several years ago by Gov. Rick Perry to build 4,000-plus miles of tollways and railways that would incorporate oil and gas pipelines, utility and water lines, and even broadband data.

State Rep. Dianne White Delisi, R-Temple, said Monday afternoon, “I have just got the information. I’m studying it now, and I have a number of questions about it.”

The new rail line could ease congestion on Interstate 35 by reducing the need for about 1 million trucks. It could also improve traffic safety, get hazardous materials out of urban areas and reduce pollution, the developer and state officials said.

Cintra-Zachry gave a rough outline of the plan in a letter to the Texas Transportation Commission.

Commission officials said Cintra-Zachry would pay about $5 billion to build the rail line, then charge companies to use it. The developer is spending its own money on the highway and will collect on its investment with tolls.

Cintra-Zachry was selected last year to develop the first phase of the project, a 600-mile traffic and trade route from Oklahoma to Mexico to run roughly parallel to Interstate 35.

If the state chooses to pursue the rail plan, Cintra-Zachry is not guaranteed to be the developer. State rules require the government to pursue alternative bids.

Although rail companies would not be forced to use it, they probably would if it helps them move cargo faster, commission Chairman Ric Williamson said. Trains could travel up to 70 mph shipping goods across the state or in and out of Mexico.

And by freeing up existing rail in cities, it could spawn new commuter rail traffic, Williamson said.

“This confirms Governor Perry’s vision that once our mobility challenges were open to innovation, the market would respond,” Williamson said.

Rail companies Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe last year signed agreements with Perry to work toward moving freight lines out of urban areas.

Union Pacific spokesman Joe Arbona said the company had not heard of the new rail line plan before Wednesday and didn’t know how it would affect its existing agreement with the state. Union Pacific currently operates about 6,400 miles of railroad in Texas.

The corridor plan has been met with opposition.

Farmers and environmentalists worry they will be forced to give up land or that local economies will suffer as traffic is diverted to alternate routes. If the corridor is 1,200 feet wide in some areas as planned, a farmer could lose as much as 146 acres per mile, according to the Texas Farm Bureau.

Chris Hammel, president of the Blackland Coalition, a Central Texas organization dedicated to preventing construction of the TransTexas Corridor, said, “It’s pretty clear the governor and the Texas Transportation Commission are eager to do business with a Spanish company that comes to them with no-bid offers like this one. I’m not surprised at all. This is just another step in the plan they have had all along.”

Hammel said, “This is about getting a cheaper way to get Chinese imports into the U.S. The building container ports in Mexico can be unloaded with a lot less expense in Mexico, and a lot of those containers are from China. This is really about moving Chinese goods into the U.S. from Mexican ports.”

Three of Perry’s political opponents, Democrat candidate for governor Chris Bell and independents Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Kinky Friedman, have all criticized the toll road plan.

Strayhorn chimed in again Wednesday.

“Our roads, our railways, our bridges, our seaports, our airports and our border crossings are vital to our economy and prime targets for terrorists,” Strayhorn said. “Why take the chance and let a private or public foreign operation control vital Texas infrastructure and property?”

Any rail line could take two or three years to get started. In addition to the bidding process, the state would also have to perform environmental impact studies to see where it could be built.

Theoretically, the rail line would run near the toll road. State officials will soon unveil a potential corridor for the highway, a 10-mile-wide swath of land that will eventually be parred down.

Under the proposal, the new line would be built so all vehicle traffic would cross either under or over it, eliminating dangerous crossings.

Copyright © 2006 Temple Daily Telegram www.temple-telegram.com

Strayhorn reiterates call for Gov. Perry to make secret TxDOT contract public

Press Release:

STRAYHORN: "Secret deals with foreign companies to take Texans' land and to control our critical infrastructure must be stopped."

March 29, 2006

Independent candidate for Governor Carole Keeton Strayhorn today said under her administration she will fight against still secret agreements for land grabs by foreign companies and foreign control of critical infrastructure and property including the new foreign controlled “Toll Rail” proposed by CINTRA.

“Our roads, our railways, our bridges, our seaports, our airports and our border crossings are vital to our economy and prime targets for terrorists,” Strayhorn said. “Why take the chance and let a private or public foreign operation control vital Texas infrastructure and property?”

Strayhorn today reiterated her call for Gov. Rick Perry to make public the secret 50-year contract his Texas Department of Transportation signed with Cintra, a European-based company, to build and charge Texans to drive on toll roads.

Cintra and TxDOT took the agreement to court on June 25th—now over eight months have passed with the public still kept in the dark as to the details—why accept a proposal from the same foreign company which does not want to release the unfair details of their first still secret agreement.

“Whether it is a foreign company running our roads, our rails, or operating our ports, it’s wrong,” she said. “What happens if ownership of these foreign companies changes hands?”

“Texas belongs to Texans, not foreign companies,” she said. “My administration will not be cutting secret sweetheart deals with foreign companies like Rick Perry has.

“His $184 billion Trans-Texas Catastrophe is a boondoggle and a land grab, and this deal just adds to the land grab and is wrong” she said. “Even though the Attorney General has ordered the first secret contract be made public, Perry and his highway henchmen are fighting that ruling in court. What do they have to hide? We must have government in the sunshine.”

© 2006 Strayhorn for Governor: www.carolestrayhorn.com

Rail Bait

Cintra-Zachry proposes $5 billion Texas rail line

High-speed freight line could run trains at 70 mph

March 29, 2006

By Ben Wear
Austin American-Statesman
Copyright 2006

Cintra-Zachry, the Spanish and American partnership already in line to build a cross-state toll road, has offered to build a 600-mile, high-speed freight rail track from the Dallas-Fort Worth area to Mexico.

Numerous details remain to be worked out, and competitors could in the end build the line instead. But Cintra-Zachry has offered to spend at least $5 billion, officials say, and open the line to any freight rail company interested in paying to use it.

The proposal, as outlined by Texas Transportation Commission members Wednesday, would not require Union Pacific to remove any freight traffic from its track that cuts through the heart of the the Austin-San Marcos area.

However, Transportation Commissioner Ric Williamson said that companies such as Union Pacific would no doubt be attracted to the line's top speed of 70 miles per hour, considerably faster than existing routes.

Union Pacific's Austin-area segment is part of a longer line that runs from St. Louis to Laredo and moves more than two dozen freight trains each day.

bwear@statesman.com; 445-3698 © 2006 Austin American-Statesman: www.statesman.com

“We’re proud of Texas, Mr. Perry, we just don’t like what you’re doing with it.”

Strayhorn, Friedman and Bell make case against Perry

3/28/2006

The Lone Star Report
Copyright 2006

The two independent candidates for governor and their Democratic counterpart came together Friday night for a candidate forum at a rural meeting hall outside of Temple. Kinky Friedman, Carole Keeton Strayhorn mixed talk about taxes, tolls and education with barbed comments aimed at Governor Rick Perry and what they all said was ineffective leadership.

Although Perry was not represented at the forum, he defends the Trans Texas Corridor - and its tolled portions - as the best way to meet the state’s transportation needs quickly, and has challenged his detractors to come up with a plan of their own to meet that need.

Friday night’s event was held by the Blacklands Coalition, a strongly anti-toll road, anti Trans-Texas Corridor group, mostly made up of farmers. Although a place was reserved at the table for Perry as well as his opponents, no one in the crowd expected him to attend. Instead, after booing the Trans Texas Corridor and raising funds to start a new political action committee to oppose it, the crowd of over 200 heard speeches from Perry’s opponents.

The following are some of the highlights:

Carole Keeton Strayhorn took aim at Perry exclusively and did not make substantive mention of the other two candidates. Some quotes from her speech.

“My honest and passionate disagreement with Rick Perry have been the cornerstone of the debate for the last two years.”

“It’s time to put Texas above politics and it’s time to put partisan politics aside.”

“In the last two years, Rick Perry’s corporate welfare slush fund is up.”

“Now is th time for Texans to take back Texas…and blast the Trans Texas Corridor off the bureaucratic books.”

Noting that a constitutional amendment to stop eminent domain was not passed (a statutory bill was), the comptroller stated, “In a Strayhorn administration, we will have a constitutional amendment protecting private property rights period.”

“Rick Perry wants his legacy to be that he sat in the governor’s chair for more years than anyone else. Well, I don’t sit – I do.”

On stronger penalties for Sexual Predators: “My administration will act…As governor, I will throw the sexual predators in and throw away the keys.”

Kinky Friedman mixed humor and policy, sometimes leaving in doubt which was which. He took aim at Perry, but also at the political establishment in general, referring to Republicans and Democrats as “crips and bloods” who have “put Texas on Ebay.” Some of Friedman’s other comments:

“I’m the only candidate running with no political experience. But I have a lot of human experience.”

“I support gay marriage because I believe gay people have the right to be just as miserable as the rest of us…And I’m the only candidate who supports both gay marriage and prayer in schools.”

On the Trans Texas Corridor: “It’s a bad idea. It’s like Dubai running the ports.”

On Education: “We’re at the bottom…I’d dearly like for Texas to be first in something other than executions, toll roads and property tax.”

Friedman’s solution? Gambling: “We invented Texas Hold-em, and we can’t even play it here…Legalizing casino gambling will pay for education – not just a bandaid, it will pay for it.”
“The first thing I would do as governor is get rid of the TAKS test.” – Friedman received his best applause of the night for this line, then added, “The kids today don’t know if the Civil War was here or in Europe because it’s not on the test.”

“My policy is no teacher left behind, and in order to do that, we need to leave one governor behind.”

On border protection, Friedman suggested what he calls the “Five Mexican General Plan.” The plan would be to put $1 million in a bank account and hire five Mexican generals to patrol sectors of the Texas border. For each immigrant that comes across, the state would deduct $5,000 from the account.

On Rick Perry: “To know what Rick Perry stands for, follow the money – from the homebuilders to Perry and from the insurance companies to Perry.”

Democrat Chris Bell released a fiery press release today attacking Strayhorn, noting that many of the principles in the Trans Texas Corridor plan were originally ideas from her own E-Texas plan. Nonetheless, Bell – despite having a strongly anti-toll group to speak before – never brought up Strayhorn at all in his comments. Some of his statements:

“Money [referring to PAC donations which had been solicited] is not going to stop the Trans Texas Corridor. A new governor is going to stop the Trans Texas Corridor.”

“We need roads. We all know that. What we don’t need is to have our land taken away and sold to private business.”

Referring to Gov. Perry’s new slogan, Bell said, “We’re proud of Texas, Mr. Perry, we just don’t like what you’re doing with it.”

“The greatness of Texas is waiting to be released. With boldness and dedication it can be released…Budgets are not only fiscal documents, they’re moral documents.”

All three candidates promoted teacher pay raises, with Bell promising a $6,000 pay raise, Strayhorn a $4,000 pay raise, and Friedman supporting a raise, but not giving a specific number. Friedman was the only candidate who suggested a funding source – gambling – for such a raise.

© 2005 The Lone Star Report: www.lonestarreport.org

Spanish corporation goes for the whole TTC enchilada

Toll developer pitches 600 miles of new railway

March 29, 2006

By JIM VERTUNO
Associated Press
Copyright 2006

AUSTIN — The developer of the first phase of the Trans Texas Corridor super highway toll system says Texas needs an addition: 600 miles of new rail line from Dallas-Fort Worth to Mexico for freight trains.

That's the proposal from Cintra-Zachry, the Spanish and American partnership already working on the first section of toll road for cars and trucks, announced by state transportation officials today.

The Trans Texas Corridor is the plan kick-started several years ago by Gov. Rick Perry to build 4,000-plus miles of tollways and railways that would incorporate oil and gas pipelines, utility and water lines, and even broadband data.

The new rail line could ease congestion on Interstate 35 by reducing the need for about 1 million trucks. It could also improve traffic safety, get hazardous materials out of urban areas and reduce pollution, the developer and state officials said.

Cintra-Zachry gave a rough outline of the plan in a letter to the Texas Transportation Commission.

Commission officials said Cintra-Zachry would pay about $5 billion to build the rail line, then charge companies to use it. The developer is spending its own money on the highway and will collect on its investment with tolls.

Cintra-Zachry was selected last year to develop the first phase of the project, a 600-mile traffic and trade route from Oklahoma to Mexico to run roughly parallel to Interstate 35.

If the state chooses to pursue the rail plan, Cintra-Zachry is not guaranteed to be the developer. State rules require the government to pursue alternative bids.

Although rail companies would not be forced to use it, they probably would if it helps them move cargo faster, commission Chairman Ric Williamson said. Trains could travel up to 70 mph shipping goods across the state or in and out of Mexico.

And by freeing up existing rail in cities, it could spawn new commuter rail traffic, Williamson said.

"This confirms Governor Perry's vision that once our mobility challenges were open to innovation, the market would respond," Williamson said.

Rail companies Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe last year signed agreements with Perry to work toward moving freight lines out of urban areas.

Union Pacific spokesman Joe Arbona said the company had not heard of the new rail line plan before Wednesday and didn't know how it would affect its existing agreement with the state. Union Pacific currently operates about 6,400 miles of railroad in Texas.

The corridor plan has been met with opposition.

Farmers and environmentalists worry they will be forced to give up land or that local economies will suffer as traffic is diverted to alternate routes. If the corridor is 1,200 feet wide in some areas as planned, a farmer could lose as much as 146 acres per mile, according to the Texas Farm Bureau.

Three of Perry's political opponents, Democrat candidate for governor Chris Bell and independents Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Kinky Friedman, have all criticized the toll road plan.

Any rail line could take two or three years to get started. In addition to the bidding process, the state would also have to perform environmental impact studies to see where it could be built.

Theoretically, the rail line run near the toll road. State officials will soon unveil a potential corridor for the highway, a 10-mile wide swath of land that will eventually be parred down.

Under the proposal, the new line would be built so all vehicle traffic would cross either under or over it, eliminating dangerous crossings.


© 2006 The Associated Press: www.ap.org

Here comes the Porkbarrel Express Ltd.

State to get bid to build rail project

Details on consortium making offer, terms of deal expected today.

March 29, 2006

By Ben Wear
Austin American-Statesman
Copyright 2006

A consortium led by a Fortune 500 company today will give the state a proposal to build a rail project from north of Dallas to south of San Antonio as part of the Trans-Texas Corridor, Texas Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson said.

Williamson, contacted after the Texas Department of Transportation called a noon news conference for today to make a "monumental announcement," would not reveal further details about the rail proposal — including the company or its proposed terms for doing the project — until the news conference.

But the state has been talking to Union Pacific and BNSF Railway for a couple of years about moving most of their freight operations out of urban centers such as Austin along the Interstate 35 corridor. The Trans-Texas Corridor, as proposed by Gov. Rick Perry in 2002, was envisioned as a network of cross-state toll roads, freight and passenger rail lines, and utility lines.

The state Transportation Department in December 2004 announced that Cintra-Zachry, a partnership of Spanish toll road builder Cintra and San Antonio-based Zachry Construction Corp., had offered to spend $6 billion to build a four-lane toll road from San Antonio to the Oklahoma border paralleling I-35. Cintra-Zachry is working on a more detailed plan under a $3.5 million state contract with the state.

The partnership also pledged that it would, as the 300-mile project is built in segments, pay the state $1.2 billion in concession fees. That money could be used for other transportation projects, including rail.

The state in the next few weeks will announce the course of a 10-mile-wide swath that, after a couple more years of refinements, would include the several-hundred-foot-wide path of the tollway. In theory rail lines could be built alongside or in the median of road.

Urban leaders up and down I-35 would welcome a cross-country freight alternative. Union Pacific, whose line runs from south of San Antonio through San Marcos, Austin, Round Rock and on to Taylor, has two dozen or more freight trains a day passing through the corridor.

The procession of slow-moving trains causes constant traffic tie-ups in San Marcos. Derailments and the hazardous materials sometimes on board freight trains present a safety hazard. And transit advocates, if the Union Pacific line were used only for the four or five local freight runs a day, would like to run commuter trains from Georgetown to San Antonio along the rail line that runs through Central Austin in the MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) right of way.

Under the agency's rules, receipt of an unsolicited proposal for a project triggers a procedure in which it seeks competitors. The original proposers, or one of the late-comers, could end up doing such a job. What makes this proposal significant, Williamson said, is that the terms as outlined so far would already be highly favorable from the state's point of view.

"It's as good as one can hope for," he said. "It will only get better."

bwear@statesman.com; 445-3698

© 2006 Austin American-Statesman: www.statesman.com

Toll road debate in San Antonio

Toll roads up for discussion at public hearings

03/28/2006


Patrick Driscoll
San Antonio Express-News
Copyright 2006

Residents will get a chance this week to hear warring sides tangle over toll roads and to speak their own minds at two public meetings.

But first up will be a debate sponsored by the South San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, which officials say is an effort to rein in the rhetoric on toll roads.

"We urge you to base your responses on facts, not histrionics," the debate's ground rules say. "There has already been enough of that."

"Toll Roads: The Great Debate" is set for 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Marriott Plaza Hotel at Alamo and Durango streets. The debate and luncheon cost $40 per person. For information, call (210) 533-1600.

"I hope it helps our chamber make a decision," said Cindy Taylor, the organization's president. "It's very difficult, we're divided."

Four heavy hitters in the tolling controversy will be brought together into two teams.

Arguing for tolls will be Bill Thornton, chairman of the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority, and Joe Krier, president of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.

"What we're presenting is simply an option to accelerate projects, which is tolls, and get some of these needed highway improvements done quicker," Thornton said.

Arguing against tolls will be Terri Hall, founder and director of San Antonio Toll Party, and Bill Barker, a San Antonio transportation consultant.

"My feeling is, we're confident that when people actually get the facts of what's going on, it's not hard to be against these toll roads," Hall said.

Coming later Wednesday and then Thursday, the Texas Department of Transportation will hold public meetings to get input on a re-evaluation of more than seven miles of proposed toll lanes for U.S. 281, from Loop 1604 to Comal County.

Work on the first three miles was supposed to start in January but was derailed by a lawsuit filed by Aquifer Guardians in Urban Areas and People for Efficient Transportation. The lawsuit said environmental impacts weren't studied enough.

Both hearings will start at 7 p.m.. Wednesday's will be at the Reagan High School auditorium at 19000 Ronald Reagan; Thursday's will be at the Bush Middle School auditorium at 1500 Evans Road. For information, call (210) 615-5839.

"It provides an opportunity for everyone to share their comments and learn what we're doing," TxDOT spokeswoman Laura Lopez said.


pdriscoll@express-news.net

© 2006 San Antonio Express-News: www.mysanantonio.com

"To all you ne'er do wells predisposed to bribe public officials, the Ethics Commission just made your job easier."

Campaign 'gifts' just got easier

3/27/2006

By: Harvey Kronberg
News 8 Austin
Copyright 2006

Every now and then, a development over at the Capitol is so bizarre, so detached from reality, it takes the breath away of even jaded long time political watchers like myself.

Consider last week's ruling by the Texas Ethics Commission.

A 35-year-old law requires public officials describe any gifts they might receive on their financial statements submitted to the state. You might be forgiven for thinking a description in a financial statement would include a dollar value. While you would be in sync with three decades of precedent and well-documented legislative intent, you would be wrong.

Here are the facts. A former House member named Bill Ceverha was the treasurer for Tom DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority. When defeated Democratic candidates successfully sued over TRMPAC's misuse of corporate dollars, treasurer Ceverha was the only principal not under criminal indictment, so he ended up being named in the suit.

Now I think that Ceverha was little more than a figurehead with little operational input into the TRMPAC schemes. Nevertheless, his name on the forms made him legally liable.

'Gifts' of donation

A recent Texas Ethics Commission ruling makes hiding improper gifts to public officials much easier.

The legal fees and judgments bankrupted the elderly Ceverha. Houston homebuilder and mega-GOP contributor Bob Perry, pitched in to help him recover financially. Truth is, I'm sympathetic.

The problem is that Ceverha sits on the board of the Texas Employee Retirement System so he had to publicly disclose he received the gift. But in reporting the exchange, Ceverha chose to simply report he had received a check, refusing to indicate how much it was for.

A complaint was filed that the word "check" was not a financial description. In agreement, one member of the Ethics Commission said the check was simply the conveyance and that the gift was the dollars the check represented. His colleagues disagreed. The commission charged with overseeing financial disclosure rejected requiring financial disclosure.

So, to all you ne'er do wells predisposed to bribe public officials, the Ethics Commission just made your job easier. Feel free to give a gift of a half million dollars to some board or commission member before a key vote fully confident that the only thing to show up on their financial disclosures will be the word "check."

Political commentator Harvey Kronberg shares his thoughts on politics in Texas each Monday during On the Agenda. Kronberg is the writer, editor, publisher of the Quorum Report, Texas' oldest political newsletter.

Copyright ©2006TWEAN News Channel of Austin, News 8 Austin www.news8austin.com

TTC: "A foolish and costly endeavor now that oil seems to be getting scarcer and prices are shooting up."

Where corridor goes, no one yet knows

03/27/2006

Anton Caputo and Patrick Driscoll
San Antonio Express-News
Copyright 2006

Depending on whom you talk to, the Trans Texas Corridor is a daring futuristic plan, the state's most ambitious ever, or it's a money machine and a destructive land grab.

But for now, most of all, it's an enigma.

There are no construction contracts for any of the 4,000 miles of car and truck lanes, freight and passenger rail lines and utility lines that are supposed to crisscross Texas by midcentury, just a $3.5 million deal with a private consortium to develop plans for the leg paralleling Interstate 35.

And nobody knows just where the routes would go, though any day now federal officials are expected to release a draft study to narrow options near I-35 to a 10-mile-wide swath.

"That's the $64,000 question," said Mark Maxwell, city manager of Sulphur Springs, east of Dallas. "Where's it going to be? And I don't think anybody has any idea."

It's a question that worries leaders of cities who don't want to lose lucrative traffic flows, and haunts farmers and environmentalists who don't want to see massive tracts of valuable land sliced and swallowed up.

"A huge market would be missed if it didn't come close to San Antonio," said Vic Boyer, director of the San Antonio Mobility Coalition, a public-private advocacy group.

Boyer and others want Texas 130 from Georgetown to Seguin finished first, picked up as part of the Trans-Texas Corridor and then extended along Interstate 10 and Loop 1604 around Southeast San Antonio to open up traffic for the Toyota plant and KellyUSA.

Leaders in Dallas and Fort Worth, who want the corridor's toll lanes to go through the Metroplex instead of around it, are ready to tangle.

"I hope that they've been listening," Dallas City Councilman Bill Blaydes said. "If not, then we've got a war."

Laredo officials aren't worried the corridor could bypass their city — the nation's largest inland gateway for trade traffic — but they are concerned the project could siphon off money for work on I-35, such as adding truck-only lanes.

"The best route has always been I-35 and connecting streets," Mayor Betty Flores said. "We need to improve those routes all along the way."

Also waiting to cast a critical eye on the 4,000-page draft report are farmers, ranchers and environmental activists.

The 1,200-foot-wide corridor, stretching 600 miles from Mexico to Oklahoma, would gobble up 75,000 acres of land and split up farms, ranches and wildlife areas. Many landowners fret about not having access.

"It wouldn't make this a very pleasant place to live," said Chris Hammel, who owns a 430-acre spread with corn and cattle near Holland in Central Texas.

There also are a plethora of environmental concerns, from the stretch of asphalt's potential impact on migrating wildlife to the effect of changing traffic patterns on air quality.

"The road will be a huge barrier, which means wildlife won't be able to follow their natural route, and it will cross dozens of waterways and wetlands," said Dick Kallerman of the Sierra Club's Austin chapter.

San Antonio resident Bill Barker, a transportation consultant who assists Aquifer Guardians in Urban Areas, wonders whether the state will consider impacts of paving over the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone or address how the corridor could affect urban sprawl.

"We really need to get a hold of the way we're developing and consuming land in Texas," he said.

Nearly all in the environmental community, though, are at least as curious and distressed about how passenger rail might be treated. For now, high-speed rail from San Antonio to Dallas has been put on the back burner, possibly for decades.

Tom Smith of Public Citizen says more vehicle lanes could be a foolish and costly endeavor now that oil seems to be getting scarcer and prices are shooting up. He's keenly interested in getting the focus back on rail.

"Do we want to be stuck in traffic or do we want to be speeding past it on rapid rail?" he said.

The draft study will cull 180 options through 77 counties to recommend a 10-mile-wide study area. More than 50 public hearings could be held this summer and a final document issued next year.

After that, an environmental evaluation will be done for each construction project in the corridor.

The draft was first due by the end of last year and then in January. Now Texas Department of Transportation officials are afraid to guess when the Federal Highway Administration will release the report.

"I would say in the next two to four weeks," TxDOT Environmental Manager Doug Booher said after prodding. "I just don't have a good idea."


pdriscoll@express-news.net

© 2006 San Antonio Express-News: www.mysanantonio.com