"SB 404 and SB 17 are mere window dressing for the Trans-Texas Corridor"

Quit putting lipstick on your pig!

5/22/09

Terri Hall, Founder of Texas TURF
Texans Uniting for Reform & Freedom
Copyright 2009

DATELINE MADRID, May 22, 2009 (A day that will go down in infamy?) - It is insulting to impugn Texans’ intelligence by pretending that the private toll contract for I-69 (officially called Comprehensive Development Agreement) that both foreign and domestic interests alike are pushing the State to sign is NOT part of the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC). Today, the Texas Legislature may vote to seal its fate as the politicians who sold Texas highways to the highest bidder with its eyes wide open, despite near universal outrage by ordinary Texans.

You tried to dupe the public into thinking the Trans Texas Corridor is “DEAD,” but all we have to do is follow the money to find out your true intentions.

As the battle over handing our highways to foreign toll operators has continued to heat-up, some lawmakers have tried to quell their colleagues and their constituents’ natural apprehension by making them believe that signing the Trans Texas Corridor contract to privatize our public roadways is simply upgrading Hwy 77 to interstate I-69. But we know better. As long as Rick Perry still occupies the Governor’s office, we live by the old adage: “Trust but verify.”

Both TxDOT and the private concessionaire, Iridium/ACS, used I-69 and TTC-69 interchangeably (until the Trans Texas Corridor brand name became radioactive). The official designation by Congress since 1995 calls the project “high priority corridors 18 and 20″ and it has referred to it as an international trade corridor. Amendment #2 to SB 17 in committee referred to high priority corridors 18 and 20. The project has also been called “corridor of the future,” NAFTA Superhighway, and more. Regardless of the official name, Texans know the TTC when they see it, so quit trying to put lipstick on your pig.

The news release dated June 26, 2008 from Madrid specifically calls the project the Trans Texas Corridor project I-69/TTC-69 and states ACS will choose the route, develop the timelines, and priority activities for the ENTIRE 1,000 km CORRIDOR for the next 50 years, not simply upgrading Hwy 77 to an interstate in the valley. Hwy 77 is called the “first route.”

The news release further further states:

• ACS Infrastructures Development, the North American branch of Iridium, the concession development company of ACS, and the Texan concessionaire Zachry American Infrastructure have become the successful bidders for the design, planning and development, as strategic partners of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), of the I-69/TTC infrastructure corridor for the next 50 years.

• The I-69/TTC (Trans Texas Corridor) will connect the Mexican border with the Gulf of Mexico coastline, Houston and major industrial and logistics centres in Texas with the north of the country.

• The I-69/TTC development project includes, in its initial design, the construction of a 1,000 kilometre network of highways and roads as well as railway lines. Based on this, ACS and Zachry will draft a Master Plan with the Texas Department of Transportation to establish the priority activities as well as the form and deadlines for their execution.

• With the award of this project, ACS and Zachry, the largest construction group in the State of Texas, have become strategic partners of the Texas Department of Transportation and shall propose the development of specific projects and activities for which they will have a preferential negotiation option without public tender.

• In fact, the consortium is already considering the renewal of a first route whose concession will be negotiated with the Texas Department of Transportation, the US 77, which shall include the construction of a series of highways under concession regime connecting to it and which shall require an investment of 2,500 million dollars.

DO NOT vote to re-authorize CDAs. SB 404 and SB 17 are mere window dressing for the Trans Texas Corridor and the sale of our public highways, our lifelines for daily living, to foreign interests.

Texans don’t want it, and are hopping mad the Legislature is still pursuing this despite the public outcry.

I have not met ONE Texan who is FOR this (notwithstanding the highway lobby). Texans won’t soon forget paying homage to Cintra or ACS to get to work for the next 50 YEARS! It’s simply, UN-Texan!

Terri Hall is the Founder of Texas TURF. TURF is a non-partisan grassroots group of citizens concerned about toll road policy and the Trans Texas Corridor. TURF promotes non-toll transportation solutions. For more information, please visit their web site at: www.TexasTURF.org.

© 2009 TURF: www.texasturf.org

To search TTC News Archives click HERE

To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click HERE

Gov 39% gets stimulus money to repair mansion

Stimulus funds to be used for repair of Governor’s Mansion

5/22/09

Associated Press
Copyright 2009

AUSTIN, Texas -- While Gov. Rick Perry is criticizing Washington bailouts, state lawmakers are planning to use $11 million in federal stimulus money to help rebuild the badly burned Texas Governor’s Mansion.

Top budget negotiators said Thursday that a House-Senate committee agreed on the expenditures late Wednesday night. Some $11 million in federal rescue dollars would be spent to refurbish the mansion, which was badly burned in an arson fire last summer.

Around $10 million in state tax money will also be spent on a renovation expected to cost about $20 million, officials said.

“If we’re going to fix it up we’re going to have to use stimulus money,” said Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan. “We’ve made a decision to use the stimulus money. This is a good use of it.”

Ogden, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, both said the $11 million was coming out of a $700 million rescue package for Texas—part of the massive federal stimulus pie approved earlier this year by the U.S. Congress.

The financing for the repairs was decided in a late Wednesday meeting of the budget conference committee, which Ogden and Pitts lead, both men said. The final budget still faces a vote in the House and Senate, then approval from Perry, before it can become law.

Asked if Perry approved of using federal money for the mansion, Pitts said, “He just wanted it done.”

Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle released a short, written statement late Thursday.

“We are continuing to work with lawmakers on the budget,” she said.

Perry, expecting a 2010 primary challenge from U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, has railed against federal bailouts and the free-spending, power-hungry ways of Washington. In January, he said Texas was endangered by Uncle Sam’s “audacity.”

“I can’t imagine what Texas would be like if we had applied the federal government’s free-spending principles over the years,” he said.

The governor’s mansion was being renovated when an unknown arsonist torched it in June. Perry has been living in a three-story, limestone home with a heated pool, an outdoor cabana and a guest house.

The state is paying some $9,900-a-month in rent while the Governor’s Mansion undergoes renovations, records show.

© 2009 The Associated Press: www.ap.org

To search TTC News Archives click HERE

To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click HERE

Texas GOP: A special interest escort service or just another 'whorehouse?'

GOP: Not the best little `whorehouse' in Texas?

5/21/09

By KELLEY SHANNON
The Associated Press
Copyright 2009

AUSTIN, Texas — A comment by a strategist for Gov. Rick Perry that the Republican Party shouldn't act like a brothel to lure new voters has infuriated prominent GOP women in Texas and given Perry's primary rival, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, fuel for their election fight.

Perry is trying to distance himself from the remark, published in The Dallas Morning News, by consultant David Carney, who said he agreed the Republican Party needed to attract new voters. But, he added, "that doesn't mean you take your principles and throw them out the door and become a whorehouse and let anybody in who wants to come in, regardless."

Former Republican National Committee member Denise McNamara is leading a group of GOP women demanding that Perry apologize for and repudiate the comment.

"As businesswomen, community leaders and mothers, it is always concerning and disheartening when we see people resort to behavior aimed at belittling women," they wrote in a letter to Perry on Tuesday. "Therefore, you cannot imagine how appalling it was to see your campaign's chief strategist liken our Senior Senator's primary campaign to `opening the doors of a whorehouse.'"

Perry spokesman Mark Miner said Carney was not speaking for the governor or referencing the gubernatorial race.

Hutchison's campaign didn't buy it.

"Unfortunately for Texas Republicans, Rick Perry and his spokesman are utilizing the same divisive, non-substantive rhetoric that fueled huge losses in 2006 and 2008 for Republicans in Texas and nationally," Hutchison spokesman Hans Klingler said.

McNamara told The Associated Press in a phone interview that Carney's remark demonstrated a lack of class. "This kind of remark should ostracize social conservatives and people who appreciate civility in politics," she said.

McNamara said Hutchison, a Republican, has tried to refrain from attacking Perry because of his role as Texas' leader during the legislative session that began in January.

"That's about to wrap up," she noted, predicting that Hutchison will soon move into full campaign mode.

Hutchison twice before considered running for governor against Perry but bowed out. She has raised money for a state campaign account, unveiled a long list of well-known supporters and made campaign appearances, without fully announcing her candidacy.

The state Republican primary is dominated by social conservatives who disagree with Hutchison on abortion and embryonic stem cell research.

The winner of the March 2010 primary is the heavy favorite to win the general election in this state where, despite some Democratic gains, Republicans hold all statewide elected offices.

© 2009 The Associated Press: www.ap.org

To search TTC News Archives click HERE

To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click HERE

ACTION ALERT! "People of Texas, contact your Senators and House Representatives and demand that they honor their promises to the people."

Lawmakers Lied to Texans!

The equation is simple, the People of Texas do NOT want the Trans-Texas Corridor and Toll Roads, but Gov. Rick Perry, lawmakers and their special interests do. So guess who wins?

People of Texas, contact your Senators and House Representatives and demand that they honor their promises to the people. No Corridor and No Toll Roads!

Tell them to vote AGAINST SB 404 Friday, Senator Carona's bill that allows the sale of our public highways to private corporations will head to the Governor's desk where it will become law.

Also tell them to vote AGAINST SB 17 authored by Rep. Nichols, is tied to Carona’s SB 404. If the House votes to re-authorize CDAs, it’s contingent upon SB 17 passing as well. SB 17 purports to protect the public from private toll contracts and make CDAs only a last resort. However, the way the current bill, SB 17, is structured, if the public toll entity cannot get the financing together to do a public toll road, they'd have to pass the project to TxDOT who would hand it to the private developer. Even worse, Nichols has amended the bill to remove all the projects involved in the Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69 corridor from many of those “protections,” and he’s agreed to protect the private operator’s financial “interest” in the project, hanging the taxpayers out to dry.

Lawmakers promised Texans No Corridor and No Toll Roads. Now they are trying to sneak these bills past the public's knowledge!

Tell them to keep their promises!

Senate: Reach your senator by clicking HERE

House: Reach your Representative by clicking HERE

© 2009 TURF: www.texasturf.org

To search TTC News Archives click HERE

To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click HERE

Sen. Robert Nichols brokers deal to sell out Texans for Spanish Company, ACS

Nichols brokers deal with lobbyist to allow Trans Texas Corridor

TTC-69 to proceed despite repeal of corridor



5/21/09

Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF)
Copyright 2009

(Austin, TX ) TURF obtained a memo from lobbyist Gary Bushell, with Alliance for I-69, revealing that he and ex-Transportation Commissioner turned Texas Senator, Robert Nichols, brokered a deal to allow the private toll contract with ACS of Spain for the Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69 to proceed as planned, despite the outcry of more than 28,000 Texans who went on the record against the project. (See the negotiated amendment to Nichol’s SB 17 that protects the private investor’s interest over the public interest here).

Bushell is the same lobbyist the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) illegally hired using taxpayer money to lobby elected officials in the path of the TTC, which is the subject of several bills before the Texas Legislature in response to a TURF lawsuit currently awaiting a ruling by the Third District Court of Appeals.

The Texas House is set to vote Friday on whether to end the moratorium on private toll contracts and vote to re-authorize them for another 4 years. The House unanimously voted to REPEAL the Trans Texas Corridor just weeks ago in a floor amendment to the Texas Department of Transportation Sunset bill (HB 300).

“So this backroom deal-making not only betrays Texans, including those in Nichols’ own district, it’s also a betrayal of his fellow legislators who have voted to repeal and repeatedly promised the public that the Trans Texas Corridor is ‘dead,’” proclaims an outraged Terri Hall, Director of Texas TURF.

Comprehensive Development Agreements, called CDAs in Texas (also known as public private partnerships or PPPs), would hand over an untold number of our PUBLIC highways to PRIVATE, mostly foreign, corporations for a half century at a time. Senator John Carona’s bill, SB 404, is eligible to be taken up by the full House tomorrow. The Senate passed the bill in April. So if the House passes SB 404 Friday, the bill that allows the sale of our public highways to private corporations will head to the Governor's desk where it will become law.

Those promoting the Trans Texas Corridor relish in the confusion between TTC-69 and I-69. However, the two are one in the same. Transportation Commissioner Ted Houghton testified under oath in the TURF lawsuit to stop TxDOT’s illegal lobbying by Bushell that TTC-69 is I-69; they are one in the same. The private developer, ACS, confirms in a news release that this CDA is for a 621 mile corridor through East Texas that would give them the right of first refusal for more segments of the Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69 project.

“Politicians will spin this, but the documents don’t lie,” Hall contends.

“Texans don’t want their PUBLIC highway system sold to the highest bidder, nor do they want corporate-run toll roads that cost commuters 75 cents a mile to get to work,” said Hall. "The Texas Legislature has been derelict in its duty to properly fund our state highway system through the gas tax thinking raising the gas tax is political suicide. We contend selling our highways to foreign corporations is even more so!"

Private toll road contracts are due to sunset this fall. In 2007, Texans stood-up and demanded a moratorium on CDAs and sent a bill to the Governor with a combined vote of 169-5.

“Our politicians got the message in 2007 that Texans don’t want to sell our highways to the highest bidder, and yet they are about to ram through billions in multi-generational debt to benefit private foreign corporations at the expense of the taxpayers,” Hall notes.

These deals cost taxpayers 50% more, are failing all over the country, and result in extremely high tolls, like the DFW contracts just signed with Spain-based Cintra that will charge commuters 75 cents a mile to get to work. That’s $3,000 a year in new toll taxes.

In fact, just days ago, Florida’s “Alligator Alley” couldn’t get a single bidder to privatize that tollway. TURF thinks lawmakers need to wake-up to the economic realities that selling our highways to the highest bidder, and relying on rosy traffic counts that amount to pure speculation to make these multi-billion dollar boondoggles work will fall flat, leaving the taxpayers to bailout yet more corporations.

“Public infrastructure that Texans depend on for daily living shouldn’t be under the control of private companies whose primary motive, naturally, is profit, not the public interest,” states Hall.

TURF believes that especially in these economic times, the higher toll rates charged by these foreign toll operators are completely unsustainable. CDAs also eat-up our existing gas tax and other public funds to privatize and toll our public roads, taking away virtually ALL of our available funding for non-toll roads.

CDAs are the most risky and most expensive method of delivering toll projects. Testimony from Dennis Enright of Northwest Financial in New Jersey before the Senate Transportation Committee March 1, 2007, seems to have been quickly forgotten by the Legislature. Mr. Enright said there is no risk transfer to the private entity and that CDAs cost the taxpayers of a minimum of 50% more than public toll roads. Mr. Enright rightly called toll roads monopolies by their very nature. He also said it’s always best to keep these projects in the public NOT private sector.

A second bill, SB 17 authored by Nichols, is tied to Carona’s SB 404. If the House votes to re-authorize CDAs, it’s contingent upon SB 17 passing as well. SB 17 purports to protect the public from private toll contracts and make CDAs only a last resort. However, the way the current bill, SB 17, is structured, if the public toll entity cannot get the financing together to do a public toll road, they'd have to pass the project to TxDOT who would hand it to the private developer. Even worse, Nichols has amended the bill to remove all the projects involved in the Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69 corridor from many of those “protections,” and he’s agreed to protect the private operator’s financial “interest” in the project, hanging the taxpayers out to dry.

“Lobbyists are hogs at the public trough and our politicians bow to these special interests time and again. We need to hold them accountable for this highway robbery at the ballot box, or selling out the public interest for special interests will continue unabated,” Hall warned.

Hall says the bill doesn't give the public any protection, but shows TxDOT how it can just wait it out and then hand projects to the private companies. The bill also allows the whole evaluation process to be waived and TxDOT and public tolling entities can jump precipitously into CDAs.

Texas examples...

The recent I-820 deal in Tarrant County uses a host of public money (gas taxes, federal TIFIA loans, private activity bonds or PABs) to subsidize this PRIVATE toll contract, yet Cintra gets the right to toll Texans for 50 years and take all the profits out of state. In fact, TxDOT plunked down more cash for the project than did Cintra! (Read it here.)

The LBJ freeway CDA project to toll I-635 uses public employee pension funds to invest in the deal, with toll rates of 75 cents a mile and can rise monthly. TxDOT will even pay Cintra for the loss of the "prevailing toll" revenues due to HOV users and Cintra is guaranteed 12% to 23% PROFIT! (Read more here.)

Their models show only 10 & 11% of all traffic will be able to afford to take these billion-dollar toll lanes. The congestion, or variable, tolling actually jacks-up the toll rates to guarantee certain speeds or pay TxDOT a penalty for slower travel times. This means they purposely price cars off the toll lanes as a financial incentive.

“So what's the point of all this risky, multi-generational leveraged debt? Mobility or making money? We’re headed for an infrastructure bubble that is destined to fail, which is likely to ensure massive taxpayer bailouts when they do. All those cars not on the toll road will be sitting in traffic, contributing to our air quality issues and being late to work while still paying taxes for highways (gas tax) and not getting a thing for it,” Hall observes.

TURF is urging Texans to call their State Representative and tell them not to let private corporations takeover our public highways. Tell them “NO” to SB 404 and SB 17, and “NO” to more sweetheart deals.

Read how CDAs are failing all over the world on our CDA Fact Sheet here.

Terri Hall is the Founder of Texas TURF. TURF is a non-partisan grassroots group of citizens concerned about toll road policy and the Trans Texas Corridor. TURF promotes non-toll transportation solutions.

© 2009 TURF: www.texasturf.org

To search TTC News Archives click HERE

To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click HERE

Memo: TTC Lobbyist Gary Bushnell thanks Senator Robert Nichols for allowing TTC-69 CDA to move forward

Memo from lobbyist shows how Senator Robert Nichols sold his constituents down the road

Note: TURF obtained a memo from lobbyist Gary Bushell, with Alliance for I-69, revealing that he and ex-Transportation Commissioner turned Texas Senator, Robert Nichols, brokered a deal to allow the private toll contract with ACS of Spain for the Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69 to proceed as planned, despite the outcry of more than 28,000 Texans who went on the record against the project. (See the negotiated amendment to Nichol’s SB 17 that protects the private investor’s interest over the public interest HERE).

From: Jennifer Shepard [mailto:jennifer@jgshepard.com]

Sent: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 1:42 PM

To: a.johnson@txstbk.com; Bbrowder@fbtet.com; Ben Medina; Berdon Lawrence; Bill Summers; Billie Jones; Brenda Samford; Buck Boettcher; Buddy Power; Charles Thomas; Claudia Lobell; David Schroeder; david.anderson@co.panola.tx.us; Doug Pitcock; 'Eckels, Robert A.'; Harold Gleinser; Hawley Judy; jamesg@co.harrison.tx.us; jd.salinas@co.hidalgo.tx.us; 'Jeff Moseley'; Jim Edmonds; jjeffers@ci.nacogdoches.tx.us; John Windham; Jorge Verduzco; Judge Carlow; Judge Thompson; judgeterrysimpson@hotmail.com; Judy_Hawley@tmo.blackberry.net; Mayor Jack Gorden; mayor@cityoflufkin.com; Mike Allen; Mike Behrens; Nelda Martinez; Nelda Martinez; norman.brown@co.liberty.tx.us; 'Pat Townsend'; 'Perri D'Armond'; psepulveda@co.cameron.tx.us; rgsalinas@ci.laredo.tx.us; tomniskala@swbell.net; webbcountyjudge@webbcountytx.gov; angela@brownsvillechamber.com; David A. Garcia; Rudy Garza; Bob Lanham; Gary Kuhn; Jim Dannenbaum; Sonny Brown; Edward Martinez; Gary Bushell; Irina Emerson; Jan Shandley; Kara Atwood; Larry Meyers; 'Renee Thompson'; Tammy Head; 'Theresa Rodriguez'; Alan Clark; Arnold Saenz; Chandra Spenrath; Cindy Leleko; David Garza; david.silva@co.bee.tx.us; 'Hawley Judy'; James Carlow; James McAllen; Jim Edmonds; Jim Gonzales; John P. Thompson; Nolan
Alders; Steve Stewart; Trey Duhon; Will Armstrong_

Subject: FW: SB 17 Buyout


Amendment Memo

Below is an update on efforts to address concerns that the buyout provisions in SB17 could be detrimental to the development of I-69. It appears that an agreement has been made by legislative leaders to modify the language in SB17 in a manner that will enable the signing of the I-69 CDA to proceed.

Thank you to all the individuals that have communicated with legislators on this matter
on behalf of the Alliance for I-69 Texas.

Jennifer Shepard
Executive Director
Alliance for I-69 Texas
Phone/Fax 703-580-4416
Jennifer@jgshepard.com
GARY BUSHELL, L. L. P.
ATTORNEY & GOVERNMENT CONSULTANT
______________________________________________________
THE TAC BUILDING, SUITE 204 • 1210 SAN ANTONIO STREET •
AUSTIN, TEXAS 78701
Phone (512) 478-6661 • Fax (512) 478-6662 • Cell (512) 350-8652
gebushell@aol.com
Date: May 20, 2009
To: Membership Alliance for I-69 Texas

From: Gary Bushell
Gary Bushell, L.L.P.

Subject: SB 17 Buyout Amendment

I am pleased to report that we have reached an agreement with Senator Nichols on a buyout provision that allows the private sector equity investor to negotiate a provision in the CDA that provides protection of their position in the event they find themselves upside down on their debt to fair market value ratio at a buyout interval. I am recommending that we accept this provision.I will approach Representative ToddHunter to ask legislative counsel to prepare a floor amendment to SB 17 based on thisprovision. This provision plus the exemption amendments we saw passed last week should allow the I-69 CDA to go forward absent any other unforeseen adverse events.

I want to thank Senator Robert Nichols and his Chief of Staff, Steven Albright, for
making this outcome possible. They took our concerns seriously and guided us to a
solution. (See attached provision)

Gary Bushell
Attorney/Government Consultant
The TAC Building, Suite 204
1210 San Antonio Street
Austin Texas 78701
Phone (512)478-6661
Fax (512)478-6662
Cell (512)350-8652


© 2009 TURF: www.texasturf.org

To search TTC News Archives click HERE

To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click HERE

“The public is largely unaware of what our politicians are about to ram through. They think they took care of it two years ago..."

House set to sell Texas highways to foreign corporations, end private toll moratorium

Bill would go to Governor's desk and become law

5/19/09

Terri Hall
Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF)
Copyright 2009

(Austin, TX ) The Texas House is set to vote on whether to end the moratorium on private toll contracts and vote to re-authorize them for another 4 years. Comprehensive Development Agreements, called CDAs in Texas (also known as public private partnerships or PPPs), would hand over an untold number of our PUBLIC highways to PRIVATE, mostly foreign, corporations for a half century at a time. Senator John Carona’s bill, SB 404, is eligible to be taken up by the full House tomorrow.

“Texans don’t want their PUBLIC highway system sold to the highest bidder, nor do they want corporate-run toll roads that cost commuters 75 cents a mile to get to work,” said Terri Hall, Founder of Texas TURF.

Private toll road contracts are due to sunset this fall. In 2007, Texans stood-up and demanded a moratorium on CDAs and sent a bill to the Governor with a combined vote of 169-5.

“The public is largely unaware of what our politicians are about to ram through. They think they took care of it two years ago only to wake-up to find the nightmare continues unabated,” Hall notes.

These deals cost taxpayers 50% more, are failing all over the country, and result in extremely high tolls, like the DFW contracts just signed with Spain-based Cintra that will charge commuters 75 cents a mile to get to work. That’s $3,000 a year in new toll taxes.

In fact, just days ago, Florida’s “Alligator Alley” couldn’t get a single bidder to privatize that tollway. TURF thinks lawmakers need to wake-up to the economic realities that selling our highways to the highest bidder, and relying on rosy traffic counts that amount to pure speculation to make these multi-billion dollar boondoggles work will fall flat, leaving the taxpayers to bailout yet more corporations.

“Public infrastructure that Texans depend on for daily living shouldn’t be under the control of private companies whose primary motive, naturally, is profit, not the public interest,” states Hall.

TURF believes that especially in these economic times, the higher toll rates charged by these foreign toll operators are completely unsustainable. CDAs also eat-up our existing gas tax and other public funds to privatize and toll our public roads, taking away virtually ALL of our available funding for non-toll roads.

CDAs are the most risky and most expensive method of delivering toll projects. Testimony from Dennis Enright of Northwest Financial in New Jersey before the Senate Transportation Committee March 1, 2007, seems to have been quickly forgotten by the Legislature. Mr. Enright said there is no risk transfer to the private entity and that CDAs cost the taxpayers of a minimum of 50% more than public toll roads. Mr. Enright rightly called toll roads monopolies by their very nature. He also said it’s always best to keep these projects in the public NOT private sector.

A second bill, SB 17 authored by Senator Robert Nichols, is tied to Carona’s SB 404. If the House votes to re-authorize CDAs, it’s contingent upon SB 17 passing as well. SB 17 purports to protect the public from private toll contracts and make CDAs only a last resort. However, the way the current bill, SB 17, is structured, if the public toll entity cannot get the financing together to do a public toll road, they'd have to pass the project to TxDOT who would hand it to the private developer.

“The bill doesn't give the public any protection, but shows TxDOT how it can just wait it out and then hand projects to the private companies,” Hall points out.

The bill also allows the whole evaluation process to be waived and TxDOT and public tolling entities can jump precipitously into CDAs.

“So what’s the point of the bill, if they can waive the requirements and get a free pass?” asks Hall.

Texas examples...

• The recent I-820 deal in Tarrant County uses a host of public money (gas taxes, federal TIFIA loans, private activity bonds or PABs) to subsidize this PRIVATE toll contract, yet Cintra gets the right to toll Texans for 50 years and take all the profits out of state. In fact, TxDOT plunked down more cash for the project than did Cintra! (Read it here.)

• The LBJ freeway CDA project to toll I-635 uses public employee pension funds to invest in the deal, with toll rates of 75 cents a mile and can rise monthly. TxDOT will even pay Cintra for the loss of the "prevailing toll" revenues due to HOV users and Cintra is guaranteed 12% to 23% PROFIT! (Read more here.)

Their models show only 10 & 11% of all traffic will be able to afford to take these billion-dollar toll lanes. The congestion, or variable, tolling actually jacks-up the toll rates to guarantee certain speeds or pay TxDOT a penalty for slower travel times. This means they purposely price cars off the toll lanes as a financial incentive.

“So what's the point of all this risky, multi-generational leveraged debt? Mobility or making money? We’re headed for an infrastructure bubble that is destined to fail, which is likely to ensure massive taxpayer bailouts when they do. All those cars not on the toll road will be sitting in traffic, contributing to our air quality issues and being late to work while still paying taxes for highways (gas tax) and not getting a thing for it,” Hall observes.

TURF is urging Texans to call their State Representative and tell them not to let private corporations takeover our public highways. Tell them “NO” to SB 404 and SB 17, and “NO” to more sweetheart deals.

Read how CDAs are failing all over the world on our CDA Fact Sheet here.

Terri Hall is the Founder of Texas TURF. TURF is a non-partisan grassroots group of citizens concerned about toll road policy and the Trans Texas Corridor. TURF promotes non-toll transportation solutions. For more information, please visit their web site at: www.TexasTURF.org.

© 2009 TURF: www.texasturf.org

To search TTC News Archives click HERE

To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click HERE

“What the Senate is doing is exactly what the Sunset Commission said not to do, and that’s tweaking the status quo."

TxDOT off the House spit — for now

5/19/09

Ben Wear
Austin American-Statesman
Copyright 2009

With the House convening at 10 a.m., the barbeque of the Texas Department of Transportation in the House Transportation Committee has come to an end after almost two highly contentious hours.

House members, bluntly stated, are ticked. Ticked at TxDOT officials, ticked at their Senate brethren, who they claim are merely making cosmetic changes to TxDOT despite several years of bad blood and public unrest, and an interim period that included revelation of a $1.1 billion accounting error.

“What the Senate is doing is exactly what the Sunset Commission said not to do, and that’s tweaking the status quo,” said state Rep. Linda Harper-Brown, R-Dallas, a member of the House Transportation Committee.

The committee this morning spent its entire two-hour session grilling Texas Transportation Commission chairwoman Deirdre Delisi and TxDOT executive director Amadeo Saenz. The subject was House Bill 300, the sunset bill for TxDOT. The House passed it last week with 177 amendments, according to its Senate sponsor. Senators have now proposed another 60 amendments to a new version put forward by Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy.

All of those changes are subject to debate, and haggling when a Senate-House conference committee convenes in a few days after the Senate passes the bill. But the crux of the debate is clearly language that state Rep. Joe Pickett, D-El Paso, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, put in before HB 300 got to the House floor. It would have TxDOT allocate virtually all of its construction and maintenance money out to almost 50 planning areas around the state.

This would give much more control and power to local leaders. TxDOT, holder of that power now, understandably does not like this much. And the Senate it appears is on board with TxDOT on this, based on the idea that a statewide road system needs a powerful statewide transportation agency. But TxDOT officials also argued that federal law requires it and that the Pickett plan could cost the state federal transportation funds, though they hedged a bit on this legal point last week and again today. And that’s what has House members angry.

Pickett and Saenz spent several testy minutes batting around the question of just what such a requirement might mean.

“Amadeo, you’re still talking in circles,” Pickett said. ” You have tainted this whole plan that the House has put together. You’re masters of the spin, masters of the sky is falling.”

Ultimately, House and Senate conferees will cut out the middle men and women — TxDOT officials — and hash all this out. But what if they can’t? What then? In theory, an agency would cease to exist if not reauthorized by a sunset bill that becomes law.

State Rep. Carl Isett, R-Lubbock, co-chair of the sunset review commission that studied TxDOT in the interim between sessions and made numerous recommendations for change, said there is a backup bill that would simply extend TxDOT’s life for two more years and make it subject to another review in the next two years.

“That would be an exceptionally bad idea,” Isett said after the hearing, given that the state Health and Human Services Department is up for sunset review in the next two-year cycle. Spending the sunset staff’s time taking another whack at TxDOT would be difficult.

Pickett isn’t predicting that will occur.

“I want it worked out,” he said. In the hearing, given the seemingly intractable situation and hard feelings, he had a suggestion for how that might be accomplished.

“Maybe we should only hold the conference committee after 5 p.m. with adult beverages,” Pickett said. “We have to find a way to get through this.”

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"All too reminiscent of past TxDOT tactics."

Delisi feeling the heat in House Transportation

5/19/09

By Ben Wear
Austin American-Statesman
Copyright 2009

Texas Transportation Chairwoman Deirdre Delisi, her voice shaking at times, has been on the griddle for about 30 minutes before the House Transportation Committee.

The subject is House Bill 300, the TxDOT sunset bill, and TxDOT’s seeming coalition with the Senate in the ongoing fight over the bill.

House Transportation Committee chairman Joe Pickett and his fellow members are upset that the Senate wants to change much about the bill approved a week ago in the House. In particular, they don’t like that TxDOT officials indicated that if the House version of the bill is approved then federal transportation funds might be lost. That is in dispute, and even TxDOT says it isn’t sure.

But Pickett said the implication to the Senate committee last week was that “the sky is falling,” and that this sort of tactic is all too reminiscent of past TxDOT tactics.

“I’m just feeling that the House has been totally disrespected,” said state Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio, who serves on the transportation committee, the sunset review commission and the conference committee for the state budget. She said Delisi has not come to see her. “I am amazed.”

More to come later on this confrontation.

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“The lege has kicked the can again, so there’s no other options on the table besides toll roads."

San Antonio tollroad battle heats up in Austin

5/18/09

Greg M. Schwartz
San Antonio Current
Copyright 2009

The San Antonio-Bexar County Metropolitan Planning Organization held its regular Transportation Policy Board meeting this afternoon, with nary a mention of the controversial toll road issue that’s become a hot topic in Texas. But there’s a mad scramble in Austin surrounding two different bills that could authorize toll roads in the Lone Star State.

The only substantive opinion offered in today’s meeting was when board member and Bexar County Commissioner Nelson Wolff said, “I think we’re way overdue to index the gas tax.” This came in response to a presentation from David Casteel of the Texas Department of Transportation regarding how pavement quality is projected to decrease from 83 percent in good shape now to 79 percent in 2012, along with worsening congestion problems in need of a $15.6 billion fix.

But San Antonio Toll Party Regional Director Terri Hall says that an indexing bill to increase the gas tax by inflation rates died in the legislature last week.

“The lege has kicked the can again, so there’s no other options on the table besides toll roads,” said Hall, who was on her way back from lobbying in Austin against the toll road provisions in HB 300 and SB 220.

Hall’s group has been fighting toll road legislation since 2005. They argue that such tolls would give an unelected bureaucracy and the unelected Alamo Regional Mobility Authority the power to tax San Antonio drivers without limit and with no accountability to voters. The Toll Party calls this a classic case of taxation without representation and argues that the Transportation Commissioners appointed by Gov. Rick Perry are simply out to sell Texas’ highways to the highest bidder. Roadways in San Antonio in current toll plans include 281, 1604, I-35, Wurzbach Parkway, Bandera Road and I-10.

The Toll Party is asking Texans who oppose the toll roads to call Speaker of the House Joe Straus and ask him to kill SB 220 by keeping it off the legislative calendar. The bill would allow for the reconstruction of existing tax-financed state highways with tolls if at least the same number of untolled frontage lanes are also provided.

HB 300, aka the TxDOT Sunset bill, is a convoluted piece of legislation with a number of amendments that are being haggled over. Hall says that 50 percent of the bill is about toll roads and that the Senate has gutted the bill from protections against toll roads.

“All the protections got taken out in the Senate today. You can tell this is the chamber controlled by the governor to do his bidding,” said Hall.

She added that “the guy to watch in the House that’s doing the Governor’s bidding is Larry Phillips.” House Democratic Leader Jim Dunnam said last week that some members fear an amendment by Phillips would create new law that would cancel out amendments designed to limit toll roads.

Hall says that Phillips is also responsible for trying to sneak in an amendment that allows for private toll contracts called Comprehensive Development Agreements.

“These are sweetheart deals signing over our highways for up to 50 years at a time,” said Hall. She said the wording of the contracts allows contractors to prohibit the state from building competing roads, but that the CDAs will sunset this fall unless a law is passed this session to reauthorize them.

“Our fear is that [the legislature] won’t hold TxDOT on a short leash… that they’ll cave to the governor… and it will all come down to conference committee next week. That’s when all hell will break loose,” said Hall.

As to the local Metropolitan Planning Organization and it’s Transportation Policy Board, Hall says they’re in a holding pattern waiting for the incoming city council to decide who the next chair will be to replace the outgoing Sheila McNeil. Hall anticipates more hell breaking loose in the board’s plans to enact toll roads after the legislative session is over.


Posted by Gschwartz on 5/18/2009 6:51:22 PM


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