"The levees aren't the only concerns affecting the [Trinity Toll] road. No one has figured out a way to pay for it."

Trinity toll road faces levee work delays, 'cloudy' funding outlook

The prospects for the Trinity Parkway are dimmer now than they have been in years.

3/7/10

By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER
The Dallas Morning News
Copyright 2010

A sign near Dallas' east levee inside the Trinity River floodplain basin warns of bridge support construction ahead. Construction on the Trinity toll road that will run through this area is scheduled to start in mid-2012, but a city official said work on the flawed levees will push the road back.

A top city official said last week that the toll road again will be delayed by problems with the Trinity River levees. Work to shore up flood protection will push the road's schedule beyond the mid-2012 start date that Mayor Tom Leppert set last year when worries first surfaced about the integrity of the 80-year-old levees downtown.

Further delay would be the latest in a long list of financial, engineering and political snags, coming as the scarcity of transportation funding has left even some of the parkway's most ardent champions worried.

Leppert conceded last week that the funding outlook is "cloudy and challenged," by far the most pessimistic assessment of the toll project since he led nearly the whole of Dallas' government and business establishment to defeat a 2007 referendum aimed at killing it.

"The transportation picture is a difficult one statewide," he said in an interview. Other than recent stimulus aid, federal support for roads is waning, and "all of the projects have gotten cloudy," he said.

His comments follow recent statements by North Texas Tollway Authority leaders who stressed again that they won't be able to build the Trinity Parkway for at least five years – unless backers can secure up to $1 billion to help pay for it.

Meanwhile, Michael Morris, transportation director for the North Central Texas Council of Governments, said funding for the Trinity Parkway has grown "more difficult." And last week, Dallas County commissioners John Wiley Price and Mike Cantrell said they'd be surprised if the road were built within five years.

The road has been bedeviled by controversy since its inception, especially after planners decided it should be built between the levees that for decades have protected downtown Dallas from floods.

Since Leppert and his allies repelled the anti-road vote, problems with the levees have forced the city to push back its construction date.

After the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced last year that the levees were flawed, the city halted work on the road and other parts of what's known as the Trinity River Corridor Project, a grand parks and lakes recreation project.

Dallas City Council member David Neumann said an assessment of the levees since then has revealed that repairs will cost too much for the city to pay for out of existing funds. And, he said for the first time, fixing the levees will require a special bond election.

Kevin Craig, the corps' Trinity River project manager, said the city is right to say that the levee problems identified so far haven't ruled out the toll road.

But Neumann, chairman of the City Council's Trinity River project committee, said Dallas needs to target the levees.

"Our primary focus has been and will continue to be flood protection," he said. "I haven't relented one bit on any aspect of the Trinity River project, including the toll road, and neither has the professional staff, the City Council nor the mayor."

Still, "there will be some delay," he said, declining to estimate how long it might be.

Leppert said the city will have to spend money to repair the levees and focus on the sump system that moves groundwater into the levees during a flood.

"There are issues associated with the levees that are going to have to be addressed, and there is going to be a price tag," he said. "But the thing to remember is that we haven't spent any real money on these levees since 1950."

Empty buckets

The levees aren't the only concerns affecting the road. No one has figured out a way to pay for it.

For years, and throughout the 2007 campaign, city officials touted an understanding with the NTTA that limits Dallas' share of the road's cost to $84 million. But since then, the price has continued to grow, and NTTA has said its ability to pay the difference has disappeared "for the foreseeable future."

If the road costs $1.8 billion – and that number could easily increase with a delay – the city's share will amount to just a tiny fraction. NTTA said it will chip in every penny it can borrow against the road's future tolls, but that won't be nearly enough.

"Our role in this is a very small one," said NTTA executive director Allen Clemson, still in his first year on the job. "I have tried to be careful to manage expectations. The only thing we are bringing to the table is the funds supported by the tolls."

No exact figures on how much those tolls will generate are available. A year ago, NTTA's chief financial officer said the gap between what it can spend and the road's price tag could reach $1 billion.

At the time, Leppert said he was confident the road would be funded anyway.

"There are a lot of buckets to dip into," he said in February 2009. "We're absolutely committed to seeing this project through."

But those buckets are emptying quickly as other projects race ahead of the Trinity Parkway.

The federal government has sent about all the road dollars this way that it can spare, one of the Trinity Parkway's strongest backers said this past week.

U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas, said she'll fight to get federal dollars for the road. But given the size of the funding gap for the Trinity Parkway and the city's levee needs, expecting a big share from Washington probably is expecting too much, she said.

"Anything I would say that is positive, I couldn't stand behind," she said. "We are scraping the bottom here. I'd love to feel that we could do it. But right now it's just hard."

Several leaders stressed that funding could materialize unexpectedly.

Some state lawmakers again will fight for a bill next year so local leaders could ask voters to pay more for transportation, which could provide new funding for roads like the Trinity Parkway.

And Leppert said that despite the questions, the Trinity toll road enjoys strong support.

"So, in one sense the Trinity is cloudy and challenged, but it still remains a high, high priority," he said. "We're looking at a million people coming here every five to seven years, and if we want to keep growing, we have got to address surface transportation."

Bridging the gap

Besides, Clemson said NTTA has experience working with local, state and federal governments to try to find money for expensive projects.

"The NTTA faced a billion-dollar funding gap for the Southwest Parkway/Chisholm Trail toll project in Tarrant County only six months ago," he said. "Now that gap is $30 million. So it's just going to take a partnership."

But that road is not yet built, either – and it won't be until key commitments from state and federal agencies are finalized. And just to get it this far has required NTTA to call in most of its chits.

NTTA also expects to plow about $150 million of its resources into the Southwest Parkway, something it can't afford to do for the Trinity Parkway.

Leppert said he remains optimistic.

"The other pieces will have to be filled in like any other project," he said. "Of course, we hoped it would be under construction by now, and now we're in a position where we still won't be in construction for the next year, either."

For now, as the city begins reviewing the early feedback from the levee assessment from its engineering contractor, Leppert said he doesn't expect anything to derail the road entirely.

"There is nothing there [in the levees study] that is going to be a structural impediment to going forward with the project," he said. "All of the flood-control issues will have to be addressed first. That is the way it has always been, and the way it is now. What we are trying to do is simply push it forward as far as we can."

© 2010 The Dallas Morning News: www.dallasnews.com

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"Perry has held elected office in Texas for 35 years and somehow succeeds, year after year, in positioning himself as an outsider."

Perry is vulnerable, but White has work to do

3/07/10

Jan Jarboe Russell
San Antonio Express-News
Copyroght 2010

Given Gov. Rick Perry's skillful evisceration of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Republican primary last week — and the anti-Obama sentiment in Texas — conventional wisdom suggests that the November governor's race is Perry's to lose.

Former Houston Mayor Bill White's chance to oust Perry depends on several factors: Can he persuade Republican moderates who are angry with Perry for vilifying Hutchison to cross over?

Can White make the case that Perry, a 10-year incumbent, needs to be replaced and that White, a moderate Democrat, is the one to replace him? Can White raise enough money to compete against Perry?

And, finally, a single statistic: 39 percent.

A 39 percent plurality is how Perry won in 2006 against Democrat Chris Bell, Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who was a strong independent, and Kinky Friedman, an effective spoiler.

The fact that 50 percent of Texans did not support Perry's harsh, hard-right agenda four years ago is good news for White. Perry's recent rhetoric about secession and his bragging that Texas is “recession-proof” — at a time when 1 million Texans are out of work — make him a hero to the GOP's right wing. But those aspects also make him vulnerable in a general election.

The matchup between Perry and White will not just be a choice between Gov. Good Hair, as the columnist Molly Ivins used to say about Perry, and Gov. No Hair. It also will be a battle between Perry's pressing of rural Texas values (states' rights, guns, God, the pose of aggressive unsophistication) and White's urban Texas values (brash big-city brains, pragmatism, a Texas rich in education and culture, as well as a mythic past).

Demographically, the advantage should be White's. The last time a census showed Texas as a predominantly rural state was in 1940. But nostalgia and mist-shrouded caricature hold powerful sway. White will have to find his own version of the tired but effective “Don't Mess with Texas” refrain.

For starters, he can decry the state's debt, which has doubled under Perry's watch; toll the bell over the governor's land grab for the Trans-Texas Corridor fiasco; and criticize him for refusing $555 million in federal stimulus money in unemployment benefits.

In his victory speech last week, White struck a small blow for Texas values when he said each generation of Texans wants a better quality of life for the next. In today's Texas, with growing high school dropout rates, a stagnant economy and rising taxes, that's unlikely.

Opportunity is an urban Texas value; separatism is a rural one.

But White will have to do much better than that to win. Perry will come after White with all he's got and paint him as an Obama Democrat. To win, White will have to convince the great middle in Texas — moderates who don't like the left or the right — that he is a Democrat they can trust. It won't be easy.

Then again, stranger things have happened. Perry has held elected office in Texas for 35 years and somehow succeeds, year after year, in positioning himself as an outsider.

jrussell@express-news.net

© 2010 San Antonio Express-News: www.mysanantonio.com

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"A near majority of dedicated Republican primary voters cast ballots that would have ended Perry's leadership."

Conservative Texans want more than photo-ops



3/6/10

Jonathan Gurwitz
San Antonio Express-News
Copyright 2010

When the 2009 regular session of the Texas Legislature concluded, Gov. Rick Perry came to San Antonio to affix his signature to a major property rights measure. In front of the Alamo, Perry appeared to sign legislation putting a constitutional amendment on the November 2009 ballot that sharply restricted the circumstances under which state and local government could exercise eminent domain.

The ceremony presented a great photo-op: a conservative governor affirming an essential right, drawing a line in the sand on eminent domain in the shadow of the Cradle of Texas Liberty. The ceremony was also deceptive.

What Perry purported to sign was a joint resolution passed by a two-thirds majority in both houses of the Texas Legislature. Such measures circumvent the governor's office and automatically appear on the ballot in the next general election. Voters approved it in November with 81 percent support.

The decision of conservative Texas lawmakers to bypass the governor on eminent domain reform in 2009 was deliberate. Two years earlier, Perry had vetoed an even stronger affirmation of property rights drawn up in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's Kelo decision.

The ostensible explanation for Perry's 2007 veto was that a key provision would have vastly inflated costs for new road construction. Beneath this explanation lay additional bothersome issues that put him at odds with conservative Texans.

The 2007 eminent domain reform effort conflicted with Perry's plans — since abandoned — for the Trans Texas Corridor, a 4,000-mile multi-modal transportation network that would have necessitated the state's seizure of as much as 600,000 acres of private property. The project generated even greater controversy because of its heavy reliance on toll roads; because a former Perry staffer worked as a consultant for the Spanish company, Cintra, that won the rights to develop the corridor; and because Perry fought a ruling by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott that compelled the Texas Department of Transportation to lift a veil of secrecy on the contract's details.

Like the signing in front of the Alamo, Perry's victory in Tuesday's GOP gubernatorial primary looked impressive. He clawed back from a 25-point deficit in the polls to avoid a primary runoff, squeaking out a bare majority of 51 percent. But another way to look at Tuesday's results is to recognize that a near majority of dedicated Republican primary voters cast ballots that would have ended Perry's leadership.

Why would they do so? Start with property rights, toll roads and the Trans Texas Corridor. Add in his executive order requiring that all sixth grade girls in Texas receive the Gardasil vaccine for a sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer, an affront to parental rights that was rescinded by the Legislature. And, by the way, another former Perry staffer worked as a lobbyist for the vaccine's maker, Merck & Co.

Should Perry be concerned that a sizeable number of conservative voters might stay home in November? Preliminary polls suggest he has a comfortable lead over the Democratic nominee, former Houston Mayor Bill White. No Democrat has won a statewide election in the Lone Star State since 1994. It seems unlikely that record would be broken during a year in which a Republican prevailed in Massachusetts.

Then again, few people could have anticipated the tectonic shift in party politics over the last year. A similar shift could just as easily happen over the next eight months.

Perry is a good campaigner with even better political instincts. If his instincts are correct now, they'll tell him that it's not enough to look good in front of the cameras railing against the liberal excesses of Washington, bailouts and the stimulus. In considering their votes for governor, conservative Texans want more than photo-ops.

© 2010 San Antonio Express-News: www.mysanantonio.com

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Bill White: "Debt has almost doubled in Austin under Gov. Perry....They think you will not notice this!"

White says Texas debt has doubled under Perry



3/4/10

Politifact Texas
Copyright 2010

Race for governor, Round 2.

Gov. Rick Perry bested U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and underdog Debra Medina in the Republican primary while former Houston Mayor Bill White walloped businessman Farouk Shami for the Democratic nomination.

Celebrating separately Tuesday night, both candidates rallied their respective supporters.

For Perry, that meant warning Washington to "stop messing with Texas," a tenet of his primary campaign. White, meanwhile, started to niggle his new opponent — suggesting Perry and his consultants point to national debt to distract voters from Texas' record.

"Debt has almost doubled in Austin under Gov. Perry," White said. "They think you will not notice this!"

Game on.

Is White right?

We checked with the Texas Bond Review Board, which oversees the state's issuance of most bonds used to fund numerous activities, from helping local governments with economic development to building prisons to making housing loans to veterans. According to the board's annual reports, Texas had $34.08 billion in outstanding bonds and notes as of Aug. 31 — the end of the 2009 fiscal year.

Perry took office Dec. 21, 2000 — nearly five months into fiscal year 2001. At the end of that year, Texas had $13.7 billion in outstanding bonds and notes. Adjusting for inflation, that would have equaled $16.6 billion in 2009.

But there's a subset of state debt that hasn't surged, Perry's campaign pointed out — currently $3.07 billion to support parks and for construction of state facilities, among other activities. That debt has decreased by about 6 percent since 2001.

Then there's debt to be repaid with program revenue. For example, interest on student loans is used to repay the bond that funded it without the state having to commit general revenue. That "self-supporting" debt has increased by 173 percent since 2001.

Regardless, Dale Craymer, president of the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association, noted that lots of things have probably doubled since Perry became governor. After all, he's held the office for nearly a decade.

Eva DeLuna Castro, a senior budget analyst at the Center for Public Policy Priorities, also said it'd be a stretch to say Perry was solely responsible for all those debt decisions.

"Voters do that, and the Legislature," she said. "So we're all responsible."

Perry is one of four members on the Bond Review Board, which ultimately approves most state debt transactions. And over the years, we found, he was a leading advocate for expanding state debts to pay for transportation projects and to combat cancer.

It turns out that transportation is responsible for most of the added debt load under Perry, increasing from basically nothing in 2000 to $11.8 billion outstanding as of Aug. 31 2009. That's because before 2001, the Texas Department of Transportation lacked the authority to borrow money to pay for road projects. Voters gave it that power in 2001 when they approved a constitutional amendment that Perry supported.

Addressing transportation in his 2001 state of the state speech, Perry said, "I would like for both chambers to pass a bonding program to jump-start construction across our state."

In 2007, voters also passed a constitutional amendment to create and fund the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas with $3 billion in bonds over 10 years, starting in January 2010. Perry had championed the cause with cyclist and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong and others.

Where does that leave us?

It's clear the amount of state debt has more than doubled since Perry became governor.

We rate White's statement as True.

© 2010 Politifact: www.politifact.com

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"The aversion to paying 75 cents a mile to a foreign company to simply drive on a public road hasn't faded, nor will it."

Elections come & go, but resistance to toll taxes continues

3/4/10

by Terri Hall
Texans United for Reform and Freedom
Copyright 2010

If there's one thing we've learned in the 5 years we've been fighting to keep our freeways toll-free, it's that elections don't matter near as much as the people themselves staying engaged in the ongoing battles against our own government.

We've passed the era where citizens could get by with complacency, we're in a new ballgame now. After years of neglect and trusting our elected representatives to do the right thing when no one's looking, it's obvious to even the casual observer that those days are long gone, and we now face the Goliath of entrenched special interests and lobbyists who really run the show.

As one of our supporters likes to put it, we need a permanent, grassroots lobbying class for "we the people."

One thing about elections remains the same...the same recycled candidates show-up in office year after year. Though on rare occasions the good guys and bad guys trade places, by and large, for a litany of reasons I won't go into here, it's those who have been corrupted and who have no qualms about ignoring and exploiting the taxpayers that remain the powerbrokers. The kingmakers simply won't tolerate the incorruptible being in charge. So we've learned to work hard for the good guys, but to expect the bad guys to still be there when the dust settles.

Issue-based activism works

The grassroots have shown that we can mount an offensive and successfully defeat toll-related issues one at a time, year after year, by constant vigilance. The bad guys only have to win once to get their pay-dirt, but the taxpayers have to win time after time, year after year to defeat the litany of bad legislation and policies that hit the pipeline at breathtaking speed.

The aversion to paying 75 cents a mile to a foreign company to simply drive on a public road hasn't faded, nor will it. The waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer money by an out-of-control transportation department can and must be fixed. With the taxpayers on high alert, we can return to a sensible, sustainable, and affordable transportation policy in Texas, one without the highest tax on the table...tolls.

One of the biggest challenges in unseating incumbents isn't so much the name recognition and hefty campaign coffers (though these things can be enormous obstacles) as it is the growing number of political favors and payback the politician doles out the longer he's in office. It makes for highly motivated voters beholden to incumbents who eagerly head to the polls to re-elect the guy who is the gift that keeps on giving to one's industry or pet program.

Corporate welfare

I sat down and read an issue of the Business Journal this week. A sizable chunk of the stories involved businesses who owe their success to taxpayer handouts. One business that experienced explosive growth (5,900 percent) exclusively provides services for the federal government. One article brazenly offered tips on how to secure contracts from local bond elections (and avoid pesky obstacles like competition) by positioning oneself early for favorable treatment by being a team player and helping the bond election pass.

For all the mudslinging about social welfare programs, corporate welfare costs the taxpayers dearly. The self dealings that often involve the revolving door between private sector and public sector positions, jumping between the two in order to secure government funding or land a government contract by being well-connected, often exploits taxpayers with backroom deals made in secret with lobbyists. Instead of standing in line at a welfare office, they have slick web sites that tell them of all the upcoming bond elections, how much taxpayer money is on the table, and what contracts are up for grabs. This ain't capitalism, rather, it nicely explains the origin of the phrase: "hogs at the trough."

The sooner we, the taxpayers, identify the enemy, the sooner we defeat the cronyism that grips the "system." With our freedom to travel at risk and the threat of a complete financial meltdown of the infrastructure bubble (that will be too big to let fail) our politicians are creating with massive, multi-leveraged toll road debt, we cannot and will NOT relent until freedom is secured.

© 2010 Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom: texasturf.org

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Perry primary win is a victory for corporate toll road profiteers

Perry win in Texas is one for tolls, P3s

3/3/10

TOLLROADS news
Copyright 2010

Good news for the future of tolling and P3s in Texas is the decisive win by incumbent Governor Rick Perry over centrist US senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and Debra Medina, a fringe rightwinger.

Both his challengers for Republican primary for governor tried to demagogue against Perry on tolls. Both promised voters tighter restrictions on tolling, including P3s.

Perry won 51% of the votes to Hutchinson 30%, Medina 19% in polling yesterday. Local pundits had been predicting a Hutchison win early in the race.

The state legislature remains less friendly, but at least the GOP primary indicates that anti-toll talk in Texas as expressed by both Hutchinson and Medina is no sure means to political advancement.

© 2010 TOLLROADSnews: www.tollroadsnews.com

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