From the Minutes of the Texas Transportation Commission, August 27, 2009
Chapter 1 – Management and Chapter 24 – Trans-Texas Corridor (MO)
Amendments to §1.82, Statutory Advisory Committee Operations and
Procedures, §1.84, Statutory Advisory Committees, and §1.85, DepartmentAdvisory Committees (Advisory Committees); and Amendments to §24.13, Corridor Planning and Development (Development of Facilities) The Secretary of State currently publishes open meeting notices on the Secretary's website rather than in the Texas Register. The amendments conform the rules to the Secretary's practice. Due to recent legislation, the amendments also change the composition and selection of the public transportation advisory committee. Finally, the amendments change the rules governing advisory committees to extend committee sunset dates for committees under Chapter 1 and to provide for committee sunset dates for corridor segment committees under Chapter 24.
Showing posts with label Trans Texas Corridor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trans Texas Corridor. Show all posts
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Where to find public notices of Trans Texas Corridor
If you have been looking for public notices regarding the Trans Texas Corridor in the Texas Register as was prescribed by State Law, you probably had a hard time finding them. Those notices, under the Perry Administration, were sometimes posted on the Secretary of State's website. Now the law has been changed to comply with practice since practice did not comply with the law.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
ACTION ALERT: TX Trans. Commission WORKSHOP Online (Wed) afternoon at 1:30
By Martha Estes - Feb. 25, 2009
Texas Transportation Commission Workshop (Wed) afternoon Feb. 25 at 1:30.
Fourth on Agenda:
2b. Discussion of the Department's plans for the use of Texas' portion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for transportation related activities.
On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed legislation enacting the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which created an economic stimulus package aimed at bolstering the economy through activities that will create new jobs. One element of this package provides investment in transportation infrastructure projects. TxDOT is working with the Texas Division of the Federal Highway Administration and Texas' metropolitan planning organizations, tolling authorities and transit providers to develop a list of potential projects that would qualify for funding from the stimulus package. This discussion item will allow the commission to discuss the activities TxDOT and our partners have taken thus far and the planned approach we will take to select projects from across the state to recommend to the commission for funding from the program.
Live streaming Video of the Workshop discussion
Texas Transportation Commission Workshop (Wed) afternoon Feb. 25 at 1:30.
Fourth on Agenda:
2b. Discussion of the Department's plans for the use of Texas' portion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for transportation related activities.
On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed legislation enacting the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which created an economic stimulus package aimed at bolstering the economy through activities that will create new jobs. One element of this package provides investment in transportation infrastructure projects. TxDOT is working with the Texas Division of the Federal Highway Administration and Texas' metropolitan planning organizations, tolling authorities and transit providers to develop a list of potential projects that would qualify for funding from the stimulus package. This discussion item will allow the commission to discuss the activities TxDOT and our partners have taken thus far and the planned approach we will take to select projects from across the state to recommend to the commission for funding from the program.
Live streaming Video of the Workshop discussion
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
TTC Dead -- New Plan announced
TxDOT - For Immediate Release - January 6, 2009
TxDOT Announces Updated Vision for Trans-Texas Corridor New document describes changes to original development plans, responds to public concern
AUSTIN - Before approximately 1,200 attendees at the fourth annual Texas Transportation Forum Tuesday, Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Executive Director Amadeo Saenz unveiled Innovative Connectivity in Texas|Vision 2009, outlining updated guidelines for development of the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC). The document describes the transformation of the original TTC vision, appropriately altered with regard to corridor width, transportation mode, use of existing facilities, timeline for development, and level of involvement of local officials and citizens in planning major corridor facilities in their communities.
"Texans have spoken, and we've been listening," said Saenz. "Citizens across the state have had good ideas about how Texas roads can better serve Texas communities. I believe this transformed vision for the TTC and other major corridor development goes a long way toward addressing the concerns we've heard over the past several years."
TxDOT agrees with many of the recommendations of the I-35 and I-69 Corridor Advisory Committees, citizen advisory groups created to participate in planning transportation projects along the two TTC project corridors already under way. Major corridor projects will now be comprised of several small segments closer to 600 feet wide and will no longer be called the Trans-Texas Corridor. Instead, the department will use the highway numbers originally associated with each segment, such as I-69, SH 130 and Loop 9. In addition, TxDOT will seek guidance from Corridor Segment Advisory Committees, comprised of citizens from affected communities along each corridor segment, to design and build facilities that meet the needs of the region, whether that includes road, freight rail, commuter rail and so on.
"I'm pleased with the level of public involvement called for in this document," added Saenz. "I'm hopeful that, working together, we'll develop a corridor that serves both the economic interests of the state and the needs of each individual community."
The original vision for the TTC, outlined in Crossroads of the Americas: Trans-Texas Corridor Plan, called for a corridor of up to 1,200 feet in width that would allow for several modes of transportation in addition to utility transmission facilities. Since the concept was publicly introduced in 2002, communities along the TTC-35 and I-69/TTC study areas have frequently voiced concerns over the corridor width, and viewed the idea as a one-size-fits-all concept, inappropriate for a
state as diverse as Texas.
The corridors are still in early phases of development. As each corridor continues to undergo federal environmental impact studies, the public will play a significant role in shaping the development and path of the roadway. These environmental impact studies and input received from public participation in Corridor Segment Advisory Committees, Corridor Advisory Committees and town hall meetings will eventually determine the final route alignment to satisfy the state’s
transportation needs.
View the complete document
For more information contact TxDOT Government and Public Affairs Division at (512)463-6086
TxDOT Announces Updated Vision for Trans-Texas Corridor New document describes changes to original development plans, responds to public concern
AUSTIN - Before approximately 1,200 attendees at the fourth annual Texas Transportation Forum Tuesday, Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Executive Director Amadeo Saenz unveiled Innovative Connectivity in Texas|Vision 2009, outlining updated guidelines for development of the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC). The document describes the transformation of the original TTC vision, appropriately altered with regard to corridor width, transportation mode, use of existing facilities, timeline for development, and level of involvement of local officials and citizens in planning major corridor facilities in their communities.
"Texans have spoken, and we've been listening," said Saenz. "Citizens across the state have had good ideas about how Texas roads can better serve Texas communities. I believe this transformed vision for the TTC and other major corridor development goes a long way toward addressing the concerns we've heard over the past several years."
TxDOT agrees with many of the recommendations of the I-35 and I-69 Corridor Advisory Committees, citizen advisory groups created to participate in planning transportation projects along the two TTC project corridors already under way. Major corridor projects will now be comprised of several small segments closer to 600 feet wide and will no longer be called the Trans-Texas Corridor. Instead, the department will use the highway numbers originally associated with each segment, such as I-69, SH 130 and Loop 9. In addition, TxDOT will seek guidance from Corridor Segment Advisory Committees, comprised of citizens from affected communities along each corridor segment, to design and build facilities that meet the needs of the region, whether that includes road, freight rail, commuter rail and so on.
"I'm pleased with the level of public involvement called for in this document," added Saenz. "I'm hopeful that, working together, we'll develop a corridor that serves both the economic interests of the state and the needs of each individual community."
The original vision for the TTC, outlined in Crossroads of the Americas: Trans-Texas Corridor Plan, called for a corridor of up to 1,200 feet in width that would allow for several modes of transportation in addition to utility transmission facilities. Since the concept was publicly introduced in 2002, communities along the TTC-35 and I-69/TTC study areas have frequently voiced concerns over the corridor width, and viewed the idea as a one-size-fits-all concept, inappropriate for a
state as diverse as Texas.
The corridors are still in early phases of development. As each corridor continues to undergo federal environmental impact studies, the public will play a significant role in shaping the development and path of the roadway. These environmental impact studies and input received from public participation in Corridor Segment Advisory Committees, Corridor Advisory Committees and town hall meetings will eventually determine the final route alignment to satisfy the state’s
transportation needs.
View the complete document
For more information contact TxDOT Government and Public Affairs Division at (512)463-6086
Thursday, August 7, 2008
TTC-69 lobby group, Alliance for I-69, takes their show on the road
By Terri Hall - TURF - Aug. 9, 2008
Alliance for I-69 is the biggest pro-TTC-69 lobby group in the state. Their chief lobbyist, Gary Bushell, is also the same lobbyist TxDOT illegally hired with taxpayer money to lobby elected officials in the path of the TTC-69. Bushell is also a notable campaign contributor to MANY politicians, Bexar County Rep. Frank Corte among them. Today, Alliance for I-69 teamed up with Zachry, who along with Spanish company ACS won the development rights to TTC-69 in June, hit Victoria with their dog and pony show, and they’ve been in Austin hitting up lawmakers, too. Their logo on the material they left with lawmakers even has a Canadian, Mexican, and U.S flag morphed together, yet TxDOT denies the Trans Texas Corridor is about NAFTA, international trade, the movement of freight/goods, or the economic integration of the three countries.
Read more in TURF and in the Victoria Advocate
Alliance for I-69 is the biggest pro-TTC-69 lobby group in the state. Their chief lobbyist, Gary Bushell, is also the same lobbyist TxDOT illegally hired with taxpayer money to lobby elected officials in the path of the TTC-69. Bushell is also a notable campaign contributor to MANY politicians, Bexar County Rep. Frank Corte among them. Today, Alliance for I-69 teamed up with Zachry, who along with Spanish company ACS won the development rights to TTC-69 in June, hit Victoria with their dog and pony show, and they’ve been in Austin hitting up lawmakers, too. Their logo on the material they left with lawmakers even has a Canadian, Mexican, and U.S flag morphed together, yet TxDOT denies the Trans Texas Corridor is about NAFTA, international trade, the movement of freight/goods, or the economic integration of the three countries.
I-69 partners make presentation
Victoria Advocate - August 05, 2008
The Alliance for I-69 Texas and U.S.-owned company Zachry American Infrastruture have partnered up and are traveling across the state giving presentations on I-69. On Tuesday, they stopped in Victoria.
During the short initial meeting, city leaders met with Gary Bushnell of the advocacy group and Gary Kuhn, senior project manager for Zachry, the firm awarded the contract for the superhighway.
The Interstate 69 corridor project is a proposed multi-use, statewide network of transportation routes in Texas that will incorporate existing and new highways, railways, utility right-of-ways and toll roads. Zachry was awarded the contract for the project in June by the Texas Transportation Commission.
The presentation focused on ways Victoria could use I-69 to their economic advantage and about the potential the corridor has in terms of new transportation technology.
According to Kuhn, Zachry is working on a master plan that takes into account local projects Texas communities want to do and how the company can help improve local economic development. Kuhn also discussed Zachry’s proposal for a freight shuttle that would go alongside the existing route of U.S. 77 in Victoria. According to Kuhn, the freight shuttle combines the best characteristics of the rail and truck transportation, but is more efficient, cheaper and causes less pollution. He added that it would run on electromagnetic pulses that create motion and a freight shuttle system across Texas could be up and running by as early as 2015.
“We’ve been working with the Alliance to visit all the communities involved in the I-69 Interstate. There is a lot of collaboration that needs to take place among these communities,” Kuhn said. “It’s a kind of one for all and all for one deal.”
The meeting included Mayor Will Armstrong, Dale Fowler of the Victoria Economic Development Corp. and Lee Swearingen of the Victoria County Navigation District.
Read more in TURF and in the Victoria Advocate
Friday, January 25, 2008
SMOKING GUN -- TxDOT confronted with docs showing they hired lobbyists
By Terri Hall - TURF - Jan. 23, 2008
Houghton admits TxDOT hired lobbyists, defended it, and admitted to doing it personally, too!
Hempstead, TX, January 22, 2008 – TxDOT was confronted by TURF Board Member Hank Gilbert at tonight's Town Hall Meeting in Hempstead about it hiring 4 federal lobbyists (paid $5,000 and $10,000 monthly retainers ) Chad Bradley, Drew Maloney, Garry Mauro, Billy Moore and one state lobbyist with Alliance for I-69, Gary Bushell, to lobby elected officials and solicit them in selling the public on the controversial Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69 privatized toll project.
On March 23, 2007, Bushell met directly with 4 Waller County Commissioners Glenn Beckendorff, Bill Eplen, Terry Harrison, and Milton Whiting. Apparently at the first meeting, Bushell didn't identify himself as a lobbyist as required by law. He failed to declare that he was a lobbyist until the second meeting with commissioners when two TxDOT personnel accompanied Bushell.
It apparently didn’t do TxDOT any good since the Waller County Commissioners have since passed a resolution against the Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69 project coming through Waller County. But that’s not the case in other meetings where elected officials raced to the microphone to sing the praises of the TTC-69 to their constituents like they did in Texarkana, January 15.
As part of TURF’s lawsuit against the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) for its ad campaign to advocate toll roads and the Trans Texas Corridor (in violation of Texas Government Code Chapter 556), new evidence uncovered this taxpayer-funded lobbying by TxDOT.
TURF discovered detailed logs showing a concerted campaign to lobby politicians, particularly newly elected officials, which is a BIG no-no for a state agency that must remain apolitical. Bushell personally lobbied more than two-dozen elected officials in the path of TTC-69 prior to the Town Hall meetings.
Houghton admits TxDOT violated the law!
At the packed Town Hall meeting in Hempstead tonight (estimated 800-1,000 people in attendance), Transportation Commissioner Ted Houghton said he also personally met with every county judge in the path of the Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69 as he defended the “necessity” of TxDOT hiring lobbyists to “lobby” elected officials (he used that exact word multiple times).
This action is in DIRECT VIOLATION OF THE LAW!
Zachry sends observer
Trouble in the private toll paradise?
Another first at tonight’s Town Hall was the presence of a Zachry employee taking meticulous notes on his laptop. Zachry Construction is one of the private consortiums seeking the development rights to the TTC 69 project.
“This is a first,” said Hank Gilbert, a TURF Board member attending the Town Halls. “I’ve never seen a Zachry employee at a single public meeting in my 3 1/2 years fighting this thing.”
This may indicate trouble in Governor’s Perry’s world of private sector control of our public highways. The 80th Legislature passed a private toll moratorium (SB 792) in 2007 and the public-private partnership lobby has been jittery ever since. The public opposition is growing more fierce and more organized.
TURF also discovered in a memo to TxDOT dated November 8, 2007, that Rodman & Co. marketing gurus seem to have drafted quotes on behalf of elected officials in order to place them as positive quotes in press releases about the TTC-69 project.
TxDOT also hired Governor Rick Perry’s political polling outfit, Bacelice & Associates, to conduct a poll that included asking one’s political party affiliation in its questions.
“What does a person’s political party have to do with a supposed ‘public information’ campaign? Nothing, it’s clear this ad campaign is about pushing a political agenda and brainwashing the public with pro-toll talking points like ‘tolls are better than gas taxes to fund roads'. C’mon, this is politics run amok and an agency run amok. Who’s going to rein them in?” criticizes Hall.
“TxDOT has patently and repeatedly denied that they’ve been illegally lobbying elected officials, yet they secretly and knowingly hired registered lobbyists to do the Governor’s dirty work in ramming toll roads and this Trans Texas Corridor down the taxpayers’ throats! It’s an outrage and we intend to put a stop to it since no one else will,” promises Hall.
“The LAW forbids TxDOT from using taxpayer money for a political purpose, only to find they’ve blown millions on PR firms and are currently using OUR MONEY to put up more than 2 dozen TxDOT employees as they galavant all over the state in a series of Town Hall meetings. The Town Halls are for purely political purposes, and they’re more akin to a propaganda-filled dog and pony show than a real dialogue giving the public veto power over this project,” notes Hall.
TxDOT is holding this series of Town Hall Meetings ahead of the official LEGAL public hearings for TTC-69 in order to win over an unsuspecting public and to divert critics AWAY from registering their opposition on the official LEGAL record at the public hearings to follow.
TxDOT’s behavior demonstrates why there are laws prohibiting the government from using its power and OUR money against the taxpayer. The citizens have the deck stacked against them when their own government forcibly takes their money and uses it to clobber them.
What TxDOT calls “outreach” is, in reality, an ad campaign (www.KeepTexasMoving.com) using public relations firms and political strategists to “sell” the public on a privatized, tolled trade corridor from Laredo to Texarkana.
Like TTC-35, TTC-69 plans to convert some existing highways into privately controlled toll roads, making Texas taxpayers pay twice for the same stretch of road as well as to force Texas landowners to give-up their farms and ranches for a massive new stretch of road in order to complete the entire TTC-69 project.
Read the latest in TURF’s lawsuit against TxDOT’s misuse of taxpayer money for an ad campaign advocating tolls and against its lobbying activities here.
Read TURF’s formal complaint against TxDOT’s illegal use of taxpayer money filed with Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle here.
Houghton admits TxDOT hired lobbyists, defended it, and admitted to doing it personally, too!
Hempstead, TX, January 22, 2008 – TxDOT was confronted by TURF Board Member Hank Gilbert at tonight's Town Hall Meeting in Hempstead about it hiring 4 federal lobbyists (paid $5,000 and $10,000 monthly retainers ) Chad Bradley, Drew Maloney, Garry Mauro, Billy Moore and one state lobbyist with Alliance for I-69, Gary Bushell, to lobby elected officials and solicit them in selling the public on the controversial Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69 privatized toll project.
On March 23, 2007, Bushell met directly with 4 Waller County Commissioners Glenn Beckendorff, Bill Eplen, Terry Harrison, and Milton Whiting. Apparently at the first meeting, Bushell didn't identify himself as a lobbyist as required by law. He failed to declare that he was a lobbyist until the second meeting with commissioners when two TxDOT personnel accompanied Bushell.
It apparently didn’t do TxDOT any good since the Waller County Commissioners have since passed a resolution against the Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69 project coming through Waller County. But that’s not the case in other meetings where elected officials raced to the microphone to sing the praises of the TTC-69 to their constituents like they did in Texarkana, January 15.
As part of TURF’s lawsuit against the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) for its ad campaign to advocate toll roads and the Trans Texas Corridor (in violation of Texas Government Code Chapter 556), new evidence uncovered this taxpayer-funded lobbying by TxDOT.
TURF discovered detailed logs showing a concerted campaign to lobby politicians, particularly newly elected officials, which is a BIG no-no for a state agency that must remain apolitical. Bushell personally lobbied more than two-dozen elected officials in the path of TTC-69 prior to the Town Hall meetings.
Houghton admits TxDOT violated the law!
At the packed Town Hall meeting in Hempstead tonight (estimated 800-1,000 people in attendance), Transportation Commissioner Ted Houghton said he also personally met with every county judge in the path of the Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69 as he defended the “necessity” of TxDOT hiring lobbyists to “lobby” elected officials (he used that exact word multiple times).
This action is in DIRECT VIOLATION OF THE LAW!
Texas Government Code:
§ 556.005. Employment of Lobbyist
(a) A state agency may not use appropriated money to employ, as a regular full-time or part-time or contract employee, a person who is required by Chapter 305 to register as a lobbyist. Except for an institution of higher education as defined by Section 61.003, Education Code, a state agency may not use any money under its control to employ or contract with an individual who is required by Chapter 305 to register as a lobbyist.
"Where's the Travis County District Attorney? TxDOT has now publicly admitted, on camera, that it has violated the LAW!" says an incredulous Terri Hall, Founder of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (or TURF).
Zachry sends observer
Trouble in the private toll paradise?
Another first at tonight’s Town Hall was the presence of a Zachry employee taking meticulous notes on his laptop. Zachry Construction is one of the private consortiums seeking the development rights to the TTC 69 project.
“This is a first,” said Hank Gilbert, a TURF Board member attending the Town Halls. “I’ve never seen a Zachry employee at a single public meeting in my 3 1/2 years fighting this thing.”
This may indicate trouble in Governor’s Perry’s world of private sector control of our public highways. The 80th Legislature passed a private toll moratorium (SB 792) in 2007 and the public-private partnership lobby has been jittery ever since. The public opposition is growing more fierce and more organized.
TURF also discovered in a memo to TxDOT dated November 8, 2007, that Rodman & Co. marketing gurus seem to have drafted quotes on behalf of elected officials in order to place them as positive quotes in press releases about the TTC-69 project.
TxDOT also hired Governor Rick Perry’s political polling outfit, Bacelice & Associates, to conduct a poll that included asking one’s political party affiliation in its questions.
“What does a person’s political party have to do with a supposed ‘public information’ campaign? Nothing, it’s clear this ad campaign is about pushing a political agenda and brainwashing the public with pro-toll talking points like ‘tolls are better than gas taxes to fund roads'. C’mon, this is politics run amok and an agency run amok. Who’s going to rein them in?” criticizes Hall.
“TxDOT has patently and repeatedly denied that they’ve been illegally lobbying elected officials, yet they secretly and knowingly hired registered lobbyists to do the Governor’s dirty work in ramming toll roads and this Trans Texas Corridor down the taxpayers’ throats! It’s an outrage and we intend to put a stop to it since no one else will,” promises Hall.
“The LAW forbids TxDOT from using taxpayer money for a political purpose, only to find they’ve blown millions on PR firms and are currently using OUR MONEY to put up more than 2 dozen TxDOT employees as they galavant all over the state in a series of Town Hall meetings. The Town Halls are for purely political purposes, and they’re more akin to a propaganda-filled dog and pony show than a real dialogue giving the public veto power over this project,” notes Hall.
TxDOT is holding this series of Town Hall Meetings ahead of the official LEGAL public hearings for TTC-69 in order to win over an unsuspecting public and to divert critics AWAY from registering their opposition on the official LEGAL record at the public hearings to follow.
TxDOT’s behavior demonstrates why there are laws prohibiting the government from using its power and OUR money against the taxpayer. The citizens have the deck stacked against them when their own government forcibly takes their money and uses it to clobber them.
What TxDOT calls “outreach” is, in reality, an ad campaign (www.KeepTexasMoving.com) using public relations firms and political strategists to “sell” the public on a privatized, tolled trade corridor from Laredo to Texarkana.
Like TTC-35, TTC-69 plans to convert some existing highways into privately controlled toll roads, making Texas taxpayers pay twice for the same stretch of road as well as to force Texas landowners to give-up their farms and ranches for a massive new stretch of road in order to complete the entire TTC-69 project.
Read the latest in TURF’s lawsuit against TxDOT’s misuse of taxpayer money for an ad campaign advocating tolls and against its lobbying activities here.
Read TURF’s formal complaint against TxDOT’s illegal use of taxpayer money filed with Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle here.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Companies compete for I-69 construction
Nueces County Record - Jan. 3, 2008
Companies with Texas, U.S. and international experience are competing to develop the Trans-Texas Corridor-69 - one of the state's priority transportation projects.
Two private sector groups submitted proposals and qualifications to compete for the development of TTC-69, a multi-use transportation system stretching from Northeast Texas to Mexico.
One proposal was submitted by Bluebonnet Infrastructure Investors, led by Cintra. Team members include Citigroup, Earth Tech, Blanton & Associates, Maunsell, Othon and W.W. Webber.
A proposal was also submitted by Texas-based Zachry American Infrastructure and ACS Infrastructure Development Inc. Team members include Steer Davies Gleave, UBS Securities, Dannenbaum Engineering, ACI Consulting, Sociedad Ibercia de Construcciones Electricas, Dragados, and William Brothers Construction.
These proposals include statements detailing the groups experience in developing and financing transportation projects similar to TTC-69. Also included are conceptual proposals describing how the team would finance, design, construct, operate and maintain TTC-69.
The next step is for TxDOT to complete an initial review of the proposals, which could be completed next month. Teams with experience, qualifications and innovative engineering will be placed on a short list of potential strategic partners for TTC-69.
Once this is completed, approval by the Texas Transportation Commission is needed to continue with the competitive selection process. If approved, TxDOT will request detailed proposals from the short list of potential strategic partners. A selection of a strategic partner could be made by the commission by late 2007.
With no funding set aside for construction, a public-private partnership would allow development of the entire 600-mile multi-billion dollar project from Northeast Texas to Mexico to be accelerated. Even with private sector resources to fund the project, state transportation officials stress TTC-69 will remain a state-owned project.
On a parallel yet independent track, work continues on the initial environmental study that would narrow the current study area to approximately four miles wide. Subsequent studies will be needed to determine a final route for the project.
Interstate 69 is being developed under the Trans-Texas Corridor master plan. If environmentally approved, the project would be developed as needed and as private sector resources are available.
Companies with Texas, U.S. and international experience are competing to develop the Trans-Texas Corridor-69 - one of the state's priority transportation projects.
Two private sector groups submitted proposals and qualifications to compete for the development of TTC-69, a multi-use transportation system stretching from Northeast Texas to Mexico.
"Inviting the private sector to invest in our transportation system is one of our strategies to meet the growing transportation needs of Texas," said Michael W. Behrens, TxDOT executive director. "We are focused on these five goals: reducing congestion, enhancing safety, expanding economic opportunity, improving air quality, and increasing the value of transportation assets."
One proposal was submitted by Bluebonnet Infrastructure Investors, led by Cintra. Team members include Citigroup, Earth Tech, Blanton & Associates, Maunsell, Othon and W.W. Webber.
A proposal was also submitted by Texas-based Zachry American Infrastructure and ACS Infrastructure Development Inc. Team members include Steer Davies Gleave, UBS Securities, Dannenbaum Engineering, ACI Consulting, Sociedad Ibercia de Construcciones Electricas, Dragados, and William Brothers Construction.
These proposals include statements detailing the groups experience in developing and financing transportation projects similar to TTC-69. Also included are conceptual proposals describing how the team would finance, design, construct, operate and maintain TTC-69.
The next step is for TxDOT to complete an initial review of the proposals, which could be completed next month. Teams with experience, qualifications and innovative engineering will be placed on a short list of potential strategic partners for TTC-69.
Once this is completed, approval by the Texas Transportation Commission is needed to continue with the competitive selection process. If approved, TxDOT will request detailed proposals from the short list of potential strategic partners. A selection of a strategic partner could be made by the commission by late 2007.
With no funding set aside for construction, a public-private partnership would allow development of the entire 600-mile multi-billion dollar project from Northeast Texas to Mexico to be accelerated. Even with private sector resources to fund the project, state transportation officials stress TTC-69 will remain a state-owned project.
On a parallel yet independent track, work continues on the initial environmental study that would narrow the current study area to approximately four miles wide. Subsequent studies will be needed to determine a final route for the project.
Interstate 69 is being developed under the Trans-Texas Corridor master plan. If environmentally approved, the project would be developed as needed and as private sector resources are available.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
TxDOT attorney admits ad campaign is ongoing
By Terri Hall - T.U.R.F. - Dec. 20, 2007
Austin, TX, December 20, 2007 – Today in Travis County District Court, Judge Orlinda Naranjo did not sustain TxDOT’s objection to the requested material’s merits to the case, but ruled TURF’s document request was worded too broadly and needs to be resubmitted as part of the discovery phase TURF's lawsuit against TxDOT for illegal lobbying and use of taxpayer money to sell the public on toll roads.
“After tweaking the wording of the request a bit, we’ll be back in business. The Judge clearly agreed we have a right to get access to this information. She wanted to be sure we weren’t buried in piles of irrelevant documents,” notes a positive Terri Hall, Founder of TURF.
The court also granted TURF another 30 days to give them time to reword the document request and to depose witnesses based on the information discovered.
The most significant admission from the State was that the Keep Texas Moving ad campaign does have multiple phases (as the documents we presented to the court show that the State tried to deny), and that TxDOT is obligated to hand over any new documents related to any current lobbying or that relate to spending public money to promote toll roads.
“That’s HUGE! We went from a sworn affidavit saying the ad campaign is over therefore the case is moot, to an admission the campaign has multiple phases and is ongoing. We believe TxDOT is in the midst of rolling out Phase II or III of the Keep Texas Moving campaign since the public hearings for Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) 69 project start in February and are the target for the next phase of the campaign. The State admitted it MUST turn over any current information related to these allegations. It keeps the case alive and means we have a real shot at stopping the use of taxpayer money to promote the TTC!” Hall predicts.
The Attorney General Counsel representing TxDOT, Kristina Silcocks, tried to attack the merits of the case once again stating there is no ongoing lobbying of Congress and argued the Forward Momentum report sent to Congress in January that asks for legislation to allow them to buy back and toll existing interstates is in the past and cannot be explored in this lawsuit.
“Once again, TxDOT is wrong. An appropriations bill before the President RIGHT NOW includes an amendment PROHIBITING TxDOT from buying back interstates. There is CURRENT legislation pending as a direct result of TxDOT’s lobbying (in this case, as a backlash to TxDOT’s lobbying efforts). So for the State to tell the court TxDOT isn’t currently engaged in efforts to effect the outcome of legislation or support for toll roads, they’re quite mistaken,” notes Hall.
This lawsuit is brought pursuant to § 37, Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code. TxDOT’s expenditure of public funds for the Keep Texas Moving campaign is illegal, and an injunction prohibiting any further illegal expenditures in this regard.
TxDOT has violated § 556.004 of the Texas Government Code by directing the expenditure of public funds for political advocacy in support of toll roads and the Trans Texas Corridor, and have directly lobbied the United States Congress in favor of additional toll road programs as evidenced in its report, Forward Momentum as well as the Texas Legislature when it tried to defeat HB 1892, a private equity toll moratorium bill.
October 18, 2007, Judge Naranjo granted TURF a 90 day continuance and allowed them to move to discovery and take depositions. On Monday, September 24, Judge Naranjo did not grant a temporary restraining order (TRO). TxDOT unearthed a law that says they can advertise toll roads (Sec 228.004 of Transportation Code) and the citizens invoked another that says they can’t (Chapter 556, Texas Government Code). The burden to obtain a TRO is higher than for an injunction.
“TxDOT is waging a one-sided political ad campaign designed to sway public opinion in favor of the policy that puts money in TxDOT’s own coffers. School Boards cannot lobby in favor of their own bond elections, and yet TxDOT cites its own special law to line their own pockets at taxpayers’ expense,” says Terri Hall, Founder/Director of TURF.
Hall also notes that TxDOT’s campaign goes beyond mere advertising, “It’s propaganda and in some cases, the ads blatantly lie to the public! In one radio ad (scroll down to radio ad “continuing maintenance”), it claims it’s not signing contracts with non-compete agreements in them and yet last March TxDOT inked a deal with Cintra-Zachry for SH 130 that had a non-compete clause (which either prohibits or financially punishes the State for building competing infrastructure with a toll road).”
On August 22, 2007, TURF filed a formal complaint with Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle to investigate TxDOT’s illegal lobbying and asked him to prosecute TxDOT for criminal wrongdoing. See the formal complaint . The petition seeks immediate injunctive relief in a civil proceeding.
Read about TURF’s victory in court October 18 and
read TURF’s amended petition and supplemental affidavits go here: (Scroll to the bottom for links to the petition and affidavits)
Austin, TX, December 20, 2007 – Today in Travis County District Court, Judge Orlinda Naranjo did not sustain TxDOT’s objection to the requested material’s merits to the case, but ruled TURF’s document request was worded too broadly and needs to be resubmitted as part of the discovery phase TURF's lawsuit against TxDOT for illegal lobbying and use of taxpayer money to sell the public on toll roads.
“After tweaking the wording of the request a bit, we’ll be back in business. The Judge clearly agreed we have a right to get access to this information. She wanted to be sure we weren’t buried in piles of irrelevant documents,” notes a positive Terri Hall, Founder of TURF.
The court also granted TURF another 30 days to give them time to reword the document request and to depose witnesses based on the information discovered.
The most significant admission from the State was that the Keep Texas Moving ad campaign does have multiple phases (as the documents we presented to the court show that the State tried to deny), and that TxDOT is obligated to hand over any new documents related to any current lobbying or that relate to spending public money to promote toll roads.
“That’s HUGE! We went from a sworn affidavit saying the ad campaign is over therefore the case is moot, to an admission the campaign has multiple phases and is ongoing. We believe TxDOT is in the midst of rolling out Phase II or III of the Keep Texas Moving campaign since the public hearings for Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) 69 project start in February and are the target for the next phase of the campaign. The State admitted it MUST turn over any current information related to these allegations. It keeps the case alive and means we have a real shot at stopping the use of taxpayer money to promote the TTC!” Hall predicts.
The Attorney General Counsel representing TxDOT, Kristina Silcocks, tried to attack the merits of the case once again stating there is no ongoing lobbying of Congress and argued the Forward Momentum report sent to Congress in January that asks for legislation to allow them to buy back and toll existing interstates is in the past and cannot be explored in this lawsuit.
“Once again, TxDOT is wrong. An appropriations bill before the President RIGHT NOW includes an amendment PROHIBITING TxDOT from buying back interstates. There is CURRENT legislation pending as a direct result of TxDOT’s lobbying (in this case, as a backlash to TxDOT’s lobbying efforts). So for the State to tell the court TxDOT isn’t currently engaged in efforts to effect the outcome of legislation or support for toll roads, they’re quite mistaken,” notes Hall.
This lawsuit is brought pursuant to § 37, Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code. TxDOT’s expenditure of public funds for the Keep Texas Moving campaign is illegal, and an injunction prohibiting any further illegal expenditures in this regard.
TxDOT has violated § 556.004 of the Texas Government Code by directing the expenditure of public funds for political advocacy in support of toll roads and the Trans Texas Corridor, and have directly lobbied the United States Congress in favor of additional toll road programs as evidenced in its report, Forward Momentum as well as the Texas Legislature when it tried to defeat HB 1892, a private equity toll moratorium bill.
October 18, 2007, Judge Naranjo granted TURF a 90 day continuance and allowed them to move to discovery and take depositions. On Monday, September 24, Judge Naranjo did not grant a temporary restraining order (TRO). TxDOT unearthed a law that says they can advertise toll roads (Sec 228.004 of Transportation Code) and the citizens invoked another that says they can’t (Chapter 556, Texas Government Code). The burden to obtain a TRO is higher than for an injunction.
“TxDOT is waging a one-sided political ad campaign designed to sway public opinion in favor of the policy that puts money in TxDOT’s own coffers. School Boards cannot lobby in favor of their own bond elections, and yet TxDOT cites its own special law to line their own pockets at taxpayers’ expense,” says Terri Hall, Founder/Director of TURF.
Hall also notes that TxDOT’s campaign goes beyond mere advertising, “It’s propaganda and in some cases, the ads blatantly lie to the public! In one radio ad (scroll down to radio ad “continuing maintenance”), it claims it’s not signing contracts with non-compete agreements in them and yet last March TxDOT inked a deal with Cintra-Zachry for SH 130 that had a non-compete clause (which either prohibits or financially punishes the State for building competing infrastructure with a toll road).”
On August 22, 2007, TURF filed a formal complaint with Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle to investigate TxDOT’s illegal lobbying and asked him to prosecute TxDOT for criminal wrongdoing. See the formal complaint . The petition seeks immediate injunctive relief in a civil proceeding.
Read about TURF’s victory in court October 18 and
read TURF’s amended petition and supplemental affidavits go here: (Scroll to the bottom for links to the petition and affidavits)
Thursday, October 18, 2007
TxDOT coached on thwarting toll foes on talk radio
Peggy Fikac - Express- News Austin bureau AUSTIN — 10/17/2007
When Texas transportation officials talk about bridges these days, they don't necessarily mean steel spans and concrete girders. Instead, they are being taught how to "bridge" from off-message questions to their own talking points in a toll-road campaign.
"You will often be asked questions that don't get to the points you wish to make or that you don't wish to answer," says a "radio interview techniques" section of Texas Department of Transportation documents released under the Public Information Act. "You can use bridging to turn the question to your points."
One useful phrase, suggests the document — prepared by consultants who are to be paid $24,500 for talk-radio training for the campaign, and tweaked by the department — is this: "I think what you are really asking is ..."
The document also offers this timeless advice: "Keep calm. Leave wrestling to the pigs. They always end up looking like pigs."
The training document is part of the multimillion-dollar Keep Texas Moving campaign, the subject of a court hearing today.
The hearing comes after activist Terri Hall of the San Antonio Toll Party and Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom filed a court petition to stop the agency from spending public funds on the campaign, projected to cost $7 million to $9 million in highway money.
Hall also wants to block any lobbying attempts by transportation officials to persuade Congress to allow more toll roads.
The Keep Texas Moving campaign has a focus on toll roads and the Trans-Texas Corridor network. Both are touted by GOP Gov. Rick Perry and others as necessary in the face of congestion and gas-tax revenues that fall short of meeting road needs. Criticism has centered on the potential corridor route and on the state partnering with private firms to run toll roads.
In her court filing, Hall contends that transportation officials, in promoting the initiatives, are violating a ban on lobbying and on using their authority for political purposes.
The state says TxDOT is allowed by law to promote toll projects and that its campaign is a response to a call from the public and from elected officials for more information on road initiatives.
State District Judge Orlinda Naranjo of Travis County last month refused to order an immediate stop to the spending. Naranjo today will consider a state request that she dismiss the case.
The state contends the legal complaint is moot because an existing contract for media services was due to end Sept. 30.
Thompson Marketing of San Antonio got a state contract of nearly $2 million last year for the first phase of the project, which included a marketing development plan and such items as TV and radio spots, print ads, internet banner ads and billboards.
The company billed the agency in March regarding a Senate transportation hearing and in April and May for "legislature, media monitoring for strategic planning, messaging." Lawmakers this year worked to curb new private toll projects.
The state plans no more spending on "any future media placement under the current Keep Texas Moving campaign" but still needs to pay Thompson Marketing for some previous work, said an affidavit by Helen Havelka, the campaign's manager.
The agency also has a $20,000 contract for talk-radio training for transportation officials with the Rodman Co., which subcontracted with ViaNovo, whose team includes former Bush strategist Matthew Dowd. It plans another $4,500 training class, and the two consulting companies plan two telephone town-hall meetings at a cost of $17,480.
Rodman and ViaNovo worked on the radio training guide, said TxDOT spokesman Chris Lippincott, who also had input on the document, titled "Talking on Talk Radio."
"The talk radio environment runs the gamut from productive and thoughtful to vitriolic and silly," Lippincott said. "We certainly want to prepare (agency spokespeople) for all possibilities, and that includes everyone from a skeptical talk-show host to an outright hostile caller."
Read more in the San Antonio Express News
When Texas transportation officials talk about bridges these days, they don't necessarily mean steel spans and concrete girders. Instead, they are being taught how to "bridge" from off-message questions to their own talking points in a toll-road campaign.
"You will often be asked questions that don't get to the points you wish to make or that you don't wish to answer," says a "radio interview techniques" section of Texas Department of Transportation documents released under the Public Information Act. "You can use bridging to turn the question to your points."
One useful phrase, suggests the document — prepared by consultants who are to be paid $24,500 for talk-radio training for the campaign, and tweaked by the department — is this: "I think what you are really asking is ..."
The document also offers this timeless advice: "Keep calm. Leave wrestling to the pigs. They always end up looking like pigs."
The training document is part of the multimillion-dollar Keep Texas Moving campaign, the subject of a court hearing today.
The hearing comes after activist Terri Hall of the San Antonio Toll Party and Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom filed a court petition to stop the agency from spending public funds on the campaign, projected to cost $7 million to $9 million in highway money.
Hall also wants to block any lobbying attempts by transportation officials to persuade Congress to allow more toll roads.
The Keep Texas Moving campaign has a focus on toll roads and the Trans-Texas Corridor network. Both are touted by GOP Gov. Rick Perry and others as necessary in the face of congestion and gas-tax revenues that fall short of meeting road needs. Criticism has centered on the potential corridor route and on the state partnering with private firms to run toll roads.
In her court filing, Hall contends that transportation officials, in promoting the initiatives, are violating a ban on lobbying and on using their authority for political purposes.
The state says TxDOT is allowed by law to promote toll projects and that its campaign is a response to a call from the public and from elected officials for more information on road initiatives.
State District Judge Orlinda Naranjo of Travis County last month refused to order an immediate stop to the spending. Naranjo today will consider a state request that she dismiss the case.
The state contends the legal complaint is moot because an existing contract for media services was due to end Sept. 30.
Thompson Marketing of San Antonio got a state contract of nearly $2 million last year for the first phase of the project, which included a marketing development plan and such items as TV and radio spots, print ads, internet banner ads and billboards.
The company billed the agency in March regarding a Senate transportation hearing and in April and May for "legislature, media monitoring for strategic planning, messaging." Lawmakers this year worked to curb new private toll projects.
The state plans no more spending on "any future media placement under the current Keep Texas Moving campaign" but still needs to pay Thompson Marketing for some previous work, said an affidavit by Helen Havelka, the campaign's manager.
The agency also has a $20,000 contract for talk-radio training for transportation officials with the Rodman Co., which subcontracted with ViaNovo, whose team includes former Bush strategist Matthew Dowd. It plans another $4,500 training class, and the two consulting companies plan two telephone town-hall meetings at a cost of $17,480.
Rodman and ViaNovo worked on the radio training guide, said TxDOT spokesman Chris Lippincott, who also had input on the document, titled "Talking on Talk Radio."
"The talk radio environment runs the gamut from productive and thoughtful to vitriolic and silly," Lippincott said. "We certainly want to prepare (agency spokespeople) for all possibilities, and that includes everyone from a skeptical talk-show host to an outright hostile caller."
Read more in the San Antonio Express News
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
EXCLUSIVE: SECRET briefing on toll rates for BIG BUSINESS before public gets access
By Terri Hall - T.U.R.F. - Tuesday, 16 October 2007
The San Antonio Mobility Coalition, SAMCo, run by Joe Krier, along with the San Antonio Free Trade Alliance will be hosting a secret meeting October 19 at the Valero campus prior to even the PUBLIC getting access to toll rates and the toll rate escalation for 281 on October 22. The highway lobby that feeds at the public trough was slated to get advance access the PUBLIC hasn't been privy to. This is especially distressing considering SAMCO and the Free Trade Alliance are taxpayer funded. Citizens have to take time off work and head downtown to a place where parking is scarce (MPO mtgs at Via) just to hear this information on their own dime, yet our public agencies bring this vital toll tax information right to the business community's doorstep while they're all on the clock (some of whom are on the taxpayer's dime, too!).
It's an outrage that those who will profit off these toll plans get special treatment at the taxpayers' expense! However, through a turn of events, we asked that the tolling authority brief citizens FIRST on the toll rates at our Tuesday meeting and they AGREED! The taxpayers demanded transparency, sunshine, accountability, and that the public get TOP PRIORITY, and now the PUBLIC gets to scoop the HIGHWAY LOBBY!
Government ought to be operating without even the APPEARANCE of impropriety, this SAMCo meeting smacks of corporate cronyism and backroom deal-making which has become the norm with Perry and his highway dept.
Not only will the hogs at the trough be treated to the potential pricetag road contractors can reap for tolling our public highways, the stated purpose of the meeting is to strategize on how to influence the upcoming MPO vote that must approve the toll rates to move forward.
The purpose of the briefing is to provide:
1) An advance preview of the US 281 and Loop 1604 financial plans prior to these critical MPO meetings;
2) A forum to discuss cooperative action and joint strategy to support the financial plans and SMP amendments at the October 22 and December 3 MPO meetings.
3) Coordination of supportive resolutions, letters, emails, testimony, editorials, etc. prior to the final MPO votes.
Read the entire invitation here.
This meeting is significant because we caught them with their hands in the till using taxpayer money to lobby against the taxpayer and caught BIG BUSINESS getting special privileges NOT afforded the public until an MPO mtg Monday, Oct 22. Why does BIG BUSINESS need to know the toll rates and 281 profit levels before the general public?
SEE LIST OF CORPORATIONS GIVEN A SEAT AT THE TABLE BELOW
Mad yet? Read the list of the corporations involved in SECRET meetings with the U.S., Canadian, and Mexican governments to push for a North American Union in what amounts to forming a trade cartel. Time to dust off the anti-trust unit at the Justice Department!
Full World Net Daily article here.
As WND previously reported, the North American Competitiveness Council, or NACC, dominated the SPP closed-door meetings with the SPP trilateral working groups, the trilateral cabinet members in attendance and President Bush, Mexico's President Felipe Calderon, and Harper at the third annual SPP summit in Montebello, Quebec, on Aug. 20-21.
WND has also reported the NACC is a shadowy council of 30 top North American multinational corporations self-appointed by the Chambers of Commerce in each of the three countries to constitute the sole outside advisory to the SPP.
The 30 companies composing the NACC are listed on a memo posted on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce website.
In the United States, the companies on the NACC are:
* Campbell Soup Company
* Chevron Corporation
* Ford Motor Corporation
* FedEx Corporation
* General Electric Company
* General Motors Corporation
* Kansas City Southern
* Lockheed Martin Corporation
* Merck & Co., Inc.
* Mittal Steel USA
* New York Life Insurance Company
* Procter & Gamble
* UPS
* Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
* Whirlpool Corporation
No union leaders, public interest groups, environmental advocates or news media have ever attended the closed-door of the NACC with the SPP.
According to a document on the Commerce Department's SPP website, the organization of the NACC was agreed upon by the three leaders on March 31, 2006.
"We are pleased to announce the creation of a North American Competitiveness Council," the White House announced the same day.
"The Council will comprise members of the private sector from each country," the White House said, "and will provide us recommendations on North American competitiveness, including, among others, areas such as automotive and transportation, steel, manufacturing, and services. The Council will meet annually with security and prosperity Ministers and will engage with senior government officials on an ongoing basis."
Read these to open your eyes to other secret meetings for special interests:
Secret meeting on TTC 69, corporations invited, public/press is not.
More secret meetings with corporations invited, public/press shut out.
here, here, and here.
The San Antonio Mobility Coalition, SAMCo, run by Joe Krier, along with the San Antonio Free Trade Alliance will be hosting a secret meeting October 19 at the Valero campus prior to even the PUBLIC getting access to toll rates and the toll rate escalation for 281 on October 22. The highway lobby that feeds at the public trough was slated to get advance access the PUBLIC hasn't been privy to. This is especially distressing considering SAMCO and the Free Trade Alliance are taxpayer funded. Citizens have to take time off work and head downtown to a place where parking is scarce (MPO mtgs at Via) just to hear this information on their own dime, yet our public agencies bring this vital toll tax information right to the business community's doorstep while they're all on the clock (some of whom are on the taxpayer's dime, too!).
It's an outrage that those who will profit off these toll plans get special treatment at the taxpayers' expense! However, through a turn of events, we asked that the tolling authority brief citizens FIRST on the toll rates at our Tuesday meeting and they AGREED! The taxpayers demanded transparency, sunshine, accountability, and that the public get TOP PRIORITY, and now the PUBLIC gets to scoop the HIGHWAY LOBBY!
Government ought to be operating without even the APPEARANCE of impropriety, this SAMCo meeting smacks of corporate cronyism and backroom deal-making which has become the norm with Perry and his highway dept.
Not only will the hogs at the trough be treated to the potential pricetag road contractors can reap for tolling our public highways, the stated purpose of the meeting is to strategize on how to influence the upcoming MPO vote that must approve the toll rates to move forward.
The purpose of the briefing is to provide:
1) An advance preview of the US 281 and Loop 1604 financial plans prior to these critical MPO meetings;
2) A forum to discuss cooperative action and joint strategy to support the financial plans and SMP amendments at the October 22 and December 3 MPO meetings.
3) Coordination of supportive resolutions, letters, emails, testimony, editorials, etc. prior to the final MPO votes.
Read the entire invitation here.
This meeting is significant because we caught them with their hands in the till using taxpayer money to lobby against the taxpayer and caught BIG BUSINESS getting special privileges NOT afforded the public until an MPO mtg Monday, Oct 22. Why does BIG BUSINESS need to know the toll rates and 281 profit levels before the general public?
SEE LIST OF CORPORATIONS GIVEN A SEAT AT THE TABLE BELOW
Mad yet? Read the list of the corporations involved in SECRET meetings with the U.S., Canadian, and Mexican governments to push for a North American Union in what amounts to forming a trade cartel. Time to dust off the anti-trust unit at the Justice Department!
Full World Net Daily article here.
As WND previously reported, the North American Competitiveness Council, or NACC, dominated the SPP closed-door meetings with the SPP trilateral working groups, the trilateral cabinet members in attendance and President Bush, Mexico's President Felipe Calderon, and Harper at the third annual SPP summit in Montebello, Quebec, on Aug. 20-21.
WND has also reported the NACC is a shadowy council of 30 top North American multinational corporations self-appointed by the Chambers of Commerce in each of the three countries to constitute the sole outside advisory to the SPP.
The 30 companies composing the NACC are listed on a memo posted on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce website.
In the United States, the companies on the NACC are:
* Campbell Soup Company
* Chevron Corporation
* Ford Motor Corporation
* FedEx Corporation
* General Electric Company
* General Motors Corporation
* Kansas City Southern
* Lockheed Martin Corporation
* Merck & Co., Inc.
* Mittal Steel USA
* New York Life Insurance Company
* Procter & Gamble
* UPS
* Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
* Whirlpool Corporation
No union leaders, public interest groups, environmental advocates or news media have ever attended the closed-door of the NACC with the SPP.
According to a document on the Commerce Department's SPP website, the organization of the NACC was agreed upon by the three leaders on March 31, 2006.
"We are pleased to announce the creation of a North American Competitiveness Council," the White House announced the same day.
"The Council will comprise members of the private sector from each country," the White House said, "and will provide us recommendations on North American competitiveness, including, among others, areas such as automotive and transportation, steel, manufacturing, and services. The Council will meet annually with security and prosperity Ministers and will engage with senior government officials on an ongoing basis."
Read these to open your eyes to other secret meetings for special interests:
Secret meeting on TTC 69, corporations invited, public/press is not.
More secret meetings with corporations invited, public/press shut out.
here, here, and here.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
T.U.R.F. files lawsuit to stop TxDOT's ad campaign!
By Terri Hall - T.U.R.F.- Sept. 20, 2007
Lawsuit filed to STOP TxDOT’s illegal lobbying
TURF Founder seeks temporary restraining order to halt public relations campaign
Thursday, September 20, 2007 – TURF Founder Terri Hall has filed a petition for a temporary restraining order against the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) in Travis County District Court and the case is scheduled to come before visiting Judge Bill Bender at 3 PM.
The petition also seeks injunctive relief, including Temporary Restraining Order against Steven E. Simmons, P.E. Individually and as Interim Executive Director of the Texas Department of Transportation and Coby Chase, Individually and as Director of the Texas Department of Transportation Government and Public Affairs Division. This lawsuit is brought pursuant to § 37, Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code. TxDOT’s expenditure of public funds for the Keep Texas Moving campaign is illegal, and an injunction prohibiting any further illegal expenditures in this regard.TxDOT has violated § 556.004 of the Texas Government Code by directing the expenditure of public funds for political advocacy in support of toll roads and the Trans Texas Corridor, and have openly indicated TxDOT’s intention to directly lobby the United States Congress in favor of additional toll road programs.
On August 22, 2007, TURF filed a formal complaint with Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle to investigate TxDOT’s illegal lobbying and asked him to prosecute TxDOT for criminal wrongdoing. See the formal complaint here. Today’s petition seeks immediate injunctive relief in a civil proceeding.“Between TxDOT’s PR campaign, report to Congress asking that all limitations on tolling be lifted including buying back existing interstates, and Chairman Ric Williamson’s recent trip to D.C. lobbying for the same, it’s clear they’ve not only crossed the line into illegal lobbying, but they leaped over it,” says Hall.
TxDOT’s report to Congress, Forward Momentum, ignited a category 5 blowback that prompted Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and U.S. Representatives Charlie Gonzalez,and Ciro Rodriguez to file legislation (S 2019 and HR 3510) to halt the tolling of existing interstates and to prohibit TxDOT from buying back interstates for the purpose of tolling them (read more here). TxDOT’s actions also prompted Rep. Rodriguez to call for a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing on converting interstates to tollways and on TxDOT’s ad campaign (read more here.).
The report and ad campaign have been the topic of many editorials across Texas, including the Houston Chronicle (read more here.) and Express-News, and even TV newsrooms are weighing in with the General Manager of KSAT 12 TV in San Antonio giving a scathing review of the ad campaign read more here.
“The citizens of Texas are fed-up with TxDOT’s blatant disregard for the public’s disdain of toll roads and their infinite attempts to cram toll roads down our throats using TAXPAYER MONEY to do it! It’s high time someone puts a stop to it!” Hall admonished.
View petition and affidavits:
Petition
Terri Hall’s affidavit
Bill Barker’s affidavit
Lawsuit filed to STOP TxDOT’s illegal lobbying
TURF Founder seeks temporary restraining order to halt public relations campaign
Thursday, September 20, 2007 – TURF Founder Terri Hall has filed a petition for a temporary restraining order against the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) in Travis County District Court and the case is scheduled to come before visiting Judge Bill Bender at 3 PM.
The petition also seeks injunctive relief, including Temporary Restraining Order against Steven E. Simmons, P.E. Individually and as Interim Executive Director of the Texas Department of Transportation and Coby Chase, Individually and as Director of the Texas Department of Transportation Government and Public Affairs Division. This lawsuit is brought pursuant to § 37, Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code. TxDOT’s expenditure of public funds for the Keep Texas Moving campaign is illegal, and an injunction prohibiting any further illegal expenditures in this regard.TxDOT has violated § 556.004 of the Texas Government Code by directing the expenditure of public funds for political advocacy in support of toll roads and the Trans Texas Corridor, and have openly indicated TxDOT’s intention to directly lobby the United States Congress in favor of additional toll road programs.
On August 22, 2007, TURF filed a formal complaint with Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle to investigate TxDOT’s illegal lobbying and asked him to prosecute TxDOT for criminal wrongdoing. See the formal complaint here. Today’s petition seeks immediate injunctive relief in a civil proceeding.“Between TxDOT’s PR campaign, report to Congress asking that all limitations on tolling be lifted including buying back existing interstates, and Chairman Ric Williamson’s recent trip to D.C. lobbying for the same, it’s clear they’ve not only crossed the line into illegal lobbying, but they leaped over it,” says Hall.
TxDOT’s report to Congress, Forward Momentum, ignited a category 5 blowback that prompted Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and U.S. Representatives Charlie Gonzalez,and Ciro Rodriguez to file legislation (S 2019 and HR 3510) to halt the tolling of existing interstates and to prohibit TxDOT from buying back interstates for the purpose of tolling them (read more here). TxDOT’s actions also prompted Rep. Rodriguez to call for a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing on converting interstates to tollways and on TxDOT’s ad campaign (read more here.).
The report and ad campaign have been the topic of many editorials across Texas, including the Houston Chronicle (read more here.) and Express-News, and even TV newsrooms are weighing in with the General Manager of KSAT 12 TV in San Antonio giving a scathing review of the ad campaign read more here.
“The citizens of Texas are fed-up with TxDOT’s blatant disregard for the public’s disdain of toll roads and their infinite attempts to cram toll roads down our throats using TAXPAYER MONEY to do it! It’s high time someone puts a stop to it!” Hall admonished.
View petition and affidavits:
Petition
Terri Hall’s affidavit
Bill Barker’s affidavit
Monday, August 27, 2007
TxDOT uses gas tax money to lobby for toll roads
by Terri Hall - T.U.R.F. - Saturday, 25 August 2007
Texas Department of Transportation Uses Gas Tax Money to Lobby for Toll Roads
Activists urge investigation of Texas Department of Transportation lobbying on behalf of toll roads.
The Newspaper.com - August 24, 2007
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has been spending millions on a public relations project designed to lobby the public and the legislature on the benefits of toll roads. The San Antonio Express News reported Monday that an internal TxDOT memo entitled "Keep Texas Moving: Tolling and Trans-Texas Corridor Outreach" suggested the agency would spend $7-9 million promoting the tolling concept. In February, the state auditor's office chided TxDOT for hiding lobbying expenses behind other, legitimate expenses.
"A total of $4.5 million associated with the 21 invoices described above was charged to the incorrect activity," the audit report stated (view excerpt). "For example, $52,000 of a $628,000 invoice that was charged to engineering was actually for public relations expenses."
Read more in the San Antonio Express News
The multi-million dollar public relations campaign began in June with paid advertisements and a slick website called Keep Texas Moving, which promotes the 4000-mile Trans-Texas Corridor proposal. Expected to be up to 1200 feet wide, the toll road will cost between $145 and $183 billion to construct and require acquisition of 9000 square miles of land. Terri Hall, founder of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, opposes the Trans-Texas Corridor and today sent a letter to Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle urging him to open an investigation.
"It's not only an inappropriate and wasteful use of our gas tax dollars by an agency perpetually claiming it's out of money for roads, but it's illegal for a public agency to take a policy position and use the public's tax money to sell them something using an under-handed PR campaign," Hall wrote.
Don't like toll roads? TxDOT is talking to you
Peggy Fikac - Express-News Austin Bureau - 08/20/2007
AUSTIN — The Texas Department of Transportation, which complains about chronic underfunding, has launched a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign that promotes the divisive Trans-Texas Corridor plan and toll roads.
The campaign is anticipated to cost $7 million to $9 million, according to a memorandum titled "Keep Texas Moving: Tolling and Trans-Texas Corridor Outreach" sent to transportation officials by Coby Chase, director of the agency's government and public affairs division Such use of state highway fund dollars is drawing concern and questions from some. Others, including the department, say it's an important effort to educate and engage Texans.
Put Rep. Warren Chisum, chairman of the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee, in the first category.
"I wonder what for? So people wouldn't hate 'em so bad?" he said of the campaign. "It's a waste of money, and they have no business out there trying to get public opinion to be in their favor."
The money would be better spent fixing roads, Chisum, R-Pampa, added: "It would probably take care of three or four potholes."
But Rep. Mike Krusee, House Transportation Committee chairman, said the campaign addresses lawmakers' concerns by explaining new financing methods.
"The Legislature has been beating TxDOT over the head for two years, telling them they need to explain what the Trans-Texas Corridor is and why it is necessary to the public. They've been telling TxDOT they are moving too fast — they are moving before the public and the Legislature has the chance to understand what they are doing and why," said Krusee, R-Round Rock. "I think it is the Legislature that has pressured TxDOT to do this sort of program."
If the outreach is effective, Krusee said, it could save money in the long run.
"Texas is losing money for roads by the hundreds of millions of dollars every year simply due to delay, because the Legislature and the public doesn't understand the need to move to a new finance method. And so an expenditure of a few million dollars could literally save hundreds of millions of dollars per year," Krusee said.
The agency's budget is more than $7 billion for fiscal year 2007 and more than $8 billion for fiscal year 2008.
The Trans-Texas Corridor — an ambitious transportation network — and toll roads have been championed by Gov. Rick Perry and others as necessary in the face of congestion and of gas tax revenues that can't keep up with huge transportation needs.
But the initiative has drawn widespread criticism over the potential route and the state partnering with private companies to run toll roads. Lawmakers this year sought to rein in new private toll projects.
The new campaign, as outlined in the memorandum obtained by the San Antonio Express-News, started June 1 with television, radio, print, billboard and Internet advertising meant to push people to the Keep Texas Moving Web site ( www.keeptexasmoving.com).
That site compares the Trans-Texas Corridor to "Eisenhower's Interstate System." Its toll road section lists a slew of benefits including "A Choice to Go Faster" and "More Roads, More Choices, More Time."
The campaign also will include direct mail pieces on Trans-Texas Corridor segments known as TTC-35 (parallel to Interstate 35) and TTC-69 (from East Texas to Mexico); training for agency representatives to appear on talk radio; and ads, events and guest editorials surrounding hearings on TTC-69.
Sal Costello, who founded the TexasTollParty.com group because of anger over the way tollways were being planned under Perry, said, "I just don't think an agency that has been ignoring the public and ignoring our representatives for years should be able to take our tax dollars intended for freeways and spend one dime on lobbying and selling their unaccountable schemes."
TxDOT spokesman Chris Lippincott said the aim of the campaign is to address concerns that the agency hasn't done enough outreach and the public hasn't had enough input. State law allows the agency to spend money on marketing toll roads, he said.
"The clearest and most often repeated criticism of the department during the legislative session was that we needed to do a better job of engaging the public. We heard that message loud and clear, and we're acting on it," he said. "You're going to see us expanding the way we talk with people instead of at people. We think that's really important."
Craig McDonald of Texans for Public Justice, which tracks money in politics, said the campaign appears to go beyond providing information, which he said isn't right although he knows of no law to prevent it.
"The tone of their public relations campaign seems to be to sell Texans on a very unpopular transportation scheme," he said. "That is, they are using our money to make us happy about spending money for every mile we drive through tolls."
Texas Department of Transportation Uses Gas Tax Money to Lobby for Toll Roads
Activists urge investigation of Texas Department of Transportation lobbying on behalf of toll roads.
The Newspaper.com - August 24, 2007
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has been spending millions on a public relations project designed to lobby the public and the legislature on the benefits of toll roads. The San Antonio Express News reported Monday that an internal TxDOT memo entitled "Keep Texas Moving: Tolling and Trans-Texas Corridor Outreach" suggested the agency would spend $7-9 million promoting the tolling concept. In February, the state auditor's office chided TxDOT for hiding lobbying expenses behind other, legitimate expenses.
"A total of $4.5 million associated with the 21 invoices described above was charged to the incorrect activity," the audit report stated (view excerpt). "For example, $52,000 of a $628,000 invoice that was charged to engineering was actually for public relations expenses."
Read more in the San Antonio Express News
The multi-million dollar public relations campaign began in June with paid advertisements and a slick website called Keep Texas Moving, which promotes the 4000-mile Trans-Texas Corridor proposal. Expected to be up to 1200 feet wide, the toll road will cost between $145 and $183 billion to construct and require acquisition of 9000 square miles of land. Terri Hall, founder of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, opposes the Trans-Texas Corridor and today sent a letter to Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle urging him to open an investigation.
"It's not only an inappropriate and wasteful use of our gas tax dollars by an agency perpetually claiming it's out of money for roads, but it's illegal for a public agency to take a policy position and use the public's tax money to sell them something using an under-handed PR campaign," Hall wrote.
Don't like toll roads? TxDOT is talking to you
Peggy Fikac - Express-News Austin Bureau - 08/20/2007
AUSTIN — The Texas Department of Transportation, which complains about chronic underfunding, has launched a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign that promotes the divisive Trans-Texas Corridor plan and toll roads.
The campaign is anticipated to cost $7 million to $9 million, according to a memorandum titled "Keep Texas Moving: Tolling and Trans-Texas Corridor Outreach" sent to transportation officials by Coby Chase, director of the agency's government and public affairs division Such use of state highway fund dollars is drawing concern and questions from some. Others, including the department, say it's an important effort to educate and engage Texans.
Put Rep. Warren Chisum, chairman of the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee, in the first category.
"I wonder what for? So people wouldn't hate 'em so bad?" he said of the campaign. "It's a waste of money, and they have no business out there trying to get public opinion to be in their favor."
The money would be better spent fixing roads, Chisum, R-Pampa, added: "It would probably take care of three or four potholes."
But Rep. Mike Krusee, House Transportation Committee chairman, said the campaign addresses lawmakers' concerns by explaining new financing methods.
"The Legislature has been beating TxDOT over the head for two years, telling them they need to explain what the Trans-Texas Corridor is and why it is necessary to the public. They've been telling TxDOT they are moving too fast — they are moving before the public and the Legislature has the chance to understand what they are doing and why," said Krusee, R-Round Rock. "I think it is the Legislature that has pressured TxDOT to do this sort of program."
If the outreach is effective, Krusee said, it could save money in the long run.
"Texas is losing money for roads by the hundreds of millions of dollars every year simply due to delay, because the Legislature and the public doesn't understand the need to move to a new finance method. And so an expenditure of a few million dollars could literally save hundreds of millions of dollars per year," Krusee said.
The agency's budget is more than $7 billion for fiscal year 2007 and more than $8 billion for fiscal year 2008.
The Trans-Texas Corridor — an ambitious transportation network — and toll roads have been championed by Gov. Rick Perry and others as necessary in the face of congestion and of gas tax revenues that can't keep up with huge transportation needs.
But the initiative has drawn widespread criticism over the potential route and the state partnering with private companies to run toll roads. Lawmakers this year sought to rein in new private toll projects.
The new campaign, as outlined in the memorandum obtained by the San Antonio Express-News, started June 1 with television, radio, print, billboard and Internet advertising meant to push people to the Keep Texas Moving Web site ( www.keeptexasmoving.com).
That site compares the Trans-Texas Corridor to "Eisenhower's Interstate System." Its toll road section lists a slew of benefits including "A Choice to Go Faster" and "More Roads, More Choices, More Time."
The campaign also will include direct mail pieces on Trans-Texas Corridor segments known as TTC-35 (parallel to Interstate 35) and TTC-69 (from East Texas to Mexico); training for agency representatives to appear on talk radio; and ads, events and guest editorials surrounding hearings on TTC-69.
Sal Costello, who founded the TexasTollParty.com group because of anger over the way tollways were being planned under Perry, said, "I just don't think an agency that has been ignoring the public and ignoring our representatives for years should be able to take our tax dollars intended for freeways and spend one dime on lobbying and selling their unaccountable schemes."
TxDOT spokesman Chris Lippincott said the aim of the campaign is to address concerns that the agency hasn't done enough outreach and the public hasn't had enough input. State law allows the agency to spend money on marketing toll roads, he said.
"The clearest and most often repeated criticism of the department during the legislative session was that we needed to do a better job of engaging the public. We heard that message loud and clear, and we're acting on it," he said. "You're going to see us expanding the way we talk with people instead of at people. We think that's really important."
Craig McDonald of Texans for Public Justice, which tracks money in politics, said the campaign appears to go beyond providing information, which he said isn't right although he knows of no law to prevent it.
"The tone of their public relations campaign seems to be to sell Texans on a very unpopular transportation scheme," he said. "That is, they are using our money to make us happy about spending money for every mile we drive through tolls."
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Conservatives denounce TxDOT's Ad Campaign - Advertising Government
Liberals and Convervatives agree that the Texas Department of Transportation's 7 million dollar Keep Moving Texas Ad Campaign which they hope will sell Texans on the benefits of the Trans Texas Corridor is a waste of taxpayers' money. M.Q. Sullivan, writes on the Texans for Fiscal Responsiblity Blog, speaks out in a series called ADVERTISING GOVERNMENT.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Road campaign draws criticism and praise from lawmakers
By PEGGY FIKAC - Austin Bureau The Houston Chronicle - Aug. 20, 2007
Houston Chronicle
AUSTIN — The Texas Department of Transportation, which complains about chronic underfunding, has launched a multimillion-dollar campaign that promotes the divisive Trans-Texas Corridor plan and toll roads.
The campaign is anticipated to cost $7 million to $9 million, according to a memo titled "Keep Texas Moving: Tolling and Trans-Texas Corridor Outreach" sent to transportation officials by Coby Chase, director of the agency's government and public affairs division.
Such use of state highway-fund dollars is drawing questions, but the department says it's an important effort to educate and engage Texans.
"It's a waste of money," said Rep. Warren Chisum, chairman of the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee, "and they have no business out there trying to get public opinion to be in their favor."
The money would be better spent fixing roads, said Chisum, R-Pampa.
But Rep. Mike Krusee, House Transportation Committee chairman, said the campaign addresses lawmakers' concerns by explaining new financing methods.
"The Legislature has been beating TxDOT over the head for two years, telling them they need to explain what the Trans-Texas Corridor is and why it is necessary to the public. They've been telling TxDOT they are moving too fast — they are moving before the public and the Legislature has the chance to understand what they are doing and why," said Krusee, R-Round Rock.
If the outreach is effective, Krusee said, it could save money in the long run.
"Texas is losing money for roads by the hundreds of millions of dollars every year simply due to delay because the Legislature and the public don't understand the need to move to a new finance method. And so an expenditure of a few million dollars could literally save hundreds of millions of dollars per year," Krusee said.
The agency's budget is more than $7 billion for fiscal year 2007 and more than $8 billion for fiscal year 2008.
The Trans-Texas Corridor and toll roads have been championed by GOP Gov. Rick Perry and others as necessary in the face of congestion and gas-tax revenues that can't keep up with huge transportation needs.
But the initiative has drawn widespread criticism over the potential route and state proposals to partner with private companies to run toll roads. Lawmakers this year sought to rein in new private toll projects.
The new campaign, as outlined in the memo obtained by the Houston Chronicle, started June 1 with TV, radio, print, billboard and Internet advertising meant to push people to the Keep Texas Moving site (www.keeptexasmoving.com).
Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, who fought for a moratorium on privately run toll roads, said the initiative needs a hard look.
"TxDOT is consistently telling us we have no money to build highways, yet they seem to be spending a lot of money on internal audits and also ad campaigns. That's something that the Legislature needs to look at," she said. "I don't know that we would approve any other agency to do a $7 (million) to $9 million campaign on an initiative as controversial as the Trans-Texas Corridor and tolled roads."
She added that the cost "is a lot of money, and I would hope since it's taxpayer dollars they would approach it with a balanced approach to tell the pros and the cons of toll roads and the Trans-Texas Corridor."
TxDOT spokesman Chris Lippincott defended the campaign. "The clearest and most-often repeated criticism of the department during the legislative session was that we needed to do a better job of engaging the public," he said. "We heard that message loud and clear, and we're acting on it."
Read more
Houston Chronicle
AUSTIN — The Texas Department of Transportation, which complains about chronic underfunding, has launched a multimillion-dollar campaign that promotes the divisive Trans-Texas Corridor plan and toll roads.
The campaign is anticipated to cost $7 million to $9 million, according to a memo titled "Keep Texas Moving: Tolling and Trans-Texas Corridor Outreach" sent to transportation officials by Coby Chase, director of the agency's government and public affairs division.
Such use of state highway-fund dollars is drawing questions, but the department says it's an important effort to educate and engage Texans.
"It's a waste of money," said Rep. Warren Chisum, chairman of the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee, "and they have no business out there trying to get public opinion to be in their favor."
The money would be better spent fixing roads, said Chisum, R-Pampa.
But Rep. Mike Krusee, House Transportation Committee chairman, said the campaign addresses lawmakers' concerns by explaining new financing methods.
"The Legislature has been beating TxDOT over the head for two years, telling them they need to explain what the Trans-Texas Corridor is and why it is necessary to the public. They've been telling TxDOT they are moving too fast — they are moving before the public and the Legislature has the chance to understand what they are doing and why," said Krusee, R-Round Rock.
If the outreach is effective, Krusee said, it could save money in the long run.
"Texas is losing money for roads by the hundreds of millions of dollars every year simply due to delay because the Legislature and the public don't understand the need to move to a new finance method. And so an expenditure of a few million dollars could literally save hundreds of millions of dollars per year," Krusee said.
The agency's budget is more than $7 billion for fiscal year 2007 and more than $8 billion for fiscal year 2008.
The Trans-Texas Corridor and toll roads have been championed by GOP Gov. Rick Perry and others as necessary in the face of congestion and gas-tax revenues that can't keep up with huge transportation needs.
But the initiative has drawn widespread criticism over the potential route and state proposals to partner with private companies to run toll roads. Lawmakers this year sought to rein in new private toll projects.
The new campaign, as outlined in the memo obtained by the Houston Chronicle, started June 1 with TV, radio, print, billboard and Internet advertising meant to push people to the Keep Texas Moving site (www.keeptexasmoving.com).
Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, who fought for a moratorium on privately run toll roads, said the initiative needs a hard look.
"TxDOT is consistently telling us we have no money to build highways, yet they seem to be spending a lot of money on internal audits and also ad campaigns. That's something that the Legislature needs to look at," she said. "I don't know that we would approve any other agency to do a $7 (million) to $9 million campaign on an initiative as controversial as the Trans-Texas Corridor and tolled roads."
She added that the cost "is a lot of money, and I would hope since it's taxpayer dollars they would approach it with a balanced approach to tell the pros and the cons of toll roads and the Trans-Texas Corridor."
TxDOT spokesman Chris Lippincott defended the campaign. "The clearest and most-often repeated criticism of the department during the legislative session was that we needed to do a better job of engaging the public," he said. "We heard that message loud and clear, and we're acting on it."
Read more
T.U.R.F. asks Ronnie Earl to block TxDOT's multi million dollar pro Trans Texas Corridor Ad campaign
Mr. Ronnie Earle
District Attorney
Travis County
509 W.11th St
Austin, TX 78701
August 22, 2007
Dear Mr. Earle:
The citizens of Texas believe the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is illegally using taxpayer money to wage a cleverly cloaked public relations campaign to push the wildly controversial Trans Texas Corridor and toll road proliferation.
According to a memorandum obtained by the Express-News entitled "Keep Texas Moving: Tolling and Trans-Texas Corridor Outreach" sent to transportation officials by Coby Chase, director of the agency's government and public affairs division, TxDOT has undertaken a multi-million dollar campaign including direct mail, billboards, and training of employees to sell the public their proposals over talk radio.
It's not only an inappropriate and wasteful use of our gas tax dollars by an agency perpetually claiming it’s out of money for roads, but it's ILLEGAL for a PUBLIC agency to take a policy position and use the public's tax money to sell them something using an under-handed PR campaign.
The State Auditor already found TxDOT "cooked the books" Enron-style on the Trans Texas Corridor mismarking funds as "engineering" when in fact, they spent it on PR. The Auditor’s office testified to this before the Senate Transportation Committee on March 1, 2007. See the report entitled “An Audit Report on the Department of Transportation and the Trans-Texas Corridor” released in February 2007.
Please open an investigation and prosecute this agency for its repeated illegal activities. The people of Texas want justice. When Ken Lay cooked the books at Enron, he was sent to jail. The same needs to happen with those guilty of breaking the law at the highway department.
Sincerely,
Terri Hall
Founder/Director
Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF)
San Antonio, Texas 78232
(210) 275-0640 • www.TexasTURF.org
__________________________________
“If a corporate CEO had done this to their shareholders, they’d be in JAIL!” notes Hall.
Citizens gasped when the Texas State Auditor’s office revealed that TxDOT cooked the books at the Senate Transportation & Homeland Security Committee hearing March 1. A record 800 witnesses heard this testimony at the hearing.
Source: E-mail from T.U.R.F. written by Terri Hall.
District Attorney
Travis County
509 W.11th St
Austin, TX 78701
August 22, 2007
Dear Mr. Earle:
The citizens of Texas believe the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is illegally using taxpayer money to wage a cleverly cloaked public relations campaign to push the wildly controversial Trans Texas Corridor and toll road proliferation.
According to a memorandum obtained by the Express-News entitled "Keep Texas Moving: Tolling and Trans-Texas Corridor Outreach" sent to transportation officials by Coby Chase, director of the agency's government and public affairs division, TxDOT has undertaken a multi-million dollar campaign including direct mail, billboards, and training of employees to sell the public their proposals over talk radio.
It's not only an inappropriate and wasteful use of our gas tax dollars by an agency perpetually claiming it’s out of money for roads, but it's ILLEGAL for a PUBLIC agency to take a policy position and use the public's tax money to sell them something using an under-handed PR campaign.
The State Auditor already found TxDOT "cooked the books" Enron-style on the Trans Texas Corridor mismarking funds as "engineering" when in fact, they spent it on PR. The Auditor’s office testified to this before the Senate Transportation Committee on March 1, 2007. See the report entitled “An Audit Report on the Department of Transportation and the Trans-Texas Corridor” released in February 2007.
Please open an investigation and prosecute this agency for its repeated illegal activities. The people of Texas want justice. When Ken Lay cooked the books at Enron, he was sent to jail. The same needs to happen with those guilty of breaking the law at the highway department.
Sincerely,
Terri Hall
Founder/Director
Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF)
San Antonio, Texas 78232
(210) 275-0640 • www.TexasTURF.org
__________________________________
“If a corporate CEO had done this to their shareholders, they’d be in JAIL!” notes Hall.
Citizens gasped when the Texas State Auditor’s office revealed that TxDOT cooked the books at the Senate Transportation & Homeland Security Committee hearing March 1. A record 800 witnesses heard this testimony at the hearing.
Source: E-mail from T.U.R.F. written by Terri Hall.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
State spending millions to push Trans-Texas plan - Road campaign draws criticism and praise from lawmakers
By PEGGY FIKAC - Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau - Aug. 20, 2007
AUSTIN — The Texas Department of Transportation, which complains about chronic underfunding, has launched a multimillion-dollar campaign that promotes the divisive Trans-Texas Corridor plan and toll roads.
The campaign is anticipated to cost $7 million to $9 million, according to a memo titled "Keep Texas Moving: Tolling and Trans-Texas Corridor Outreach" sent to transportation officials by Coby Chase, director of the agency's government and public affairs division.
Such use of state highway-fund dollars is drawing questions, but the department says it's an important effort to educate and engage Texans.
"It's a waste of money," said Rep. Warren Chisum, chairman of the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee, "and they have no business out there trying to get public opinion to be in their favor."
The money would be better spent fixing roads, said Chisum, R-Pampa.
But Rep. Mike Krusee, House Transportation Committee chairman, said the campaign addresses lawmakers' concerns by explaining new financing methods.
"The Legislature has been beating TxDOT over the head for two years, telling them they need to explain what the Trans-Texas Corridor is and why it is necessary to the public. They've been telling TxDOT they are moving too fast — they are moving before the public and the Legislature has the chance to understand what they are doing and why," said Krusee, R-Round Rock.
If the outreach is effective, Krusee said, it could save money in the long run.
"Texas is losing money for roads by the hundreds of millions of dollars every year simply due to delay because the Legislature and the public don't understand the need to move to a new finance method. And so an expenditure of a few million dollars could literally save hundreds of millions of dollars per year," Krusee said.
The agency's budget is more than $7 billion for fiscal year 2007 and more than $8 billion for fiscal year 2008.
The Trans-Texas Corridor and toll roads have been championed by GOP Gov. Rick Perry and others as necessary in the face of congestion and gas-tax revenues that can't keep up with huge transportation needs.
But the initiative has drawn widespread criticism over the potential route and state proposals to partner with private companies to run toll roads. Lawmakers this year sought to rein in new private toll projects.
The new campaign, as outlined in the memo obtained by the Houston Chronicle, started June 1 with TV, radio, print, billboard and Internet advertising meant to push people to the Keep Texas Moving site (www.keeptexasmoving.com).
Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, who fought for a moratorium on privately run toll roads, said the initiative needs a hard look.
"TxDOT is consistently telling us we have no money to build highways, yet they seem to be spending a lot of money on internal audits and also ad campaigns. That's something that the Legislature needs to look at," she said. "I don't know that we would approve any other agency to do a $7 (million) to $9 million campaign on an initiative as controversial as the Trans-Texas Corridor and tolled roads."
She added that the cost "is a lot of money, and I would hope since it's taxpayer dollars they would approach it with a balanced approach to tell the pros and the cons of toll roads and the Trans-Texas Corridor."
TxDOT spokesman Chris Lippincott defended the campaign. "The clearest and most-often repeated criticism of the department during the legislative session was that we needed to do a better job of engaging the public," he said. "We heard that message loud and clear, and we're acting on it."
Read more in the Houston Chronicle
AUSTIN — The Texas Department of Transportation, which complains about chronic underfunding, has launched a multimillion-dollar campaign that promotes the divisive Trans-Texas Corridor plan and toll roads.
The campaign is anticipated to cost $7 million to $9 million, according to a memo titled "Keep Texas Moving: Tolling and Trans-Texas Corridor Outreach" sent to transportation officials by Coby Chase, director of the agency's government and public affairs division.
Such use of state highway-fund dollars is drawing questions, but the department says it's an important effort to educate and engage Texans.
"It's a waste of money," said Rep. Warren Chisum, chairman of the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee, "and they have no business out there trying to get public opinion to be in their favor."
The money would be better spent fixing roads, said Chisum, R-Pampa.
But Rep. Mike Krusee, House Transportation Committee chairman, said the campaign addresses lawmakers' concerns by explaining new financing methods.
"The Legislature has been beating TxDOT over the head for two years, telling them they need to explain what the Trans-Texas Corridor is and why it is necessary to the public. They've been telling TxDOT they are moving too fast — they are moving before the public and the Legislature has the chance to understand what they are doing and why," said Krusee, R-Round Rock.
If the outreach is effective, Krusee said, it could save money in the long run.
"Texas is losing money for roads by the hundreds of millions of dollars every year simply due to delay because the Legislature and the public don't understand the need to move to a new finance method. And so an expenditure of a few million dollars could literally save hundreds of millions of dollars per year," Krusee said.
The agency's budget is more than $7 billion for fiscal year 2007 and more than $8 billion for fiscal year 2008.
The Trans-Texas Corridor and toll roads have been championed by GOP Gov. Rick Perry and others as necessary in the face of congestion and gas-tax revenues that can't keep up with huge transportation needs.
But the initiative has drawn widespread criticism over the potential route and state proposals to partner with private companies to run toll roads. Lawmakers this year sought to rein in new private toll projects.
The new campaign, as outlined in the memo obtained by the Houston Chronicle, started June 1 with TV, radio, print, billboard and Internet advertising meant to push people to the Keep Texas Moving site (www.keeptexasmoving.com).
Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, who fought for a moratorium on privately run toll roads, said the initiative needs a hard look.
"TxDOT is consistently telling us we have no money to build highways, yet they seem to be spending a lot of money on internal audits and also ad campaigns. That's something that the Legislature needs to look at," she said. "I don't know that we would approve any other agency to do a $7 (million) to $9 million campaign on an initiative as controversial as the Trans-Texas Corridor and tolled roads."
She added that the cost "is a lot of money, and I would hope since it's taxpayer dollars they would approach it with a balanced approach to tell the pros and the cons of toll roads and the Trans-Texas Corridor."
TxDOT spokesman Chris Lippincott defended the campaign. "The clearest and most-often repeated criticism of the department during the legislative session was that we needed to do a better job of engaging the public," he said. "We heard that message loud and clear, and we're acting on it."
Read more in the Houston Chronicle
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Perry denies TTC part of push for North American Union
By Terri Hall - T.U.R.F. - Sunday, 19 August 2007
Read Jerry Corsi's book, The Late Great USA, the Coming merger with Mexico and Canada, to see the irrefutable evidence for yourself. Search this web site for SPP, NAFTA Superhighway, or North American Union to connect the dots. Anyone who believes the Governor over ordinary citizens and documents available from our own government needs their head examined.
Remember Perry is pushing the Trans Texas Corridor (against his own Party's platform) to such a degree that he vetoed a bill that would have protected landowners from their land being taken and given to private interests for private gain, HB 2006, he vetoed the people's moratorium bill on privatized toll roads, HB 1892, and his ex-aide worked for the company awarded the bid to build the Trans Texas Corridor before and after working for the Governor. He barely won re-election running on strong border security, and, in less than a month after he won, flip-flopped and came out for open borders and a guest worker program. Perry's not looking out for you, and his word is for sale to the highest bidder just like our highways. While politicians and reporters are busy trying to marginalize watchdogs, our government is laying the groundwork for deep integration with Canada and Mexico through the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP). Since 19 state legislatures have passed resolutions against it, it's getting tougher for Perry and his crowd to make the "conspiracy theory" charge stick.
Perry's push for super highway raises conspiracy buzz
Some say it's part of a plan to create one nation in North America
By R.G. RATCLIFFE - Houston Chronicle - Aug. 18, 2007
AUSTIN — Black helicopters, the Illuminati, Gov. Rick Perry and the Trans-Texas Corridor are all now part of the vernacular of the global domination conspiracy theorists.
Perry's push for the Trans-Texas Corridor super highway is part of a secret plan, the conspiracy theorists say, to create the North American Union — a single nation consisting of Canada, Mexico and the United States with a currency called the Amero.
Government denials of the North American Union and descriptions of it as a myth seem to add fuel to the fire. A Google search for "North American Union" and "Rick Perry" returns about 13,400 Web page results.
Perry enhanced the conspiracy buzz earlier this summer by traveling to Turkey to attend the secretive Bilderberg conference, which conspiracy theorists believe is a cabal of international monied interests and power brokers pressing for globalization.
And the conspiracy rhetoric is likely to ratchet up this week as President Bush meets with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Quebec in their third summit to discuss North American relations under the Security and Prosperity Partnership.
"There is absolutely a connection with all of it," said Texas Eagle Forum President Cathie Adams. The Trans-Texas Corridor "is something not being driven by the people of Texas."
The first, and most controversial, leg of the Trans-Texas Corridor plan is a proposed 1,200-foot-wide private toll road to run from Laredo to the Oklahoma border parallel to Interstate 35. This TTC-35 would be built by a consortium headed by Spanish owned Cintra S.A. and Zachry Construction Corp. of San Antonio.
The seed of the North American Union controversy rests in the 1992-93 passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Under that treaty, Interstate 35 was designated informally as the NAFTA highway.
'Stealth' attempt
Fast-forward to March 2005 to Crawford, when President Bush, Harper and then-Mexican President Vicente Fox agreed to pursue the Security and Prosperity Partnership, SPP. The idea was to promote cooperation among the countries on economic and security issues.But conservative author Jerome Corsi — in his new book: The Late Great U.S.A.: The Coming Merger with Mexico and Canada — argues the SPP is a "stealth" attempt to wipe out the nations' borders and form a single economy like the European Union.
With an entire chapter dedicated to Perry's Trans-Texas Corridor plan, Corsi says the first step to integrating the economies is to integrate the transportation infrastructure.
"His (Perry's) actions have been to fight hard to build this toll road and not listen to the objections expressed by the people of Texas," Corsi said.
Corsi became nationally known in 2004 as the co-author of Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry. Corsi said extensive research shows the SPP has created working groups on the North American Union that answer to presidential Cabinet secretaries.
The official federal Web site for the SPP has a section dedicated to busting the North American Union as myth.
But that has not stopped a growing opposition to the North American Union by groups such as the Eagle Forum, The Conservative Caucus and the John Birch Society.
'Wanted' individual
The North American Union also has been fodder for cable television commentators: CNN's Lou Dobbs and Fox's Bill O'Reilly.Perry fueled his role in the debate in June by attending the Bilderberg annual conference, a secretive closed-door meeting of about 120 business, government and media leaders from Europe and North America.
Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Lake Jackson was asked about the trip on the syndicated talk radio show of Alex Jones in June. Paul said the trip was "a sign that he's involved in the international conspiracy."
Jones' Web site features mug shot-like photos of Perry labeled "Wanted for Treason." Jones in an interview said Perry's trip and the Trans-Texas Corridor show a willingness by the governor to sell out Texas' infrastructure to international bankers.
The 2001 book Toward a North American Community: Lessons from the Old World for the New by Robert A. Pastor, an American University professor and director of the Center for Democracy and Election Management, is cited by Corsi as the blueprint for the merger.
"I've never proposed a North American Union," Pastor said. "The only people who talk about a North American Union are those people who are trying to generate fear."
Belief in sovereignty
Pastor said greater cooperation between the three countries makes sense for both economics and internal security.Pastor said those promoting the conspiracy are doing so because of "historical xenophobia," "a fear of immigrants, mostly from Mexico" and a "traditional isolationism."
Black said there is no way the governor would support merging the U.S. with its neighbors.
Read Jerry Corsi's book, The Late Great USA, the Coming merger with Mexico and Canada, to see the irrefutable evidence for yourself. Search this web site for SPP, NAFTA Superhighway, or North American Union to connect the dots. Anyone who believes the Governor over ordinary citizens and documents available from our own government needs their head examined.
Remember Perry is pushing the Trans Texas Corridor (against his own Party's platform) to such a degree that he vetoed a bill that would have protected landowners from their land being taken and given to private interests for private gain, HB 2006, he vetoed the people's moratorium bill on privatized toll roads, HB 1892, and his ex-aide worked for the company awarded the bid to build the Trans Texas Corridor before and after working for the Governor. He barely won re-election running on strong border security, and, in less than a month after he won, flip-flopped and came out for open borders and a guest worker program. Perry's not looking out for you, and his word is for sale to the highest bidder just like our highways. While politicians and reporters are busy trying to marginalize watchdogs, our government is laying the groundwork for deep integration with Canada and Mexico through the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP). Since 19 state legislatures have passed resolutions against it, it's getting tougher for Perry and his crowd to make the "conspiracy theory" charge stick.
Perry's push for super highway raises conspiracy buzz
Some say it's part of a plan to create one nation in North America
By R.G. RATCLIFFE - Houston Chronicle - Aug. 18, 2007
AUSTIN — Black helicopters, the Illuminati, Gov. Rick Perry and the Trans-Texas Corridor are all now part of the vernacular of the global domination conspiracy theorists.
Perry's push for the Trans-Texas Corridor super highway is part of a secret plan, the conspiracy theorists say, to create the North American Union — a single nation consisting of Canada, Mexico and the United States with a currency called the Amero.
Government denials of the North American Union and descriptions of it as a myth seem to add fuel to the fire. A Google search for "North American Union" and "Rick Perry" returns about 13,400 Web page results.
"Conspiracy theories abound, and some people have an awful lot of time on their hands to come up with such far-fetched notions,"said Perry spokesman Robert Black.
Perry enhanced the conspiracy buzz earlier this summer by traveling to Turkey to attend the secretive Bilderberg conference, which conspiracy theorists believe is a cabal of international monied interests and power brokers pressing for globalization.
And the conspiracy rhetoric is likely to ratchet up this week as President Bush meets with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Quebec in their third summit to discuss North American relations under the Security and Prosperity Partnership.
"There is absolutely a connection with all of it," said Texas Eagle Forum President Cathie Adams. The Trans-Texas Corridor "is something not being driven by the people of Texas."
The first, and most controversial, leg of the Trans-Texas Corridor plan is a proposed 1,200-foot-wide private toll road to run from Laredo to the Oklahoma border parallel to Interstate 35. This TTC-35 would be built by a consortium headed by Spanish owned Cintra S.A. and Zachry Construction Corp. of San Antonio.
The seed of the North American Union controversy rests in the 1992-93 passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Under that treaty, Interstate 35 was designated informally as the NAFTA highway.
'Stealth' attempt
Fast-forward to March 2005 to Crawford, when President Bush, Harper and then-Mexican President Vicente Fox agreed to pursue the Security and Prosperity Partnership, SPP. The idea was to promote cooperation among the countries on economic and security issues.But conservative author Jerome Corsi — in his new book: The Late Great U.S.A.: The Coming Merger with Mexico and Canada — argues the SPP is a "stealth" attempt to wipe out the nations' borders and form a single economy like the European Union.
With an entire chapter dedicated to Perry's Trans-Texas Corridor plan, Corsi says the first step to integrating the economies is to integrate the transportation infrastructure.
"His (Perry's) actions have been to fight hard to build this toll road and not listen to the objections expressed by the people of Texas," Corsi said.
Corsi became nationally known in 2004 as the co-author of Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry. Corsi said extensive research shows the SPP has created working groups on the North American Union that answer to presidential Cabinet secretaries.
"This is more of a shadow bureaucracy, a shadow government already in effect," Corsi said. "Unless it is stopped, it will turn into a North American Union with an Amero."
The official federal Web site for the SPP has a section dedicated to busting the North American Union as myth.
"The SPP does not attempt to modify our sovereignty or currency or change the American system of government designed by our Founding Fathers,"the site says.
But that has not stopped a growing opposition to the North American Union by groups such as the Eagle Forum, The Conservative Caucus and the John Birch Society.
'Wanted' individual
The North American Union also has been fodder for cable television commentators: CNN's Lou Dobbs and Fox's Bill O'Reilly.Perry fueled his role in the debate in June by attending the Bilderberg annual conference, a secretive closed-door meeting of about 120 business, government and media leaders from Europe and North America.
Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Lake Jackson was asked about the trip on the syndicated talk radio show of Alex Jones in June. Paul said the trip was "a sign that he's involved in the international conspiracy."
Jones' Web site features mug shot-like photos of Perry labeled "Wanted for Treason." Jones in an interview said Perry's trip and the Trans-Texas Corridor show a willingness by the governor to sell out Texas' infrastructure to international bankers.
"Perry is actively waging war, economically in the interests of the elites and neomercantilism," Jones said.
The 2001 book Toward a North American Community: Lessons from the Old World for the New by Robert A. Pastor, an American University professor and director of the Center for Democracy and Election Management, is cited by Corsi as the blueprint for the merger.
"I've never proposed a North American Union," Pastor said. "The only people who talk about a North American Union are those people who are trying to generate fear."
Belief in sovereignty
Pastor said greater cooperation between the three countries makes sense for both economics and internal security.Pastor said those promoting the conspiracy are doing so because of "historical xenophobia," "a fear of immigrants, mostly from Mexico" and a "traditional isolationism."
Black said there is no way the governor would support merging the U.S. with its neighbors.
"The governor is a firm believer in the sovereignty of the United States. Too many of our brave men and women have died defending it," Black said.
Friday, August 3, 2007
Controversy erupts over leaser of U.S. toll roads - Foreign firm part of public-private partnerships funding highway network
By Dr. Jerome Corsi - World Net Daily - July 20, 2007
Investment analysts in New York and Australia charge that Macquarie, the Australian conglomerate leasing U.S. toll roads, is a "house of cards" that has made billions by spinning off the highway assets into over-valuated investment trusts controlled by the bank.
Macquarie has been an active participant in the "public-private partnerships" sponsored by Mary Peters when she was head of the Federal Highway Administration.
As documented on the FHWA website, Macquarie recently concluded long-term leasing deals on the Chicago Skyway and the Indiana Toll Road.
In both projects, Macquarie has partnered with Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, S.A., the Spanish investment consortium also involved in financing and leasing the Trans-Texas Corridor.
The criticism of Macquarie can be traced to a paper published last year by John L. Goldberg, an honorary associate at the School of Architecture, Design Science, and Planning at the University of Sydney in Australia.
Titled "The Fatal Flaw in the Financing of Private Road Infrastructure in Australia," the paper argued equity investors in Macquarie investment trusts are likely to suffer heavy losses by excessive valuations Macquarie makes of financed toll roads that are packaged together to be sold to pension funds and other institutional investors.
Goldberg also argued that government guarantees on Macquarie projects are often buried in the confidential part of toll road "comprehensive development agreements," such that the public taxpayer liability only comes to light when a toll road project fails.
Jim Chanos, a founding principal in the New York investment firm Kynikos Associates, has been equally critical of Macquarie.
Kynikos, founded in 1985, specializes in short-selling the stock of companies the firm believes are overvalued by the financial markets and likely to fall in price. Chanos distinguished himself as one of the most active critics of Enron prior to the company's fall.
In a May 30 radio interview with Australian talk-show host Mark Colvin, Chanos charged that the "Macquarie model" was seriously flawed.
"The bank scours the world buying assets," Chanos told the radio audience, "buying assets, everything from toll roads to bowling alleys and selling them into separate trusts that the bank controls. This generates triple fees for Macquarie Bank: one for the up-front purchase; a second for selling the assets into the trust; then ongoing management and performance fees from the funds."
Chanos charged that the loser in the scheme was the investor.
"If you look at the financial accounts of the trusts," Chanos explained to the Australian talk show, "you'll see that in almost all the cases the companies are using Australian re-valuation accounting which is legal under [Generally Accepted Accounting Practices] in your country to write up the value of the asset annually and put that through operating income and into equity."
Chanos argued that the practice only works in a financial environment in which cheap credit is readily available and valuations for infrastructure projects are generally rising.
"You need a credit environment that looks the other way, or you need a credit environment where the people lending are just lending on reputation or not numbers," Chanos said.
Eventually, he contended, the self-dealing between Macquarie and the Macquarie-controlled funds into which the infrastructure assets are sold is likely to crash.
"All I would tell your listeners," Chanos said in the radio interview, "is simply just go to the trusts, the financial statements, and simply extract out the asset re-valuation number, which is basically management's guess as to how much, what the asset's worth and just see what the cash flow looks like. In many cases, the cash flows are diminished or actually go negative. That's the simple litmus test to the Macquarie model."
Still, Chanos argued that despite the problem in the underlying cash flows, Macquarie makes hefty profits.
"Capital gains alone in the fiscal year 2007, just for flipping these types of assets into the trusts, accounted for half of the pre-tax income of Macquarie Bank," Chanos asserted.
Macquarie Bank has hit back strongly against both critics.
According to newspaper reports in Australia, Macquarie Bank executive Warwick Smith complained to University of Sidney Vice Chancellor Gavin Brown, demanding that the university dissociate itself from Goldberg over his critical research.
In response, Brown issued a statement clarifying that Goldberg is not an employee of the University of Sydney, though he has been given the title of honorary associate by the Faculty of Architecture. In his statement, Brown claimed Goldberg "speaks as an individual and the university accepts no responsibility for his comments which it does not endorse."
In the subsequent controversy that erupted in Australia, Goldberg was featured as a case study in "Silencing Dissent," a book critical of the administration of Prime Minister John Howard, published in Australia by Clive Hamilton, the executive director of a prominent Australian think-tank, and his co-editor Sarah Maddison.
In the book, Hamilton and Maddison charged that the Howard government used strong-arm tactics to challenge the tax status of non-government organizations and ruin the reputations of academics who were critical of governmental policies, including the sale of highway infrastructure leasing rights to private investment concerns in Australia.
Macquarie used a similar personal attack to discredit Chanos following the interview on Australian radio.
In a May 31 statement posted on the Macquarie website, the investment group charged that Chanos, "a hedge fund short-seller of equities," had an economic self-interest in advancing "incorrect claims" that could cause the stock price of Macquarie to fall.
When contacted for comment, Macquarie's New York representative referred WND to the company's online statement, in which Macquarie asserts that all assets acquired by funds controlled by Macquarie are valued directly from the market and subject to the approval of independent directors of the funds.
The published Macquarie response to Chanos also cited a May 25 Bloomberg report which quoted Chanos as saying Kynikos maintains a short position on Macquarie.
Short-selling is a Wall Street practice in which an investor borrows and sells stock the investor does not own, anticipating the stock will go down in value. The short-seller profits by buying shares at a lower price to replace the shares that originally were borrowed and sold at the higher price.
Short-sellers lose money if the price of the stock increases and the cost to purchase shares to replace those borrowed is greater than the price for which the borrowed shares were sold.
Macquarie Infrastructure Group is a separate subsidiary from Macquarie Bank.
The website of Macquarie Infrastructure Group bills the company as "one of the largest private developers of toll roads in the world."
Read story
Investment analysts in New York and Australia charge that Macquarie, the Australian conglomerate leasing U.S. toll roads, is a "house of cards" that has made billions by spinning off the highway assets into over-valuated investment trusts controlled by the bank.
Macquarie has been an active participant in the "public-private partnerships" sponsored by Mary Peters when she was head of the Federal Highway Administration.
As documented on the FHWA website, Macquarie recently concluded long-term leasing deals on the Chicago Skyway and the Indiana Toll Road.
In both projects, Macquarie has partnered with Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, S.A., the Spanish investment consortium also involved in financing and leasing the Trans-Texas Corridor.
The criticism of Macquarie can be traced to a paper published last year by John L. Goldberg, an honorary associate at the School of Architecture, Design Science, and Planning at the University of Sydney in Australia.
Titled "The Fatal Flaw in the Financing of Private Road Infrastructure in Australia," the paper argued equity investors in Macquarie investment trusts are likely to suffer heavy losses by excessive valuations Macquarie makes of financed toll roads that are packaged together to be sold to pension funds and other institutional investors.
Goldberg also argued that government guarantees on Macquarie projects are often buried in the confidential part of toll road "comprehensive development agreements," such that the public taxpayer liability only comes to light when a toll road project fails.
Jim Chanos, a founding principal in the New York investment firm Kynikos Associates, has been equally critical of Macquarie.
Kynikos, founded in 1985, specializes in short-selling the stock of companies the firm believes are overvalued by the financial markets and likely to fall in price. Chanos distinguished himself as one of the most active critics of Enron prior to the company's fall.
In a May 30 radio interview with Australian talk-show host Mark Colvin, Chanos charged that the "Macquarie model" was seriously flawed.
"The bank scours the world buying assets," Chanos told the radio audience, "buying assets, everything from toll roads to bowling alleys and selling them into separate trusts that the bank controls. This generates triple fees for Macquarie Bank: one for the up-front purchase; a second for selling the assets into the trust; then ongoing management and performance fees from the funds."
Chanos charged that the loser in the scheme was the investor.
"If you look at the financial accounts of the trusts," Chanos explained to the Australian talk show, "you'll see that in almost all the cases the companies are using Australian re-valuation accounting which is legal under [Generally Accepted Accounting Practices] in your country to write up the value of the asset annually and put that through operating income and into equity."
Chanos argued that the practice only works in a financial environment in which cheap credit is readily available and valuations for infrastructure projects are generally rising.
"You need a credit environment that looks the other way, or you need a credit environment where the people lending are just lending on reputation or not numbers," Chanos said.
Eventually, he contended, the self-dealing between Macquarie and the Macquarie-controlled funds into which the infrastructure assets are sold is likely to crash.
"All I would tell your listeners," Chanos said in the radio interview, "is simply just go to the trusts, the financial statements, and simply extract out the asset re-valuation number, which is basically management's guess as to how much, what the asset's worth and just see what the cash flow looks like. In many cases, the cash flows are diminished or actually go negative. That's the simple litmus test to the Macquarie model."
Still, Chanos argued that despite the problem in the underlying cash flows, Macquarie makes hefty profits.
"Capital gains alone in the fiscal year 2007, just for flipping these types of assets into the trusts, accounted for half of the pre-tax income of Macquarie Bank," Chanos asserted.
Macquarie Bank has hit back strongly against both critics.
According to newspaper reports in Australia, Macquarie Bank executive Warwick Smith complained to University of Sidney Vice Chancellor Gavin Brown, demanding that the university dissociate itself from Goldberg over his critical research.
In response, Brown issued a statement clarifying that Goldberg is not an employee of the University of Sydney, though he has been given the title of honorary associate by the Faculty of Architecture. In his statement, Brown claimed Goldberg "speaks as an individual and the university accepts no responsibility for his comments which it does not endorse."
In the subsequent controversy that erupted in Australia, Goldberg was featured as a case study in "Silencing Dissent," a book critical of the administration of Prime Minister John Howard, published in Australia by Clive Hamilton, the executive director of a prominent Australian think-tank, and his co-editor Sarah Maddison.
In the book, Hamilton and Maddison charged that the Howard government used strong-arm tactics to challenge the tax status of non-government organizations and ruin the reputations of academics who were critical of governmental policies, including the sale of highway infrastructure leasing rights to private investment concerns in Australia.
Macquarie used a similar personal attack to discredit Chanos following the interview on Australian radio.
In a May 31 statement posted on the Macquarie website, the investment group charged that Chanos, "a hedge fund short-seller of equities," had an economic self-interest in advancing "incorrect claims" that could cause the stock price of Macquarie to fall.
When contacted for comment, Macquarie's New York representative referred WND to the company's online statement, in which Macquarie asserts that all assets acquired by funds controlled by Macquarie are valued directly from the market and subject to the approval of independent directors of the funds.
The published Macquarie response to Chanos also cited a May 25 Bloomberg report which quoted Chanos as saying Kynikos maintains a short position on Macquarie.
Short-selling is a Wall Street practice in which an investor borrows and sells stock the investor does not own, anticipating the stock will go down in value. The short-seller profits by buying shares at a lower price to replace the shares that originally were borrowed and sold at the higher price.
Short-sellers lose money if the price of the stock increases and the cost to purchase shares to replace those borrowed is greater than the price for which the borrowed shares were sold.
Macquarie Infrastructure Group is a separate subsidiary from Macquarie Bank.
The website of Macquarie Infrastructure Group bills the company as "one of the largest private developers of toll roads in the world."
Read story
Trans Texas Corridor topic of Freedom 21 Conference
By Terri Hall - T.U.R.F. - Thursday, 26 July 2007
What do Joseph Farrah, Phyllis Schlafly, and Duncan Hunter all have in common? A concern about the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) and moving toward a North American Union (NAU) and all that comes with it, like the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC). And it’s not just conservatives, but those across the political spectrum...Republicans and Democrats and everyone in between. This past week in Dallas, Farrah, Schlafly, and Hunter all addressed the attendees of the Freedom 21 Conference, the patriot’s answer to the United Nations’ Agenda 21 for global governance. This year’s topic addressed the NAU and TTC.
There’s no better place to discuss the formation of the NAU than Texas. We’re ground zero for the global push for the free flow of people and goods through Mexico via the TTC. The best resource for someone wishing to “connect all the dots,” examine the evidence, and get beyond the accusation of “conspiracy theory” should read Dr. Jerry Corsi’s just released New York Times bestseller, The Late Great USA, The Coming Merger with Mexico and Canada.
Presidential candidate Congressman Duncan Hunter gave a surprisingly substantive speech (not the usual soundbite fluff we get from the top tier), which noted the military threat from China, not just its economic one. He railed against our failed trade agreements and other policies like the Value Added Tax (VAT) and China’s manipulation of currency that have contributed to the dollar’s race to the bottom making way for a North American currency like the Amero to emerge.
Ms. Schlafly’s address connected the dots and named names of how we’ve arrived at this threat to our sovereignty and charged the crowd with how to defeat it! To the naysayers: government documents and Corsi’s book document it, and 13 state legislatures have now passed resolutions against the SPP, NAU, and NAFTA superhighways.
The fact that Corsi’s book has shot to the top with NO publicity in the mainstream media and the fact that World Net Daily didn’t even print enough books in the first printing for it to sell enough copies to become a New York Times bestseller speaks to the grassroots hunger to get this issue front and center before the American people before its too late.
Mr. Farrah shared that this couldn’t have happened without the new media, like World Net Daily. He also noted how members of BOTH parties began a more fervent push to renew the Fairness Doctrine AFTER they suffered a MAJOR grassroots defeat on the immigration bill. It’s certainly no coincidence! They don’t want talk radio to sound the battle cry or to hear from YOU; they simply want to ram their agenda through without accountability and laugh all the way to the bank!
Many of the speakers at the Freedom 21 conference not only educated attendees about the NAU and TTC, they equipped them with the tools they’ll need to keep the grassroots drum beat going to defeat EVERY SINGLE SHRED of NAU initiatives from free trade agreements, eroding private property rights, outsourcing jobs, importing labor, and open borders, to the push to sell off our public infrastructure through privatized toll roads using Public Private Partnerships (PPPs).
Mark my words, using the tools they gave the grassroots, the phones of the elites (not just in government but those who will profit from this scheme) are going to start ringing throwing these guys into abject panic!
There’s no sugar coating it nor denying it; our sovereignty WILL BE erased, incrementally, like the European Union, or through the next national crisis if the people living in the last beacon of freedom, the United States of America, don’t rise up to defeat it!
What started as a fight against toll roads has led to our stumbling across a HUGE can of worms none of us could fathom at the outset. But millions of ordinary Americans are also beginning to connect the dots and the uprising has already begun through the defeat of the immigration bill.
There are many battles yet on the horizon, but suffice it to say…it all leads back to Texas and our gigantic job ahead of us, to defeat the Trans Texas Corridor and stop the free flow of people and goods across our border.
What do Joseph Farrah, Phyllis Schlafly, and Duncan Hunter all have in common? A concern about the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) and moving toward a North American Union (NAU) and all that comes with it, like the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC). And it’s not just conservatives, but those across the political spectrum...Republicans and Democrats and everyone in between. This past week in Dallas, Farrah, Schlafly, and Hunter all addressed the attendees of the Freedom 21 Conference, the patriot’s answer to the United Nations’ Agenda 21 for global governance. This year’s topic addressed the NAU and TTC.
There’s no better place to discuss the formation of the NAU than Texas. We’re ground zero for the global push for the free flow of people and goods through Mexico via the TTC. The best resource for someone wishing to “connect all the dots,” examine the evidence, and get beyond the accusation of “conspiracy theory” should read Dr. Jerry Corsi’s just released New York Times bestseller, The Late Great USA, The Coming Merger with Mexico and Canada.
Presidential candidate Congressman Duncan Hunter gave a surprisingly substantive speech (not the usual soundbite fluff we get from the top tier), which noted the military threat from China, not just its economic one. He railed against our failed trade agreements and other policies like the Value Added Tax (VAT) and China’s manipulation of currency that have contributed to the dollar’s race to the bottom making way for a North American currency like the Amero to emerge.
Ms. Schlafly’s address connected the dots and named names of how we’ve arrived at this threat to our sovereignty and charged the crowd with how to defeat it! To the naysayers: government documents and Corsi’s book document it, and 13 state legislatures have now passed resolutions against the SPP, NAU, and NAFTA superhighways.
The fact that Corsi’s book has shot to the top with NO publicity in the mainstream media and the fact that World Net Daily didn’t even print enough books in the first printing for it to sell enough copies to become a New York Times bestseller speaks to the grassroots hunger to get this issue front and center before the American people before its too late.
Mr. Farrah shared that this couldn’t have happened without the new media, like World Net Daily. He also noted how members of BOTH parties began a more fervent push to renew the Fairness Doctrine AFTER they suffered a MAJOR grassroots defeat on the immigration bill. It’s certainly no coincidence! They don’t want talk radio to sound the battle cry or to hear from YOU; they simply want to ram their agenda through without accountability and laugh all the way to the bank!
Many of the speakers at the Freedom 21 conference not only educated attendees about the NAU and TTC, they equipped them with the tools they’ll need to keep the grassroots drum beat going to defeat EVERY SINGLE SHRED of NAU initiatives from free trade agreements, eroding private property rights, outsourcing jobs, importing labor, and open borders, to the push to sell off our public infrastructure through privatized toll roads using Public Private Partnerships (PPPs).
Mark my words, using the tools they gave the grassroots, the phones of the elites (not just in government but those who will profit from this scheme) are going to start ringing throwing these guys into abject panic!
There’s no sugar coating it nor denying it; our sovereignty WILL BE erased, incrementally, like the European Union, or through the next national crisis if the people living in the last beacon of freedom, the United States of America, don’t rise up to defeat it!
What started as a fight against toll roads has led to our stumbling across a HUGE can of worms none of us could fathom at the outset. But millions of ordinary Americans are also beginning to connect the dots and the uprising has already begun through the defeat of the immigration bill.
There are many battles yet on the horizon, but suffice it to say…it all leads back to Texas and our gigantic job ahead of us, to defeat the Trans Texas Corridor and stop the free flow of people and goods across our border.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Opposition to Perry's Toll Road policy bridges political parties and left-right ideologies
By Faith Chatham - July 14, 2007
Crossposted on Epluribusmedia
Shirley Spellerburg is registered to attend the Freedom 21 National Conference this weekend in Dallas. She sent me information on the conference. It features several speakers who have spoken out vehemently against the North American Union and the Trans Texas Corridor. The conference Shirley is registered to attend is sponsored by the Environmental Conservation Organization, American Land Foundation, American Land Rights Association, America Policy Center, The Eagle Forum and other groups. Speakers will include Patrick M. Wood, founder of The August Corporation and former Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution for War and Peace, (Topic: Origin and strategies of the effort to create a North American Union), and Henry Lamb (Topic: NAFTA, CAFTA, the FTAA, and the SPP are converging into the legal structure that is evolving into the North American Union).
Cliff Kincaid, editor of the Accuracy in Media (AIM) Report, will open the conference (Topic: North American Union, challenge to national sovereignty which is materializing without any discussion or debate in Congress.)
Although John Corsi is not listed as a speaker on promo materials for the conference, she forwarded me links to several of his articles. Corsi published an article in November 2006 on the NAFTA Superhighway Tran Texas Corridor as a key issue in the Texas Governor's race. Mr. Corsi wrote an article in Human Events.com, a leading Conservative blog, which parallels articles which the DFW-RCC team researched and published on liberal blogs during that election cycle. We tied international players to the push for the Trans Texas Corridor and showed how toll road proponents used non-profit 501s such as Texas High Speed Rail Corp. seminars to sell their transportation/public infrastructure reengineering vision to attendees at transportation seminars and forums. Without reading Mr. Corsi's article (NAFTA Super Highway Debate Inflames Texas Governor's Race) we were writing very similar things about the Trans Texas Corridor as an issue in the 2006 Texas Statewide races. Corsi didn't chronicle the contributions by Zachry to all incumbent Republican Texas state officials (Perry, Dewhurst, Craddick, Combs, Staples, Patterson) as we did.
DFW-RCC (DFW REGIONAL CONCERNED CITIZENS) sprang from a team of researchers who volunteered for down-ticket Democratic challengers during the 2006 Texas election cycle. Hank Gilbert, candidate for Texas Agriculture Commissioner, handed us his excellent research on the TTC and NAIS and challenged us to verify and keep digging. He was the first person who told us about the Kansas City Smart Port. What began as an attempt to understand what Gilbert was talking about at a candidates meet and greet during the primary, evolved into a quest to discover who was behind the movement to reengineer Texas and USA transportation policy.
The biosphere is stratified. Most political blogger visit and write for either left or right blogs. Trolls are detested by both and most bloggers avoid the "opposition camps" blogs. On DFW Regional Concerned Citizens, we are a middle ground issue oriented activist network rather than a pure left or right blog. Recognizing common threats and arriving at the same truths from different directions, activists from the North Central Texas region who voted for different candidates during the last presidential election, agree on the basic facts regarding the Trans Texas Corridor.
I shudder to think of the rhetoric which would emerge if many of the activists on this network were to debate the truth or distortation of fact regarding George W. Bush's military service and/or Mr. Kerry's service during the Viet Nam War. Although we probably agree that this nation under Mr. Bush is not where we think we should be, the activists on this network would probably not trust the same leaders or alternative to get us to a different place. Yet from vastly different vantage points, many of us have arrived at many of the same conclusions. For several years some of us have been writing political commentary about NAFTA and the Trans Texas Corridor (and financial interests behind it).
When Shirley Spellerburg sent me links to Jerome Corsi's articles yesterday, I was astounded at how closely his article NAFTA SUPER HIGHWAY DEBATE INFLAMES TEXAS GOVERNOR'S RACE is a close overlay of the facts our team exposed on Daily Kos, Texas Kaos and Burnt Orange Report in candidates' journals for Hank Gilbert, David Van Os and Fred Head during the 2006 Texas Primary and General Elections!
All three stumped across Texas speaking out vehemently against the erosion of citizen’s rights and misuse of the legislative process to rip property rights from landowners. Gilbert warned of dangers to our nation's food supply from uninspected agriculture imports and the impending loss of hundreds of thousands of acres of this nation's richest farm land to the Trans Texas Corridor toll road. He entered the race when the author of the bill enabling the construction of the Trans Texas Corridor by exercise of eminent domain for private development, Todd Staples, entered the race for Agriculture Commissioner. Staples won the election but Gilbert's warnings and sound reasoning ignited a movement and united citizens on all spectrums of the political "divide."
Corsi is a controversial author. (One of his books was an attack on John Kerry - "Swift Boat Veterans for Peace" during the 2004 Presidential Election.) Although DFW-RCC is a broad based, non-partisan issue oriented network focusing on issues in the 16 county North Central Texas Council of Government (DFW) region, the original group which founded the network would probably have a rather heated discussion with Mr. Corsi on some the premises he presents in that book as fact if we were focusing on the 2004 Presidential Election. Ironically, when we fast-forward to 2006, approaching toll roads and eminent domain for private development in Texas, Mr. Corsi and the original DFW-RCC research team mirror each other on most points!
Rick Perry won reelection with a plurality. He sits a Governor, reelected by the smallest percentage of voters in modern Texas history. I posted excerpts last week on DFW REGIONAL CONCERNED CITIZENS (Follow the Money - Campaign contributions and policy) excerpted from research the DFW-RCC founders published on Grassroots News U Can Use and other Democratic leaning blogs (Daily Kos, Texas Kaos, and Burnt Orange Report) last year. We identified the danger of returning incumbents financed by Zachry (partner of Cintra) to office.
Mr. Corsi appears to have only focused on the top race. We focused on THSRC (Texas High Speed Rail Corp.) and TTI (Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University) initially. Tracing ties officers of Texas High Speed Rail Corporation have with other non-profit organizations led us to explored NASCO CORRIDOR more thoroughly in 2007. In November 2006 Mr. Corsi named NASCO Corridor as a tool of the North American Union folks.
Corsi wrote on 11/03/2006:
Corsi concludes his article with an appeal for the Conservative Caucus. Many of the activists on this forum disagree on how immigration should be handled in this nation and amnesty. Some favor tactics such as those voted by the Farmers Branch City Commission while others of us deplore them as being racists. We recognize that the exercise of eminent domain for private profit is an evil to be confronted; we recognize that our nation's immigration policy is broken but are widely divided on potential solutions. On immigration we are like a blind family with animal in the living room. Some are examining the tail and other the head. Some smell the posterior and others have climbed on top for a ride. We all seem to be insisting that our viewpoint of the critter is the whole story and few grasp the size, diversity of parts, or essence of the whole, are can accurately distinguish between whether it is an elephant or a llama before proposing how everybody should deal with the critter. Priorities vary depending on whether you are riding the animal, farming the animal, petting the animal or are positioned at its rear-end!
Sometimes history (or our perception of history) prevents us from joining others who agree with us on specific issues in working toward solutions for today's problems. Frequently, when we are very invested in a vision or a cause, and others disagree with our world view, we discount all they think or say. When we put our thoughts and opinion on paper and publish them, they remain a chord which can separate or unify others to our current causes/ opinions. I frequently fail to listen to what people are actually saying because I have a perception of what I think they think!
Frequently, when an entire culture, life and death, or our entire way of life, is involved, citizens from various cultures unite. In Eastern Europe on one of my academic trips abroad, several speakers in different countries used the same phrase: "My enemy’s enemy is my friend." I prefer to think that we can build coalitions based on mutual consensus.
DFW-RCC came from a network of friends collaborating on research on toll roads, CDAs, eminent domain and the influence of large campaign donors in the political process. It has evolved into a network of a much more diverse group of citizens, who function largely as a "think tank" information/ activist network. As we are coming together and digging deeper into issues, we realize that there are many areas where we do not share the same viewpoints or objective. We are also discovering that there are many other areas where we were on the same page working in different "sandboxes" working with common objectives.
At the bottom of the DFW-RCC site is a U-TUBE Video link to campaign footage of David Van Os and Hank Gilbert during the 2006 race. Neither of them were elected to the offices they sought. That footage is kept at the bottom of the DFW-RCC site because it serves as a reminder that nothing we write there is truly original or our own. Other Texans' stepped up to the plate long before DFW-RCC was formed. They put their lifesavings and invested several years of their lives traveling Texas speaking out against political corruption, favoritism and cronyism in government. They fought for the constitution of this state and nation and for the right of every citizen to agree or disagree with them. Although neither were elected to office, they focused the debate and unified citizens from diverse camps on the issues. Hank Gilbert rode in on the Trans Texas Corridor /NAFTA highway issue long before any of the candidates for Governor took up the torch. Fred Head and David Van Os and other candidates joined him on the stump. What began as a political campaign emerged as a movement. It is still early in the process. Who knows what really will happen when the left and the right and those in the middle actually communicate rather than posture and prejudge! As citizens probe, step back and evaluate, communicate and act, who knows what will emerge from this current challenge.
Crossposted on Epluribusmedia
Shirley Spellerburg is registered to attend the Freedom 21 National Conference this weekend in Dallas. She sent me information on the conference. It features several speakers who have spoken out vehemently against the North American Union and the Trans Texas Corridor. The conference Shirley is registered to attend is sponsored by the Environmental Conservation Organization, American Land Foundation, American Land Rights Association, America Policy Center, The Eagle Forum and other groups. Speakers will include Patrick M. Wood, founder of The August Corporation and former Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution for War and Peace, (Topic: Origin and strategies of the effort to create a North American Union), and Henry Lamb (Topic: NAFTA, CAFTA, the FTAA, and the SPP are converging into the legal structure that is evolving into the North American Union).
Cliff Kincaid, editor of the Accuracy in Media (AIM) Report, will open the conference (Topic: North American Union, challenge to national sovereignty which is materializing without any discussion or debate in Congress.)
Although John Corsi is not listed as a speaker on promo materials for the conference, she forwarded me links to several of his articles. Corsi published an article in November 2006 on the NAFTA Superhighway Tran Texas Corridor as a key issue in the Texas Governor's race. Mr. Corsi wrote an article in Human Events.com, a leading Conservative blog, which parallels articles which the DFW-RCC team researched and published on liberal blogs during that election cycle. We tied international players to the push for the Trans Texas Corridor and showed how toll road proponents used non-profit 501s such as Texas High Speed Rail Corp. seminars to sell their transportation/public infrastructure reengineering vision to attendees at transportation seminars and forums. Without reading Mr. Corsi's article (NAFTA Super Highway Debate Inflames Texas Governor's Race) we were writing very similar things about the Trans Texas Corridor as an issue in the 2006 Texas Statewide races. Corsi didn't chronicle the contributions by Zachry to all incumbent Republican Texas state officials (Perry, Dewhurst, Craddick, Combs, Staples, Patterson) as we did.
DFW-RCC (DFW REGIONAL CONCERNED CITIZENS) sprang from a team of researchers who volunteered for down-ticket Democratic challengers during the 2006 Texas election cycle. Hank Gilbert, candidate for Texas Agriculture Commissioner, handed us his excellent research on the TTC and NAIS and challenged us to verify and keep digging. He was the first person who told us about the Kansas City Smart Port. What began as an attempt to understand what Gilbert was talking about at a candidates meet and greet during the primary, evolved into a quest to discover who was behind the movement to reengineer Texas and USA transportation policy.
The biosphere is stratified. Most political blogger visit and write for either left or right blogs. Trolls are detested by both and most bloggers avoid the "opposition camps" blogs. On DFW Regional Concerned Citizens, we are a middle ground issue oriented activist network rather than a pure left or right blog. Recognizing common threats and arriving at the same truths from different directions, activists from the North Central Texas region who voted for different candidates during the last presidential election, agree on the basic facts regarding the Trans Texas Corridor.
I shudder to think of the rhetoric which would emerge if many of the activists on this network were to debate the truth or distortation of fact regarding George W. Bush's military service and/or Mr. Kerry's service during the Viet Nam War. Although we probably agree that this nation under Mr. Bush is not where we think we should be, the activists on this network would probably not trust the same leaders or alternative to get us to a different place. Yet from vastly different vantage points, many of us have arrived at many of the same conclusions. For several years some of us have been writing political commentary about NAFTA and the Trans Texas Corridor (and financial interests behind it).
When Shirley Spellerburg sent me links to Jerome Corsi's articles yesterday, I was astounded at how closely his article NAFTA SUPER HIGHWAY DEBATE INFLAMES TEXAS GOVERNOR'S RACE is a close overlay of the facts our team exposed on Daily Kos, Texas Kaos and Burnt Orange Report in candidates' journals for Hank Gilbert, David Van Os and Fred Head during the 2006 Texas Primary and General Elections!
All three stumped across Texas speaking out vehemently against the erosion of citizen’s rights and misuse of the legislative process to rip property rights from landowners. Gilbert warned of dangers to our nation's food supply from uninspected agriculture imports and the impending loss of hundreds of thousands of acres of this nation's richest farm land to the Trans Texas Corridor toll road. He entered the race when the author of the bill enabling the construction of the Trans Texas Corridor by exercise of eminent domain for private development, Todd Staples, entered the race for Agriculture Commissioner. Staples won the election but Gilbert's warnings and sound reasoning ignited a movement and united citizens on all spectrums of the political "divide."
Corsi is a controversial author. (One of his books was an attack on John Kerry - "Swift Boat Veterans for Peace" during the 2004 Presidential Election.) Although DFW-RCC is a broad based, non-partisan issue oriented network focusing on issues in the 16 county North Central Texas Council of Government (DFW) region, the original group which founded the network would probably have a rather heated discussion with Mr. Corsi on some the premises he presents in that book as fact if we were focusing on the 2004 Presidential Election. Ironically, when we fast-forward to 2006, approaching toll roads and eminent domain for private development in Texas, Mr. Corsi and the original DFW-RCC research team mirror each other on most points!
Rick Perry won reelection with a plurality. He sits a Governor, reelected by the smallest percentage of voters in modern Texas history. I posted excerpts last week on DFW REGIONAL CONCERNED CITIZENS (Follow the Money - Campaign contributions and policy) excerpted from research the DFW-RCC founders published on Grassroots News U Can Use and other Democratic leaning blogs (Daily Kos, Texas Kaos, and Burnt Orange Report) last year. We identified the danger of returning incumbents financed by Zachry (partner of Cintra) to office.
Mr. Corsi appears to have only focused on the top race. We focused on THSRC (Texas High Speed Rail Corp.) and TTI (Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University) initially. Tracing ties officers of Texas High Speed Rail Corporation have with other non-profit organizations led us to explored NASCO CORRIDOR more thoroughly in 2007. In November 2006 Mr. Corsi named NASCO Corridor as a tool of the North American Union folks.
Corsi wrote on 11/03/2006:
In Texas, the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC-35) has become a major issue in the gubernatorial campaign where incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Perry is viewed as a chief proponent for building this new, giant toll road parallel to Interstate-35.
This year, three major candidates are contesting Perry: Democrat candidate Chris Bell, Republican-turned-independent Comptroller Carole Keaton Strayhorn, and independent Kinky Friedman. Moving outside traditional party lines, the typically colorful Strayhorn presents herself as “One Tough Grandma.” Strayhorn’s children include Scott McClellan, the former press secretary to President Bush. Kinky Friedman, who aspires to be the Lone Star state’s first Jewish governor, is a 61-year-old country-and-western troubadour who is known by his trademark cowboy hat, mustache with limited goatee, and ever-present cigar.
All three contenders have slammed Perry for advancing TTC-35, a new toll road to be built four football fields wide from Laredo on the Mexican border to the Texas-Oklahoma border south of Oklahoma City. As disclosed by the Texas Department of Transportation, this road, characterized by this author as a “NAFTA Super Highway,” will be financed by Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transport, a Spanish investment consortium with ties to Juan Carlos and the ruling family of Spain, and built by San Antonio-based Zachry Construction Co. I have previously documented the extensive campaign contributions made by Cintra-Zachry to the Perry campaign.
Incumbent Under Attack
Each of Perry’s contenders is attacking him (as well as each other), campaigning on a platform opposing TTC-35 construction. Democrat Bell notes that in 2001 as comptroller, Strayhorn recommended that Texas build new toll roads. Bell’s campaign website rails against TTC-35, noting that the road would “destroy almost 1.5 million acres of prime farmland and strip Texas landowners of over 150 square miles of privately owned property.” Bell’s argument strongly suggests graft:The Trans Texas Corridor is a case study in corruption and cronyism, and one of my first acts as governor would be slamming the brakes on the whole plan and dragging it back into the public light.
Strayhorn’s website is equally emphatic that TTC-35 is a politician’s dream and a citizen’s nightmare:In this election, there are two sides and one choice – the Austin political establishment and its land-grabbing, secret, foreign-owned tolls versus the people and their desire for freeways. I stand with the people. I will shake Austin up.
A video clip of Strayhorn speaking at a vocal rally opposing TTC-35 can be viewed on the Internet. Here Strayhorn connected TTC-35 to NAFTA by claiming Perry’s super-highway plan amounted to turning “Texas DOT into Euro-DOT.” In her speech to the rally, she also renamed the “Trans Texas Corridor” as “Trans Texas Catastrophe.” Strayhorn called for putting TTC-35 to a referendum, which prompted participants at the rally begin chanting, “Let the People Vote!”
Friedman’s campaign website joins the anti-TTC chorus:
Kinky is opposed to the Trans-Texas Corridor since it relies on toll road construction. He feels that the TTC is a land grab of the ugliest kind, with land being taken from hard-working ranchers and farmers in little towns and villages all over Texas. The people who will ultimately own that land are the same people who own the governor.
Typically, Perry’s campaign website defends TTC-35 as business as normal, just another highway needed to accommodate the state’s growing population and burgeoning economy:
Texas’ rapid population and commerce growth has strained our highway and rail systems to their limit. Rather than taking decades to expand these important corridors a little bit at a time, Governor Perry developed the Trans Texas Corridor plan. The Corridor plan allows the state to build needed corridors much more quickly and without a tax increase.
This past summer, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) held a series of final public hearings proposing the final route choices for TTC-35. Thousands of Texas residents showed up at these hearings to protest TTC-35, not realizing that the only question at issue was the specific route, not whether the super highway would be built. TxDOT has proceeded with a resolve to begin construction in 2007, as if TTC-35 were a “done deal,” regardless how much public outcry is heard in opposition. Ironically, since the Texas gubernatorial race is a plurality contest, Perry could win even if a majority of the votes go to a combination of his three opposition candidates. Thus, unless Texas voters opposed to TTC-35 are able to focus on one opposition candidate, Perry could win even if his TTC-35 plan is opposed by a majority of Texas voters.
Sal Costello, founder of the TexasTollParty.com and vocal opponent of TTC-35, has led the Internet charge against the proposed super highway. The TexasTollParty.com has produced two television commercials supporting the group’s endorsement of Strayhorn in the governor’s race. One commercial proclaims, “If you liked the Dubai Ports deal, you will love the TTC land grab,” while the other presents a cartoon figure of Perry who announces, “You will love my TTC land grab. It turns your property into foreign profits.” The ads have been aired thanks to People for Efficient Transportation PAC, a group which Costello also founded .
David Stall, another opponent of TTC-35, has created CorridorWatch.org, a website dedicated to disclosing information that TxDOT has not fully disclosed, including arguments contesting the ability of TxDOT to utilize eminent domain under the recent Supreme Court case Kelo v. City of New London to grab more than half a million acres of Texas private property and displace up to 1 million Texans from their homes, businesses, ranches, and farms in the process of building out the full 4,000-mile TTC network planned to crisscross the landscape throughout Texas.
A documentary opposing TTC-35, titled “Truth Be Tolled,” was premiered at the Austin Film Festival on October 26. Austin talk-radio host Alex Jones, an outspoken opponent of TTC-35, has archived videos of his in-studio radio interviews with both Sal Costello and David Stall.
A group of citizens in central Texas have formed an organization known as the Blackland Coalition, which has also created a PAC that is running newspaper ads in Texas opposing TTC-35.
Bloggers Ask Questions
While the mainstream media have largely ignored the issue super highway toll roads, bloggers in Texas have even picked up an issue HUMAN EVENTS first developed, namely that trade organizations such as North America’s Super Corridor Coalition (NASCO) have been supporting NAFTA super highways through endorsing the activity of their members, including TxDOT.
In an interview with the author, Todd Spencer, the executive vice president of the 145,000 member Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, openly opposes TTC-35 on behalf of the group’s 145,000 members who operate more than 240,000 individual heavy-duty tucks and small truck fleets throughout the U.S. and Canada. Spencer argues that the real purpose of the TTC-35 project is to open Mexican ports, such as Lázaro Cárdenas, so Mexican trucks can transport Chinese under-market goods into the U.S. at a reduced transportation cost.
“We are also concerned about security. There’s no reason to think that just because there’s a Mexican customs office in Kansas City that all Mexican drivers on the Trans Texas Corridor will stay on the route. The Mexican trucks will get off the TTC and go lots of other places and there won’t be anything meaningful to stop them.”
Spencer fully expects TxDOT to make the TTC-35 toll road attractive by setting high speed limits, in the range of 75 to 80 miles per hour. Noting that TxDOT is planning on charging up to 40 cents per mile as a toll for trucks, Spencer commented that this was equivalent to charging an extra $2.40 a gallon in additional fuel taxes.
“Once the TTC is built,” Mr. Spencer commented, “TxDOT will attempt to force people to use the toll road.” How? “Simple,” Spencer responded, “just watch, once TTC-35 is completed, TxDOT will begin maintaining I-35 a lot less. You can count on Cintra to enforce a ‘no-compete clause’ that is designed to prevent TxDOT from building an alternative road or even improving I-35.”
Congress Gets Involved
Just this week, Rep. Ron Paul (R.-Tex.) entered the TTC-35 debate, writing in his weekly column to express his opposition to the super highway. Paul expressed constitutional concerns over TTC-35:By now many Texans have heard about the proposed “NAFTA Superhighway,” which is also referred to as the trans-Texas corridor. What you may not know is the extent to which plans for such a superhighway are moving forward without congressional oversight or media attention.
Paul has decided to co-sponsor H.C. Res. 487, introduced in the House by Rep. Virgil Goode (R.-Va.) on September 28. The resolution is co-sponsored by Representatives Tom Tancredo (R.-Colo.) and Walter Jones (R.-N.C.). It asks the House to not engage in the construction of NAFTA super-highways and to oppose entering into a European Union-style North American Union (NAU) with Mexico and Canada.
Corsi concludes his article with an appeal for the Conservative Caucus. Many of the activists on this forum disagree on how immigration should be handled in this nation and amnesty. Some favor tactics such as those voted by the Farmers Branch City Commission while others of us deplore them as being racists. We recognize that the exercise of eminent domain for private profit is an evil to be confronted; we recognize that our nation's immigration policy is broken but are widely divided on potential solutions. On immigration we are like a blind family with animal in the living room. Some are examining the tail and other the head. Some smell the posterior and others have climbed on top for a ride. We all seem to be insisting that our viewpoint of the critter is the whole story and few grasp the size, diversity of parts, or essence of the whole, are can accurately distinguish between whether it is an elephant or a llama before proposing how everybody should deal with the critter. Priorities vary depending on whether you are riding the animal, farming the animal, petting the animal or are positioned at its rear-end!
Sometimes history (or our perception of history) prevents us from joining others who agree with us on specific issues in working toward solutions for today's problems. Frequently, when we are very invested in a vision or a cause, and others disagree with our world view, we discount all they think or say. When we put our thoughts and opinion on paper and publish them, they remain a chord which can separate or unify others to our current causes/ opinions. I frequently fail to listen to what people are actually saying because I have a perception of what I think they think!
Frequently, when an entire culture, life and death, or our entire way of life, is involved, citizens from various cultures unite. In Eastern Europe on one of my academic trips abroad, several speakers in different countries used the same phrase: "My enemy’s enemy is my friend." I prefer to think that we can build coalitions based on mutual consensus.
DFW-RCC came from a network of friends collaborating on research on toll roads, CDAs, eminent domain and the influence of large campaign donors in the political process. It has evolved into a network of a much more diverse group of citizens, who function largely as a "think tank" information/ activist network. As we are coming together and digging deeper into issues, we realize that there are many areas where we do not share the same viewpoints or objective. We are also discovering that there are many other areas where we were on the same page working in different "sandboxes" working with common objectives.
At the bottom of the DFW-RCC site is a U-TUBE Video link to campaign footage of David Van Os and Hank Gilbert during the 2006 race. Neither of them were elected to the offices they sought. That footage is kept at the bottom of the DFW-RCC site because it serves as a reminder that nothing we write there is truly original or our own. Other Texans' stepped up to the plate long before DFW-RCC was formed. They put their lifesavings and invested several years of their lives traveling Texas speaking out against political corruption, favoritism and cronyism in government. They fought for the constitution of this state and nation and for the right of every citizen to agree or disagree with them. Although neither were elected to office, they focused the debate and unified citizens from diverse camps on the issues. Hank Gilbert rode in on the Trans Texas Corridor /NAFTA highway issue long before any of the candidates for Governor took up the torch. Fred Head and David Van Os and other candidates joined him on the stump. What began as a political campaign emerged as a movement. It is still early in the process. Who knows what really will happen when the left and the right and those in the middle actually communicate rather than posture and prejudge! As citizens probe, step back and evaluate, communicate and act, who knows what will emerge from this current challenge.
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