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.
Friday, August 3, 2007
Goldman Sachs Guru Warns of War-Debt Failure - Is America becoming a global credit risk? How to get back on track
By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch - Published: 07-30-07
Will Moody's downgrade America's debt next? Actually, that's already happening; our credit rating is collapsing with the dollar.
Foreign banks are dumping dollar reserves, while we gorge on , cheap toys and bad pet food. Actually, our biggest "terrorist" threat is internal: Distorted values are downgrading our nation's "creditworthiness." We're like out-of-control kids with stolen credit cards, spending our future with no plans to repay.
Recently Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs (International), appeared before the U.S. House Budget Committee to "discuss an issue of great economic, financial and national security importance to our country -- the growing dependence of the United States on foreign capital." Currently we import $1 trillion new debt annually, with no repayment plans. That's a historic break from over two centuries of American policy.
Hormats was in Washington with warnings from his brilliant new book, "The Price of Liberty: Paying for America's Wars." He traces the history of American wartime financing from the Revolution through the War of 1812, the Civil War, the two World Wars and the Cold War to the present.
Conclusion: "One central, constant theme emerges: sound national finances have proved to be indispensable to the country's military strength" and long-term national security.
1776 to Iraq, national security demands fiscal responsibility
America's long tradition of war financing began with Alexander Hamilton: "In January 1790, Hamilton, by then the country's Treasury secretary, confronted the American people with a stark fact: the nation had run up a huge debt fighting the Revolutionary War. This debt, he wrote, was the 'price of liberty,' and the new government had to repay it.
The future creditworthiness of the United States, and ultimately the security and ability to finance future wars, would depend on how successfully and faithfully this was done."
Hamilton's principles have kept America's credit strong through every war since the Revolution ... until the Iraq War. Since then, "although U.S. leaders have warned that the war against terrorism could last for decades, the country lacks a multidecade financial strategy to address the challenge."
Iraq tossed the lessons of history out the window. Hormats says that despite the oft-repeated remark that 9/11 "changed everything, in the area of fiscal policy, however, it changed nothing. The country is pursuing a pre-9/11 fiscal policy in a post-9/11 world." That assessment comes from someone who worked inside Washington for over a decade before joining Goldman Sachs in the 1980s.
Unsustainable debt is weakening national security
America's new faith-based guns-and-butter policy is hurting both guns and butter. The war is costing us $12 billion a month. Hormats examined the Congressional Budget Office's projections for domestic costs: "In 2006, spending on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and interest on the federal debt amounted to just under 60% of government revenues" and "if they continue on their current path, they will account for two-thirds by 2015."
• Social security from $550 billion to $960 billion
• Medicare from $372 billion to over $900 billion
• Medicaid from $181 billion to $390 billion
Worse yet, these commitments will continue skyrocketing in later decades. The CBO projects the federal debt rising from 40% of GDP to 100% in the next 25 years: "Continuing on this unsustainable path will gradually erode, if not suddenly damage, our economy, our standard of living, and ultimately our national security."
Hormats warns of the risks of this gross departure from Hamilton's principles: "Of late, the precedents and experiences of past generations have been cast aside. The 9/11 attacks were seen by many legislators as a license to spend more money on non-security programs, and Americans have not been called to make sacrifices. Tax cuts and spending increased on politically popular security-irrelevant domestic programs have been enacted as if there were no expensive defense programs to be funded."
Turning point in Iraq, where 'deficits don't matter'
In my opinion, the turning point occurred in late 2002. Remember, the Afghan War was hot. America was in recession and a bear market. The surpluses of the 1990s rapidly disappeared. Corporate scandals were damaging our global standing. Washington was pushing a second round of tax cuts. And the Iraq invasion was imminent.
Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, true to Hamiltonian principles, warned the White House of a coming fiscal crisis. The vice president retorted: "Reagan proved deficits don't matter." (Hormats tells me Reagan never said that.) Soon after, Cheney "fired" O'Neill ... and Hamilton's principles of sound war financing were dead.
Unfortunately, Washington's radical new faith-based financing is sabotaging national security. America's unsustainable deficits are making us extremely vulnerable to terrorists whose goal is to "attack the United States, perhaps with chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons capable of killing enormous numbers of people and seriously disrupting the American economy," targeting a "major port or transportation center."
Hormats says America is now "relying on faith over experience, hoping that sustained growth will erase deficits and that the ballooning costs of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will be manageable in the coming decades without difficult reforms."
Yet economists now estimate these entitlements can only be "reformed" by either a cut in benefits or an increase in taxes greater that 40%. In short, today's faith-based economics is failing us.
The current Treasury secretary also appears to be supporting this new approach: Henry Paulson, former Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, recently told Fortune that "this is far and away the strongest global economy I've seen in my business lifetime."
Well, that sure sounds to me like yet another rejection of Hamiltonian principles in favor of the new faith-based policy, which assumes that global economies will always be strong and, therefore, foreign capital will indefinitely bankroll America's war machine at a low cost.
The danger is, it also assumes that American taxpayers will be able to indefinitely pay the interest costs of our burgeoning foreign debt ... on top of exploding unfunded domestic entitlements in Social Security and Medicare.
Time to rediscover 'Hamilton's gift' of war financing
Hormats was being much too diplomatic in summing up his warning to the House Budget Committee: "If government debt continues to pile up, deficits rise to stratospheric levels and heavy dependence on foreign capital grows, borrowing the money will be very costly. If America remains on its dangerous financial course Hamilton's gift to the nation -- the blessing of sound financing -- will be squandered."
The truth is, America's leaders have already squandered "Hamilton's gift," and along with it, more than two centuries of experience, replacing it with a new "faith-based" policy: "Deficits don't matter."
No wonder Main Street Americans have a "gut instinct" that we're a disaster waiting to happen. Not only are we "transferring an inordinate burden to future generations," says Hormats, Washington's undisciplined spending and total lack of a financial repayment plan is undercutting our national security and exposing America to the worst-case scenario: Another domestic terrorist attack that would trigger a "massive disruption of our economy" and a meltdown of America's credit rating throughout the world.
The truth is, America desperately needs a new "Hamilton" who understands that in calculating "the price of liberty," not only do deficits matter, Americans must have a plan to repay our debts ... if we want a strong credit rating that insures our national security for future generations.
Will Moody's downgrade America's debt next? Actually, that's already happening; our credit rating is collapsing with the dollar.
Foreign banks are dumping dollar reserves, while we gorge on , cheap toys and bad pet food. Actually, our biggest "terrorist" threat is internal: Distorted values are downgrading our nation's "creditworthiness." We're like out-of-control kids with stolen credit cards, spending our future with no plans to repay.
Recently Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs (International), appeared before the U.S. House Budget Committee to "discuss an issue of great economic, financial and national security importance to our country -- the growing dependence of the United States on foreign capital." Currently we import $1 trillion new debt annually, with no repayment plans. That's a historic break from over two centuries of American policy.
Hormats was in Washington with warnings from his brilliant new book, "The Price of Liberty: Paying for America's Wars." He traces the history of American wartime financing from the Revolution through the War of 1812, the Civil War, the two World Wars and the Cold War to the present.
Conclusion: "One central, constant theme emerges: sound national finances have proved to be indispensable to the country's military strength" and long-term national security.
1776 to Iraq, national security demands fiscal responsibility
America's long tradition of war financing began with Alexander Hamilton: "In January 1790, Hamilton, by then the country's Treasury secretary, confronted the American people with a stark fact: the nation had run up a huge debt fighting the Revolutionary War. This debt, he wrote, was the 'price of liberty,' and the new government had to repay it.
The future creditworthiness of the United States, and ultimately the security and ability to finance future wars, would depend on how successfully and faithfully this was done."
Hamilton's principles have kept America's credit strong through every war since the Revolution ... until the Iraq War. Since then, "although U.S. leaders have warned that the war against terrorism could last for decades, the country lacks a multidecade financial strategy to address the challenge."
Iraq tossed the lessons of history out the window. Hormats says that despite the oft-repeated remark that 9/11 "changed everything, in the area of fiscal policy, however, it changed nothing. The country is pursuing a pre-9/11 fiscal policy in a post-9/11 world." That assessment comes from someone who worked inside Washington for over a decade before joining Goldman Sachs in the 1980s.
Unsustainable debt is weakening national security
America's new faith-based guns-and-butter policy is hurting both guns and butter. The war is costing us $12 billion a month. Hormats examined the Congressional Budget Office's projections for domestic costs: "In 2006, spending on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and interest on the federal debt amounted to just under 60% of government revenues" and "if they continue on their current path, they will account for two-thirds by 2015."
• Social security from $550 billion to $960 billion
• Medicare from $372 billion to over $900 billion
• Medicaid from $181 billion to $390 billion
Worse yet, these commitments will continue skyrocketing in later decades. The CBO projects the federal debt rising from 40% of GDP to 100% in the next 25 years: "Continuing on this unsustainable path will gradually erode, if not suddenly damage, our economy, our standard of living, and ultimately our national security."
Hormats warns of the risks of this gross departure from Hamilton's principles: "Of late, the precedents and experiences of past generations have been cast aside. The 9/11 attacks were seen by many legislators as a license to spend more money on non-security programs, and Americans have not been called to make sacrifices. Tax cuts and spending increased on politically popular security-irrelevant domestic programs have been enacted as if there were no expensive defense programs to be funded."
Turning point in Iraq, where 'deficits don't matter'
In my opinion, the turning point occurred in late 2002. Remember, the Afghan War was hot. America was in recession and a bear market. The surpluses of the 1990s rapidly disappeared. Corporate scandals were damaging our global standing. Washington was pushing a second round of tax cuts. And the Iraq invasion was imminent.
Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, true to Hamiltonian principles, warned the White House of a coming fiscal crisis. The vice president retorted: "Reagan proved deficits don't matter." (Hormats tells me Reagan never said that.) Soon after, Cheney "fired" O'Neill ... and Hamilton's principles of sound war financing were dead.
Unfortunately, Washington's radical new faith-based financing is sabotaging national security. America's unsustainable deficits are making us extremely vulnerable to terrorists whose goal is to "attack the United States, perhaps with chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons capable of killing enormous numbers of people and seriously disrupting the American economy," targeting a "major port or transportation center."
Hormats says America is now "relying on faith over experience, hoping that sustained growth will erase deficits and that the ballooning costs of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will be manageable in the coming decades without difficult reforms."
Yet economists now estimate these entitlements can only be "reformed" by either a cut in benefits or an increase in taxes greater that 40%. In short, today's faith-based economics is failing us.
The current Treasury secretary also appears to be supporting this new approach: Henry Paulson, former Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, recently told Fortune that "this is far and away the strongest global economy I've seen in my business lifetime."
Well, that sure sounds to me like yet another rejection of Hamiltonian principles in favor of the new faith-based policy, which assumes that global economies will always be strong and, therefore, foreign capital will indefinitely bankroll America's war machine at a low cost.
The danger is, it also assumes that American taxpayers will be able to indefinitely pay the interest costs of our burgeoning foreign debt ... on top of exploding unfunded domestic entitlements in Social Security and Medicare.
Time to rediscover 'Hamilton's gift' of war financing
Hormats was being much too diplomatic in summing up his warning to the House Budget Committee: "If government debt continues to pile up, deficits rise to stratospheric levels and heavy dependence on foreign capital grows, borrowing the money will be very costly. If America remains on its dangerous financial course Hamilton's gift to the nation -- the blessing of sound financing -- will be squandered."
The truth is, America's leaders have already squandered "Hamilton's gift," and along with it, more than two centuries of experience, replacing it with a new "faith-based" policy: "Deficits don't matter."
No wonder Main Street Americans have a "gut instinct" that we're a disaster waiting to happen. Not only are we "transferring an inordinate burden to future generations," says Hormats, Washington's undisciplined spending and total lack of a financial repayment plan is undercutting our national security and exposing America to the worst-case scenario: Another domestic terrorist attack that would trigger a "massive disruption of our economy" and a meltdown of America's credit rating throughout the world.
The truth is, America desperately needs a new "Hamilton" who understands that in calculating "the price of liberty," not only do deficits matter, Americans must have a plan to repay our debts ... if we want a strong credit rating that insures our national security for future generations.
Toll road proponents say motorists can and should pay more
By Terri Hall - Texans Uniting for Reform (TURF) - Monday, July 23, 2007
We warned the Texas Legislature this would happen if they passed that "compromise" bill, SB 792, that Rick Perry rammed through in the last weeks of the 80th session. TxDOT would use these new market-based tolls to rob us blind and them come back for more...without accountability, without representation. Toll taxes, especially market-based tolls, are runaway taxation without representation, and it's the POLITICIANS WHO ALLOWED THIS TO HAPPEN that will pay dearly!
When people can scarcely fill their tank with gas at $3/gallon, it boggles the mind to think there's a stitch of validity to this argument that motorists can and should pay the highest possible tolls. The bond buyers in an investment grade toll viability study for 183A in Austin said toll roads are no longer viable at $3 a gallon for gas. So from whence shall the toll money come? Short of taking food off the table and shoes off our children's feet, there's only so much the family budget can pay toward transportation before other necessities suffer. These are the same politicians who fail to fix runaway annual appraisals that lead to out of control property tax rates that, in turn, have caused every major Texas city to be in the top 10 for foreclosures in the country! Mad yet? Read on and then VOTE THE BUMS OUT!
Jaime Castillo: Toll road proponents: Motorists can — and should — pay more
San Antonio Express-News - 07/22/2007
We warned the Texas Legislature this would happen if they passed that "compromise" bill, SB 792, that Rick Perry rammed through in the last weeks of the 80th session. TxDOT would use these new market-based tolls to rob us blind and them come back for more...without accountability, without representation. Toll taxes, especially market-based tolls, are runaway taxation without representation, and it's the POLITICIANS WHO ALLOWED THIS TO HAPPEN that will pay dearly!
When people can scarcely fill their tank with gas at $3/gallon, it boggles the mind to think there's a stitch of validity to this argument that motorists can and should pay the highest possible tolls. The bond buyers in an investment grade toll viability study for 183A in Austin said toll roads are no longer viable at $3 a gallon for gas. So from whence shall the toll money come? Short of taking food off the table and shoes off our children's feet, there's only so much the family budget can pay toward transportation before other necessities suffer. These are the same politicians who fail to fix runaway annual appraisals that lead to out of control property tax rates that, in turn, have caused every major Texas city to be in the top 10 for foreclosures in the country! Mad yet? Read on and then VOTE THE BUMS OUT!
Jaime Castillo: Toll road proponents: Motorists can — and should — pay more
San Antonio Express-News - 07/22/2007
They say you don't kill the messenger, but can you at least throttle him?
The "him" in this instance is Dye Management Group Inc., which recently completed a draft audit on toll roads for the Texas Transportation Commission.
After taking a look at existing toll rates of 10 to 15 cents a mile in Dallas, Houston and Austin, the firm determined that local toll authorities aren't charging drivers enough.
The logic — a term that should be used loosely — is that motorists can and will pay more, which would bring in more cash for the state's yawning road needs.
"Tolls charged by local authorities are lower than studies indicate that their customers would be willing to pay," the audit reads. "As a result, congestion goals will not be met."
Translation: "If you want to raise funds for other projects, keep jacking up the toll price until drivers cry 'uncle,' and then back it off a penny or two."
As reported by Express-News transportation writer Patrick Driscoll, the audit "mirrors much of what officials have been saying for years."
Hope Andrade, a transportation commission member from San Antonio, told Driscoll:
"It just confirms the emergency situation that we're in. We can no longer support toll rates that are not market value."
If this were part of a political handbook on winning support for toll roads from a skeptical public, charging "market value" — or as much as you can get — on tollways would be relegated to the section titled: "How to lose even more support in 30 seconds or less."
And this isn't the fault of people like Andrade, either. State and federal lawmakers continually saddle transportation officials with a losing poker hand.
In the last 16 years, the state's population — and construction costs — have grown exponentially. Yet, the gas tax — the primary source of highway funding — has been frozen since 1991.
And not only has it remained static in an ever-changing world, state lawmakers can't keep their hands off of it either.
Continuing its long-running budgetary shell game, the Legislature's latest two-year budget will see one-tenth, or $1.6 billion, of the highway fund diverted from building and maintaining roads.
With fiscal constraint apparently off the table, raising the gas tax must be looked at seriously. While difficult with gasoline prices hovering around $3 a gallon, it could be done if the entire state leadership — the governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker — supported the change.
That way, lawmakers, who already quietly concede that the gas tax is too low, could stick their necks out and not fear being singled out as the pigeons that supported higher taxes.
The alternative is to unnecessarily gouge those who will use toll roads. If the recommendations by Dye Management Group are the guide, toll riders will soon have the privilege of paying the highest tolls possible and paying the 20-cent-a-gallon gas tax.
A recent trip to the car dealer landed me in a shuttle van with several other car-less souls.
The shuttle van driver, exasperated by a 15-minute wait to go a couple of miles on U.S. 281 North, said to no one in particular:
"This almost makes you want to see toll roads."
To which, a homeowner who lives near the intersection of 281 and Bulverde Road blurted out:
"I don't care what they do as long as they do something soon."
With that kind of captive — and infuriated — audience, state and local transportation officials are banking that they will get their way eventually.
But it still doesn't make it right.
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Tolls could open HOV lanes to solo drivers - Dallas, Houston exploring options for pay as you go
By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER - The Dallas Morning News - Friday, July 27, 2007
SUGAR LAND, Texas – Psychologist Anthony Rogers regularly finds himself working in Houston – driving solo and stuck in traffic.
Car-poolers and buses zip by in the High Occupancy Vehicle lanes, only furthering his stop-and-go frustration.
"I look over at the HOV lanes and think, 'There's plenty of room over there. I'd be willing to pay to use that lane,' " Mr. Rogers, a San Antonio resident, said as he finished a cup of Starbucks in this booming suburb south of Houston.
He may soon be able to do just that. And by next year, some Dallas drivers will, too.
On Thursday, the Texas Transportation Commission gave a hearty amen to Houston-area transit officials' plan to convert five of their six HOV lanes to tolled lanes.
If the plan is approved – and it could be presented to the commission as soon as next month – solo drivers in Harris County, like Mr. Rogers, will be able to pay for an easier commute.
Dallas catching up
HOV lanes are less common in Dallas than in Houston, where their use has steadily expanded for nearly 20 years. But the Dallas area is catching up fast. New HOV lanes will open on Interstate 30 from the Dallas-Tarrant county line to Loop 12 at 6 a.m. Tuesday. Other HOV lanes are set to open this fall along Central Expressway, and an existing lane on the LBJ Freeway will be extended by September, Dallas Area Rapid Transit officials said.
Plans to make Dallas-area HOV lanes paid lanes are in the works. By next year, HOV lanes along I-30 between Arlington and Dallas will become the region's first such paid lanes, TxDOT spokesman Mark Ball said.
Houston plan praised
But Houston's more sweeping proposal to convert all but one of its lanes to pay-as-you-go won enthusiastic response from the Texas Transportation Commission at its meeting in Sugar Land on Thursday.
"This is very visionary, and I think the rest of the state will be watching," said Commissioner Hope Andrade of San Antonio. Other commissioners had similar reactions.
The commission sets highway policy in Texas and governs the Texas Department of Transportation.
The conversion in Houston could cost $50 million and take a year or more, and officials from METRO, the Harris County counterpart to DART, haven't formally decided to make the switch. But plans to do so are far along.
Strong endorsement
Carlos Lopez, traffic operations director for TxDOT, told the commissioners Thursday that a formal request could appear on their agenda as early as August.
"It's almost a no-brainer," Mr. Lopez said after the meeting. HOV lanes have extra capacity, he said, so they should be monetized to let solo drivers pay to use them. Drivers in the regular lanes will benefit, he said, because the paying drivers will be gone.
Dallas-area officials haven't indicated what they'll charge drivers on the new HOV lanes along I-30 when they become paid lanes next year. Lone drivers will likely pay twice as much as two-person car-poolers, and vehicles with three or more passengers will be free, DART officials have said in the past.
It won't be cheap
Solo drivers in Houston will pay a steep price to ride on the HOV lanes.
Mr. Lopez said they'll likely pay as much as $4.50 each way during peak hours. During less busy times, it may be as low as $1.25, he said.
Mr. Lopez cautioned, however, that rates will depend on how popular the lanes are with solo drivers. The top rate will have to be high enough, he said, to prevent too many solo drivers from crowding the lanes.
TxDOT officials said peak pricing in Orange County, a suburban area near Los Angeles, runs as high as $9 each way.
The market rules
Commissioner Ned Holmes said Houston's use of so-called "congestion pricing" to regulate traffic is one of the best aspects of the plan. He said the strategy is a way to use market forces to help regulate traffic.
Not everyone is singing hallelujahs over what critics describe as "Lexus Lanes" for the wealthy, however.
The new lanes, often called High Occupancy Toll, or HOT, lanes, are in use or in the works in a handful of other communities across America, including Northern Virginia.
Arlington County, Va.'s, Chris Hamilton said he's not sold on them. HOV lanes there have worked, and he's worried that allowing solo drivers to use them for a fee will ruin them.
"I am not convinced there is excess capacities in the HOV lanes," said Mr. Hamilton, a frequent blogger about commuting who also works for the county encouraging commuters to car-pool and use transit.
"One person's excess capacity is another person's congestion.
"We're concerned that the new lanes will just lead to more congestion for the folks who are already van-pooling and using transit.
"We don't want those people to get mired into heavy traffic once these hot lanes start."
Officials from Harris County and TxDOT said they'll give the HOT lane idea a lot more study before approving it anywhere in Texas.
Read more
SUGAR LAND, Texas – Psychologist Anthony Rogers regularly finds himself working in Houston – driving solo and stuck in traffic.
Car-poolers and buses zip by in the High Occupancy Vehicle lanes, only furthering his stop-and-go frustration.
"I look over at the HOV lanes and think, 'There's plenty of room over there. I'd be willing to pay to use that lane,' " Mr. Rogers, a San Antonio resident, said as he finished a cup of Starbucks in this booming suburb south of Houston.
He may soon be able to do just that. And by next year, some Dallas drivers will, too.
On Thursday, the Texas Transportation Commission gave a hearty amen to Houston-area transit officials' plan to convert five of their six HOV lanes to tolled lanes.
If the plan is approved – and it could be presented to the commission as soon as next month – solo drivers in Harris County, like Mr. Rogers, will be able to pay for an easier commute.
Dallas catching up
HOV lanes are less common in Dallas than in Houston, where their use has steadily expanded for nearly 20 years. But the Dallas area is catching up fast. New HOV lanes will open on Interstate 30 from the Dallas-Tarrant county line to Loop 12 at 6 a.m. Tuesday. Other HOV lanes are set to open this fall along Central Expressway, and an existing lane on the LBJ Freeway will be extended by September, Dallas Area Rapid Transit officials said.
Plans to make Dallas-area HOV lanes paid lanes are in the works. By next year, HOV lanes along I-30 between Arlington and Dallas will become the region's first such paid lanes, TxDOT spokesman Mark Ball said.
Houston plan praised
But Houston's more sweeping proposal to convert all but one of its lanes to pay-as-you-go won enthusiastic response from the Texas Transportation Commission at its meeting in Sugar Land on Thursday.
"This is very visionary, and I think the rest of the state will be watching," said Commissioner Hope Andrade of San Antonio. Other commissioners had similar reactions.
The commission sets highway policy in Texas and governs the Texas Department of Transportation.
The conversion in Houston could cost $50 million and take a year or more, and officials from METRO, the Harris County counterpart to DART, haven't formally decided to make the switch. But plans to do so are far along.
Strong endorsement
Carlos Lopez, traffic operations director for TxDOT, told the commissioners Thursday that a formal request could appear on their agenda as early as August.
"It's almost a no-brainer," Mr. Lopez said after the meeting. HOV lanes have extra capacity, he said, so they should be monetized to let solo drivers pay to use them. Drivers in the regular lanes will benefit, he said, because the paying drivers will be gone.
Dallas-area officials haven't indicated what they'll charge drivers on the new HOV lanes along I-30 when they become paid lanes next year. Lone drivers will likely pay twice as much as two-person car-poolers, and vehicles with three or more passengers will be free, DART officials have said in the past.
It won't be cheap
Solo drivers in Houston will pay a steep price to ride on the HOV lanes.
Mr. Lopez said they'll likely pay as much as $4.50 each way during peak hours. During less busy times, it may be as low as $1.25, he said.
Mr. Lopez cautioned, however, that rates will depend on how popular the lanes are with solo drivers. The top rate will have to be high enough, he said, to prevent too many solo drivers from crowding the lanes.
TxDOT officials said peak pricing in Orange County, a suburban area near Los Angeles, runs as high as $9 each way.
The market rules
Commissioner Ned Holmes said Houston's use of so-called "congestion pricing" to regulate traffic is one of the best aspects of the plan. He said the strategy is a way to use market forces to help regulate traffic.
Not everyone is singing hallelujahs over what critics describe as "Lexus Lanes" for the wealthy, however.
The new lanes, often called High Occupancy Toll, or HOT, lanes, are in use or in the works in a handful of other communities across America, including Northern Virginia.
Arlington County, Va.'s, Chris Hamilton said he's not sold on them. HOV lanes there have worked, and he's worried that allowing solo drivers to use them for a fee will ruin them.
"I am not convinced there is excess capacities in the HOV lanes," said Mr. Hamilton, a frequent blogger about commuting who also works for the county encouraging commuters to car-pool and use transit.
"One person's excess capacity is another person's congestion.
"We're concerned that the new lanes will just lead to more congestion for the folks who are already van-pooling and using transit.
"We don't want those people to get mired into heavy traffic once these hot lanes start."
Officials from Harris County and TxDOT said they'll give the HOT lane idea a lot more study before approving it anywhere in Texas.
Read more
Denton commissioner Cynthia White fined for late financial filings
County official missed 3 deadlines but neither raised nor spent funds
By MONTY MILLER JR. - Denton Record-Chronicle - Wed., August 1, 2007
DENTON – County Commissioner Cynthia White was fined $600 for missing three deadlines to file required campaign finance documents, after a Denton County resident filed a complaint against her last month.
The Texas Ethics Commission assessed the fine last week.
"I have been very busy the last year and a half," Ms. White said. "I'll try not to let it happen again."
Dianne Edmondson, Denton County Republican Party chairwoman, said elected officials make mistakes like everyone else, but Ms. White should be more careful in the future.
"I think it must happen fairly often, although it shouldn't happen," she said.
Oak Point resident John Rademacher filed a complaint against Ms. White in late May.
Mr. Rademacher could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Ms. White, a Republican who is up for re-election next year, filed the missing documents with the Denton County Elections Administration in late May. The documents covered the period between Jan. 15, 2006, and Jan. 15, 2007, and showed that Ms. White had not accepted any contributions or spent any campaign money during that time.
"I didn't have any activity during that period, but I understand that I should have filed them," she said.
Texas law states that elected officials must file campaign finance reports twice a year, whether they raise money or not.
Ms. White said she paid the fine last week.
Tim Sorrels of the Texas Ethics Commission said he could not comment on the case.
Ms. White, of Aubrey, was first elected to the Commissioners Court in 2000.
She said she is running for re-election in 2008 and is raising funds for the campaign.
Read more in the Dallas Morning News
By MONTY MILLER JR. - Denton Record-Chronicle - Wed., August 1, 2007
DENTON – County Commissioner Cynthia White was fined $600 for missing three deadlines to file required campaign finance documents, after a Denton County resident filed a complaint against her last month.
The Texas Ethics Commission assessed the fine last week.
"I have been very busy the last year and a half," Ms. White said. "I'll try not to let it happen again."
Dianne Edmondson, Denton County Republican Party chairwoman, said elected officials make mistakes like everyone else, but Ms. White should be more careful in the future.
"I think it must happen fairly often, although it shouldn't happen," she said.
Oak Point resident John Rademacher filed a complaint against Ms. White in late May.
Mr. Rademacher could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Ms. White, a Republican who is up for re-election next year, filed the missing documents with the Denton County Elections Administration in late May. The documents covered the period between Jan. 15, 2006, and Jan. 15, 2007, and showed that Ms. White had not accepted any contributions or spent any campaign money during that time.
"I didn't have any activity during that period, but I understand that I should have filed them," she said.
Texas law states that elected officials must file campaign finance reports twice a year, whether they raise money or not.
Ms. White said she paid the fine last week.
Tim Sorrels of the Texas Ethics Commission said he could not comment on the case.
Ms. White, of Aubrey, was first elected to the Commissioners Court in 2000.
She said she is running for re-election in 2008 and is raising funds for the campaign.
Read more in the Dallas Morning News
Tolling in Fort Worth TxDOT Region
By Faith Chatham - Aug. 3, 2007
Texas Department of Transportation lists road and brige projcts, including current tolled projects, by district on their website KEEP TEXAS MOVING. Each TxDOT District has a separate webpage accessible from the TxDOT Keep Texas Moving Page.
A lot of information is available about projects in the district from this page. If you are researching a particular road project, scroll down the right side bar on the DFW Regional Concerned Citizens Page and check SPECIFIC PROJECTS for other links. Frequently we link to presentations at public hearings, engineering specs, drawings, environmental studies and other information there by project.
The Fort Worth TxDOT District includes Erath, Hood, Jack, Johnson, Palo Pinto, Parker, Somervell, Tarrant and Wise counties. The District Homepage provides links to Construction Projects, Contractor Information, Transportation Studies. Citizens can see the etails on the contracts let in two sections on that site:
MONTHLY STATE LET CONSTRUCTION REPORT by month and Letting Schedules for Constuction.
These reports show the contractors and subcontractors for all TxDOT projects in the Fort Worth District, date work began, working days charged, additional days granted, and date completed. There are also links to similar information on maintenance in the District.
Projects under construction and in planning are shown on the TxDOT Keep Texas Moving Fort Worth District page.
Currently they have links to five projects:
Colleyville Boulevard - SH 26
Highway 377 Reconstruction
DFW Connector
North Tarrant Express
Southwest Parkway
The MPO or Municipal Planning Organization for this region is the NCTCOG.
State Infrastructure Bank Loans for transportation projects in the Fort Worth District are listed on the Fort Worth Keep Texas Moving page.
Four Projects are listed in the Fort Worth District at this time, three in Parker County and one in Wise County. Of special interest is the "Improvements along I-20 - New Frontage roads - SH 171 & FM 51 which is to utilize pass-through toll financing to help acelerate project delivery by up to 10 years." The project is described as "Contstruction of SH 171 & FM 51 New Frontage roads south along I-20 to provide rural access to surburban areas and to reduce congestion and delays and improve air quality by allowing traffic to move more efficiently. It is listed as "Improvements to I-20.
Loan estimate: $52.4 Million.
Start date: 10/01/1007
Borrower: Wise County, TX.
The two other projects in Parker County are in the City of Weatherford. The US 180 Improvement project loan for $240 thousand was approved in August 2003 on an estimated $2.1 million dollar project. This poject is for widening one mile of FM 2552to 4 lanes with a turn land and relocation of utilities. The City of Weatherford borrowed $193.52 thousand for eleven years at 4.2% interest.
The City of Weatherford also borrowed $240 thousand for ten years at 3.8% to improve US 180, relocate utilities due to bridge and approaches replacement of US 180 overpass. This est. 7.3 million project is in planning.
In Wise County a loan was approved in March 2004 for US 380 Expansion. Work is underway for utility relocation on US 380. The project is estimated to cost $34.6 million and Wise county borrowed $4.1 million from the State Infrastructure Bank at 4% interest for 20 years on this project.
Texas Department of Transportation lists road and brige projcts, including current tolled projects, by district on their website KEEP TEXAS MOVING. Each TxDOT District has a separate webpage accessible from the TxDOT Keep Texas Moving Page.
A lot of information is available about projects in the district from this page. If you are researching a particular road project, scroll down the right side bar on the DFW Regional Concerned Citizens Page and check SPECIFIC PROJECTS for other links. Frequently we link to presentations at public hearings, engineering specs, drawings, environmental studies and other information there by project.
The Fort Worth TxDOT District includes Erath, Hood, Jack, Johnson, Palo Pinto, Parker, Somervell, Tarrant and Wise counties. The District Homepage provides links to Construction Projects, Contractor Information, Transportation Studies. Citizens can see the etails on the contracts let in two sections on that site:
MONTHLY STATE LET CONSTRUCTION REPORT by month and Letting Schedules for Constuction.
These reports show the contractors and subcontractors for all TxDOT projects in the Fort Worth District, date work began, working days charged, additional days granted, and date completed. There are also links to similar information on maintenance in the District.
Projects under construction and in planning are shown on the TxDOT Keep Texas Moving Fort Worth District page.
Currently they have links to five projects:
Colleyville Boulevard - SH 26
Right-of-Way Acquisition is Underway
TxDOT is well underway in the process of acquiring the right-of-way necessary for the SH 26 widening project. The Department has contacted the affected property owners along the highway corridor for the purpose of: 1) informing them of the State's intent to acquire right-of-way for the project, and 2) educating the property owners about the process that will be followed in acquiring the right-of-way. A team of appraisers has also been at work appraising the affected properties to determine "Fair Market Value".
When Will Construction Begin?
Construction is currently slated to begin in Fall 2009. However, that date could change depending on the amount of time it takes the State to acquire over 200 right-of-way parcels necessary for the project. Once the right-of-way is acquired, utilities, such as water lines, phone lines, and power poles, must be relocated to accommodate the highway widening.
Highway 377 Reconstruction
TxDOT’s Fort Worth District is currently planning improvements for the widening of U.S. 377 from FM 51 to FM 167 South from four lanes to a six-lane divided highway. It will include interchanges at SH 144 and Business 377, as well as the widening of the Lake Granbury Bridge. In addition to the highway widening, the project will include drainage structures, traffic signals, bridge widening, pavement markings and signage.
The U.S. 377 reconstruction project is not funded at this time. It is still in environmental review and preliminary design. After the environmental document and geometric schematic are further refined, they will be reviewed by TxDOT and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). Once approval for further processing is received from the FHWA, a public hearing will be scheduled.
DFW Connector
The DFW Connector is a TxDOT project dedicated to improving mobility along SH 114 and SH 121 in a safe, efficient, reliable and environmentally sensitive manner.
The DFW Connector is committed to working in partnership with corridor communities, roadway users and other interested parties to accelerate construction on this corridor.
North Tarrant Express
There are Project Studies for 6 segments on the website. The North Tarrant Express is dedicated to improving mobility along North Interstate 35W, Northeast Interstate 820 and SH 121/183 Airport Freeway through a regionally supported managed lane system. This corridor is important to the future of North Tarrant County – the fastest growing area in North Texas.
North Tarrant Express is committed to working in partnership with corridor communities, roadway users and other interested parties to accelerate construction on this corridor.
Southwest Parkway
The SH 121/Southwest Parkway project will be a new four- to six-lane divided toll road which will extend about 15 miles from Interstate 30 to Farm to Market Road 1187. The goal of this project is to improve mobility and air quality in southwest Tarrant County.This project has been in the planning stages since the 1960ies. It was funded as a non-tolled boulevard in the 1980s and identified as a project which was a good candidate for tolling in the 1990ies. It has evolved into a tolled freeway. Environmental documents and the Environmental Assessment are on line. There are also links to NTTA and NCTCOG.
SH 121/Southwest Parkway will continue with a 14-mile toll project on a new location in Johnson County from FM 1187 to US 67 in Cleburne, also known as Chisholm Trail.
Construction is tentatively scheduled to begin on both projects in 2008/2009 and end in 2011.
The MPO or Municipal Planning Organization for this region is the NCTCOG.
State Infrastructure Bank Loans for transportation projects in the Fort Worth District are listed on the Fort Worth Keep Texas Moving page.
The goal of the SIB program is to provide innovative financing methods that add to the list of options available to communities to assist them in meeting their infrastructure needs. The SIB program allows borrowers to access capital funds at, or lower than, market interest rates.
Four Projects are listed in the Fort Worth District at this time, three in Parker County and one in Wise County. Of special interest is the "Improvements along I-20 - New Frontage roads - SH 171 & FM 51 which is to utilize pass-through toll financing to help acelerate project delivery by up to 10 years." The project is described as "Contstruction of SH 171 & FM 51 New Frontage roads south along I-20 to provide rural access to surburban areas and to reduce congestion and delays and improve air quality by allowing traffic to move more efficiently. It is listed as "Improvements to I-20.
Loan estimate: $52.4 Million.
Start date: 10/01/1007
Borrower: Wise County, TX.
The two other projects in Parker County are in the City of Weatherford. The US 180 Improvement project loan for $240 thousand was approved in August 2003 on an estimated $2.1 million dollar project. This poject is for widening one mile of FM 2552to 4 lanes with a turn land and relocation of utilities. The City of Weatherford borrowed $193.52 thousand for eleven years at 4.2% interest.
The City of Weatherford also borrowed $240 thousand for ten years at 3.8% to improve US 180, relocate utilities due to bridge and approaches replacement of US 180 overpass. This est. 7.3 million project is in planning.
In Wise County a loan was approved in March 2004 for US 380 Expansion. Work is underway for utility relocation on US 380. The project is estimated to cost $34.6 million and Wise county borrowed $4.1 million from the State Infrastructure Bank at 4% interest for 20 years on this project.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
TxDOT Hearings Scheduled on Transfer of SH 121 from State to NTTA
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) will conduct two public hearings to receive comments from interested persons concerning the proposed removal from the state highway system and transfer to the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) of a segment of State Highway 121.
The segment is located from just east of Business 121 to the west side of FM 2281, a distance of 7.39 miles, in Dallas and Denton counties. The non-tolled area is just south of the existing SH 121 Tollway currently being run by TxDOT since its opening last year.
TxDOT‚s meetings will be on Tuesday, August 7, 2007 at 6:00 p.m., at Coppell Middle School - North, 120 Neches Trace, Coppell, Texas 75019 and Thursday August 9, 2007, at 6:00 p.m., at City of Lewisville, City Hall Council Chamber, 151 West Church Street, Lewisville, Texas 75057,
State law authorizes TxDOT to lease, sell, or transfer a toll project or system that is part of the state highway system, including a nontolled state highway or a segment of a nontolled state highway converted to a toll project, to a governmental entity that has the authority to operate a tolled highway. In North Texas that agency is the NTTA.
Descriptions, maps and drawings showing the proposed portion of State Highway 121 to be transferred and other information concerning the proposed transfer are on file and available for public inspection and copying by contacting Bill Compton, P.E., Texas Department of Transportation, 4777 E. US Hwy 80, Mesquite, TX 75150-6643, telephone 214-319-4489.
The segment is located from just east of Business 121 to the west side of FM 2281, a distance of 7.39 miles, in Dallas and Denton counties. The non-tolled area is just south of the existing SH 121 Tollway currently being run by TxDOT since its opening last year.
TxDOT‚s meetings will be on Tuesday, August 7, 2007 at 6:00 p.m., at Coppell Middle School - North, 120 Neches Trace, Coppell, Texas 75019 and Thursday August 9, 2007, at 6:00 p.m., at City of Lewisville, City Hall Council Chamber, 151 West Church Street, Lewisville, Texas 75057,
State law authorizes TxDOT to lease, sell, or transfer a toll project or system that is part of the state highway system, including a nontolled state highway or a segment of a nontolled state highway converted to a toll project, to a governmental entity that has the authority to operate a tolled highway. In North Texas that agency is the NTTA.
Descriptions, maps and drawings showing the proposed portion of State Highway 121 to be transferred and other information concerning the proposed transfer are on file and available for public inspection and copying by contacting Bill Compton, P.E., Texas Department of Transportation, 4777 E. US Hwy 80, Mesquite, TX 75150-6643, telephone 214-319-4489.
Lobbying Overhaul Wins Approval in House
by Brian Naylor - NPR All Things Considered - July 31, 2007
The House on Tuesday approved a bill to make sweeping changes to the way lawmakers deal with lobbyists. The vote was 411-8.
The bill aims to bring more transparency to so-called "earmarks," or special-interest spending in particular lawmakers' districts. It also would increase disclosure requirements for lobbyists who "bundle" campaign contributions for federal office seekers and slow the revolving door of senators who leave office to lobby their former colleagues.
The Senate plans to vote on the bill later this week.
Read more & Listen
The House on Tuesday approved a bill to make sweeping changes to the way lawmakers deal with lobbyists. The vote was 411-8.
The bill aims to bring more transparency to so-called "earmarks," or special-interest spending in particular lawmakers' districts. It also would increase disclosure requirements for lobbyists who "bundle" campaign contributions for federal office seekers and slow the revolving door of senators who leave office to lobby their former colleagues.
The Senate plans to vote on the bill later this week.
Read more & Listen
Monday, July 30, 2007
Upcoming Transportation Meetings in DFW Area
This is a partial list of meetings. Only Denton, Dallas, Tarrant and Collin County Commissioners meetings are listed here. Please check County website for other counties. Please check city websites for City Council Meetings.
NCTCOG - RTC Public Meeting
Mon, July 30, 6:30 - 8:00 pm
Where: Carrollton Public Library at Josey Ranch Lake, 1700 Keller Springs Road, Carrollton, TX 75006
Tarrant County Commissioner's Court
Tue, July 31, 10 - 11 am
Agenda
Dallas County Commissioner’s Court
Tue, July 31, 9 am
Agenda
NCTCOG - RTC Public Meeting
Tue, July 31, 12:00 - 1:30 pm
Where: Fort Worth Intermodal Transportation Center, 1000 Jones Street, Fort Worth, TX 76102
NCTCOG RTC Public Meeting
Tue, July 31, 6:30 - 8:00 pm
Where: Irving Central Library, 801 W. Irving Blvd., Irving, TX 75060
Collin County Commissioners Court Workshop
Mon., Aug. 6, 1 p.m.
210 S. McDonald St., 6th Floor of Collin County Courthouse, McKinney
More information
Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security Hearing in Irving, TX
Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2007, 8:00 a.m.
Irving Lecture Hall, Westin DFW Airport, 4545 W. John Carpenter Freeway, Irving, Texas.
The Committee will begin at 8:00 a.m. and hear invited and public testimony on the implementation of legislation and related issues. See notice and agenda.
Tarrant County Commissioner's Court
Tue, August 7, 10 - 11 am
Agenda
Dallas County Commissioner’s Court
Tue, August 7, 9 am
Agenda
NCTCOG - RTC - Regional Transportation Council
Thu, August 9, 1:30 - 4:00 pm
Where: NCTCOG Offices, 616 Six Flags Dr., Arlington, TX Transportation Council Room
NCTCOG -Regional Energy Efficiency & Emissions Reductions Initiatives Roundtable
Fri, August 10, 1:30 - 3:30 pm
Where: NCTCOG Offices, 616 Six Flags Dr., Arlington, TX Transportation Council Room
NCTCOG - Amtrak Relocation/Tower 55
Mon, August 13, 3:30 - 5:00 pm
Where: NCTCOG Offices, 616 Six Flags Dr., Arlington, TX Pecan Conference Room
Tarrant County Commissioner's Court
Tue, August 14, 10 - 11 am
Agenda
Dallas County Commissioner’s Court
Tue, August 14, 9 am
Agenda
NCTCOG - DFW Clean Cities Advancing the Choice
Wed, August 15, 9:30 - 10:30 am
Where: NCTCOG Offices, 616 Six Flags Dr., Arlington, TX
Tarrant County Commissioner's Court
Tue, August 21, 10 - 11 am
Agenda
Dallas County Commissioner’s Court
Tue, August 21, 9 am
Agenda
NCTCOG - Executive Board Meeting
Thu, August 23, 6:00am - 4:30 pm
Where: NCTCOG OFFICES,616 Six Flags Dr., Arlington, TX William J. Pitstick Executive Board Room
NCTCOG - North Texas Anti (Human) Trafficking Task Force
Thu, August 23, 9am - 12 pm
Where: NCTCOG Offices, 616 Six Flags Dr., Arlington TX Metroplex Conference Room
NCTCOG - Surface Transportation Technical Committee - STTC Meeting
Fri, August 24, 1:30 - 4:00 pm
Where: NCTCOG Offices, 616 Six Flags Dr., Arlington TX Transportation Council Room
Tarrant County Commissioner's Court
Tue, August 28, 10 - 11 am
Agenda
Dallas County Commissioner’s Court
Tue, August 28, 9 am
Agenda
NCTCOG - DFW Clean Cities Coalition
Thu, August 30, 1:30 - 3:00 pm
Where: NCTCOG OFFICES, 616 Six Flags Dr., Arlington, TX Six Flags Conference Room
NCTCOG - RTC Public Meeting
Mon, July 30, 6:30 - 8:00 pm
Where: Carrollton Public Library at Josey Ranch Lake, 1700 Keller Springs Road, Carrollton, TX 75006
Tarrant County Commissioner's Court
Tue, July 31, 10 - 11 am
Agenda
Dallas County Commissioner’s Court
Tue, July 31, 9 am
Agenda
NCTCOG - RTC Public Meeting
Tue, July 31, 12:00 - 1:30 pm
Where: Fort Worth Intermodal Transportation Center, 1000 Jones Street, Fort Worth, TX 76102
NCTCOG RTC Public Meeting
Tue, July 31, 6:30 - 8:00 pm
Where: Irving Central Library, 801 W. Irving Blvd., Irving, TX 75060
Collin County Commissioners Court Workshop
Mon., Aug. 6, 1 p.m.
210 S. McDonald St., 6th Floor of Collin County Courthouse, McKinney
More information
Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security Hearing in Irving, TX
Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2007, 8:00 a.m.
Irving Lecture Hall, Westin DFW Airport, 4545 W. John Carpenter Freeway, Irving, Texas.
The Committee will begin at 8:00 a.m. and hear invited and public testimony on the implementation of legislation and related issues. See notice and agenda.
Tarrant County Commissioner's Court
Tue, August 7, 10 - 11 am
Agenda
Dallas County Commissioner’s Court
Tue, August 7, 9 am
Agenda
NCTCOG - RTC - Regional Transportation Council
Thu, August 9, 1:30 - 4:00 pm
Where: NCTCOG Offices, 616 Six Flags Dr., Arlington, TX Transportation Council Room
NCTCOG -Regional Energy Efficiency & Emissions Reductions Initiatives Roundtable
Fri, August 10, 1:30 - 3:30 pm
Where: NCTCOG Offices, 616 Six Flags Dr., Arlington, TX Transportation Council Room
NCTCOG - Amtrak Relocation/Tower 55
Mon, August 13, 3:30 - 5:00 pm
Where: NCTCOG Offices, 616 Six Flags Dr., Arlington, TX Pecan Conference Room
Tarrant County Commissioner's Court
Tue, August 14, 10 - 11 am
Agenda
Dallas County Commissioner’s Court
Tue, August 14, 9 am
Agenda
NCTCOG - DFW Clean Cities Advancing the Choice
Wed, August 15, 9:30 - 10:30 am
Where: NCTCOG Offices, 616 Six Flags Dr., Arlington, TX
Tarrant County Commissioner's Court
Tue, August 21, 10 - 11 am
Agenda
Dallas County Commissioner’s Court
Tue, August 21, 9 am
Agenda
NCTCOG - Executive Board Meeting
Thu, August 23, 6:00am - 4:30 pm
Where: NCTCOG OFFICES,616 Six Flags Dr., Arlington, TX William J. Pitstick Executive Board Room
NCTCOG - North Texas Anti (Human) Trafficking Task Force
Thu, August 23, 9am - 12 pm
Where: NCTCOG Offices, 616 Six Flags Dr., Arlington TX Metroplex Conference Room
NCTCOG - Surface Transportation Technical Committee - STTC Meeting
Fri, August 24, 1:30 - 4:00 pm
Where: NCTCOG Offices, 616 Six Flags Dr., Arlington TX Transportation Council Room
Tarrant County Commissioner's Court
Tue, August 28, 10 - 11 am
Agenda
Dallas County Commissioner’s Court
Tue, August 28, 9 am
Agenda
NCTCOG - DFW Clean Cities Coalition
Thu, August 30, 1:30 - 3:00 pm
Where: NCTCOG OFFICES, 616 Six Flags Dr., Arlington, TX Six Flags Conference Room
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Hold Those Tolls! Lege leaves question: How will we pay for roads?
By Larry Schooler - The Austin Chronicle - July 27, 2007
It was Dec. 16, 2004, and Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock, was sitting pretty. He was virtually a guest of honor at a meeting of the Texas Transportation Commission, across the street from his Capitol office. A little more than a year before, as chairman of the House Transportation Committee, Krusee had successfully carried the behemoth House Bill 3588. Among its many and complex provisions, the bill helped smooth the way for Gov. Rick Perry to get the Texas Transportation Commission to approve early plans for the Trans-Texas Corridor. Stretching from Mexico to Oklahoma, the corridor would be a mammoth transportation project running parallel to I-35. As conceived, it would include free and tolled highway lanes, as well as rail and utility lines, and would be built and maintained by the privately held Spanish company Cintra (an international operator of toll roads and car parks) and the San Antonio-based Zachry Construction Corp.
At the Texas Transportation Commission meeting, attended by the governor himself, Krusee didn't say much. Actions spoke louder than words -- and on this day, the commission was acting on a project he had fought long and hard to convince legislators to support. By way of acknowledgment, commission Chairman Ric Williamson duly praised Krusee for his work at the Capitol. Krusee had a flight to catch, but first he took the floor for a brief stroll down memory lane.
"I started thinking about the first time that I met Ric Williamson," Krusee recalled, according to a meeting transcript. It was 1992, and Krusee had just been elected to the House; then-Rep. Williamson invited the 32-year-old Krusee to his apartment. "So I went over there, and Ric had one of his good friends over there, and that was the night I met Rick Perry, who was the ag commissioner, and we talked long into the night about accomplishing great things for Texas, about how to be a great leader for Texas. And we weren't thinking about how to be on Texas Monthly's 10 best [list] -- but you know, Ric, I think we were talking about days like this.
"And you know, governor," Krusee continued, "A little over two years ago when you made that presentation [about the Trans-Texas Corridor] in the auditorium at the Capitol, and I was in the audience, and like everybody else out there, I didn't really fully grasp what the hell you were talking about." The audience laughed.
"You do now, don't you?" asked Perry.
"I do now," Krusee replied. "And I want to congratulate you on your vision and your leadership, and the commission and your staff on your hard work, because you have made this, I think sincerely, the most historic day in transportation, not just for Texas, but for the United States since Eisenhower." With that, Krusee left the meeting.
Flash forward nearly 21/2 years -- to May 2, 2007. Chairman Krusee stood on the House floor, without a single transportation ally. Every House member present, except Krusee alone, voted in favor of HB 1892, which included a two-year moratorium on many of the public-private partnerships such as the one the Texas Department of Transportation had developed with Cintra-Zachry to build the Trans-Texas Corridor. "Who knew that trying to reduce congestion could be such a lonely fight?" wondered Coby Chase, who monitors the Legislature for TxDOT.
Perry eventually vetoed HB 1892, but a nearly identical Senate substitute, Senate Bill 792, later handily passed both the House and Senate, and Perry signed it into law. The massive bill forbids TxDOT from negotiating a tolling agreement with a private company until Sept. 1, 2009, exempting some projects already under way. Even among those exempted projects, some got swept up in the post-session, anti-privatization maelstrom. For instance, at its June meeting, the Texas Transportation Commission awarded a contract for the State Highway 121 project (in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex) to the North Texas Tollway Authority -- after initially awarding the contract to Cintra.
SB 792 also states that if a company paid TxDOT money up front for the rights to build a toll road in a particular region, TxDOT must use that money on other projects in that region. It requires TxDOT to give local tolling agencies preferential treatment over private companies by giving them free right-of-way and the right of first refusal on building toll roads. In essence, the Legislature left private companies interested in transportation on the bench for the next two years.
Politics or Policy?
So what happened? How could Rep. Krusee, four years earlier, convince all but three members of the House to approve legislation that enabled private companies to build highways, only to find that entire concept rejected out of hand this year? Not surprisingly, it depends on whom you ask.
"What happened was," Krusee said after the session, "TxDOT was going not just against the traditional rural opposition to road building but against Dallas and Houston in a turf battle over who would build the roads." In Dallas, Houston, Austin, and elsewhere, public toll-road authorities were getting outgunned by private companies like Cintra, and they weren't happy, Krusee says, so they asked their legislators to give tolling authorities right of first refusal. Krusee didn't take it personally that he seemed to be the only member of the House who wanted private companies to continue building roads. "I think it was a political vote," he said. "Members thought it was necessary to vote that way to get votes back home; they felt like they'd be criticized for voting against it."
Chase agrees with Krusee and points to the larger political context. "During this last election cycle, we had a candidate for governor; she liked to campaign against foreigners and against toll roads," Chase explained, in reference to gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who ran against Perry as an independent. "And then we had the [federal] Dubai Ports issue, and this was such a misleading discussion in the public. ... This Dubai company wouldn't own any port; they were just going to run them, and the government would lease it to them. Then Cintra becomes the successful proposer on the corridor and ... it kind of kick-started the 'no foreigners doing business in Texas' discussion."
But David Stall, of the anti-Trans-Texas Corridor group CorridorWatch, has a less benign explanation. Stall says legislators belatedly did their homework on public-private partnerships. "The Legislature did not recognize the shift in transportation policy that they were creating" in 2003, Stall said. "We started to see some handwriting on the wall in 2005, with some moratorium bills that didn't go anywhere. The reason they didn't go anywhere was we were still educating people. I think if legislators were educated in 2003 on what the corridor was, if they had understood it, they would not have voted to authorize its creation."
Looking for Consensus
Enter former Austin mayor and freshman Sen. Kirk Watson. Watson wasn't around in 2003 for the original vote on the corridor and agreements with private companies to build toll roads. But he came to the Lege with voices ringing loudly in his ear -- those of his new constituents. "Part of the reason there is this vitriolic, partisan [no-toll or toll] debate is that we haven't had a thoughtful, systematic, transparent means of analyzing what we want to do," he says. "There are clearly two agreements in this community -- one, we are too badly congested, and two, we want it fixed. When we get to three -- how to do it -- now it's not as unanimous."
Watson is unconvinced that letting a private company pay for, build, and make a profit on a new road is the best way to go. "I was skeptical of these comprehensive development agreements -- how long they were, their noncompete clauses. ... I happen to be a believer that if you're going to privatize, it should be for the stuff the public can't get done. I wasn't convinced -- at beginning or end of session -- that we weren't going to just have privatization on stuff that we couldn't get done in the public sector."
In other words, Watson didn't want profit-minded private companies building roads that could be built by government -- especially if, under noncompete clauses, the state has to pay the companies back for highways that take traffic (and potential income) away from the private toll roads. "I wanted to allow local communities to have more say," Watson explained. "It struck me that one of the things that was missing in the process was we needed more accountability in the system, and that probably meant elected officials having a role." That potentially means fewer deals with private companies and more for state tolling authorities or transportation commissions.
Watson had more than just his own rookie legislative voice to add to the discussion -- in January, he became chairman of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (the group in charge of the region's transportation projects) and vice chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee. At his suggestion, CAMPO indefinitely postponed any talk of a second phase of toll roads until it can take more time to sort out how best to finance transportation projects.
But the Legislature's decision to halt most road-building agreements with private companies leaves Central Texas in a bind, as Krusee sees it, when it comes to decongesting traffic. "To my mind, the bad thing about what the Legislature did this session was it took that option away" -- the option to have a private company get started now on building a given road. The Legislature's action doesn't mean that Austin or the surrounding jurisdictions can't build any more toll roads, but it means they can't call on a private company to do so. So as Krusee sees it, we're back at ground zero: Lacking sufficient up-front public funding, the state, via TxDOT, had been looking toward private companies as ideally positioned to help build roads quickly and efficiently, based on the promise of future toll revenue. Now that option is off the table, at least temporarily.
With toll roads built by private companies, says TxDOT's Chase, "You [the state] give up some future revenue to get a project now. You get a guaranteed price on the project, you are guaranteed the project will be returned to you in a certain condition, and the price you pay is you say the company can realize a profit on this over a certain amount of time. Some people had concerns of unlimited company profits without ever reading what the contracts were -- the companies can't raise tolls any time they want. If the profits get to a certain point, it goes back to the region to build more roads."
Often, as was the case with Cintra and the Trans-Texas Corridor, the company pays a large sum -- generally billions of dollars -- to buy the rights to build a road, which could mean the state could get other projects started more quickly using those advance funds.
Even Watson, skeptical as he is that a private company can handle transportation any better than the state, admits that a moratorium on deals with private companies could make it harder to do anything significant about area congestion for the next couple of years. "We're going to need to be honest about limitations of financing tools," he says. "In the state appropriations bill, there was an effective decrease in transportation money, when you consider inflation. There has been more moving of funds from transportation. Many people say they want an increase in gas tax; the House approved a gas tax holiday that would have taken away gas tax money for three months out of the year [that measure died in the Senate]. The money offered to states from federal government is being decreased; we just got notice that federal money rescinded $72 million more. We're going to have to start being honest about the limitations we have on being able to meet the need to fix the problem."
Stranded on the Highway
To that end, Watson has been meeting every two weeks with a CAMPO's Mobility Finance Task Force, which includes elected officials, outside transportation experts, even the executive director of the Community Partnership for the Homeless. Meanwhile, TxDOT has given preliminary approval to a set of toll projects in the Austin area, including some "managed lanes" (for use, say, by carpoolers or during rush hour) as well as the second phase of toll roads Watson doesn't want to talk about for now. TxDOT is also holding a series of public meetings later this year to explain the ramifications of what the Legislature did in suspending many of the proposed deals with private companies.
"We're doing things that no other department of transportation is doing," says Chase. "We're learning it as we go, and we have never ever had to engage the public on this large a scale in our 90-plus years of existence. And in many cases, we underestimated that challenge."
That last sentiment could also apply to those who want to do something about Austin's traffic congestion. If the Lege managed to placate the anti-toll crowd, at least for the time being, it didn't do much to make it any easier to travel on Central Texas highways, nor to address long-term projections that show regional traffic only getting worse. More broadly, the moratorium doesn't begin to address larger questions raised by traditional highway approaches to transportation: land use, mass transit options, pollution and global warming issues, or even integrated urban planning that might make transportation issues less intractable and expensive.
Those are the kind of issues that Sally Campbell hoped the Legislature would consider. Campbell is the executive director of Envision Central Texas, a 6-year-old nonprofit coalition aimed at addressing regional growth. Campbell wanted to hear more discussion and action on giving counties more control over land uses around future highways and relocating Union Pacific away from rail lines that commuters could use. "When we truly want to see this multimodal transportation system develop, the next step is to look at the transit options. And right now, we're trying to figure out what will work and what's the logical system. If you can think about commuter rail from San Antonio to Georgetown by relocating Union Pacific, that makes a whole other mode within the realm of possibility."
But rail relocation, and most other proposals for broadening the state's transportation options, remained stuck at the station during the 80th Legislature. What most legislators wanted to discuss was how to pay for new roads and where to put them. Whether Krusee's interest in more privatization or Watson's desire for greater accountability in transportation policy ultimately win the day in the current discussions, it could be two years -- or more -- before getting around seems much easier, even though commuter rail could start running through the region by the end of 2008.
That will be just in time for the 81st Legislature -- and a whole new set of political detours during the next round of transportation debates.
Read more
It was Dec. 16, 2004, and Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock, was sitting pretty. He was virtually a guest of honor at a meeting of the Texas Transportation Commission, across the street from his Capitol office. A little more than a year before, as chairman of the House Transportation Committee, Krusee had successfully carried the behemoth House Bill 3588. Among its many and complex provisions, the bill helped smooth the way for Gov. Rick Perry to get the Texas Transportation Commission to approve early plans for the Trans-Texas Corridor. Stretching from Mexico to Oklahoma, the corridor would be a mammoth transportation project running parallel to I-35. As conceived, it would include free and tolled highway lanes, as well as rail and utility lines, and would be built and maintained by the privately held Spanish company Cintra (an international operator of toll roads and car parks) and the San Antonio-based Zachry Construction Corp.
At the Texas Transportation Commission meeting, attended by the governor himself, Krusee didn't say much. Actions spoke louder than words -- and on this day, the commission was acting on a project he had fought long and hard to convince legislators to support. By way of acknowledgment, commission Chairman Ric Williamson duly praised Krusee for his work at the Capitol. Krusee had a flight to catch, but first he took the floor for a brief stroll down memory lane.
"I started thinking about the first time that I met Ric Williamson," Krusee recalled, according to a meeting transcript. It was 1992, and Krusee had just been elected to the House; then-Rep. Williamson invited the 32-year-old Krusee to his apartment. "So I went over there, and Ric had one of his good friends over there, and that was the night I met Rick Perry, who was the ag commissioner, and we talked long into the night about accomplishing great things for Texas, about how to be a great leader for Texas. And we weren't thinking about how to be on Texas Monthly's 10 best [list] -- but you know, Ric, I think we were talking about days like this.
"And you know, governor," Krusee continued, "A little over two years ago when you made that presentation [about the Trans-Texas Corridor] in the auditorium at the Capitol, and I was in the audience, and like everybody else out there, I didn't really fully grasp what the hell you were talking about." The audience laughed.
"You do now, don't you?" asked Perry.
"I do now," Krusee replied. "And I want to congratulate you on your vision and your leadership, and the commission and your staff on your hard work, because you have made this, I think sincerely, the most historic day in transportation, not just for Texas, but for the United States since Eisenhower." With that, Krusee left the meeting.
Flash forward nearly 21/2 years -- to May 2, 2007. Chairman Krusee stood on the House floor, without a single transportation ally. Every House member present, except Krusee alone, voted in favor of HB 1892, which included a two-year moratorium on many of the public-private partnerships such as the one the Texas Department of Transportation had developed with Cintra-Zachry to build the Trans-Texas Corridor. "Who knew that trying to reduce congestion could be such a lonely fight?" wondered Coby Chase, who monitors the Legislature for TxDOT.
Perry eventually vetoed HB 1892, but a nearly identical Senate substitute, Senate Bill 792, later handily passed both the House and Senate, and Perry signed it into law. The massive bill forbids TxDOT from negotiating a tolling agreement with a private company until Sept. 1, 2009, exempting some projects already under way. Even among those exempted projects, some got swept up in the post-session, anti-privatization maelstrom. For instance, at its June meeting, the Texas Transportation Commission awarded a contract for the State Highway 121 project (in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex) to the North Texas Tollway Authority -- after initially awarding the contract to Cintra.
SB 792 also states that if a company paid TxDOT money up front for the rights to build a toll road in a particular region, TxDOT must use that money on other projects in that region. It requires TxDOT to give local tolling agencies preferential treatment over private companies by giving them free right-of-way and the right of first refusal on building toll roads. In essence, the Legislature left private companies interested in transportation on the bench for the next two years.
Politics or Policy?
So what happened? How could Rep. Krusee, four years earlier, convince all but three members of the House to approve legislation that enabled private companies to build highways, only to find that entire concept rejected out of hand this year? Not surprisingly, it depends on whom you ask.
"What happened was," Krusee said after the session, "TxDOT was going not just against the traditional rural opposition to road building but against Dallas and Houston in a turf battle over who would build the roads." In Dallas, Houston, Austin, and elsewhere, public toll-road authorities were getting outgunned by private companies like Cintra, and they weren't happy, Krusee says, so they asked their legislators to give tolling authorities right of first refusal. Krusee didn't take it personally that he seemed to be the only member of the House who wanted private companies to continue building roads. "I think it was a political vote," he said. "Members thought it was necessary to vote that way to get votes back home; they felt like they'd be criticized for voting against it."
Chase agrees with Krusee and points to the larger political context. "During this last election cycle, we had a candidate for governor; she liked to campaign against foreigners and against toll roads," Chase explained, in reference to gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who ran against Perry as an independent. "And then we had the [federal] Dubai Ports issue, and this was such a misleading discussion in the public. ... This Dubai company wouldn't own any port; they were just going to run them, and the government would lease it to them. Then Cintra becomes the successful proposer on the corridor and ... it kind of kick-started the 'no foreigners doing business in Texas' discussion."
But David Stall, of the anti-Trans-Texas Corridor group CorridorWatch, has a less benign explanation. Stall says legislators belatedly did their homework on public-private partnerships. "The Legislature did not recognize the shift in transportation policy that they were creating" in 2003, Stall said. "We started to see some handwriting on the wall in 2005, with some moratorium bills that didn't go anywhere. The reason they didn't go anywhere was we were still educating people. I think if legislators were educated in 2003 on what the corridor was, if they had understood it, they would not have voted to authorize its creation."
Looking for Consensus
Enter former Austin mayor and freshman Sen. Kirk Watson. Watson wasn't around in 2003 for the original vote on the corridor and agreements with private companies to build toll roads. But he came to the Lege with voices ringing loudly in his ear -- those of his new constituents. "Part of the reason there is this vitriolic, partisan [no-toll or toll] debate is that we haven't had a thoughtful, systematic, transparent means of analyzing what we want to do," he says. "There are clearly two agreements in this community -- one, we are too badly congested, and two, we want it fixed. When we get to three -- how to do it -- now it's not as unanimous."
Watson is unconvinced that letting a private company pay for, build, and make a profit on a new road is the best way to go. "I was skeptical of these comprehensive development agreements -- how long they were, their noncompete clauses. ... I happen to be a believer that if you're going to privatize, it should be for the stuff the public can't get done. I wasn't convinced -- at beginning or end of session -- that we weren't going to just have privatization on stuff that we couldn't get done in the public sector."
In other words, Watson didn't want profit-minded private companies building roads that could be built by government -- especially if, under noncompete clauses, the state has to pay the companies back for highways that take traffic (and potential income) away from the private toll roads. "I wanted to allow local communities to have more say," Watson explained. "It struck me that one of the things that was missing in the process was we needed more accountability in the system, and that probably meant elected officials having a role." That potentially means fewer deals with private companies and more for state tolling authorities or transportation commissions.
Watson had more than just his own rookie legislative voice to add to the discussion -- in January, he became chairman of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (the group in charge of the region's transportation projects) and vice chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee. At his suggestion, CAMPO indefinitely postponed any talk of a second phase of toll roads until it can take more time to sort out how best to finance transportation projects.
But the Legislature's decision to halt most road-building agreements with private companies leaves Central Texas in a bind, as Krusee sees it, when it comes to decongesting traffic. "To my mind, the bad thing about what the Legislature did this session was it took that option away" -- the option to have a private company get started now on building a given road. The Legislature's action doesn't mean that Austin or the surrounding jurisdictions can't build any more toll roads, but it means they can't call on a private company to do so. So as Krusee sees it, we're back at ground zero: Lacking sufficient up-front public funding, the state, via TxDOT, had been looking toward private companies as ideally positioned to help build roads quickly and efficiently, based on the promise of future toll revenue. Now that option is off the table, at least temporarily.
With toll roads built by private companies, says TxDOT's Chase, "You [the state] give up some future revenue to get a project now. You get a guaranteed price on the project, you are guaranteed the project will be returned to you in a certain condition, and the price you pay is you say the company can realize a profit on this over a certain amount of time. Some people had concerns of unlimited company profits without ever reading what the contracts were -- the companies can't raise tolls any time they want. If the profits get to a certain point, it goes back to the region to build more roads."
Often, as was the case with Cintra and the Trans-Texas Corridor, the company pays a large sum -- generally billions of dollars -- to buy the rights to build a road, which could mean the state could get other projects started more quickly using those advance funds.
Even Watson, skeptical as he is that a private company can handle transportation any better than the state, admits that a moratorium on deals with private companies could make it harder to do anything significant about area congestion for the next couple of years. "We're going to need to be honest about limitations of financing tools," he says. "In the state appropriations bill, there was an effective decrease in transportation money, when you consider inflation. There has been more moving of funds from transportation. Many people say they want an increase in gas tax; the House approved a gas tax holiday that would have taken away gas tax money for three months out of the year [that measure died in the Senate]. The money offered to states from federal government is being decreased; we just got notice that federal money rescinded $72 million more. We're going to have to start being honest about the limitations we have on being able to meet the need to fix the problem."
Stranded on the Highway
To that end, Watson has been meeting every two weeks with a CAMPO's Mobility Finance Task Force, which includes elected officials, outside transportation experts, even the executive director of the Community Partnership for the Homeless. Meanwhile, TxDOT has given preliminary approval to a set of toll projects in the Austin area, including some "managed lanes" (for use, say, by carpoolers or during rush hour) as well as the second phase of toll roads Watson doesn't want to talk about for now. TxDOT is also holding a series of public meetings later this year to explain the ramifications of what the Legislature did in suspending many of the proposed deals with private companies.
"We're doing things that no other department of transportation is doing," says Chase. "We're learning it as we go, and we have never ever had to engage the public on this large a scale in our 90-plus years of existence. And in many cases, we underestimated that challenge."
That last sentiment could also apply to those who want to do something about Austin's traffic congestion. If the Lege managed to placate the anti-toll crowd, at least for the time being, it didn't do much to make it any easier to travel on Central Texas highways, nor to address long-term projections that show regional traffic only getting worse. More broadly, the moratorium doesn't begin to address larger questions raised by traditional highway approaches to transportation: land use, mass transit options, pollution and global warming issues, or even integrated urban planning that might make transportation issues less intractable and expensive.
Those are the kind of issues that Sally Campbell hoped the Legislature would consider. Campbell is the executive director of Envision Central Texas, a 6-year-old nonprofit coalition aimed at addressing regional growth. Campbell wanted to hear more discussion and action on giving counties more control over land uses around future highways and relocating Union Pacific away from rail lines that commuters could use. "When we truly want to see this multimodal transportation system develop, the next step is to look at the transit options. And right now, we're trying to figure out what will work and what's the logical system. If you can think about commuter rail from San Antonio to Georgetown by relocating Union Pacific, that makes a whole other mode within the realm of possibility."
But rail relocation, and most other proposals for broadening the state's transportation options, remained stuck at the station during the 80th Legislature. What most legislators wanted to discuss was how to pay for new roads and where to put them. Whether Krusee's interest in more privatization or Watson's desire for greater accountability in transportation policy ultimately win the day in the current discussions, it could be two years -- or more -- before getting around seems much easier, even though commuter rail could start running through the region by the end of 2008.
That will be just in time for the 81st Legislature -- and a whole new set of political detours during the next round of transportation debates.
Read more
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Critics see excess in Gov. Perry's foreign travel - Aides defend frequent trips in name of trade
By CHRISTY HOPPE - The Dallas Morning News - Saturday, July 28, 2007
AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry has crossed the deserts bare, man; breathed the mountain air, man; he's been everywhere – visiting at least 11 foreign countries in the past three years as an emissary for Texas.
Thus far this year, he has spent 18 days in five countries – Qatar, Israel, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Jordan. The plane fare for him and an aide to Istanbul cost $13,586, a tab picked up by political donors. But taxpayers pay the bills for his Department of Public Safety security detail, which always travels with him. DPS declined to say what that costs, citing security concerns.
Mr. Perry's aides argue that with so many foreign companies doing business in Texas, the governor needs to promote the state for it to stay competitive in a global economy. But his penchant for international travel is unique among Texas governors, and Democrats have criticized the practice as special interest-financed vacations.
And whether on a trade mission or policy retreat or delivering speeches in foreign lands, Mr. Perry has traveled well, generally staying in five-star hotels, flying in private jets or being pampered in business class seats.
For instance, for a 2004 trip to the Bahamas to discuss public education funding with staff, supporters and conservative thinkers such as anti-tax guru Grover Norquist, three of Mr. Perry's political supporters donated the $40,400 in travel costs.
Mr. Perry's 12 international visits have included two to Mexico. A trip to Iraq and Afghanistan was financed largely through the Department of Defense. The rest have been paid for with political contributions and the Texas Economic Development Corp. – a nonprofit organization spearheaded by the governor that solicits and uses corporate donations to promote business in Texas.
International travel is new for Texas governors – Ann Richards went to Mexico for a presidential inauguration, as did George W. Bush. Late in his state term, Mr. Bush traveled to Israel and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but many saw it as a political gambit to improve the governor's foreign relations résumé before his first presidential campaign. Last month, in his trip to Israel, Mr. Perry met with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
When the opportunities arose for Ms. Richards to take official trips out of the country, she turned them down, said former press secretary Bill Cryer.
"It came up once or twice for her to go to one or two exotic places, but she decided to turn it down as too politically unsavory and she knew that people would criticize her for it," Mr. Cryer said.
Former LBJ School of Public Affairs dean Max Sherman, who also served as a state senator and gubernatorial adviser, said international travel could be a pitfall for many politicians.
"My guess is that it is a new day, and you'll probably see governors and mayors doing more things from an international perspective, mainly because of business," he said.
"But politically, many people will not look favorably on it," he added. "They probably feel that there are enough problems here in the state that need to be dealt with, and the governor needs to be here."
Mr. Sherman also said it is often difficult to connect an international trip to real results in-state. And many voters will see it as a steppingstone to either another political office or a lucrative job afterward. Mr. Perry, who has not ruled out running for another term for governor in 2010, has been mentioned as a possible Republican vice presidential candidate or Cabinet secretary or ambassador in a GOP administration.
"Maybe it would lay a foundation for something on a national or global scale, either publicly or privately," Mr. Sherman said. "Showing you've been to hot spots around the world that are going to be major players with the U.S. and Texas would enhance the résumé."
Krista Moody, a spokeswoman for Mr. Perry, said the trips have brought real results for Texas. She pointed to the Toyota plant in San Antonio, a Samsung plant in Austin and the Nokia Corp. headquarters in Irving that are creating high-paying jobs.
"Governor Perry has been unabashedly pursuing economic opportunities throughout the state, throughout the country and over oceans," Ms. Moody said.
"By personally going, he puts a shine on deals by showing that the state's leaders would make a trip to meet with business leaders in different countries to personally make the case for why Texas is one of the best places in the world for them to do business," she said.
Mr. Perry has not been to South Korea, headquarters for Samsung, nor Finland, home to Nokia. He had planned an August 2005 trade trip to Japan, where Toyota is based, but he had to cancel because of a special session on school finance that he called. He instead sent his wife, Anita.
Mr. Perry has touted a weeklong trip to Italy in March 2004 to bring jobs to Texas by meeting with officials from Alenia Aeronautica, which is Vought Aircraft Industries' partner in the development of a new Boeing jet. He also met with oil and gas executives on the trip.
On the Italy trip, the Perrys stayed at the Grand Hotel Parco Dei Principi in Rome and at the Westin Excelsior in Florence, where currently, rooms cost no less than about $500 a night.
Ms. Moody said the governor has been conscientious and saved taxpayers "a tremendous amount of money" by paying for the trips either with political donations from his campaign account or through the Texas Economic Development Corp.A check of other states showed that Mr. Perry has set an aggressive pace for foreign travel. For instance, former New York Gov. George Pataki, over his 12 years in office, went to about 15 countries. And Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, who has been in office five years, made his first trade mission last month, visiting Spain and England.
In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has recently been taking heat for allowing a similar foundation to pay for his international forays.
"Our guy gets criticized," said Schwarzenegger press secretary Aaron McLear.
Over the past three years, Mr. Schwarzenegger has been on 14 international trips – including four to Mexico and one in July 2004 to his home country of Austria, when he was part of the official U.S. delegation to attend the funeral of the Austrian president.
Mr. McLear said the California governor pays for most of his travel out of his personal bank account, while the rest comes from the California State Protocol Foundation, which is closely associated with the California Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Schwarzenegger has donated $8 million of his own money to the foundation.
And one country among the 14 that the former movie star has visited was not on Mr. Schwarzenegger's original itinerary. The governor was in Israel and the king of Jordan, having arranged transportation, asked him to pay a quick visit.
Said Mr. McLear: "His celebrity certainly helps him sell California."
Read more in the Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry has crossed the deserts bare, man; breathed the mountain air, man; he's been everywhere – visiting at least 11 foreign countries in the past three years as an emissary for Texas.
Thus far this year, he has spent 18 days in five countries – Qatar, Israel, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Jordan. The plane fare for him and an aide to Istanbul cost $13,586, a tab picked up by political donors. But taxpayers pay the bills for his Department of Public Safety security detail, which always travels with him. DPS declined to say what that costs, citing security concerns.
Mr. Perry's aides argue that with so many foreign companies doing business in Texas, the governor needs to promote the state for it to stay competitive in a global economy. But his penchant for international travel is unique among Texas governors, and Democrats have criticized the practice as special interest-financed vacations.
And whether on a trade mission or policy retreat or delivering speeches in foreign lands, Mr. Perry has traveled well, generally staying in five-star hotels, flying in private jets or being pampered in business class seats.
For instance, for a 2004 trip to the Bahamas to discuss public education funding with staff, supporters and conservative thinkers such as anti-tax guru Grover Norquist, three of Mr. Perry's political supporters donated the $40,400 in travel costs.
Mr. Perry's 12 international visits have included two to Mexico. A trip to Iraq and Afghanistan was financed largely through the Department of Defense. The rest have been paid for with political contributions and the Texas Economic Development Corp. – a nonprofit organization spearheaded by the governor that solicits and uses corporate donations to promote business in Texas.
International travel is new for Texas governors – Ann Richards went to Mexico for a presidential inauguration, as did George W. Bush. Late in his state term, Mr. Bush traveled to Israel and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but many saw it as a political gambit to improve the governor's foreign relations résumé before his first presidential campaign. Last month, in his trip to Israel, Mr. Perry met with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
When the opportunities arose for Ms. Richards to take official trips out of the country, she turned them down, said former press secretary Bill Cryer.
"It came up once or twice for her to go to one or two exotic places, but she decided to turn it down as too politically unsavory and she knew that people would criticize her for it," Mr. Cryer said.
Former LBJ School of Public Affairs dean Max Sherman, who also served as a state senator and gubernatorial adviser, said international travel could be a pitfall for many politicians.
"My guess is that it is a new day, and you'll probably see governors and mayors doing more things from an international perspective, mainly because of business," he said.
"But politically, many people will not look favorably on it," he added. "They probably feel that there are enough problems here in the state that need to be dealt with, and the governor needs to be here."
Mr. Sherman also said it is often difficult to connect an international trip to real results in-state. And many voters will see it as a steppingstone to either another political office or a lucrative job afterward. Mr. Perry, who has not ruled out running for another term for governor in 2010, has been mentioned as a possible Republican vice presidential candidate or Cabinet secretary or ambassador in a GOP administration.
"Maybe it would lay a foundation for something on a national or global scale, either publicly or privately," Mr. Sherman said. "Showing you've been to hot spots around the world that are going to be major players with the U.S. and Texas would enhance the résumé."
Krista Moody, a spokeswoman for Mr. Perry, said the trips have brought real results for Texas. She pointed to the Toyota plant in San Antonio, a Samsung plant in Austin and the Nokia Corp. headquarters in Irving that are creating high-paying jobs.
"Governor Perry has been unabashedly pursuing economic opportunities throughout the state, throughout the country and over oceans," Ms. Moody said.
"By personally going, he puts a shine on deals by showing that the state's leaders would make a trip to meet with business leaders in different countries to personally make the case for why Texas is one of the best places in the world for them to do business," she said.
Mr. Perry has not been to South Korea, headquarters for Samsung, nor Finland, home to Nokia. He had planned an August 2005 trade trip to Japan, where Toyota is based, but he had to cancel because of a special session on school finance that he called. He instead sent his wife, Anita.
Mr. Perry has touted a weeklong trip to Italy in March 2004 to bring jobs to Texas by meeting with officials from Alenia Aeronautica, which is Vought Aircraft Industries' partner in the development of a new Boeing jet. He also met with oil and gas executives on the trip.
On the Italy trip, the Perrys stayed at the Grand Hotel Parco Dei Principi in Rome and at the Westin Excelsior in Florence, where currently, rooms cost no less than about $500 a night.
Ms. Moody said the governor has been conscientious and saved taxpayers "a tremendous amount of money" by paying for the trips either with political donations from his campaign account or through the Texas Economic Development Corp.A check of other states showed that Mr. Perry has set an aggressive pace for foreign travel. For instance, former New York Gov. George Pataki, over his 12 years in office, went to about 15 countries. And Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, who has been in office five years, made his first trade mission last month, visiting Spain and England.
In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has recently been taking heat for allowing a similar foundation to pay for his international forays.
"Our guy gets criticized," said Schwarzenegger press secretary Aaron McLear.
Over the past three years, Mr. Schwarzenegger has been on 14 international trips – including four to Mexico and one in July 2004 to his home country of Austria, when he was part of the official U.S. delegation to attend the funeral of the Austrian president.
Mr. McLear said the California governor pays for most of his travel out of his personal bank account, while the rest comes from the California State Protocol Foundation, which is closely associated with the California Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Schwarzenegger has donated $8 million of his own money to the foundation.
And one country among the 14 that the former movie star has visited was not on Mr. Schwarzenegger's original itinerary. The governor was in Israel and the king of Jordan, having arranged transportation, asked him to pay a quick visit.
Said Mr. McLear: "His celebrity certainly helps him sell California."
Read more in the Dallas Morning News
Friday, July 27, 2007
Plano, TX – The North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) today announced Jorge Figueredo as its new Executive Director and Rick Herrington as Deputy Executive Director.
Mr. Figueredo has spent the last 16 years in the toll business. Before today’s announcement, he was the Senior Division Manager for Post, Buckley, Shuh, and Jernigan (PBS&J) overseeing the company’s toll operations practice in the Central United States. During his tenure with PBS&J he worked extensively with the Northeast Texas Regional Mobility Authority and the Texas Turnpike Authority Central Texas Turnpike project. His previous position was Director of Operations, Communications, and Marketing for the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority from 1992 to 2004 where he was responsible for building and implementing their electronic toll collection program. Prior to working there, Figueredo served as the Director of Public Information and Legislative Affairs for Florida’s Turnpike from 1991 to 1992. He received his Bachelor of Arts, Masters and Ph.D. from the University of Central Florida.
Jerry Hiebert has been serving as the NTTA’s Acting Executive Director since February 2007 while Rick Herrington has served as the Acting Deputy Executive Director during the same time period. Figueredo will be the third Executive Director since the NTTA’s inception 10 years ago.
"On behalf of the Board and staff, I am extremely pleased that Rick has accepted the position of Deputy Executive Director,” Wageman continued. “As lead negotiator on the SH 121 project, Rick has played a key role overseeing our ongoing mission of providing mobility solutions to the North Texas region. We are fortunate that Rick will continue to offer his invaluable insight and leadership to the board and staff of the NTTA."
Prior to serving as Acting Deputy Executive Director for the NTTA, Mr. Herrington was the National Director of Technology Services/Central Division Toll Sector Leader for HNTB Corporation, a national transportation infrastructure firm. At HNTB he was responsible for implementing ETC Open Road Tolling and providing strategic technical assessments for various clients. From 1999 to 2005 he served as the Assistant Executive Director and Director of Information Technology for the NTTA where he oversaw development and implementation of the award winning RITE Toll Collection System. Previously, Herrington worked for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) from 1985 to 1999 in various positions for their information technology services department. Herrington will assume his position effective immediately.
Mr. Figueredo will assume his position with the NTTA on August 6, 2007.
About NTTA
The North Texas Tollway Authority, a political subdivision of the State of Texas, is authorized to acquire, construct, maintain, repair and operate turnpike projects in the North Texas region. The seven-member governing board is comprised of Chairman Paul N. Wageman, Vice Chairman Jack Miller, Directors Gary Base, David Denison, William W. Meadows, Bob Shepard and Alan E. Sims.
The NTTA serves Collin, Dallas, Denton and Tarrant Counties and is responsible for the Dallas North Tollway System, consisting of the Dallas North Tollway, President George Bush Turnpike, Addison Airport Toll Tunnel, Lewisville Lake Toll Bridge and the Mountain Creek Lake Bridge. The North Texas Tollway Authority is able to raise capital for construction projects through the issuance of turnpike revenue bonds. NTTA toll projects are not a part of the State highway system and receive no direct tax funding. Tolls are collected to repay debt and to operate and maintain the roadways.
Visit the NTTA Web site at www.ntta.org or call 214-461-2000 for additional information about the North Texas Tollway Authority. For Customer Service, please call 972-818-NTTA (6882).
NTTA Organizational Chart
Key Staff Profiles
NTTA Board of Directors
"Following a comprehensive national search, Mr. Figueredo emerged as the candidate uniquely qualified to lead the NTTA into its second decade as an organization and as we begin to implement the historic SH-121 project," stated Paul N. Wageman, Chairman of the Board of Directors. "His background and experience will greatly enhance the NTTA's ability to address the mobility needs of North Texas as we develop regional projects in the coming years such as the Five in Five."
Mr. Figueredo has spent the last 16 years in the toll business. Before today’s announcement, he was the Senior Division Manager for Post, Buckley, Shuh, and Jernigan (PBS&J) overseeing the company’s toll operations practice in the Central United States. During his tenure with PBS&J he worked extensively with the Northeast Texas Regional Mobility Authority and the Texas Turnpike Authority Central Texas Turnpike project. His previous position was Director of Operations, Communications, and Marketing for the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority from 1992 to 2004 where he was responsible for building and implementing their electronic toll collection program. Prior to working there, Figueredo served as the Director of Public Information and Legislative Affairs for Florida’s Turnpike from 1991 to 1992. He received his Bachelor of Arts, Masters and Ph.D. from the University of Central Florida.
Jerry Hiebert has been serving as the NTTA’s Acting Executive Director since February 2007 while Rick Herrington has served as the Acting Deputy Executive Director during the same time period. Figueredo will be the third Executive Director since the NTTA’s inception 10 years ago.
"On behalf of the Board and staff, I am extremely pleased that Rick has accepted the position of Deputy Executive Director,” Wageman continued. “As lead negotiator on the SH 121 project, Rick has played a key role overseeing our ongoing mission of providing mobility solutions to the North Texas region. We are fortunate that Rick will continue to offer his invaluable insight and leadership to the board and staff of the NTTA."
Prior to serving as Acting Deputy Executive Director for the NTTA, Mr. Herrington was the National Director of Technology Services/Central Division Toll Sector Leader for HNTB Corporation, a national transportation infrastructure firm. At HNTB he was responsible for implementing ETC Open Road Tolling and providing strategic technical assessments for various clients. From 1999 to 2005 he served as the Assistant Executive Director and Director of Information Technology for the NTTA where he oversaw development and implementation of the award winning RITE Toll Collection System. Previously, Herrington worked for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) from 1985 to 1999 in various positions for their information technology services department. Herrington will assume his position effective immediately.
Mr. Figueredo will assume his position with the NTTA on August 6, 2007.
About NTTA
The North Texas Tollway Authority, a political subdivision of the State of Texas, is authorized to acquire, construct, maintain, repair and operate turnpike projects in the North Texas region. The seven-member governing board is comprised of Chairman Paul N. Wageman, Vice Chairman Jack Miller, Directors Gary Base, David Denison, William W. Meadows, Bob Shepard and Alan E. Sims.
The NTTA serves Collin, Dallas, Denton and Tarrant Counties and is responsible for the Dallas North Tollway System, consisting of the Dallas North Tollway, President George Bush Turnpike, Addison Airport Toll Tunnel, Lewisville Lake Toll Bridge and the Mountain Creek Lake Bridge. The North Texas Tollway Authority is able to raise capital for construction projects through the issuance of turnpike revenue bonds. NTTA toll projects are not a part of the State highway system and receive no direct tax funding. Tolls are collected to repay debt and to operate and maintain the roadways.
Visit the NTTA Web site at www.ntta.org or call 214-461-2000 for additional information about the North Texas Tollway Authority. For Customer Service, please call 972-818-NTTA (6882).
NTTA Organizational Chart
Key Staff Profiles
NTTA Board of Directors
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