Texas Toll Roads, Freeway or free for all?

HOW many in Texas?  WHY?  ASK.

TAXPAYER DISASTER:

STOP tolls on FREEways! 
It's been 7 years since Congress passed the last federal highway bill. Now its racing through Congress at the speed of light -- why? Because they want to sell-off our public roads to private corporations, raise your taxes through tolls, and lift the ban on imposing tolls on existing highways. There are 500 toll projects being contemplated in Texas alone!

An amendment to allow tolls on ALL existing interstates in all 50 states is expected to be presented on the floor by Senator Carper of Delaware. Imposing tolls on existing freeways is a massive DOUBLE TAX -- charging motorists an additional tax, a toll, to use what they've already built and paid for!

The current House Bill, HR 7, only bans tolls on existing FEDERAL interstates. It GUTS the ban on imposing tolls on existing STATE highways -- like US 281 and Loop 1604 -- a ban that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison put in place for Texas since 2007.  The fate our public freeway system is under attack!

ACTION ITEM
Call Senator John Cornyn and ask him to support the Hutchison  ban on tolling existing STATE and FEDERAL freeways and to STRIP PPPs & TIFIA loans OUT of the transportation bill .

Call Cornyn's office at 210-224-7485 & email him here.

Call your member of Congress and ask him/her to ADD the Hutchison "Freedom from Tolls" Amendment to ban tolling existing freeways - BOTH state and federal - to HR 7 and STRIP PPPs & TIFIA loans OUT of the transportation bill.

Find out who your member of Congress is or call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

Learn more here.  Don't be sheep.

WHY is that?

The last sentence in on an ABCNEWS.com article caught our attention.


Perry is the only candidate, other than President Obama, whose security is funded by taxpayers.

Rick Perry’s security costs have risen since he entered the presidential campaign in August, costing Texas taxpayers as much as $400,000 a month, according to a report by the Texas Tribune.

So our Senator spends more on travel than any others and our Governor is the only other man in America that we're paying for his security...

WHY is that?

ASK.

Leading by example

How much of that $46,000 per child is due to Texas projects asked for by the same Texas Senator asking about fairness?

Remember this?

In a year when U.S. House Republicans have taken a pledge against earmarks, Senator John Cornyn is stepping forward to request $10 million in federal money for Fort Worth's Trinity Vision plan.

The Trinity Vision project is funded entirely with public money and most government bodies are struggling. 

The same Senator WHO has the highest travel expenditures.   

Sound fair to YOU?  Ironic, even?

Cornyn Asks: Are Trillions In Debt “Fair” For Future Generations?

“What’s not fair is that because of his reckless spend-now, pay-later agenda, every child born in America today comes into this world owing $46,000.”

Dec 06 2011

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, today issued the following statement in advance of President Obama’s speech in Osawatomie, Kansas on economic fairness:

"It's ironic the President would give a major lecture to the American people today on ‘economic fairness.’ What’s not fair is that because of his reckless spend-now, pay-later agenda, every child born in America today comes into this world owing $46,000.

“Rather than give us a lecture on fairness, the President should lead by example and start working with us to create a stronger, better America that lives up to its commitments and doesn’t pass the buck to the next generation.”

Senator Cornyn serves on the Finance, Judiciary, Armed Services and Budget Committees.  He serves as the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee’s Immigration, Refugees and Border Security subcommittee. He served previously as Texas Attorney General, Texas Supreme Court Justice, and Bexar County District Judge.

WHO is looking out for YOU?

Texas Senators all about giving...

A letter to the Editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram makes some interesting points about our Texas Senators.  Let us not forget when Kay Granger said she'd not ask for earmarks, our senators hands shot up in her place for the Trinity River Vision.  WHAT do you think is more important?

Shameful vote

On Sept. 11, 2003, on the floor of the Senate, Sen. John Cornyn said, "I know that many of my friends and colleagues who were here on that horrific day feel a very deep and personal debt to the heroes of Sept. 11."

And yet he voted against the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which calls for providing $3.2 billion over the next eight years to monitor and treat injuries stemming from exposure to toxic dust and debris at ground zero. In other words, he voted against helping the heroes of Sept. 11.

On Sept. 11, 2002, also on the floor of the Senate, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison said, "We marveled at heroism and bravery of the first responders."

And yet she too voted against helping the heroes of Sept. 11.

This is incredibly shameful. But they don't care; they would rather give tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans than help the heroes of 9-11.

-- Richard LaChance, Fort Worth

Appropriate Appropriations?

When the earmark moratorium came out this spring, Kay Granger said she would participate and not ask for any more cash.  Immediately Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn's hands shot up asking for more Trinity River Vision funds.

On John Cornyn's website it shows the Tarrant Regional Water District is asking for $10,000,000 in appropriations for 2011 for the Trinity River Vision (Boondoggle).

A couple of questions - Isn't Kay Granger on the Appropriations committee that approves the requests?

If the Trinity River Vision project was a true flood control project, wouldn't it be listed under Interior, where all the other flooding projects are listed? 

And what was it said the "aging" levees could be repaired for?  9 million?  Sounds like a hell of a deal.

What's that smell? Part 2

EPA rules Texas has to follow the same rules as everyone else when it comes to air quality.  Rick Perry and John Cornyn are pissed.  Pissed that their state has to follow the rules in order to protect their residents?  Isn't that what they are suppose to do?

Read about it in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

In a much anticipated decision, the Environmental Protection Agency's Dallas regional office announced that it has rejected a clean-air implementation plan by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, ruling that the state's flexible permitting system violates portions of the U.S. Clean Air Act and effectively relaxes federally mandated emissions requirements.

EPA Regional Administrator Al Armendariz defended the decision, saying his primary focus will be to bring the plants into federal compliance rather than engage in "a back and forth with elected officials" in Texas. The action, he said, "improves our ability to provide the citizens of Texas with the same healthy-air protections that are provided for citizens in all other states under the Clean Air Act."

"Texans deserve the same clean air protection as citizens of every other state, and TCEQ's flexible permitting program has been denying all of us that right for nearly 20 years," said Luke Metzger of Environment Texas. "The Clean Air Act is the same law that polluters in all other 49 states have to follow, and it's time that polluters in Texas follow it, too."

Of course they do...

Title of an article in the Dallas Morning News  - "Texans in Congress say drilling support not tied to oil industry donations."  Put your boots on, then read the article.  Be sure and check out the chart of how many millions YOUR representative has received from the industry.  If someone gave you $2 million WHO would you vote for?

Texans in Congress – many of whom have received hefty campaign contributions from the oil industry – are standing firm in their support for offshore drilling as oil gushes into the Gulf of Mexico.

Federal campaign records show that nearly a third of the Texans in Congress get more donations from oil and gas companies than from any other industry.

"Companies do not give contributions out of an altruistic feeling of supporting the democratic process," said Tyson Slocum, energy program director of the consumer protection group Public Citizen. "They expect a return on their investment. Their return is access. Their return is favorable treatment."

Ocean Front Property

The Trinity River Vision and it's propaganda machine, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram are at it again this morning. 

Is it wise for a "news" paper to insult the intelligence of its readers?  We guess if it's okay for the government, it's okay for them.

Things like "the goal is to create more flood storage..."  If you weren't messing with the river, you wouldn't need flood storage.

They also "remain confident" concerning funding. Because now instead of Kay Granger asking for it, she'll have Kay Bailey Hutchison (and John Cornyn) ask for it.  Is this the same Kay Bailey Hutchison who lied and said she would give up her seat whether she won or lost?

Be sure and read the comments as well, they weren't paid for by the Trinity River Vision or the Tarrant Regional Water Board.

BANKING on the Trinity

That's the title of the latest KERA article.  Good choice of words.  WHY would the Tarrant Regional Water District loan- interest free, $230 million dollars to the Trinity River Vision project? 

WHO's money is it?  Oh yes, YOURS.  The taxpayers.  $909 million.  Chump change...

Here are a few incinitives to read the article, but trust us, YOU can't AFFORD to miss it.

In a year when U.S. House Republicans have taken a pledge against earmarks, Senator John Cornyn is stepping forward to request $10 million in federal money for Fort Worth's Trinity Vision plan.

The Trinity Vision project is funded entirely with public money and most government bodies are struggling.

And what does Jim Oliver say?  The head of the Tarrant Regional Water District that makes almost $300,000 a year?

Despite what the critics say the Army Corp of Engineers who are flood control experts throughout the United States has certified this as a flood control project.


In that case, maybe the experts should focus on the flooding we have now, you know those projects that have no funding...

If you are tired of elected leaders spending your money, VOTE!!

WHAT?

What does Cornyn say about the air we breathe? Don't ask...

But if you really want to know read Cheap Tricks and Costly Truths.

"Texas is a big state"

A local news channel questioned Senator John Cornyn on his travel expenses, being as they are higher than any other Senator, including Texan Kay Bailey Hutchinson (good timing for her).

He’s now known as the U.S. Senate's biggest spender on domestic travel, according to official travel records found in The Report of the Secretary of the Senate.

"His excuse is, ‘Well, it's a big state,'" said Tom Smith, of the watchdog group Public Citizen. "I agree senator. It is a big state, and most big cities where he's spending most of his time have real good airline service. He should be flying coach with the rest of us."

CORNYN: I think it was a little bit of a cheap shot.

NEWS 8: In what sense was it a cheap shot? They were using the Secretary of the Senate information.

CORNYN: Oh yeah, not every state is the same. When you represent a state as big as Texas and traveling home from Washington D.C. every weekend, it unfortunately costs some money.

But, Texas' senior senator, fellow Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison, only spent $88,000 during the same time period. That’s a little more than half of Cornyn’s bill.

You can read the entire article on WFAA.com here.