Kicking butt and taking names

This is how you fix toll road schemes.

Following is an update on the City Council and Hunt County Com. Court Oct. 13 & 14 meetings:

1) Josephine passed a Resolution against the Toll Road

2)  Hunt County Commissioners meeting - no official action - some questions being asked since the meeting

3)  Greenville City Council will repeal their former Resolution supporting the toll road, but is not committed to any no resolution opposing it at this time.

4)  Caddo Mills will bring an opposing Resolution to a vote November 3rd.  It is expected to pass. Caddo Mills Chamber of Commerce came to the Caddo Mills City Council Meeting and asked them to oppose the road. 

5)  Royse City City Council would not allow anyone not in the city limits, not even in their ETJ to speak.  They even would not allow those who were there prior to the meeting finish completing their forms to speak once the meeting started.  initially, they were going to allow everyone to speak.  I believe their attorney advised otherwise.  They are supporters of this road in my opinion.  This action may not be legal because a general law city must have a policy in place to allow for public comments. They cannot change the policy without an official vote on the matter.  I also believe that a couple of those who spoke about repairing a specific road were in the ETJ, not the city.  I will request the forms and check the addresses.  The mayor called a couple of our names to tell us before the meeting they checked our addresses and we could not speak.

6)  Rowlett City Council is drafting a letter of opposition to be sent out by Friday.  Will bring back a formal Resolution opposing the road.

When will 820 be complete?

Better yet, what's it going to cost YOU?

Those lanes in the center of the picture above are what the new "managed lanes" will look like.  What is a "managed lane"?  Read it and weep...

Managed lanes are toll lanes in the middle of an existing freeway, unlike traditional turnpikes that are brand new roads where every lane is tolled. Congestion pricing is where the toll rate varies based on the level of traffic using the road. If the speed of traffic slows below 50 MPH, Cintra can hike the toll rates for the purpose of bumping cars out of the lanes in order to guarantee a speed of 50 MPH. So the price of the toll varies based on the time of day.

Since it costs so much to drive in those lanes, people can't afford it.  So what is the Spanish company that owns them doing?  Partnering with people like the NCTCOG to use taxpayer dollars and make commercials.  Not to worry, they say it's "educational". 

Where does Texas rank in schools again?

Pay attention, people. 

See the article on the Cintra commercials here.  And here's a good take on the Terri Hall meeting from last week. 

Notice the names of the players never change. 

TxDOT and the North Texas Council of Governments (NTCOG) and its Regional Transportation Council have been promoting the contest using taxpayer resources. Amanda Wilson, Communications Supervisor for the Transportation Division of the NTCOG said the contest is also “an educational effort, not just naming the lanes.”

Still don't believe it?  Check out the North Tarrant Express site.  Read between the lines.  You'll see it.

Want to get out of dodge?

It will cost YOU.

Did you hear the latest joke?  HOV lanes will be converted to toll lanes. 

Don't think it's funny?  Then you better speak up now, or forever pay the price.

Read about it here. 

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.

WHO owns YOUR town?

WHAT would you say if a foreign government did?

If they owned the water and the roads and the right to eminent domain.

What was Betsy Price doing in China?

Catch up on TURF.  YOU need to protect yours.  No one else will.

Seeking to defuse fears that it might use its massive USD 3.2 trillion in foreign reserves as a "political weapon", China today said it is willing to turn some of its holdings of US debt into investment in America to improve its infrastructure. 
 
It seems like foreign governments and corporations are craving U.S. public assets like toll roads, electrical grids and railways. In the case of our largest creditor, the Chinese government, they don’t want any more U.S. Treasuries, but they do want to own the hard assets that comprise our nation’s infrastructure.

It’s a good stance for our President to encourage foreign investment. But is it such a great idea for foreign firms to own our most vital infrastructure? In 2006 an enormous controversy rocked Washington when a private firm from Dubai was negotiating a deal simply to operate 22 U.S. ports. A bipartisan opposition centering on national security eventually emerged and killed the arrangement.

If the Chinese government wants to invest in U.S. infrastructure, the best place for them to do so is the municipal or corporate bond market where they can buy bonds in water and sewer systems, among other infrastructure assets. Direct ownership, even through public/private partnerships, shouldn’t be allowed. Again, national security concerns must be paramount when it comes to our infrastructure.

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's talking

About Texas air quality?

WHO isn't?

Read the New York Times article.  YOU can't afford to miss it.

Don't miss the connections...

Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston are the only Texas cities currently considered in "nonattainment" for ozone, meaning they do not meet Environmental Protection Agency standards. Nonattainment can cause a loss of federal highway money, though this has never happened in Texas.

On Friday the E.P.A., citing emissions from drilling activities among other factors, wrote to Gov. Rick Perry to propose including Hood and Wise Counties in the Dallas-Fort Worth non-attainment area.

Texas Freeway Problems

WHY do the Texas Highway problems sound about the same as the Texas Water problems?

No money to fix the freeways but money to build toll roads.

No money to fix flooding, but millions to build bridges over air.

We're quickly running out of water, but the gas industry doesn't seem to mind.

We can't fund our schools, but we can build toll roads from here to Kingdom Come...

TXDOT gave two whole days notice for the public meeting concerning the San Antonio toll roads.  That is after they reneged of funding in Denton County.  Keep up, or try to, with the many headed snake that used to be called the Trans Texas Corridor on TURF.

Remember, it's YOUR TURF and YOUR money.  Do something.  Anything.

Different Texas agency, same Texas corruption?

The North Texas Tollway Authority keeps making the "news".  WHY?

Because they've been through 5 guys in 5 years.  WHY did the latest head resign?  Because he was going to be fired.

WHY?  Because he thinks some of the million(s) of tax dollar relationships with some of the same companies since the 1950s are too cozy.  And maybe all those connections the board members have with the companies and politicians could be considered a conflict of interest. 

Hell, this is Texas...WHO are we kidding?

Is it time for the sunset of NTTA?

It ain't the only "Authority" that's overdue.

When it comes to Toll (Toal?) Roads and Rivers, it's all about WHO you know.


Some notes YOU can't afford to miss in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram articles this week.

The recommendations come after several potential conflicts surfaced involving individual board members, as well as the tollway authority’s institutional relationship with a handful of firms that are paid tens of millions of dollars per year to perform engineering, legal and other services.

Board chairman Kenneth Barr of Fort Worth disclosed that his brother is a lawyer with Locke Lord, a firm that does about $6.9 million a year in tollway authority legal work. Barr said he consulted with the tollway authority’s legal counsel, also a Locke Lord attorney, before accepting a board position in 2008 to ensure there was no ethical conflict.

The report said the tollway authority had “perceived and potentially real conflicts of interest” with HNTB, an engineering firm that is currently under contract for about $15 million a year in tollway work. When asked later what that meant, Alvarez & Marsal managing director Ron Orsini said the audit has uncovered a situation in which one HNTB consultant was approved to pay an invoice for another HNTB consultant – all with the tollway authority’s blessing.The report didn’t attempt to catalog how often the arrangement existed, or how long the practice had been in place, Orsini said.

Ethnicity has become an issue in recent months, when tollway staff disclosed that most of their contracts are awarded to firms governed by white males – although the report points out that the tollway authority is making progress in diversifying its contractors.

But the report also found that tollway staff publicly discussed winners of procurement contracts before the board had voted to approve the contracts.“Some board members did not trust the staff’s procurement process. It’s not clear when a procurement officially ends,” said Eric Noack, Alvarez & Marsal vice president.

More Texas "Toll Roads"

We asked, What did he say?

Watchdog, Don Young tells you here.

Remember, in one way or another YOU are paying for them.

Guess that answers that...

Earlier today we asked, again, WHO owns the roads in Texas?

Terri Hall from TURF answers.

Rick Perry tied to Agenda 21, globalist policies.  Read it all below, YOU can't afford not to.

Property rights shredded

The Trans Texas Corridor, and P3s in general, represent an imminent threat to private property rights. While lawmakers repealed the Trans Texas Corridor from state statute only months ago due to the public backlash, the re-named corridor (‘Innovative Connectivity Plan’) and its threat to property rights lives on through P3s. Two such projects underway by a Spanish developer, Cintra, will charge Texans 75 cents per mile in tolls (nearly $13 a day while Perry claims he hasn’t raised taxes or indebted Texans to foreign creditors) to access lanes on two public interstates -- I-635 and I-820. A third project being developed by the same company for two segments on SH 130 is, perhaps, the only leg of the Trans Texas Corridor TTC-35 project that will ever be built.

Dan Shelley worked for Cintra, who had its sites set on developing the Trans Texas Corridor. Shelley lands a job as Perry’s aide, steers the $7 billion corridor P3 to his former employer Cintra, then goes back to work for Cintra. That’s how Perry does business -- pay to play.

Again, WHO owns the roads?

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram article speaks volumes - HOV lanes in DFW being converted to tollways

"HOV lanes were a stupid idea to begin with, and in practice they have been a disaster," said Coughlin, a real estate broker who lives in downtown Dallas. He said he has never heard an argument in favor of HOV lanes, other than from "the bureaucrats, consultants and blow-up-doll manufacturers who defend it."

And there they are again...
 
"We have recognized over the years that HOV lanes have transitioned beyond their initial purpose," said Dan Lamers, senior program manager for the North Central Texas Council of Governments. 

"The economic advantage of HOV lanes has changed," he said.

Trinity Turnaround

Don't get too excited yet, this one is in Dallas.  Though the truth is finally coming out about the Dallas Trinity River project/toll road, the FBI has arrived in Big D, and Erin Brochovich is almost to Texas (Oklahoma) - there's still hope for Cowtown.

Read about it in the Observer.  There are some good links on the page to other articles where pushers of the project are bailing off the bandwagon. 

 After a good 14 years of Trinity toll road rah-rahing and questioning the integrity of anyone who suggested that putting a road between the Trinity River levees was a bad idea, D Magazine has apparently (and quietly) changed its mind.

D, remember, mailed out a special section before the first Trinity bond election in 1998, tantalizing readers with pictures of boats sailing on downtown lakes.

Toll Roads - from Texas to Indiana

Earlier we mentioned your kids having to pay Spain to drive on the freeways in Texas (you'll get to explain to them HOW that happened). 

Then we read a recent article from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (via the TURF website) in which this Spanish company may default on the toll roads being built in Indiana.  WHAT happens then?  WHO pays?  YOU guessed it.  YOU do.  Tolls not included. 

So, let's see, if the toll roads have "lower toll revenue than originally forecast" (or projected by those trying to sell the project), the taxpayers end up paying for it twice?  Did anyone else just hear the words Trinity River Vision? 

Cintra, the Spain-based company that leads a team operating the Indiana Toll Road, has used up most of its rainy-day fun and is running out of money to pay debt. The shortfall is the result of lower traffic -- and lower toll revenue -- than originally forecast, according to financial news reports.

Cintra and its partners are also building the $2.1 billion North Tarrant Express, which involves the reconstruction of Loop 820 and Texas 121/183 in Northeast Tarrant County. Cintra is also the lead partner in the LBJ Express, which includes the expansion of Interstate 635 in Dallas.

With a default, the project could return to the state, which means that taxpayers and motorists could be left with an unfinished road, according to a Star-Telegram review of the state's contract with the North Tarrant Express developer. If no other developer could be found, public money would be needed to complete whatever portion of the 52-year project wasn't finished.

Texas is broke...

In more ways than one.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has an interesting column on our debt growing faster than Washington's.  Still think sending Perry to DC is a good idea?

Yet, we can't fund education...does anyone see the connection here?

Notice the creation in new government bodies (how much did that cost?) to oversee the transportation projects, rather the Tollways that foreign companies want.

While Texas lawmakers have refused to raise taxes -- and often criticize Washington for borrowing and spending -- the state has been paying for much of its expansion with borrowed money.

That increase was largely due to the North Texas Tollway Authority's issuance of $6.5 billion in debt.

Two government bodies, created to oversee transportation projects, sold $2.5 billion in bonds last year, including funds for the North Tarrant Express project.

"Maybe you're not paying for it now, but your children or grandchildren will."

Some would argue that long-term investments, such as highways and university buildings, will be serving future generations, too.

Let's hope so, because everyone is on the hook for them.

WHO owns the road?

Incoming news from our friends at TexasTURF.org.  If YOU don't know WHO they are, YOU need to.  YOU can't afford not to.  Hurry, before there's no Texas Turf left.

Sell-out: Committees pass bills to allow foreign-owned toll roads & the sale of other infrastructure to private corporations-- including WATER supply facilities, ports, public buildings, & hospitals, using public private partnerships (PPPs)

House passes eminent domain bill, SB 18, with few changes
-- Doesn't prevent eminent domain for private gain in the name of a "public use," like foreign-owned toll roads.

HB 2255 & HB 2432 UNLEASH public private partnerships (PPPs) across Texas

PPPs are kept SECRET from the public, eliminate competitive bidding, put the taxpayers on the hook for losses, grant monopolies over public infrastructure & charge user fees for public access. In the case of roads, they contain non-competes that prohibit or penalize the expansion of free roads & the published toll rates are 75-80 cents per mile, like adding $15 to EVERY gallon of gas you buy!

HB 2255 (Phillips) - Passed out of Committee Wednesday, despite substantial public opposition and objections by Rep. Yvonne Davis about the lack of competitive bidding, read about the drama here. This bill would sell-off portions of SEVEN Texas highways (Grand Pkwy around Houston, I-35E in DFW, two segments of 183 in DFW, I-35W & I-820 in DFW, and SH 249 in Harris and Montgomery counties) to foreign corporations in SWEETHEART DEALS.

HB 2432 (J. Davis) - Passed out of Committee, also in spite of public opposition by 7 different groups. This bill is being pushed by Balfour Beatty, a British infrastructure firm, and it applies to virtually EVERY other kind of infrastructure aside from roads like: WATER supply facilities, hospitals, mass transit, ports, public bldgs for up to 100 YEARS! Who does this bill benefit? Lobbyists from foreign countries seeking to takeover our infrastructure, not Texans!

Go here to learn more and to help!

Pie in the Sky

Oh wait, no that's not right.

Read the Fort Worth Star-Telegram article,  Elevated lanes no longer part of Airport Freeway expansion plan.

We have a question, if you cover more ground in an area that floods with concrete, what do YOU think will happen when it rains?

The behind-the-scenes decision has been months in the making.

North Tarrant Express is a massive project that will rebuild the existing lanes of Northeast Loop 820 in Haltom City and North Richland Hills, as well as Texas 121/183 -- aka Airport Freeway -- in Bedford, Euless and Hurst. New ramps and frontage roads will also be built.

The developer arranges much of the financing for the project and also retains the right to collect tolls on the managed lanes for 52 years.

The expanded highway will fit within the existing right of way, NTE spokesman Robert Hinkle said. A recent decision to remove dozens of trees in nearby neighborhoods had nothing to do with the change, he said.

Elevated lanes also are a safety concern during the winter, she noted.