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State approves bid for I-35 toll alternative (hmmm, I wonder...)
Austin American Statesman ^
| Dec. 17, 2004
| Ben Wear
Posted on 12/16/2004 6:51:41 PM PST by BobL
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To: bayourod
"Don't embarrass yourself by letting it slip that you aren't from Texas."
Non-Texans are allowed too!!
Actually, this is a national problem, that could pretty much be snuffed out in Washington, if they chose to do so. All they would have to do is NOT tamper with the structure of the Interstate Highway system. But they are tampering, so we have to now fight it at the state level, as when governors come up with harebrained schemes.
41
posted on
12/16/2004 9:15:03 PM PST
by
BobL
To: TXnMA
If the people of Texas have anything to say about it,Therein lies the trouble. We won't have a say. Perry is determined to turn Texas into a toll hell just like NY or PN. He's one of the slimiest pubbies in office. I wouldn't vote for Perry for dog catcher, because he'd soon be proposing taxes on all dog tags.
42
posted on
12/16/2004 10:00:28 PM PST
by
zeugma
(Come to the Dark Side...... We have cookies!)
To: BobL
Pardon me if I seem a bit suspicious here, but I'm supposed to believe that a private company is willing to spend $7.2 Billion of its own money to build a toll road that runs parallel to a freeway that is mostly underutilized. Underutilized? WTF???
43
posted on
12/16/2004 10:37:08 PM PST
by
Erasmus
("The best laid men gang oft a-gley." -- R. Burns (almost))
To: Erasmus
"Underutilized?"
No - mostly underutilized. The stretches (of I-35) in and near the cities clearly packed and could some widening. But the rest of the freeways does move smoothly most of the time. This plan, at this price, does not even cover the Austin stretch, right in the middle - that's being done separately
44
posted on
12/17/2004 4:52:44 AM PST
by
BobL
To: BobL
"When our hair is gray, we will be able to tell our grandchildren that we were in a Texas Department of Transportation meeting room when one of the most extraordinary plans was laid out for the people of Texas," Perry said. "I hope there are a lot of people in this room that are knocked back on their heels saying, 'I can't believe it.' Well, believe it." We will tell our grandchildren of how our extraordinary plans ruined local economies, ran numerous Texans off their land, and put the state's taxpayers on the hook for massive debts, all for a problem that could have been solved by widening I-35 a little...
To: Brellium
I think that the state could apply to the Federal Government to convert a federally funded freeway to a tollway...
To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
"I think that the state could apply to the Federal Government to convert a federally funded freeway to a tollway..."
Presently true. In the next Transportation Bill (likely to pass earlier this year) they won't even have to apply. A rogue governor, for example, can simply decree that his Interstates will be Toll Roads. But that would never happen in Texas (ha).
47
posted on
12/18/2004 7:19:20 AM PST
by
BobL
To: BobL
A rogue governor, for example, can simply decree that his Interstates will be Toll Roads.Shouldn't there be legislative approval for such a conversion? after all, it could come under raising revenue, and the people should be involved in such a thing.
To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Amen.
The governor slipped this one past us when people weren't looking. We used to have a real simple system - pay as you go. If you want to build, you have to have the money. It worked great until about 12 years ago, when the state started diverting highway money. About 3 years ago the governor got people to agree to a constitutional amendment that allowed "creative financing" of highways. No one (other than me, I think) understood the implications. The amendment passed and the governor is now in the process of building a multi-hundred billion dollar toll road system - that, by definition, will result in the end of our recently functional freeway system.
He's doing it this way, so that he can go to the voters in 2006 and say (with a straight face) that he didn't raise their gas taxes. That little $400 monthly addition to our credit card bills is now a "user fee".
49
posted on
12/18/2004 9:35:54 AM PST
by
BobL
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