Brake Lights: A traffic jam of opposition is facing the Trans-Texas Corridor.

Fort Worth Weekly ^ | March 7, 2007 | Peter Gorman

[1rudeboy]

I agree. It's tough to imagine that people think the SPP, which has its own website, does not exist. They are truly stupid. On the other hand, finding a stupid State senator isn't that difficult. Finding a stupid State senator and holding him or her representative of the whole is playing stupid. I stand corrected.

[antisocial]

"The doubling will not be coming from the AMERICAN citizens increasing their birth rates in Texas.
Stop the illegal intruders."

well duh of course it is. That was not my point. If the population doubles then the highway fund will more than double. Thus no need for toll roads.

[Ben Ficklin]

Since the TX governor is weak, your implying that he is lining his pockets is not credible.

In fact, everything that has been done is a result of actions taken by the legislature. That Perry would promote a fee based road is a good fiscally conservative policy, plus it is congruent with the reality that the legislature has not been willing to raise the gas tax.

So while Perry doesn't have the authority to implement, he does have ability to put this issue(and others) on the front burner. In the case of a multi-modal corridor, the concept was developed over a decade ago and languished in a drawer until he pushed it onto those who have to act on it.

So now, we have a group of legislators who have finally stepped up to the level of rhetoric. It will be interesting to see what and when the come with something.

Excuse me for being cynical and suspicious, but I recognize how the legislators could see this as a way of dealing not only with roads but also with that nagging, unresolvable problem of school funding.

[lentulusgracchus]

On the other hand, finding a stupid State senator isn't that difficult.

Sorry, I maybe didn't make it clear I was referring to Sen. Roberts, the senior U.S. Senator from Kansas. He knew all about the K.C. "inland port" -- he was just shining on a constituent who a) asked an awkward question and b) made a reference to "the NAFTA Highway" which the good Senator interpreted as a bullsteerable lack of specific knowledge about the project. If the constituent (who was a union shop steward, I believe, which if Sen. Roberts knew it might have influenced his decision to try to bullsteer the guy) had made instead very specific references to NASCO and SPP and called some of the appropriations bills by their names and numbers, then perhaps Roberts would have decided the jig was up and that he had to address the issue instead of blowing it off the way he did.

Roberts is a Republican, by the way, in his fifth term as Senator with a lifetime ACU rating of 87 and a 2006 rating of 84 (versus 94 lifetime for third-termer Brownback). He's very definitely a member of the Club.

[lentulusgracchus]

[BF] Since the TX governor is weak, your implying that he is lining his pockets is not credible.

Non sequitur. You may want to consider, however, some very damning quotes from some West Texas millionaires who told Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, when she visited them on an "exploratory" campaign fund-raising trip, to forget about running for governor in 2006 and get back up to D.C. instead. They bluntly told her, in a conversation reported in amazing detail in the Houston Chronicle -- I think the story's source had to be Hutchison herself -- that they had a very large amount of money invested in Perry and they fully intended to get their money's worth out of him. (They then proceeded to give him a whole lot more.)

Perry's bought. Q. E. D.

[lentulusgracchus]

That Perry would promote a fee based road is a good fiscally conservative policy,....

No it isn't. It's letting the usual grasping "pigs at the trough" get access to state sources of revenue, under the guise of a public-private co-venture. It's Wall Street getting into the public revenue stream and skimming for their own benefit. It's public corruption raised to the level of policy, with the help of brainiac study papers ginned up on demand by wonks at the American Enterprise Institute as cover.

..... plus it is congruent with the reality that the legislature has not been willing to raise the gas tax.

It's congruent with elected politicians' constant hunger for virginal revenue sources that are the fons et origo of all serious political vig. And with the inconvenient political fact that advocating a state income tax in Texas is politically suicidal, notwithstanding that the late Bob Bullock, who is no doubt crisping nicely in hell, engineered a back-door way for the legislature to introduce one without any particular legislator's having to leave his fingerprints on it.

[lentulusgracchus]

I don't think you get it either.

Thanks for the vote of confidence. But your retort guarantees that one of us doesn't get it, and sorry, I don't think that's me.

The authority to convert existing roads into toll roads lies with the regional authority(RMA), not the state or Perry. The legislature gave this authority to the RMAs.

Never heard of an RMA -- that your way of saying you're plugged into the issue and I'm not, so obviously you get it all and anybody who doesn't know what an RMA is, can't?

Creating extra layers of government is an old exercise in the sheep-shearing Northeast. New York City has so many "government" bodies, most people can't name them all. I don't care who you say the Lege gave authority to -- the responsibility is still theirs, and they had better not have given away the people's property to private interests for tolling. And they had better think twice before they allow anyone -- TexDoT, I don't care who -- to start putting toll booths on paid-for highways.

Also, this issue of converting existing roads is exaggerated by those that try to imply that a thoroughly modern road with adequate capacity is being converted.

Okay, then unexaggerate it -- show us that the commuter routes mapped by Rick Perry's DoT are all falling apart and due for rebuilds. Something tells me you can't shoulder that load, and that you're casting aspersions {that "exaggerated" crack) that you can't make stick.

Go on, show us all those four-lane roads are disintegrating. But careful, now, I've been driving over there now and then, and I might be familiar with one you say is toast; and in any case there are plenty of Austinites around who can set the record straight.

[Halgr]

Most FReepers don't buy into the North American Union....they get their tinfoil out when its discussed.

They don't want to see the "Extra-Political" end run that is snowing so many....the elites have finally figured out how to userp the legislative process....and now we will see it happening everywhere....always when its too late.

[Ben Ficklin]

I'm sorry you haven't ever heard of RMAs. In the early days of FR, it was proposed that FR participants should be licensed, so that it would be insured that they have enough knowledge of the subject matter to have an intellegent discussion.

Of course, it is not just the poorly informed who post bad information. Some know the facts and post mis-info to promote their agenda.

Your phrase, "extra layers of government", indicates that you also don't know much about the Texas Constitution and Home Rule. In Texas, power is decentralized to the extent that sometimes the local govt has equal or more authority than the state. Creating Regional Mobility Authorities gives locals more power. Also look at how water authority is de-centralized to the 19 regional water authorities and local water districts.

This prevents the cities from ganging up on the rural areas.

In fact, if we look at the only gas tax increase that has been proposed, we see how it benefits only the 8 largest cities. It contained no revenue for the TTC or the rest of the state. This tax increase was floated by Michael Stevens, the head of the Governor's Business Council and a property developer in Houston.

It is undeniable. The Texas population growth is inevitable. Texas will have to build, maintain, and improve roads and other infrastructure. The only issue is who will pay for the roads. Obviously, there is going to be mix of toll roads and free roads. Texans will have to pay higher fuel taxes and tolls. The only question is whether the mix will be higher tax increases-fewer tolls or lower tax increases-more tolls.

It is interesting to note that many in the legislature are calling for a 2 year moratorium on toll roads. That is because in two years there will be a power shift in Austin.

Today, you have Perry and Craddick protecting West Texas/rural Texas.

In two years, Hutchinson will be governor. She is from Dallas and the wife of Ray Hutchinson, the developers' bondsman of choice.

Craddick barely held on to his speakership in this session. His two challengers were from Houston and Waxahatchie(DFW). He will be replaced by one of them in 2 years.

I don't mean to imply that this issue of East Texas vs West Texas or urban vs rural is the only game in play, only that it should be considered in how things play out.

More important is the inevitable gas tax increase. There has not been anything proposed by an elected official, only by those well connected. There has also been some editorializing in the media. Based on this, we can accurately speculate on the what might eventually be proposed in the legislature.

What we see is an 8-12 cent increase and indexing to constuction material cost inflation. Although we can't say with certainty what it will be, for discussion purposes only, I will use the 12 cent increase and the one cent per year indexed increase.

Keep in mind, although we are talking about a gas tax to benefit the roads, 25% of the gas tax goes to schools. The legislature has been agonizing with this nagging school funding problem for years. You can see that 3 cents of a 12 cent gas tax increase going to schools would solve a lot of the problem, make their job easier. So they are not thinking just about roads.

Now, let's look at the indexed gas tax increase. We can use the one cent per year estimate but we don't know what it actually will be. Given the worldwide demand for oil and the cement shortages, I suspect that it will average out to be more than one cent per year. Whatever the amount, it is automatic.

Once the legislature puts that in place, they never have to raise the tax again, it is a automatic, built-in gas tax increase. That ia a legislator's dream. Also, keep in mind, 25% of it goes to schools. Now, we have automatic, built-in tax increases for roads and schools. That is a legislator's wet dream.

But if you want to gripe about Perry while the legilature bends you over, go ahead.

[Ben Ficklin]

You are contradicted by the fact that tolls are a user fee. You want to socialze the cost of roads.

You are also contradicted by the fact that toll roads are on the menu in numerous states, not just Texas.

[Ben Ficklin]

Using the actual definition, your #45 is non sequitur.

If you want to, we can discuss the power of the TX Guv? Or, we could discuss the power of the Speaker, who happens to be from West Texas, or more precisely, from where cotton and oil overlap. Or, we could diccuss toll roads in the context of West Texas versus East Texas.

Hutchinson chose not to run because polls said she couldn't win the primary.

Which is the same reason Strayhorn ran as an independent instead of as Republican.