Posted on 05/20/2007 3:00:16 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
In many ways, Terri Hall was on a collision course with Texas toll road policies long before she and her family loaded up their van and drove from California to the Hill Country three years ago.
A lifetime of volunteering, a hunger for staying on top of politics, and strong religious and moral convictions helped hone Hall's activist instincts.
Her brains, drive, superb speaking skills, engaging personality and wholesome good looks — noted by friends and enemies alike — make Hall especially effective. They help explain why this 37-year-old mother of six is a leading force in a populist assault on the Legislature.
Hall's critics say she doesn't always get her facts right and is quick to attack. But they admit that packing public meetings with angry people and blitzing officials with hundreds or thousands of e-mails and phone calls have made lawmakers pay attention.
"There's no way you can ignore that clear and loud message from folks — it sticks in your head," said Rep. Joaquín Castro, D-San Antonio.
Castro says he hasn't been soft on toll roads, but last year Hall put him on her list of politicians to kick out of office because she didn't think he'd done enough.
Legislators, responding to protests statewide, filed dozens of bills this session to slow or curtail tolling efforts.
Rising to the top was House Bill 1892, which would slap a two-year moratorium — with exceptions — and tighten restrictions on leasing toll projects to private companies.
The bill passed overwhelmingly, putting Gov. Rick Perry, the state's most powerful advocate for toll roads, against a wall. In a scramble last weekend, he and others crafted a weaker version, which added more exemptions and loosened limits on the lease contracts.
Perry vetoed the House bill Friday, an action lawmakers could easily override. But even the watered-down Senate bill would be a victory for the armies of grass-roots activists.
"They've been pretty effective," said Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, who reluctantly agreed to include U.S. 281 in the moratorium. "I don't think that would have happened without an outcry from the public."
Hall's road to tolls
The Texas rush to toll its roads got a big lift in 2003.
Legislators passed a massive bill to allow widespread tolling and let corporations develop tollways in return for collecting profits for up to 70 years. Many now say they didn't fully understand what they voted on.
In December 2003, the Texas Transportation Commission passed a policy to toll new highway lanes whenever feasible. The same day, it approved formation of the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority to let San Antonio join the tolling club.
At the time of the commission meeting, Hall was a month into a new blog — withearstohear.com — and three days before had posted an entry that celebrated the capture of Saddam Hussein and the courageous, unswerving leadership of President Bush.
"It's a sad day to be a Democrat," wrote Hall, a longtime registered Republican.
Liberal Democrats later would become some of Hall's strongest allies in the toll fight.
In 2003, Hall and her husband, Roger, owned an in-home caregiver business near Sacramento, Calif. Being on call all the time was grueling and interrupted family life, which included home schooling the children.
So the Halls sold the business and in May 2004 headed to San Antonio, an area with affordable homes, room in the hills north of the city and neighbors who also home school. Terri Hall was 71/2 months pregnant during the trip.
Their fifth child was born in July 2004, almost a week before the Metropolitan Planning Organization adopted the first toll plans for San Antonio.
Many months would pass before Hall realized that toll lanes were eyed for U.S. 281, her main link to shopping and other business in San Antonio. Plans also include adding toll lanes to Loop 1604 on the North Side.
In December 2004, the transportation commission selected a consortium led by Cintra of Spain and Zachry Construction Corp. of San Antonio to plan for a 1,200-foot-wide swath of toll roads and rail lines paralleling Interstate 35.
It's billed as the first leg of Perry's Trans-Texas Corridor, a 4,000-mile network that's supposed to be financed, built and operated by private companies over the next half-century.
The next day, Hall posted her "conservative" Christmas wish list to the president. She asked for replacing income taxes with a consumption tax, immigration reform and school choice.
Soon, Hall would awaken to a new cause, thrusting her into a spotlight where her college studies in politics and media and her English degree from the University of California at Los Angeles would be of use.
An activist is born
In March 2005, the Texas Department of Transportation held public meetings to spell out how it could get money more quickly to widen U.S. 281 from North San Antonio through Comal County.
Officials told more than 200 people at Specht Elementary School that the answer is to charge tolls on the new lanes, starting at 15 cents a mile. Murmurs rippled through the crowd.
The next night in New Braunfels, Hall saw the same thing.
"It didn't smell right," she recalled. "Nobody was happy when they left that room."
Hall called her elected representatives to find out more and then met with TxDOT officials. She didn't like what she heard.
As time passed, she began to see sinister motives.
When TxDOT says tolls are fair because only users pay, Hall sees tax-funded rights of way being converted to tollways, with profits going to other uses.
When TxDOT says market forces will keep toll rates in check, Hall sees a government monopoly squeezing cash from congestion-weary drivers.
When TxDOT says private sector innovation and efficiency will save time and money, Hall sees corporate handouts and toll rates rising faster than ever.
As the gritty details emerge in public meetings, on talk radio and anywhere else there might be an audience, both sides complain facts are being twisted.
For example, Hall claims TxDOT has money to widen at least 7 miles of U.S. 281 without adding tolls. TxDOT officials and others say the agency can't do that without raiding funds from other projects.
"What has troubled me from the outset is that she and her organization don't seem to be burdened by sticking to the truth," said Joe Krier, president of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.
"They've opened the door for this revolt that's going on, and for legislators to have some room to represent their constituents," said Linda Curtis of Independent Texans, a group aligned with Hall.
After talking to TxDOT, Hall decided she had better organize and started calling around.
She soon found Sal Costello, who the year before had formed Austin Toll Party. Curtis, who worked for Costello at the time, remembers Hall coming to their table at a Capitol rally in May 2005 and asking questions.
"She wasn't at the time what I would say is a leader," Curtis said. "I didn't realize what a dynamo she was. I was blown away within months.
"She's beautiful, she's smart, she's passionate and she has the drive and she knows how to juggle. And she cares deeply."
In June 2005, Costello and Curtis came to San Antonio to help Hall kick off the first meeting of what would become the San Antonio Toll Party.
"She just had that look in her eye and backed it up," said Bob Throckmorton, a retired Air Force colonel who became one of Hall's trusted lieutenants.
First big victory
Hall quickly found more help, even reaching across ideological lines to do so.
Bill Barker, a transportation planner who disparages suburban sprawl and says too many highways are being built, has fed Hall reams of data. He's a "progressive" Democrat.
Annalisa Peace, an environmentalist who's not happy with all the construction over the Edwards Aquifer recharge and drainage zones, agrees U.S. 281 shouldn't be turned into a tollway. However, she also doesn't want a full-fledged freeway.
Peace and Hall first got together in July 2005 to tell the San Antonio Express-News Editorial Board why they believe proposed toll plans are bad. When Hall complained that the tolls could stifle North Side growth, a curious editor turned to Peace and asked what she thought.
I think that'd be great, Peace said with a wide grin.
Hall shifted in her seat.
Well, then we disagree, she said in a dejected voice.
But the two remained allies.
Peace's group, Aquifer Guardians in Urban Areas, joined one of Costello's statewide groups to file a lawsuit that stopped construction of U.S. 281 toll lanes in January 2006. As a result, TxDOT is redoing the environmental studies on it.
Hall celebrated, calling it Victory No. 1.
"Obviously, it's a double-edged sword," she said later. "You've got different people coming to the table for different things. But we all agree that the cause is greater than that."
Hall is far from alone. The Republican, Democratic, Libertarian and Green parties all oppose how toll roads are being developed in Texas.
Still, many local leaders insist motorists stuck in traffic lost out. Building the U.S. 281 tollway has been pushed back two to five years.
"She's doing what she thinks is right," said former San Antonio Mayor Bill Thornton, chairman of the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority. "I also think she's misguided. She's been harmful to our community's transportation needs."
The Texas stage
Year after year, San Antonio business and elected leaders drove to Austin to schmooze the Texas Transportation Commission.
In February 2006, they argued for toll roads, asked for more state money and showed a video proclaiming the city's 50-year "love affair" with TxDOT. But that year, for the first time, a speaker disagreed.
Hall faced commissioners in a room packed with more than 100 highway engineers, private industry officials and toll promoters. Just a handful of her supporters were there.
Commission Chairman Ric Williamson, with a stout build, crew cut and deep voice that matches his aggressive push of Perry's tolling wishes, thanked the tall, slender woman standing before him but said they have different philosophies.
"I know well that the power of my beliefs are strengthened by the most vicious attack of those who don't share that belief," he said. "Your words and your testimony is valuable to us."
Hall stood her ground.
"I really hope that you do listen," she said.
For Hall, wresting government from special interests is bigger than toll roads.
She worries about efforts — some covert, she says — that could break down sovereign borders by expanding free trade and forging a European-style common market. The Trans-Texas Corridor, being sold as a cargo route, is just a piece.
"This is really about taking our government back."
The 2006 elections were a chance for such a cleansing. And TxDOT gave toll critics their best stage yet when it held more than 50 public hearings for the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor route.
More than 13,000 people attended, including 900 in San Antonio. Nearly every speaker railed against corridor plans.
Candidates hoping to oust Perry or win legislative seats seized on the string of hearings as a ready-made campaign trail through the heart of Texas.
In November, toll critics lost more races than they won. The most notable defeat was Carole Keeton Strayhorn's dismal showing in the governor's race.
But the message that voters were unhappy, whether with TxDOT or other agencies, sank in. Lawmakers began singing that refrain after they returned to Austin in January.
"Over the years, the Legislature has been somewhat lazy and somewhat asleep," said Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee. "My last election was a wake-up call for me."
The next time Hall and Williamson talked was at a Senate transportation committee hearing, which had dragged on for hours and left toll critics with some of their biggest gains. Most of the audience had left when Williamson turned and leaned over to his adversary.
You know, you changed everything, he told her. You fight like a true Texan.
"You should be proud," he said.
By JIM ABRAMS Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A cash crunch is fast approaching for the government trust fund that pays to build and repair highways and bridges.
The federal tax on a gallon of gas has not risen in 14 years and Congress is reluctant to increase it. People are demanding more fuel-efficient vehicles — less gasoline used, fewer dollars for the fund.
States already are looking for other places for road-building money — toll road and consumption-based sales taxes, for example. They worry that the fund's looming shortage could hurt their efforts to address traffic congestion as well as environmental and safety problems caused by inadequate roads.
The situation can only get worse in 2009, when revenues for the Federal Highway Trust Fund begin falling short of planned federal spending.
The fund provides the overwhelming bulk of federal dollars spent on highways. It gets its money mainly from the 18.4 cents-a-gallon excise tax that drivers pay at the pump.
Self-service regular now tops $3 a gallon. There is concern the price will reach a price at which people will get serious about cutting back on driving — sending less money into the fund. Fuel tax receipts did dip last summer when there was a spike in pump prices.
About 45 percent of all highway spending comes from the trust fund. With less money available from the fund, states must turn elsewhere for money to expand their highways and fill their potholes. That prospect is making lots of people unhappy.
With the population of Texas increasing by 1,000 people a day, "we as a state don't really feel like we have an option to shelve projects or sit on our hands as the problems with the highway trust fund loom larger and come closer on the horizon," said Christopher Lippincott, a Texas Transportation Department spokesman.
Revenues from tolls, bonds, federal loans and local contributions allowed most of a new turnpike around Austin to be completed more than 20 years sooner than if the state had relied solely on state and federal taxes.
The Texas Legislature is trying to satisfy concerns of Gov. Rick Perry over a bill that includes a two-year freeze on most new privately financed toll roads. The freeze reflects opposition to the Trans Texas Corridor, a combined toll road and rail system from Mexico to the Oklahoma line.
Of the 18.4 cents a gallon in federal excise taxes, about 15.44 cents goes to the highway trust fund, 2.86 cents to mass transit programs and one-tenth of a center to a leaking underground storage tank fund. The tax on diesel fuel is slightly higher.
Close to two-thirds of the trust fund's $40 billion in receipts last year came from the gasoline tax.
Gasoline was only 30 cents a gallon and the excise tax on it was just 3 cents in 1956 when Congress created the highway trust fund. As gasoline prices rose, so did the tax. But a tax-adverse Congress has kept it at 18.4 cents a gallon since 1993, when gasoline prices were about $1.10 a gallon.
Two years ago, lawmakers proposed a 4-cent-per gallon boost in the fuel tax to finance a $375 billion highway bill. They backed off when President Bush pledged to veto any road legislation with a tax increase. In the end, the spending plan came to $286 billion.
At the end of 2000, the highway trust fund had a balance of almost $23 billion. By the end of 2006, that balance had fallen to $9 billion.
The Congressional Budget Office predicts the fund will run a deficit of $1.7 billion at the end of 2009 and $8.1 billion by the end of 2010, when the current highway program expires and Congress will write a new one.
"This crisis will be thrown in their lap right as they are rewriting the program," said Jeff Shoaf, senior executive director of Associated General Contractors of America.
Because investment in new projects is spread over a number of years, every dollar of shortfall translates into a $4 drop in highway spending, he said.
Thus in 2010, the government will have only $20 billion to invest on highways, half the current spending level and less than one-third of the $70 billion that Shoaf said is needed for real road improvements.
"A drastic cut in federal highway and transit funding will result unless Congress steps in," John Horsley, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, said in a report.
Horsley's group said the fuel tax would have to be increased by 10 cents per gallon through 2015 to restore the purchasing power of the program.
The Senate Finance Committee is looking into temporary ways to refinance the trust fund, including redirecting some transportation-related taxes that now go into the government's general account and clamping down on gas tax fraud. A Transportation Department commission also plans to issue recommendations by the end of this year.
By the middle of the next decade, the highway trust fund will be providing $100 billion to $150 billion below real needs for building highways and bridges, predicted Rep. Peter DeFazio, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee on highways and transit.
"In the long run we've either got to admit we are going to underinvest and accept more gridlock and congestion" or find new revenue sources, said DeFazio, D-Ore.
What is clear to him is that raising taxes of any kind for the highway trust fund is possible only if people are convinced that more spending will mean less congestion, safer roads and a cleaner environment.
The public will not support new taxes "just to throw money in the maw of the federal government," DeFazio said.
On the Net:
Federal Highway Administration: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials: http://www.transportation.org/
American Road and Transportation Builders Association: http://www.artba.org/
Associated General Contractors of America: http://www.agc.org/
Jacksonville Freshman Senator Makes Big Waves
By ROY MAYNARD
Staff Writer
A freshman senator should be seen and not heard - that's the conventional wisdom, at least.
State Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, isn't conventional. In his first legislative session, he's vice-chaired a committee, brokered deals and won passage of significant legislation.
And, he's led a fight against his own party's governor over private toll road projects.
"My intention for this session was to listen and learn, and to try to take care of my district," Nichols said. "It wasn't to charge off on any big things right away. But when I see something wrong, I have to act."
A former two-term Texas Transportation commissioner, Nichols knows the issues surrounding the privatization of toll roads. And it was that experience his fellow senators looked to when faced with Gov. Rick Perry's drive to advance projects such as the Trans-Texas Corridor.
"I have been in this body for 14 years, and I have never seen the senators coalesce as unanimously around one issue as they have around Robert Nichols' bill," said Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville. "He has wonderful credibility because of the years he served on the Transportation Commission."
And he went about it the right way, she added.
"Before he drew attention to the concerns he had, he sought to solve the problems that he saw in the bill (with the bill's author)," she said. "When that didn't work, he showed us (in the Senate) where there could be some missteps, and he convinced us of the need to slow this train down. And he did that senator by senator."
It was a bold move, she said.
"It was so important to him to do what was right that he was willing to risk the wrath of the governor of his own party - as a freshman," Sen. Nelson said. "He has great respect in this body."
A DAY IN THE LIFE
Nichols begins his day promptly at 5:30 a.m.; his work at the Capitol can start as early as 7:30 a.m. with committee meetings, though the Senate usually doesn't convene until 10 or 11 a.m. On one recent Wednesday, he attended one committee meeting for about an hour, then he had to leave to lay out two bills before another committee.
Between committee meetings and the convening of the Senate at 11 a.m., he had about 15 minutes free. That was spent in a meeting at his office with about five people who objected to another bill.
When the Senate adjourns at about 3:30 p.m., it's more committee meetings and public hearings. All the while, his staff is preparing his "football," the pile of bills and analyses he'll take home for study.
"I don't go to dinner with lobbyists, though I get half a dozen invitations a day," Nichols said. "I don't know how people can, and still do their homework. If you let yourself get behind on the bills, you don't know what you're voting on, or you're just going by what your staff tells you."
He works his way through the "football" until as late as midnight.
"I make myself stop around 11:30 p.m. or 12 a.m.," he said. "I just have to quit. I have to realize this isn't a sprint, this is a marathon."
MAKING CONNECTIONS
"Before I got here, I didn't realize how important working relationships between members are," Nichols said. "Just 11 members can block any piece of legislation, so you have to be careful. On any day, you may be helping someone on one bill, and then vote against them on the next bill. You've got to be civil, and you can't take it personally - because you're going to need their help on your next bill."
Nichols arrived with some connections already formed.
"I've been working in Austin since 1997, so I've worked through five sessions," he said. "I've worked with members of the House, the Senate, with Republicans and Democrats, with urbans and rurals. I worked as a (Transportation) commissioner to help them to solve problems, and now here I am, working with them again. It's like I got a running start."
No one senator can be fully knowledgeable about all the issues that come before the body.
"We all have different areas of expertise," Nichols said. "We have lawyers, a doctor, some former mayors. When we get to difficult issues, we can share our pools of resources and experiences."
Sen. Nelson said Nichols' expertise goes beyond transportation - he's also an engineer.
"I'm married to an engineer, so I know how they think. It's not like the rest of us," she said. "Robert Nichols doesn't grab the microphone and just start talking. He listens, he takes copious notes, and when he finally raises his hand, his questions and comments get straight to the essence of the issues. It's that engineer's brain."
Nichols' credibility goes across the party lines, adds Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas.
"He's brought a wealth of knowledge to this body," said West, who chairs the Intergovernmental Relations Committee Nichols serves on. "Credibility is something you develop over time. And I would say Robert Nichols is putting a solid foundation in place for that."
GOING AGAINST THE GOVERNOR
It wasn't an easy decision to make, Nichols said. But parts of the governor's transportation plans - 50 contracts with private firms, for example, and non-compete clauses that could prevent the state from improving its own roads - were untenable. He wanted a two-year moratorium on private toll projects.
"It makes me sick to have to do this," Nichols said. "Gov. Perry has done an incredibly positive job on transportation. I have a problem with one area of one tool that he's given us. He's been a pioneer. But they say pioneers are the ones who get the arrows shot at them, and he's getting some arrows now."
A compromise reached late last week could prevent a showdown or a special session on the toll roads issue. Nichols said he can live with the compromise - it includes the two-year moratorium on most new toll road projects and establishes broad protections for the private toll roads that are built.
"This provides the protection the state needs," he said.
Late in the day on Friday, however, that compromise appeared to be falling apart. But Nichols said he'll watch the bill as it comes back through the Senate.
Keeping legislation on track is different now that he's a senator, Nichols said. As a transportation commissioner, he explains, he could help some people with some problems. But now, he adds, he can file bills, he can vote, and he can broker compromises.
"I enjoy the work," Nichols said. "I can be effective here."
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
SB792 Has Fatal Flaw.
No Amendment, No Moratorium.
There is a fatal flaw in the language of SB792 that would allow TxDOT to proceed with construction of TTC-35, even if the bill becomes law. On May 17, Rep. Lois Kolkhorst fixed that loop hole with House Amendment #13.
The Governor has demanded that amendment 13 be removed from SB792.
In a document circulated to Senators the Governor's Office complains that, "No segment of TTC-35 can be built during the moratorium, except Loop 9, which is exempted from the moratorium." Of course that is exactly the whole intent of introducing the moratorium bill.
Governor Perry has said he would sign a moratorium bill, but that was when it wouldn't stop his TTC. Now he has changed is tune and is pressuring Senators to strip the amendment off SB792 effectively eliminating any moratorium on the TTC.
There will be very little if any benefit to most Texans from the passage of SB972 if is fails to contain the provisions of amendment 13 that put an enforceable 2-year hold private CDA projects.
Amendment 13 will not effect North Tx projects.
None of the projects exempt from the moratorium under SH792 will be effected by the inclusion of amendment 13. SH121, SH161, Loop 9, I635, I820, SH130, and SH45SE can all continue without delay.
For a full explanation of the issue with SB792 and why need amendment 13 CLICK HERE.
Have We Been Sold Out? Afraid So!
By the time you read this the Governor's office may have already out maneuvered us all by effectively removing Trans Texas Corridor TTC-35 from any moratorium limitations in the pending bill, SB792.
The Governor's office has targeted seven House amendments for removal.
Things are moving so fast there may be no time for anyone outside a small circle of key legislators to impact the outcome. By Monday it is likely that Governor Perry will have his way and the citizens of Texas will have been sold out at the highest levels of it's State Government.
The Governor's representatives Kris Heckmann and former Senator Kenneth Armbrister arrived to visit Texas senators shortly after 11:00am Friday morning. About that same time a three page analysis/summary of SB792 amendments, reportedly prepared by Kris Heckman, was circulating among Senators.
CorridorWatch has been told that seven amendments have been targeted by the Governor's office for removal. Among those are one by Pickett [6] effecting the El Paso RMA; one by Callegari [12] they believe was misdrafted; three by Kolkhorst [13, 15, & 16] effecting TTC35, CDA penalty payment funds, and a prohibition of investment firms being on both sides of a CDA; one by Quintanilla [22] a county contract provision; and, one by Y. Davis [27] requiring land taken by condemnation be offered back to the owner if unused.
Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst met on the floor of the Senate Friday morning with Senators Williams, Carona, and Nichols in an apparent attempt to convince Nichols to agree with removal of the offending amendments (Nichols has since been named to the Conference Committee). It is widely believed that Nichols is unlikely to agree with efforts to weaken the bill.
It was Dewhurst who forced SB792 in to play in the first place thereby making his intent to yield to the Governor's wishes very clear. As expected the Senate members named to the conference committee are stacked in favor of producing the Governor's desired outcome. With only three votes out of five required it is unlikely that Nichols will find enough support among the other conferees to preserve the moratorium or other amendments.
You may recall Austin political insiders predicted that the legislature would fold under the Governors' pressure. We had given them more credit, but that may prove to be sorely undeserved.
Conference Committee Members.
House Conference Committee members will not be formally named until Monday. But that doesn't mean that Rep. Smith hasn't got them picked and begun the process of looking at the bill language the Governor expects them to agree on.
CorridorWatch has been told that Senate conferees will start meeting today, Saturday. And word has it that Senator Carona will start 'visiting with likely House conferees' this weekend as well.
Anything can happen in conference, but this time the sheet music has been supplied by the Lt. Governor and the Governor is calling the tune.
CorridorWatch was wrong!
Have you heard that HB1892 won't effect TTC-35? We had, and we thought that it was a load of baloney. Unfortunately, we were wrong. Now we know it and they know we know it.
There is no question that it was always the clear legislative intent of HB1892 and SB792 to stop TxDOT from proceeding with any TTC facility construction during the two-year moratorium. Everyone knew that including the Governor and TxDOT and yet they let the legislature believe that these bills would do that. In fact the Governor went on record saying that he would sign the moratorium.
Amendment 13 to SB792 offered by Kolkhorst closes a moratorium loophole in HB1892 by including TTC-35 CDA facility agreements. The only exception would be Loop 9. Representatives Anderson, Bohac, Darby, Miles, Miller and Zerwas joined Kolkhorst as coauthors of this amendment.
If only one amendment survives the Conference Committee it needs to be Amendment 13.
Amendment 13 is "Do or Die" for TTC-35.
It is no surprise that Kolkhorst amendment 13 is on the Governor's hit list. If we are to have an enforceable moratorium on the TTC, we must have amendment 13 remain on SB792.
Amendment 16 is just good business practice.
Rep. Kolkhorst also doesn't think that the financial advisor who develops the market valuation for a project (for the toll authority or TxDOT) should also advise the company that will finance, build, develop or operated a TxDOT toll project. This is another amendment that is targeted for removal.
This and other amendments also have merit, but we can't save the world, and were not too sure we can save ourselves from the Trans Texas Corridor.
de bumpo.
Thanks for the ping!
You’re welcome.
BTTT
BTTT
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