[muawiyah]

Hmm ~ onliest correct policy he’s ever pursued was the creation of toll roads ~

[TheWriterTX]

Texas has a BBA. We are only allowed to accumulate debt for 1) emergencies or shortfalls in projected revenue, 2) by VOTER INIATIVE, and 3) SELF-SATISYING BONDS.

If we want to build a road, it must be sustained by tolls until the bond is paid off.

Texas State debt (the debt accumulated due to STATE GOV) is also required by law to not exceed 5% of TX GDP.

All but 10% of the current TX State debt is SELF-SATISFYING BONDS (not on the back of the taxpayer).

Dig into the actual numbers, and you will see how a tiny fraction of what's being reported and misrepresented in blogs all over is ACTUAL taxpayer funded debt, while the rest is bonds and/or local government debt.

[hocndoc]

Thanks for the bumps and good words!

Muawiyah, I’ve been a little ambivalent about toll roads.

I like the idea those using the road paying them off as we go and routinely use the loop around the bottle-neck in Austin to go north toward Dallas.

Privatization has its limits, though. Businesses have to make a profit while the State needs to pay bills. I don’t like the no-compete and 50 year compacts that we made with Cintra. If they’re such a great idea, I wonder why the State couldn’t do the job ourselves.

I *really* didn’t like the proposal to skip Customs until Kansas that some of the early TTC plans included. I want the jobs in Texas and the control as close to the border as possible.

However, that’s all very old news - “we the people” were heard and lessons were learned.