Posted on 06/29/2006 8:08:38 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
State officials say tolls are important to fund new highway lanes, but when it comes to non-toll projects, they apparently don't want to hear about it.
In fact, they banned mention of the word at a public meeting this week.
At the meeting, held Tuesday to get input on plans to widen Texas 46, Terri Hall of San Antonio Toll Party was told to wrap up her comments because her three minutes were running out, said Laura Lopez, spokeswoman with the Texas Department of Transportation.
But then Hall began talking about tolls, so she was stopped.
"It was mentioned at the beginning of the meeting that this was not a meeting to discuss tolls because it's not part of the project," Lopez said. "And if there was any comments about us tolling, we would stop that person from ... you know ... we're not tolling."
Another speaker who brought up tolls was asked to drop the subject, but when he replied that TxDOT works for him, law enforcement officers approached to cut him off, Lopez said.
"Where will this suppression stop?" said Hall, a vocal critic of tolls. "I thought this was America, where protecting and defending our First Amendment constitutional rights are sacred."
About 200 people attended the meeting at New Braunfels High School and about 20 spoke.
The crux of the friction between Hall and TxDOT over Texas 46 has to do with whether the state is eying tolls for the highway.
Fueled by a study to determine the feasibility of tolling new lanes on Texas 46, and a financing agreement that says county officials and TxDOT would have to agree to any future tolls, Hall says she suspects that TxDOT intends to eventually put toll lanes there.
TxDOT flatly says there are no plans to toll Texas 46, and that the study showed tolls are not feasible.
The $47.7 million project will widen the highway to seven lanes near Bulverde and New Braunfels and three lanes between the cities, with construction possibly starting in 2008. Later, the whole road could be seven lanes.
Pinging the TTC list to the TxDOT dirty tricks.
There aren't any dirty tricks, don't be such a drama queen.
Not sure what is so hard to understand, the meeting was about TX46, which TXDOT has repeatedly said is not a toll road. There are plenty of other meetings this summer in the San Antonio area for several other roads that actually are being considered for tolling where she can rant and rave at. After making clear that this specific road, the only subject of the meeting, wasn't going to be tolled, it was off topic for this meeting's limited time for public comment. She could still whine and rant in the informal session, but not in the public comment time if she were going off subject.
If you go into a public meeting about water rates they aren't going to let you rant in the public speaking time about the Planned Parenthood clinic.
Well, that's just not true.
There's been a lot of press lately about possibly suspending the gasoline tax due to high gas prices. But if one looks at this issue objectively instead of emotionally, it quickly becomes obvious that the gasoline taxes will not even maintain our highway network for many more years. There continue to be more vehicles on the road creating more wear and tear, and these vehicles continue to get improved mileage, which means more wear and tear with a continuously reducing gasoline tax base.
And, if we quit providing routine maintenance, the roadway infrastructure deterioration will accelerate with the result that repair costs will be much more than the routine maintenance. This will result in increasing costs much more than they are today. And how do we provide the increased capacity needed? People fuss about tolls, but consider this example: In Texas, many toll roads have free parallel frontage roads. Anyone who doesn't want to pay the tolls, can use these free roads and get to the same destination. Why don't they? The simple answer is that when one factors in the increased time due to the signalization at cross streets and the increased wear and tear on their automobiles all have a net total cost far greater than the cost of the tolls on the limited access toll roads. That's why toll roads work. Without that source of funds, the air pollution, the gridlock, the excessively longer commute time, the much increased real estate costs that would result for those properties close in, all would be far greater than if those of us willing to pay the tolls can have the facilities to allow us to avoid those costs. Those who don't want to pay them can use a different facility or walk to their destination.
I'm all for useage fees, but let's not double dip. It's either usage fees or tax. I prefer usage fees.
They do, it's called an estate tax.
What about roads in which part of the cost is funded through taxes, and the rest through tolls (as opposed to roads built with taxes and then tolled anyhow)?
Bovine excrement. A large number of those new vehicles in Texas are SUVs and Pickups that don't get stellar gas mileage. Also, vehicles don't cause near the wear of weather (potholes are caused by ice and soil conditions, not vehicles).
The lack of funds for highways is caused by politicians, not drivers. Nearly every level of government is experiencing massive increases in revenue, from school districts to the fed, and every one is begging for more.
In a lot of cases taxing authorities are getting 50 to 100 percent more revenue than they were a few years ago, far more than we peasants paying the taxes are seeing our salaries go up, and yet they still can't balance their budgets.
The truth is that our political leaders have lost touch with any notion of serving the people, and now function solely as pigs at the public trough, gobbling up all they can with absolutely no regard for consequences.
Thanks for the ping!
You're welcome.
lol!
After reading the title, I thought they were cracking down on friendly toll booth employees.
Could you add this San Antonio guy to your TTC ping list, my FRiend??
Thanks...
You're added. :-)
You should see the crap they pull up here in Washington.
BTTT
"It was mentioned at the beginning of the meeting that this was not a meeting to discuss tolls because it's not part of the project," Lopez said. "And if there was any comments about us tolling, we would stop that person from ... you know ... we're not tolling."
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