BUSH!!!
Posted on 04/15/2007 10:16:14 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
AUSTIN - A two-year moratorium on private toll roads that won preliminary approval in the House last week would put the brakes on the Trans-Texas Corridor, a superhighway that a private firm received a contract for earlier this year.
The moratorium also would halt seven near-term projects in the state, said Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, the Brenham Republican who added the proposal to a House bill.
"This is us tapping the brakes, looking before we leap ... into contracts that last 50-plus years," Kolkhorst said.
Her proposal would require the state to create a commission to study the effects of private equity toll roads and present findings to the state next year.
Rep. Mike Krussee, R-Round Rock, argued that without private toll roads, the state would need to raise the gas tax to pay for roads.
"However well-intentioned, the moratorium adopted by the House would eliminate an enormous pool of non-tax money to address traffic and transportation needs," said Joe Krier, chairman of Texans for Safe Reliable Transportation. "Fewer transportation dollars mean fewer transportation alternatives, and more traffic gridlock."
The state contracted with Spanish-American consortium Cintra-Zachry to develop and maintain the Trans-Texas Corridor, which is envisioned as a $184 billion, 4,000-mile network of toll roads, rail lines and utilities.
The contract spans 50 years.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Toward meeting its gargantuan highway needs, Texas is going nowhere fast.
The Texas House of Representatives last week resoundingly approved a two-year moratorium on toll-road projects, with the exception of key North Texas toll roads.
The moratorium is necessary to get a handle on the costs of these projects, particularly the Trans-Texas Corridor. A state auditor’s report recently questioned hidden and inflated costs in the state’s 50-year contract with Spanish firm Cintra-Zachary.
A host of questions have been raised about the deal brokered by the Texas Department of Transportation. Inquiring minds have had to go to court. Even Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst has cited his own inability to see the details about this monster endeavor.
Gov. Rick Perry and his appointees in TxDOT are stuck in a “something for nothing” mode on funding highways. We sell the rights to major infrastructure and pay for it with tolls.
To hear Perry and TxDOT Commissioner Ric Williamson say it, brawny, booming, prosperous Texas has no other way to pay for it.
Baloney.
State Sen. Kip Averitt, R-Waco, proposed an alternative in the last legislative session: Raise the motor fuels tax by a nickel a gallon.
A gasoline tax does what the toll road does. It taxes users to pay for roads. (By law, a portion of the gasoline tax also goes to schools.)
No one wants to pay more for gasoline, more than Texans are paying for their highways through the gasoline tax. So do motorists from other states. So do Mexican trucks.
The Trib recently reported comments of truckers who say they studiously avoid toll roads like the Trans-Texas Corridor if free alternatives exist. So don’t expect the TTC to get their money or relieve their congestion.
Should Texas have toll roads? Absolutely. It needs a mix of funding options for its highway needs, including bonds. But with this Legislature and this governor, we are trying to get comfortable on a one-legged stool.
State Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, a foe of too-heavy reliance on toll roads, has an alternative: indexing the gasoline tax. The state has options — to index it to inflation, or to the rising cost of highway construction, which is considerably higher.
Carona wants to cap annual gas-tax increases at around 4.5 percent a year.
The Legislature is right to put a moratorium on toll roads. But it is wrong to not have an alternative to getting the state moving again.
[The editorial talks as though the moratorium is on all toll roads. It actually would be on public-private partnership toll roads. --TSR]
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
Yeah, the soverignty-busting corridor for crime, illegal aliens, drugs, imported poverty, and all the other fine things that go along with basically an open border. We know who to thank for this fine gift to the American people.
BTTT
bump.
bumpy road.
Anything that slows or stops this hideous nightmare of a highway is a good thing. A gas tax to build roads would be a good thing too, because then the millions of Illegals plying the Texas highways could help pay for them.
Those Chinese are sneaky . . . they managed to get a private company to put $16 billion up for this project.
Hardly one company.
Cintra’s majority stock holder is Ferrovial. (62.5%)
On the keeptexasmoving.org webpage, there are a list of Team members. (about a dozen)
One interesting team member; Bracewell-Patterson LLC (now, Bracewell-Guiliani LLC)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.