I don't want to get started so I'll be brief.Until the majority of people in the country(I call them the voting stupid)say enough is enough we will still be in the same boat.Way to many people just stumble through life and lollygag around with no idea what the gov.is doing.I know so many people at my work that NEVER watch the news because "I'ts boring"Those are the people I'm talking about.There's millions of them out there and if they ever dummy up we just might make a diff. Until then they voted officials are having a free ride.It just pisses me off too no end.It's too early in the morning to be getting this upset.Ill go now.

Measures take aim at toll roads
Legislature: Proposal halting creation of private routes for 2 years gains
steam in Senate

07:48 AM CST on Wednesday, March 7, 2007
By TERRENCE STUTZ / The Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN - The majority of senators have endorsed legislation to prevent the
creation of new private toll roads for two years.

Two measures offered Tuesday by Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, also
would prohibit conversion of existing roads to toll roads. At least two
dozen senators have signed on as co-sponsors of the two bills, indicating
that both should easily pass the chamber.

"We must closely evaluate private toll contracts before we sign away half a
century of control of our transportation system," said Mr. Nichols, a former
state transportation commissioner. "Many provisions in recent toll contracts
are alarming."

Senate leaders have been increasingly critical of a series of private toll
road projects approved in recent years by the transportation commission,
including a $3 billion deal announced last week to make State Highway 121
the first privately operated toll road in North Texas.

Senators have warned that some of the projects might result in skyrocketing
tolls for motorists in the future and could hamper the ability of the state
and local governments to improve public roadways near the toll roads.

Web Posted: 03/31/2007 11:01 PM CDT

Gary Scharrer
Austin Bureau
My San Antonio



AUSTIN — Public wrath over private company toll roads has soured most Texas
lawmakers on a 2003 law that started the controversy, but some of their leaders
say they can't support a moratorium on it — at least not yet.

As they jockeyed over whether and how to slow down toll-road privatization, the
state's first private toll highway contract, to build toll lanes between Austin
and Seguin, was quietly signed just one day after a Senate panel held the only
hearing so far on a moratorium bill.

The bill, which would put decisions on future contracts on hold for two years,
is expected to pass out of a Senate committee this week but stay parked on the
back burner as a last-resort measure while lawmakers look for compromise in the
final two months of the session.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst has directed Senate Transportation and Homeland Security
Committee Chairman John Carona to allow the panel to approve the bill, despite
Carona's discomfort with it.

"I think a moratorium ought to be a last resort rather than a first response
and, while I support a moratorium as a last resort, I believe it's much too
early in the session," Carona, R-Dallas, said.

The veteran legislator said he has assurances that Dewhurst will give him time
to try to draft legislation that calms the outrage over proposed 50-year state
contracts with private companies to build and operate toll roads.

Critics are howling at contract provisions that restrict competing highways near
the toll roads and contain prohibitive terms for buying back the roads in the
future.

They say the specter of high toll rates combined with a loss of control over
Texas highways has inspired broad, bipartisan support for a moratorium.

Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, has 27 of 31 senators backing his
moratorium bill. On the House side, 111 of 150 members have signed up for Rep.
Lois Kolkhorst's bill.

"It boils down to whether the 10th largest economy in the world (Texas) can
build its own highways or if we're going to give private equities the chance to
take all the profits from Texas," Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, said.

Investors will net a projected $300 million over the next 50 years for private
company toll roads in major cities along the Interstate 35 corridor, Kolkhorst
said.

"The real question is, do you want that $300 million just on one highway to be
plowed into more highways in Texas, or do you want that $300 million to go to
Wall Street and Spain? That's what it boils down to," she said. "That's a clear
policy question."

Debate heating


Many lawmakers likely will defer to Nichols, who spent eight years on the Texas
Transportation Commission before becoming a senator. He expects a moratorium to
pass.
"We need to call a time-out. We need to fix this problem, and we need to fix it
right," Nichols said. "The current plan removes the control of your future
transportation system out of your own hands. It sells the future revenues at a
discount, and it's designed to extract exorbitant toll rates."

Dewhurst called those rates "astronomical" but declined to discuss them because
of confidentiality agreements with the private companies.

Decisions about the state's future highway system will be dictated by
corporations instead of Texans unless lawmakers intervene now, Nichols said.

But Carona and House Transportation Chairman Mike Krusee, R-Taylor, are urging
caution. Political dissent will scare off investors and increase the state's
financing costs for building roads, they warn.

Texas is short "tens of billions of dollars" needed to build highways, Krusee
said.

Publicly run regional toll authorities can build some of the roads but lack
necessary bonding authority to build all of them, he said.

"Once we tell the capital market that Texas is closed for two years, will they
ever want to come back? Because it's very expensive to make proposals," he said.
"The capital market looks for willing partners and if Texas is not a willing
partner, they leave."

A moratorium is shortsighted because it simply postpones a solution for two
years, Carona said.

"What we need to focus on is a bill that takes care of the problems and allows
us to meet our transportation needs," he said. "A moratorium stops the process,
but no part of that bill addresses how you will fix the problem."

Carona also favors indexing the state's gasoline tax to keep pace with
inflation. The state's 20-cent per gallon tax has not increased since 1991.

Texas' ongoing population boom requires "a massive road building project today —
not two years from now," he said.

Done deal


The concession-development agreement to extend Texas 130 from south of Austin to
Seguin was widely trumpeted last summer when the state and a group led by the
Spanish firm Cintra and Zachry Construction Corp. of San Antonio settled on
terms.
But not a peep was made when officials signed the contract March 22 at the Texas
Department of Transportation office in Austin, across the street from the
Capitol.

"We made an announcement in June, when we made a tough decision to do it," said
Ric Williamson, chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission.

Awarding Cintra the construction fulfills a contract guaranteeing the firm at
least one segment of the project, Kolkhorst said.

Cintra-Zachry will pay to build and operate the 40-mile, four-lane tollway and
has pledged to give the state $25 million in up-front cash and a share of
profits. The road could open in 2012, with toll fees set at about 15 cents a
mile in today's dollars and increasing with annual growth of state domestic
product.

But Kolkhorst said it's costing Texas $19 million in environmental and legal
fees to get the $25 million, "so we're really not even going to net anything on
that one."

Up next is a concession to make Texas 121 north of Dallas into a toll road,
another Cintra project that has created an even bigger uproar. An agreement was
unveiled in February and could be signed within three months, said José Lopez, a
Cintra director in Austin.

"We would be very happy to sign tomorrow," Lopez said.

The North Texas Tollway Authority, which had agreed not to bid on the project,
said it could have matched Cintra's upfront carrot of $2.1 billion and that for
the rest of the 50-year contract they could have paid $4.2 billion compared to
Cintra's $700 million.

Motorists will pay the $3.5 billion difference if the deal is signed, officials
say.

In San Antonio, Cintra-Zachry is competing with a consortium headed by Macquarie
of Australia to develop and operate toll lanes on 47 miles of U.S. 281 and Loop
1604 on the city's North Side. That contract could be signed as early as next
year.

A moratorium on concession contracts could stall that work for a year or two.

"A lot of it depends on what the language actually says," said Clay Smith, a
TxDOT engineer in San Antonio.

When Cintra-Zachry submitted a proposal in 2005 for the $2.2 billion project,
about $630 million in public money was freed up for other uses. If environmental
studies get federal clearance this summer, construction could start next year
and finish by 2012.

San Antonio lawmakers say they're hearing plenty of complaints about toll roads
from Bexar County residents.

"A lot of it is because of the lack of information," Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San
Antonio, said.

Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, who supports a moratorium, emphasized that a
two-year cooling off period would not affect toll roads built by public toll
road authorities.

"We have to continue building highways. The people are coming whether we like it
or not," Wentworth said, noting it took Texas hundreds of years to reach a
population of 23 million but its population is expected to double over the next
30 years.

Carona can't promise that a consensus will emerge from negotiations on SB 1929,
the moratorium bill, but he complimented Krusee and TxDOT officials for showing
good-faith efforts to resolve nagging worries about long-term private toll road
projects.

The moratorium option hovering over negotiations will help that process, he
said.

- - -


More Information
State lawmakers unhappy with privatizing toll roads are trying to halt such
contracts for two years. Their moratorium proposal faces roadblocks by
legislative leaders despite veto-proof support in both the House and Senate.
Local impact:

Private companies hope to develop and operate toll lanes on 47 miles of U.S. 281
and Loop 1604 on the North Side. A contract could come as early as next year,
but a moratorium would stall work for a year or two.

Out of the gate:

The Texas Department of Transportation has quietly signed the state's first
toll-road concession contract to extend Texas 130 from south of Austin to
Seguin, putting it out of reach of the proposed moratorium.