Truth Be Tolled

New Trailer: TBT 281 Special Edition

'E-N's verdict on 1604-281 mess reeks of favors'

"Try checking in with those who live in the interchange’s shadow. Hollywood Park Mayor Bob Sartor (local GOP precinct chair — no hugger of blind salamanders) said residents there object to the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority and TxDOT suggesting that there would be no negative effects from the interchange as designed. 'We adamantly disagree with the Categorical Exclusion’s finding there are no ill health effects associated with this project. I haven’t found any that agree with the ARMA.' Nobody but the [Express-News’s]  influential editorial board, that is."

--Greg Harman of the San Antonio Current

Read the rest of his commentary here.

TBT 281 Special Edition Premiere

Please join Storm Pictures for the San Antonio premiere of its new award-winning film, "Truth Be Tolled:  281 Special Edition," at the Palladium Theater on September 30, 2010, at 7:00 pm.

For more information and to order tickets online, click here.

'Anti-toller intolerance'

Alongside his coverage of the slowly-brewing water shortage facing Texas, the San Antonio Current's Greg Harman recently added his voice of reason to the toll road debate. Perhaps, he suggests, the real issue is not whether an unpaid citizen activist is unduly influencing a public official, as raised by a recent San Antonio Express-News request for private emails between MPO Chair and Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson and Terri Hall of TURF and Truth Be Tolled, but whether or not a double-taxing,  big money-profiting toll road over the Edwards Aquifer is really in the best interest of San Antonio's long-term urban plans.

As Harman says:

"If there is a story at the MPO, it has long been about the intersection of private gain and the public good. From the cashing in of Perry cronies on the now-slumbering Trans-Texas Corridor to TXDOT and MPO skirmishes over tolling 281, pressing highway needs mean there is the scent of mad money in the air. Perhaps, the Express should listen to their readers when they suggest they should instead be shooting for MPO board members who may be overly influenced, I don’t know, by the monied interests at work and not gunning for two ideologues bridging a yawning political divide through their mutual distain for the notion of double-taxing residents for a functional roadway."

Read the rest of the article here.

Runaway toll fees at TxDOT

According to The Burnt Orange Report and KXAN-TV, the state of Texas is charging motorists a 4,000 percent administrative fee for each toll they don’t pay after 112 days. Some motorists – even those with the proper tags – are finding themselves with thousands in fees for just a few bucks in overdue tolls.  

Hank Gilbert to testify at tar sands pipeline hearing

Hank Gilbert of Truth Be Tolled, the Texas Democratic Party’s nominee for Agriculture Commissioner, will give public testimony on the Environmental Impact Study (EIS) for the Tar Sands Keystone Pipeline, slated to cross through a number of Texas counties. The hearing is being conducted by the U.S. State Department,  Public Hearing, Ramada Hotel & Conference Center, 3310 Troup Highway, Tyler, Texas 75701 on Tuesday, May 20, 2010, 7:00 p.m. 

The Tar Sands Keystone Pipeline would potentially have the capacity to transport 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil to destinations in Port Arthur and in Harris County. The Project would consist of approximately 1,707 miles of new, 36-inch-diameter pipeline. The Sierra Club of Texas has estimated that more than 32 streams, rivers, and lakes in Eastern Texas could be endangered by potential pollution or spillage from the pipeline. Additionally, a significant amount of private and agricultural land—including land used for farming and/or livestock grazing, will be in danger of pollution in East Texas.

Originally in the Trans-Texas Corridor plan, the pipeline would run from Canada down through Texas. 

Read more  criticism about it here.

TBT wins Gold Remi

Congratulations, Storm Pictures!

Truth Be Tolled:  the 281 Special Edition  

received the Gold Remi Award for a Feature Documentary Film

at the  WorldFest Houston International Film Festival !

TBT's Festival Premiere

Be sure to join us the WorldFest Houston International Film Festival on Tuesday, April 13th for the premiere screening of Truth Be Tolled:  281 Special Edition.

The screening is at 5 pm at 

AMC Studio 30 Theaters on Dunvale

2949 Dunvale off Westheimer
Houston, TX 77063 

Tickets are available here.

"Truth Be Tolled" at WorldFest Houston

Storm Pictures is proud to announce that "Truth Be Tolled:  281 Special Edition"  will be an Official Selection at the 43rd Annual WorldFest Houston International Film Festival.

The newest film in the "Truth Be Tolled" trilogy has also been nominated for a REMI award.

Both previous films were REMI award winners;  the first won the Platinum REMI for a Feature Documentary Film and was also an official selection of that year's festival.  

The second film won a Silver REMI.

Storm Pictures is honored to once again be recognized be such a prestigious and long-running festival.

New! Truth Be Tolled, The 281 Special Edition

State takes steps to end Trans-Texas Corridor

Like a horror-film zombie, the TTC "died" but not really...will this be the final blow that does the trick?

Article By Jay Root of The Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Department of Transportation is closing the books on the unpopular "Trans-Texas Corridor" project, which has already cost the state millions of dollars to gather up plans, hold public meetings and conduct environmental studies.

The $175 billion proposal to build a network of toll roads and rail lines, the brainchild of Gov. Rick Perry, has run into fierce opposition virtually since it was proposed in 2002. State officials told reporters Wednesday that the agency notified federal highway authorities this week to say it wants to halt what was to be the first leg of the project — along the heavily congested Interstate 35.

The department has already spent over $15 million on environmental studies and planning documents associated with the I-35 corridor, and the cost will go higher as the cancellation process grinds to a halt, officials said.

"We made it very clear that it would be some time before we could completely transition away from the TTC," department director Amadeo Saenz said. "We were and we still are in the middle of environmental studies and those issues have to run their course as we move forward."

TxDOT has already spent $12 million on the environmental review process for the I-35 corridor, which would have stretched from the Mexico border to the Oklahoma line. Costs associated with canceling a private contract to build the corridor have hit $3.5 million and could go up to about $4 million, Saenz said.

The costs will mount further in coming months as the department holds public meetings about the results of the environmental study, he said.

The agency said earlier this year that it was scaling down the project and dropping the name "Trans-Texas Corridor." Transportation officials acknowledged the plan had sparked an uproar among landowners, elected officials and people who live along the proposed routes.

Perry's Republican primary opponent, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, has been a vocal opponent of the corridor and calls TxDOT the "most arrogant" agency in state government.

At a news conference Wednesday, Transportation commissioner Ted Houghton — a Perry appointee — jokingly introduced himself as "the most arrogant commissioner of the most arrogant state agency in the history of the state of Texas."

That brought a sharp rebuke from the Hutchison campaign.

"The Trans-Texas Corridor will not be officially dead until Rick Perry is no longer governor and his political appointees are no longer running TxDOT," said Hutchison spokesman Joe Pounder. "While TxDOT is touting their arrogance, Texans don't think Rick Perry's record of wasting millions is anything to be proud of."

Perry spokesman Mark Miner complained that Hutchison had done too little to get federal highway funds for Texas while Perry pursues solutions to traffic gridlock.

Perry, speaking after an event in Brownsville on Wednesday, said "there's no asphalt fairy," but pledged to continue to look for ways to build new roads.

Adkisson to push no-toll proposal

By Josh Baugh

From Express-news

Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson on Monday will recommend stripping toll roads from the Metropolitan Planning Organization's plans and fixing some of the region's most congested corridors with freeway expansions.

The move would represent a sweeping policy change for the MPO board, of which Adkisson is chairman, as well as a major victory for toll opponents, who say the concept of tolling in Bexar County would die altogether if Adkisson's plan proves successful.

Terri Hall, founder and director of two anti-toll groups — the San Antonio Toll Party and Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom — has played a substantial role in the forming of Adkisson's plan. The portion that deals with U.S. 281 on the far North Side is exactly what Hall and her groups have been demanding for years.

“We're going to make them non-toll roads like they were in 2001,” Hall said, referring to a Texas Department of Transportation plan that called for overpasses at some major intersections on U.S. 281 north of Loop 1604. The plan never came to fruition and was replaced by one that would build tolled lanes instead.

Since Adkisson, a toll opponent, was elected MPO chairman in July, Hall has seen her power and influence multiply. Hall now has an ally in the top position of the organization. She appears to essentially have a seat at the table — she made a lengthy presentation at an MPO board meeting this summer and has helped craft the proposal that Adkisson will introduce Monday.

“The sense that Commissioner Adkisson and I are getting when we meet with elected officials is that toll roads are finished,” Hall said.

The 19-member MPO board will discuss the proposal Monday, but a vote won't come until a board meeting next month.

The MPO controls the purse strings of all transportation projects that include federal funding but doesn't do any construction. The Alamo Regional Mobility Authority, TxDOT and local governments are charged with building the projects.

Adkisson aims to amend the MPO's short- and long-range plans by removing tolling proposals from segments of Loop 1604, U.S. 281 and Bandera Road. The amendment would require shifting money and would likely affect other transportation projects.

Because the changes deal with state funding, they would also have to pass muster with the Texas Transportation Commission, a five-member board appointed by Gov. Rick Perry, an ardent toll advocate. The TTC's chairwoman, Deirdre Delisi, is Perry's former chief of staff.

But Hall and Adkisson don't see that as a substantial obstacle because Perry can't afford to cross voters on the far North Side who don't want tolls, they say.

“Pressure works in favor of anyone seeking to change the status quo,” Adkisson said. “The status quo on 281 North and 1604 has got to go.”

Hall was more explicit.

“I dare Rick Perry — in an election year with all anti-toll opponents — to vote this down,” she said.

Adkisson's plan would reduce the cost of a U.S. 281 project from Loop 1604 to the county line from $475 million to $200 million, expanding the road to include six to eight lanes and overpasses. It would call for building all eight direct connectors between U.S. 281 and Loop 1604, rather than just the four southern connectors that the Alamo RMA plans to construct.

The plan would also expand Loop 1604 from Texas 151 to Bandera Road with six to eight non-tolled lanes, and it would remove plans to build toll lanes on Bandera between Loop 410 and Loop 1604.

Can it be done?

MPO board members learned about Adkisson's proposal Friday morning when the organization released an updated agenda for Monday's board meeting. Some officials say they're not sure that Adkisson's plan would work.

“If it can happen, I'm all for it,” said County Commissioner Kevin Wolff, an MPO board member. “If you can prove this up, then let's go to town.”

City Councilman Ray Lopez said he is reserving opinion until he better understands Adkisson's plan. He wants to see how it would affect the funding of other projects in the region.

Others say they won't support it at all.

“We don't support it at the Texas Department of Transportation because in so supporting it, we lose over $900 million of transportation infrastructure,” said Clay Smith, a TxDOT planning engineer who sits on the MPO board. “That leaves hundreds of thousands of motorists for generations to come in gridlock. We don't think that's the right thing to do.”

Smith said Adkisson's plan would kill any expansion on other parts of U.S. 281 and Loop 1604 for the next 25 years, leaving those portions exactly as they are today.

The Alamo RMA, which has tolling power, is the agency slated to build highway expansions on U.S. 281 and Loop 1604. The agency received federal environmental clearance Friday to build a “superstreet” on U.S. 281, which is expected to temporarily ease congestion until the RMA can build more capacity.

The RMA also is conducting massive environmental studies on the two highways and a smaller study of an interchange project on the southern side of the 281/1604 intersection, where the agency plans to build four non-tolled connectors with federal stimulus money.

But TxDOT's Smith said the project's stimulus funding could be jeopardized by Adkisson's desire to build all eight connectors at once.

Adkisson said he expects there to be ample opposition.

“It won't take long for dark imaginings to be showcased by the just-say-no-to-anything-new crowd, and those who are ensconced in the thinking of the past that would have us tolling these roads,” he said. “I would think anybody who wants to defeat this will attempt to suggest that the sky is falling, the world is coming to an end, life as we know it will never be the same again, because that's a tried-and-true, age-old tactic.”

RMA spokesman Leroy Alloway, who contended that the plan was Hall's — as opposed to Adkisson's — questioned Friday whether the details on funding and environmental issues in the proposal would be plausible.

“We look forward to seeing what Ms. Hall's plan is. We've said from Day One that if there's another plan that works, we'd look at it,” he said. “We want to see what she has to say and what she's going to present.”

RMA and TxDOT officials say there's no available funding for non-tolled highway expansion plans, despite what Hall says.

Vote in October

The debate starts Monday, with the decision coming a month later. Adkisson said he plans to hold the October meeting in the evening on the North Side so constituents can attend. Adkisson said the MPO meetings, typically held on one Monday a month at 1:30 p.m., are “anti-citizen, inconvenient (and) citizen/user unfriendly.”

Hall shared the same sentiment.

When the MPO board meets in October to vote on Adkisson's proposal, it'll do it in front of a packed house of toll opponents rather than a room full of highway lobbyists who are paid to baby-sit the meetings, she said.

Adkisson and Hall say they believe they have enough support on the MPO to move the non-toll proposal forward. What remains to be seen is whether they do.

“I'm depending on all of them to join hands and march down this road as a show of solidarity of this community that we want this to be done without tolls,” Adkisson said.

Perry's opponent uses toll road plan as ammo

By Kelley Shannon

From Associated Press 

Gov. Rick Perry ditched his plan to build a $175 billion network of toll roads that would crisscross the state after it ran into strong opposition, but he hasn't been able to shake the issue altogether.

Perry cast his Trans-Texas Corridor project as a way to relieve Texas' traffic congestion by building highways in a state growing by 1,000 people per day.

But he had to scale down the project considerably after it ran into opposition from farmers and ranchers, who said it threatened their land, and open government advocates, who derided its secret contract with a Spanish company.

Now a fellow Republican, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, has seized on the road project as she seeks to take his job, saying the project and Perry's transportation policies smack of arrogance.

"It's part of the overall argument — he's been there too long and look at the things he's failed at," Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, said in describing Hutchison's strategy.

Toll roads and transportation alone may not be enough to turn an election, but Hutchison seems to be using them as a way to raise questions about Perry's competence, Henson said.

Perry, the state's longest-serving leader who is seeking a third full term, faces Hutchison and party activist Debra Medina in the GOP primary in March. Though recent polls have shown Perry with a lead over Hutchison, they also show large numbers of undecided voters, indicating the public isn't fully paying attention yet. The Republican primary winner is expected to be the favorite heading into the fall 2010 general election.

Perry proposed the sweeping toll road and high-speed rail corridor in 2002. The name "Trans-Texas Corridor" is now gone, but two key roads in the project — one parallel to Interstate 35 and another that is to be Interstate 69 running from northeast Texas to the Rio Grande Valley — remain in the planning stages.

"We have to continue to move people and the products of companies that call Texas home," said Perry campaign spokesman Mark Miner.

Hutchison has yet to present her own plan but she says she wants to reform and expand a state transportation commission. Her campaign says she opposes toll roads unless local officials and voters agree to them, and they say she worked in the Senate to halt federally funded toll roads.

"It is time to return to our tradition of free, quality highways and roads," Hutchison said in kicking off her campaign last month. She calls the Trans-Texas Corridor "the biggest land grab in the history of Texas."

An interest group that opposes toll roads, Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, is looking closely at candidates from both parties, said its founder and direct, Terri Hall.

"Most of our supporters are well aware that we're in the anybody-but-Perry mode," Hall said. The group has not endorsed anyone in the governor's race, but a Democratic candidate, Hank Gilbert, is active in the group.

In arguing against state-orchestrated toll roads and for private property rights, Hutchison plays up her close ties to the Texas Farm Bureau, which opposes the toll road corridor. She sides with its stance on eminent domain, and pointed that out following Perry's veto of a property rights bill the bureau backed in 2007.

Perry, too, is trying to show he cares deeply about property rights, and earlier this year voiced support for a state constitutional amendment banning the government from taking private property and giving it to a developer to boost the local tax base.

This isn't the first time Perry has defended himself on toll roads in an election. Independent candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn unsuccessfully ran against Perry in 2006 by attacking his toll road project.

Strayhorn's campaign privately acknowledged at the time the strategy might help win over rural voters, but not the urban voters who are key to victory. And those are voters Hutchison will need in March.

Perry's spokesman equates Hutchison's toll roads complaints with Strayhorn's.

"It's almost identical," Miner said, "and it shows that criticism is not a solution." 

Texas Mayors petition FHA to halt Trans-Texas Corridor

In the midst of Governor Perry's photo-op turnaround in support of eminent domain reform, five Mayors of Texas towns in the path of the Trans-Texas Corridor took a stand against Rick's proposed land grab. 

The Mayors formed the Eastern Central Texas Sub-Regional Planning Commission (ECTSRPC) and filed a petition with the Federal Highway Administration demanding that it reject the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Trans-Texas Corridor I-35 project.  

Their petition addresses a deep concern about the Blacklands Prairie, a swath of rich, vital farmland which is the heart of the region's economy.  The Mayors say that TxDOT's DEIS did not  sufficiently study the impact  of the TTC, which would cut through a significant portion of the Prairie.  In light of this and recent claims by TxDOT that the Trans-Texas Corridor in its previous incarnation is "dead," the petition is calling for a new study.  

To read a copy of the petition and the press release about the Mayors' fight, visit the Stewards of The Range website.

Attorney General rejects toll projects

By Michael Lindenberger

From The Dallas Morning News

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has refused to sign off on the first of two major private toll road projects approved for North Texas earlier this year.

Abbott said provisions in the contract with the Spanish firm Cintra, which is slated to build the North Tarrant Express in Fort Worth and the mid-cities, violate the Texas Constitution and must be amended.

State law gives Abbott the power to hold up the contracts indefinitely if they are not "legally sufficient."

Negotiations between his office and the department have already extended for weeks beyond an initial 60-day deadline.

Cintra has agreed to spend billions in North Texas to build the North Tarrant Express toll road and to rebuild the LBJ Freeway.

But in return, the state department of transportation has pledged more than $1 billion in tax dollars toward the projects. As a result, main lanes on both highways will be free, but Cintra will collect tolls for 52 years on adjacent lanes.

The LBJ Freeway contract has not yet been reviewed, but it is likely to be saddled with the same legal issues.

Abbott said the department's contract for the North Tarrant Express obligates the state to pay $740 million over several years to Cintra.

"The Texas Constitution says that one Legislature cannot financially bind a future Legislature," he said.

The contract must be amended to reflect that any promises for payment are subject to discretion of future sessions of the Legislature, Abbott said.

Any provision that leaves payments from the state subject to future action by the Legislature could give Cintra pause.

TxDOT continues to work to meet Abbott's objections and to settle on terms agreeable to Cintra, spokesman Chris Lippincott said.

Senate votes out TxDOT overhaul

By Jim Vertuno of Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Senate on Monday night approved its version of a major overhaul to the state's road-building agency, including allowing voters in counties in the state's largest metro areas to raise gas taxes to pay for road projects.

The Senate bill to renew the Texas Department of Transportation also would keep the agency's five-member commission, even though the governor-appointed panel would be subjected to closer scrutiny from lawmakers.

Those two provisions are major differences between the Senate and House with the June 1 end of the session looming.

The Senate would allow 30 counties in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, El Paso and Corpus Christi metro areas to hold local elections to raise gas taxes by up to 10 cents per gallon and raise vehicle registration fees.

Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, said it will provide much-needed to money to build roads for those cities' bursting populations.

"Those areas have the greatest population and the greatest mobility needs," Carona said.

And while the Senate wants to keep the agency commission intact, the House wants to replace it with a single statewide elected commissioner and divert much of the embattled agency's power to local commissions.

The House plan would strip much of Gov. Rick Perry's power to influence one of the state's most important agencies, one that that has come under withering criticism in recent years as it plowed ahead with Perry's vision for the Trans-Texas Corridor, a superhighway system of roads, railway and utility lines crisscrossing Texas.

The Senate would keep the commission but reduce the length of terms from six years to two. That could greatly expand the Senate's influence over the agency because the Senate confirms the governor's appointments.

With the end of the session a week away, some lawmakers worried the rush on such a massive bill would create more problems.

"I hope we don't add to the chaos and confusion that is already over there," said Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock.

The 14,000-employee agency has been a target for lawmakers this session. A recent review under the state "sunset" process called for revamping the department's governing bard and its dealings with lawmakers and the public.

"There was a lot of distrust," said Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, sponsor of the transportation rewrite.

Both the House and Senate versions would repeal the Trans-Texas Corridor. That won't prevent governments from pursuing toll roads, but the version planned for by Perry and some lawmakers in recent years is "dead," Hegar said.

The Trans-Texas Corridor came under fire almost since its inception. Rural landowners in particular were opposed to giving up their property for the project. Perry and other state officials had already said they were scrapping the original concept.

"In this bill it's dead. In the House bill it's dead," Hegar said. "It's dead."

Like the House bill, the Senate also voted to create new legislative oversight to review agency policy. The Senate also wants to prohibit the agency from lobbying state lawmakers.

The Senate came close to joining the House in banning the controversial use of red-light cameras. The House bill would phase them out and the Senate at first voted to add the same provision, but then changed its mind and removed the ban.

Florida puts "Alligator Alley" leasing plan on hold

TALLAHASSEE (Reuters) - Plans to lease Florida's "Alligator Alley" to private operators are now on hold after no bidders stepped up to take over the 78-mile stretch of toll road through the Everglades, transport officials said Tuesday.

The Florida decision is the latest in a string of proposed high-profile privatizations of U.S. public facilities to unwind.

Chicago gave up on a $2.25 billion Midway Airport lease deal because of financing difficulties, and opponents stopped a $12.8 billion turnpike privatization in Pennsylvania.

In Florida, following months of haggling and controversy, the state Department of Transportation called off a public hearing set for May 29 after a Monday deadline elapsed without a single proposal to privatize the road linking Naples on the state's Gulf coast to Fort Lauderdale on the Atlantic.

Tight credit and mounting opposition to the deal may have proved too much as deadlines came and went.

A state DOT spokesman said on Tuesday the agency was surprised by the lack of participation and wasn't told bidders got cold feet.

"We didn't get that type of feedback," said DOT spokesman Dick Kane.

State Sen. Dave Aronberg, a vocal critic of the planned privatization, hailed the DOT's setback. The proposal was misguided, posed homeland security issues and compromised the state's revenue generating capacity, he said.

"This was a bad deal from the beginning," Aronberg said. "It should never have gotten this far."

In April 2008 the Florida DOT put the roadway up for lease as a way to generate revenue for the cash-strapped state.

Eight firms responded to the initial request for bids, including companies from Spain, Italy and Portugal. The list dropped to six after additional requirements were imposed.

The bidding deadline, originally set for December 15, was repeatedly moved back as bidders reeled from a global credit meltdown that left them unable to obtain financing.

One consumer group lauded the deadline's passing, saying the state should not turn state-run toll roads into profit-generating operations for private business.

"By privatizing roadways, officials hand over significant control over regional transportation policy to individuals who are accountable to their shareholders rather than the public," said Brad Ashwell, advocate for the Florida Public Interest Research Group. "The public should retain control over decisions about transportation planning and management."

(Reporting by Michael Peltier, additional reporting by Michael Connor in Miami; Editing by Padraic Cassidy)

Senator Hutchinson fights double taxation in Washington

By Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson for the San Antonio Express-News

Maintaining and improving transportation infrastructure in Texas has become nearly as daunting a proposition as driving down Loop 410 at rush hour.

San Antonio and Texas as a whole have fast-growing populations, but face the challenge of crumbling and overstressed highways and consistent funding shortfalls. Clearly, something's got to give, and it can't be the quality of our roads — or fairness to Texas taxpayers. As we work to meet our transportation needs, we must think broadly and avoid band-aid solutions that will ultimately exacerbate the problem.

Recently, there have been renewed calls for tolls on highways that have already been built and paid for with federal tax dollars. I believe taxing Americans twice for the same asset is fundamentally unfair, and I oppose any effort to place tolls on existing interstate highways.

Double taxation is not the only concern. Overemphasis on tolling has serious implications for community safety and local infrastructure. Studies show that motorists will change their driving patterns to bypass the tolls. This will redirect traffic from our highways to remaining free roads, and, in turn, congest our local streets, compromise neighborhood safety, and overburden small-capacity infrastructure.

Furthermore, tolls on existing interstates will divert truck traffic to other roads. A recent study predicted that a 25-cent-per-mile toll on an interstate highway would cause nearly half the trucks to divert to other routes. Many of our communities are not equipped to handle heavy commercial traffic, and the safety of local drivers could be put at risk by the increased presence of trucks on small roads.

Today, I plan to introduce legislation to prevent tolling of existing free federal highways, bridges, or tunnels built with federal funding, so that taxpayers are not taxed to use a road for which they've already paid. I'm for more highways and even tolls, when proposed the right way. The legislation does not prohibit tolls on new construction.

If local communities and states want to cooperatively construct a toll road, they should be able to do so. If the state or community wants to expand their highways and toll for building new lanes, they can choose that alternative. In these situations, the taxpayers know exactly what they are getting. Many times a vote is required to approve these projects, but in any case, the taxpayers can hold the relevant officials accountable.

There has also been discussion in Texas and elsewhere of states attempting to purchase highways from the federal government and place them under state ownership or lease them to foreign investors for the purpose of tolling them. This is also an ill-conceived proposal that fails to address our underlying transportation challenges.

The debate on tolling illuminates the broader need to reform the federal highway program. Its antiquated funding formula, which has made Texas a donor state, is no longer serving the best interests of each state and its motorists. Our national transportation mission should evolve to maintaining and improving infrastructure, so that states don't resort to band-aid solutions, such as tolling existing freeways.

In April, I introduced a bill that would permit states to opt out of the federal highway program and instead be rebated federal fuel taxes collected within their borders. Today, Texas receives 92 cents back for every dollar sent to Washington, up from 76 cents from when I came to the Senate. My bill would allow Texas to finally see 100 percent of its gas tax dollars, and ensure all of our funds could be used to improve transportation in Texas.

Washington shouldn't take Texas tax dollars and send them to other states. Likewise, Texans shouldn't be charged time and time again to drive on roads they already paid for with their hard-earned tax dollars.

Kay Bailey Hutchison is the senior U.S. senator from Texas.

Truth Be Tolled wins WorldFest award

Storm Pictures is proud to announce that Truth Be Tolled: The TURF Special Edition has just won a Silver Remi Award in the 2009 WorldFest Houston International Film Festival.  

The film was  chosen from among 4,300 entries in 10 major Remi Award competitions.  

As one of the longest-running and most significant film festivals in the world, WorldFest Houston has also bestowed Remi honors upon Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Ridley Scott, the Coen Brothers and Brian De Palma.  

Storm Pictures is honored to share such distinguished company.

Truth Be Tolled: The TTC Special Edition won the Platinum Remi Award for a Feature Documentary at WorldFest 2007.

At the Senate hearing

"What's all that recession ruckus in Texas?"

By Hilary Hylton 

From Time Magazine

It was the shout-out heard around the world: Texas' Republican governor Rick Perry's praise for his state's tea-party protesters, accompanied by not-so-veiled references to a potential Lone Star State secession. The remarks prompted glaring red-website headlines and instant fodder for cable-TV pundits. But for Texas political insiders, Perry's waving of the flag of secession was just the latest volley in a Texas-size Republican civil war — a face-off between Perry and his potential rival for the 2010 Republican gubernatorial nomination, U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Most observers in Texas believe Hutchison will indeed challenge Perry. She has moved from being coy about her plans to being less coy about running for governor. Still, there has been no official announcement. And so Perry has embarked on a Pavlovian political exercise: you say, "Hutchison," and he says, "Washington." Some Perry backers have even dubbed the 16-year Senate veteran "Kay Bailout Hutchison."

This week's tea parties afforded the governor an opportunity to tap into the Texas spirit of independence, a surefire crowd-pleaser in the reddest of red states, one with a profound sense of its own identity, independent history and anti-Washington sentiment. "Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression," Perry told roaring tea-party crowds in Austin and Fort Worth, quoting Sam Houston, Texas' founding father.

Dressed in jeans, boots and a baseball cap with a camouflage peak and a hunting outfitter's logo, the Texas governor was one of the few major politicians to appear at the tea parties across the country. While crowds yelled "Secede! Secede!," Perry — 60 but telegenic and youthful — thought out loud that secession might be the outcome if Washington does not mend its "oppressive" high-spending, dictatorial ways. (Most experts say the notion that Texas can legally secede is mistaken, but the state does have the right to split into five states, offering the prospect of 10 U.S. Senators, math that would send cold shivers down any Democratic back.)

After the rallies, Perry downplayed his secession comments, amending them in an interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram to say, "I'm trying to make the Obama Administration pay attention to the 10th Amendment." The so-called 10th Amendment movement, asserting the rights of the states to claim all powers not granted specifically to the Federal Government, has been grist for conservatives for more than a decade. The movement got a boost following the Democratic return to dominance in Congress and more traction when federal dictates about how to spend stimulus money raised hackles in places like Texas and South Carolina. Some two dozen state legislatures are considering or have passed resolutions supporting the 10th Amendment.

Is the governor's strategy working? While Perry was whipping up the tea-party crowds, Senator Hutchison was in Houston touting her work in Washington and her support for the federal deductability of state sales taxes. "The Senator is on the front lines in working against the Obama Administration and their unnecessary spending," her spokesman said. It was weak tea compared to Perry's red rhetoric. Straddling the Washington-Texas divide has been difficult for Hutchison. While Perry has been outspoken in rejecting federal unemployment funds, saying they would result in increased premiums for Texas employers, Senator Hutchison has been criticized for a less-than-clear stand on the issue. She voted against the stimulus bill, then said Perry should find a way to take the benefits without burdening employers in the future.

Nevertheless, one longtime Republican analyst and numbers cruncher, Royal Masset, believes Hutchison will defeat Perry and be the next governor of Texas. Polls suggest she has an early lead, and Masset points to her overwhelming victories in the past as evidence of her wide support not only among Republicans but also among independents, who can vote in Texas primaries. He has urged Perry to forgo another gubernatorial bid. Masset believes that Perry should be content with one major accomplishment: helping to create more jobs in Texas than the rest of the U.S. during his tenure. "Your place in history is secure," Masset wrote in a recent analysis piece for the Quorum Report, an insider political newsletter that circulates out of Austin, the state capital. "You would be freed up to do great things on the national scene where real power is now held by media stars such as you."

It is not likely to be advice Perry will heed. He is already the longest serving governor in Texas history — as lieutenant governor, he took over for President-elect George W. Bush in December 2000. That has given him unparalleled influence over state government, where much of the governor's power resides in appointments to boards and commissions. Masset believes that more of that kind of centralization of power "will lead to Washington-style corruption. We need new people with new ideas. We need new appointees and new blood."

All this talk of front lines, "oppressive Washington" and states' rights and cries of "Texas not taxes!" ironically comes as Texans get ready to commemorate on April 21 the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive battle of Texas' fight for independence from Mexico. It is also the day legislative hearings will be held in Austin on Texas' 10th Amendment resolution — so far, about half the members of the house of representatives have signed on as co-sponsors of the measure, which affirms Texas sovereignty under the 10th Amendment and serves notice to the Federal Government "to cease and desist certain mandates." Meanwhile, Texas house Democratic leader Jim Dunnam introduced a counterresolution Thursday, disagreeing with "any fringe element advocating the 'secession' of Texas" and adding that Perry's remarks were anti-American. Perry downplayed the brouhaha, telling reporters, "This is America, baby. The First Amendment, we like that too."

Legislators challenge Governor's veto power

I don't think the significance of this story should be overlooked.

By Ben Philpott for KUT Radio

Because Texas lawmakers pass the majority of their bill during the final days of the legislative session, the session is over before the governor vetoes legislation. Houston Republican Gary Elkins says that means lawmakers have no chance for an override.



Elkins: "I just want to bring the power back to the people we represent. The Constitution gives us the right to override governor vetoes. But as a practical matter, we're never here and never get the opportunity."

Elkins' Constitutional amendment would allow lawmakers to request a veto override, and with a majority of their colleagues in agreement, lawmakers would get called back to Austin. Will Lutz edits the Lone Star Report, a conservative political newsletter. He says the bill is a response to what some lawmakers view as an excessive amount of vetoes by Governor Perry.



Lutz: "The governor has vetoed local bills over larger policy disputes - over things like the Trans-Texas Corridor. He's vetoed things that even Republican legislators got a lot of grief from their constituents over like a property rights bill that protected people from eminent domain. And I think the legislators in the House have decided enough is enough."


This is the second time around for this amendment. It passed the House last year and fell flat in the Senate. A companion bill there this time around is still waiting for a committee hearing.

281 Overpasses Now

Stimulating sprawl

"The Recovery Act creates jobs by investing in immediate projects such as highways, bridges and tunnels — and within limitations to prevent waste, fraud, and ‘highways to nowhere’ — grants the states and their citizens broad discretion to choose which highway projects get funding."

--Nick Shapiro, White House Spokesman, in an article by Mike Cooper in the New York Times about a Texas plan to use $181 million of federal stimulus money to build a 15-mile, four-lane toll road through the Katy Prairie outside of Houston

Cooper  writes:  "The road exemplifies an unintended effect of the stimulus law: an administration that opposes suburban sprawl is giving money to states for projects that are almost certain to exacerbate it."

Hand slapped

"I am … compelled to strongly denounce your comments to Mr. Hank Gilbert at the … meeting as completely out of line and wholly unacceptable.

Regardless of the criticism you may have received over the last few years in your duties as a commissioner and regardless of your thoughts about Mr. Gilbert or the group he represents, he is a Texas taxpayer, and it is extremely inconsiderate for you to dismiss him and the organization he represents as “idiots.” Anyone who holds the prestigious position of Texas transportation commissioner must take both the good and the bad that comes with that position and treat our fellow citrizens with respect; the same respect that he paid you in politely expressing his thoughts and opinions.

[I]ncidents like this one only underscore the problems of the past and retard future progress. They certainly do nothing to change the perception of many of my legislative colleagues that TxDOT remains arrogant and unresponsive to the people it serves…."

--Senator Glenn Hegar, District 18, in a letter to TxDOT Commissioner Ted Houghton, as reported by Paul Burka of Texas Monthly

Stimulus paying for toll roads?

Tar Sands Time Out

Tar Sands Time Out is the Sierra Club's page on the plan to build a pipeline through Texas to carry tar sands-extracted oil from Canada's Alberta Boreal forest. This pipeline was part of the Trans-Texas Corridor (which is now "dead," ), which was part of the NAFTA Superhighway (which "doesn't exist,") which will apparently get built in one incarnation or another.

Tar Sands oil extraction is a dirty, destructive, energy-inefficient process, which will produce a short-lived supply of oil at great expense to one of the last truly wild forests in the world.

Read a fact sheet about the environmental impacts of tar sands development here.

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases:  if it moves, tax it.  If it keeps moving, regulate it.  And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

--Ronald Reagan

Democracies die behind closed doors.

--Written by the Honorable Judge Damon Keith, in a 2002 federal court ruling 

"Pouring good money after bad is generally frowned on. But that’s exactly what the Treasury’s doing; literally, committing hundreds of billions - or trillions – of public dollars to prop up companies that are financially dead. And we’re not even demanding accountability in return. Can you tell me where the bail out money’s gone? As for responsibility, Citibank said thanks very much for the bail out back in October. In November, guess what they did--they spent $10 billion to buy a toll road operator --- in Spain.

So much for personal responsibility."

--Laura Flanders, host of GRITtv