Truth Be Tolled

A free and open society is an ongoing conflict, interrupted periodically by compromises.

--Saul Alinsky

We are of course a nation of differences. Those differences don’t make us weak. They’re the source of our strength.

--President Jimmy Carter

Transportation Commissioner Ric Williamson passes away

By Holly K. Hacker

From Dallas Morning News

As chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission, Ric Williamson made major and often controversial decisions about the future of state roads.

He died Sunday of a heart attack, at age 55, in his hometown of Weatherford, leaving a legacy as the hard-charging official that steered Gov. Rick Perry's divisive vision of toll roads across Texas into state policy.

It was stressful work, and Mr. Williamson suffered two heart attacks while serving. He had known his health was fragile.

"I'm trying to avoid the third one, which the doctors tell me will be fatal," he told Texas Monthly in a June article.

Mr. Williamson spent 13 years in the Texas Legislature, much of it fighting for sensible state spending, colleagues say. But in recent years, he was known as the torchbearer for Mr. Perry's plans to solve the state's traffic and infrastructure woes, namely by privatizing key roads including State Highway 121 in Collin and Denton counties.

That policy, coupled with Mr. Williamson's take-no-prisoners style, sparked both praise and protest. Some called him a visionary, others an oligarch. Where some saw perseverance, others saw stubbornness.

But those who knew Mr. Williamson agree on at least one observation: He was smart and passionate.

"You could fight and you could argue and you could debate and you could complain, but at the end of the day, what I remember most about him was his passion," said state Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano. "On every issue I ever dealt with him, he did it 150 percent."

Mr. Perry called him a trusted adviser and close friend for more than 20 years. "Ric's passion to serve his beloved state of Texas was unmatched, and his determination to help our state meets its future challenges was unparalleled," Mr. Perry said.

A native of Abilene, Mr. Williamson graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1974 and went on to found a natural gas production company.

He went to the Legislature in 1985 a Democrat and left in 1998 a Republican. Serving on the House Appropriations Committee, he was one of the "Pit Bulls," conservative lawmakers (including Mr. Williamson's Austin roommate, Mr. Perry) who questioned how the state spent its money. He believed that agencies should get money based on the goals they set and met – not just based on what they ask for. That concept, performance-based budgeting, is used today.

Former state Rep. Steve Wolens, D-Dallas, befriended Mr. Williamson when they served together in Austin. He said Mr. Williamson preferred making good policy over playing politics.

"It's very hard, and that's why he was known as a maverick," Mr. Wolens said. "Very independent and very much a maverick, but always respected."

In the House, Mr. Williamson earned the nickname Nitro for his energetic and sometimes volatile temperament.

"Ric was always outspoken on everything. He just never kept things to himself, which made him such a joy to deal with," Mr. Wolens said.

Mr. Perry named Mr. Williamson to the five-member Transportation Commission in 2001. Three years later, he became its chairman. In that position, Mr. Williamson helped shape the state's road plans for the next 25 years.

The biggest calls for the Trans-Texas Corridor, a roadway that would parallel Interstate 35 and relieve congestion on that highway and others. Rather than have the state raise gasoline taxes or borrow money, Mr. Perry wants private companies to build the roads and charge tolls to pay for them.

Supporters say it's a smart idea that has inspired other states to pursue similar ventures. Opponents worry about the wide asphalt ribbons that would replace farms and ranches. And they say the state is making unilateral decisions and ignoring the wishes of local governments and communities.

That's been a criticism of the Highway 121 project. Led by Mr. Williamson, the Transportation Commission first awarded the project to Cintra, a Spanish company. But lawmakers revolted, demanding that the North Texas Tollway Authority be allowed to bid.

In June, the commission voted to give the project to NTTA. But Mr. Williamson and Mr. Perry still won the big fight: NTTA, a public agency, followed the private-market approach by paying $3.2 billion up front, much more than Cintra had proposed. And it will still be a toll road, like dozens of others planned for the state.

At that meeting, commissioners gave Mr. Williamson a street sign as the classic song "King of the Road" played.

Commissioner Ted Houghton presented the gift, declaring: "It says 'King of the Road Way,' and it's always one way."

David and Linda Stall run a grass-roots group called Corridor Watch, which opposes the corridor plan.

"We certainly disagreed philosophically, but I do honestly believe that he thought he was doing what was best for the state," David Stall said.

Added Linda Stall: "It's going to leave a huge vacuum in the whole transportation world in Texas for at least some period of time, just because he was doing all this with the force of his personality."

Mr. Williamson's hobbies included hunting, fishing and supporting women's fast-pitch softball, according to an online biography. When his eldest daughter became interested in softball, Mr. Williamson, ever the man for detail, researched everything he could on the subject to help her do well in the sport.

"He learned every kind of pitch," his friend, Ron Lewis, said in June. "I don't know if Ric Williamson has ever winged anything in his entire life."

Mr. Williamson's survivors include his wife, Mary Ann Williamson of Weatherford; three daughters, and two grandchildren.

Perry for President?

From Dalllas Morning News

COLUMBIA, S.C. – After watching Gov. Rick Perry gallivant around Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina these past weeks, the conclusion is unavoidable: Our governor is running for president.

Stop laughing; it's true.

Why else would he play to small crowds in small towns, talking to people who have never heard of him and, in some cases, care less about the candidate he represents?

He's not running for president now, of course. For 2008, he'll be happy to be mentioned as a vice presidential contender.

What Mr. Perry wants is consideration for a White House run in 2012 or beyond.

For the record, he says he's only thinking about getting former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani elected. But what else is he going to say at this point?

"I have no idea what I'm going to do in 2010," he said after a campaign stop in Columbia, referring to the year his current term expires. "The good news is I don't have to make a decision."

One Republican who watched him speak in Columbia couldn't help but point out the obvious, as Mr. Perry continued making sudden gestures with his arms and hands.

"He's very Bush-like with that," said Scott Malyerck, South Carolina's deputy state treasurer.

Mr. Perry's foray into the national spotlight began as summer concluded. He addressed a convention of California Republicans, receiving better applause from the grass-roots activists than Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger by telling them to stay true to their conservative values and ignore soothsayers who contend the GOP must become more moderate.

Months later, he made a mildly surprising endorsement of Mr. Giuliani for president. Mr. Perry's support was based on Mr. Giuliani's ideas about fighting the war on global terrorism and his record as a fiscal conservative.

On the social front, Mr. Giuliani differs from Mr. Perry by supporting abortion rights and gay marriage.

After the public endorsement, Mr. Perry began making trips to Iowa, meeting Hawkeye State voters who marveled at his boots and striking hair.

After a couple of trips, his conversations often would veer off the subject of Mr. Giuliani. A few weeks ago he told Iowa voters that President Bush was not – and had never been – a fiscal conservative.

On Tuesday, Mr. Perry was in South Carolina meeting Giuliani supporters.

"I'd rather be in Texas," he told a small band of mostly Giuliani Republicans. "I'm here because I believe in this guy."

That Mr. Perry supports Mr. Giuliani and is willing to campaign for him in early primary states is not that unusual.

But it's clear that Mr. Giuliani is not investing his campaign resources in Iowa or South Carolina.

These are states where Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Fred Thompson and John McCain are slugging it out.

Last week, when most other GOP candidates were in Iowa, South Carolina or other early primary states, Mr. Giuliani was in Dallas for a day of multiple fundraisers.

In essence, Mr. Perry is helping the former New York mayor make the rounds in states he doesn't expect to win.

He's preaching to a choir that's being led by another minister.

So what does Mr. Perry get out of it?

Well, if Mr. Giuliani's strategy of winning the nomination by holding on until Feb. 5 and then cashing in on the big delegate states like New York and California works, Mr. Perry could see a payback.

He'll get mentioned as a possible running mate, though most analysts say the Bush years have tired the nation on another Texan on the presidential ticket.

But it's the mention and subsequent discussion that Mr. Perry wants.

He'll take that and run with it, particularly when the 2012 presidential sweepstakes begin. That's when he'll return to Iowa and South Carolina with his boots and that hair and hope that the party faithful remembers how charming, thoughtful and conservative he was when stumping for Mr. Giuliani.

Mr. Perry knows it takes years for an outsider to build relations in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Yes, he says he's in those states for his man Rudy.

In reality, he's also looking out for himself.

"I'm very impressed with him," said Craig Wall, a 38-year-old Columbia developer. "I'll keep an eye on him. You never know."

Terri Hall is San Antonian of the year

Terri Hall of Truth Be Tolled is honored by WOAI News Radio

HOW A HOME SCHOOLING MOM FROM CALIFORNIA TAUGHT
TEXANS A LESSON IN DEMOCRACY

by Jim Forsyth

It was not long after Terri Hall moved with her growing family from northern California to Spring Branch that she learned that badly needed expansions to US 281, which was to be the lifeline between her family's new home and the restaurants, shops, and entertainment of San Antonio, would involve toll lanes. With a lifelong interest in public policy and a desire to get involved in her new community, Hall, an English major at UCLA, attended a couple of public meetings held by transportation planners and noticed something disturbing.

"We were talking," Hall recalls. "But they weren't listening."

Three years after those fateful meetings, if toll road planners from Regional Mobility Authority Chairman Dr. Bill Thornton to Texas Department of Transportation Chairman Ric Williamson could get one do-over in life, it would undoubtedly be to pay more attention to the woman in row seven. Because while construction of new toll roads in Houston, Dallas, Ft. Worth, even in usually contentious Austin, have been little more than photo-ops where men in suits can smile while holding golden shovels, in San Antonio it has turned into the first truly citizen driven open discussion about the proper role of government and the future for quality of life issues in this region since the Applewhite Reservoir debates of the mid 1990's. And for forming, molding, and leading the most effective grass roots organization since Ernie Cortez was exchanging pennies at Frost Bank in 1975, Terri Hall is the 2007 San Antonian of the Year.

In a wide open, amazingly disparate place with absolutely no viable public transportation, the builders of highways have wielded enormous power in Texas since the start of the last century, a power over the life or death of local economies not seen since the heyday of the railroad. When the decision was made by the Texas Department of Transportation shortly after Rick Perry became governor in 2000 to pursue the toll option for quick expansion of highways to serve a rapidly booming population, the decision was also made to use a different approach to promote a concept which was relatively new to Texas. Rather than the previous procedure of centrally planned highway projects coordinated from Austin, the department used the Vito Corelone touch. Putting their arm around local economic development leaders who have long been accustomed to puckering up before TexDOT, they spelled out two visions of the future. You don't want the Toyota plant to be at the end of a gravel road, do you? How about all those new jobs at Ft. Sam, that won't work without new highways, will it? Now, the Don needs a favor. Shown the harbor and the cement overshoes, local leaders, not TexDOT, became the public face of ambitious toll projects, and shadowy groups like the RMA and the Metropolitan Planning Organization, filled not by publicly elected officials but with paid employees and placeholders, even with employees of TexDOT itself, suddenly took the reins of multi billion dollar construction projects. The argument became not one of the viability of toll roads and the ethics of double taxation, but one of local control, the same powerful siren song of Texas populism which has enabled the clumsy and wasteful system of allowing 18 separate school districts to exist in Bexar County to survive unchallenged for so long. "If we don't do this ourselves," came the argument made to local people by local officials, "we will surrender our control and state officials will do this to us and the profits and the decision making will leave the local area."

But TexDOT was playing a double game. While the local toll road boosters. men and women putting their credibility on the line on behalf of the toll road dream, were telling anybody who would listen, for example, that existing roads will never be tolled, 1200 WOAI news broke what may have been one of the major news stories of the year, that TexDOT in fact had circulated to members of Congress a secret plan to buy back existing highways so they could be tolled.

TexDOT and local toll supporters were suddenly on the defensive, and all this played directly into Hall's hands. Smart, telegenic, with a devout and heart-felt Christian faith which helped reassure and galvanize south Texans, and amazingly slim after giving birth to her sixth child in January, the 38 year old rookie activist was able to quickly seize control of the debate, leaving TexDOT flat footed and allowing her anti toll organizations, the San Antonio Toll Party and Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom to move from those early days when they were ignored by toll road planners, to being ridiculed, to being truly feared as a force which actually could derail the state's carefully crafted transportation vision. At the MPO toll road vote earlier this month, toll road planners spent more time refuting TURF's arguments than forwarding their own.

So many speakers blasted Governor Perry's ambitious Trans Texas Corridor project during a series of public hearings across the state that Perry was reduced to making the bizarre comment, in an interview with 1200 WOAI news, that the public hearings were really not about gaining public input, but were actually 'to see if anybody had any better ideas, and I didn't hear any.' Both the Republican and Democratic parties have approved resolutions opposing toll roads, and San Antonio's anti toll fight has been used as a model for other populist groups statewide and around the country.

But despite all this, the toll road juggernaut rolls on. The MPO this month approved the construction of $1.3 billion in toll lanes on US 281 and Loop 1604 over the coming decade, and officials hope to begin construction in the spring. Hall's group has had mixed results in its efforts to unseat pro toll members of the legislature, and many key decision makers, like Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, continue to ridicule the anti toll group's efforts.

It remains to be seen whether Hall can keep the toll road builders honest over the long run, and whether she can channel the passion she has brought to the anti toll effort into other populist causes, which is frequently the ruin of citizen action groups. She'll also have to avoid the tendency to fall prey to black helicopter conspiracy theories, like the bizarre claim that the Trans Texas Corridor is really part of a sinister plot to combine Mexico, the U.S. and Canada into a single nation. But Hall has in very many ways written the new guidelines for effective bottom up community and political organization in the 21st Century: Seize the issue, attack it with a clear and simple message repeated over and over again, understand the media and know how to create a story, and appeal to a populist agenda. Whether you're selling soap or opposing a toll road, that is a pretty effective battle plan.

"A funny thing has happened on the way to building this boondoggle. The more people - including some in the Legislature - learn about it, the more opposition it faces. We intend to continue turning over all the rocks to see what crawls out."

--Texas Farm Bureau President Kenneth Dierschke, addressing delegates at the Texas Farm Bureau's 74th annual convention regarding Governor Rick Perry's plans to build the Trans-Texas Corridor

Dierschke, a grain and cotton farmer from San Angelo, called upon the delegates to join him and other angry property owners all over the state to support a new bill mandating eminent domain reform.

The new bill will be based on HB 2006, which had overwhelmingly passed both houses of the Legislature in this past year's session, only to be vetoed by Governor Rick Perry.

NAFTA, SPP, Atlantica: Water Privatization

While global warming is poo-pooed, contingency plans are unfolding:

Large PDF file: The Sierra Club reports on threats to our water

From the Sierra Club's task force on Corporate Water Privatization

Ron Paul fires back at 'hit' piece

By Jerome R. Corsi

From World Net Daily

In an exclusive interview with WND, Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul fired back at Newsweek for an article labeling the NAFTA Superhighway a baseless conspiracy theory.

"It's the same old story," Paul said. "If Newsweek can't discredit the message, they have to discredit the messenger."

The Newsweek article, by Gretel C. Kovach, keyed off an answer the Texas congressman gave during the Nov. 28 CNN presidential debate. A YouTube.com question asked him about a "conspiracy theory regarding the Council [on] Foreign Relations and some plan to merge the United States with Canada and Mexico."

Paul told WND the problem Newsweek and CNN have is that "it's not just me" talking about it.

"We have some 14 states passing resolutions to oppose the North American Union and NAFTA Superhighways, amendments passed in Congress have taken away funds for North American integration projects and Virgil Goode has some 50 sponsors for his bill in the House," Paul explained. "There are millions of Americans who oppose this globalist agenda.

WND has reported the House and Senate are in the final stages of sending to President Bush a Department of Transportation funding bill with amendments removing the funds needed to continue the Mexican truck demonstration project.

Rep. Goode's office confirmed to WND that House Concurrent Resolution 40, sponsored by the Virginia Republican to oppose the North American Union and NAFTA Superhighways, now has more than 40 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives.

"Millions of Americans know about these issues and are concerned about them," Paul told WND. "What I was trying to say in the CNN debate is that this is not so much secret debates behind closed doors but real philosophical differences between those who believe in globalism, including many at the top of the Democratic and Republican parties, and those of us who believe in national sovereignty and securing our borders."

Paul emphasized he wants to "deal with the world in a voluntary fashion, through trade, travel and friendship, rather than through higher levels of government."

"I've always been opposed to more government to achieve integration throughout the world," he said.

"I reject the UN, NAFTA-CAFTA, North American Union approach," he continued, "because to me that's just more international government and less emphasis on the U.S. Constitution.

The Newsweek article began with, "Ron Paul wants you to be scared."

After quoting Paul's CNN debate comments, the article asserted nothing Paul said was true, including the prospects of a NAFTA superhighway, a North American Union or a regional currency.

The article focused on arguing there was no plan in existence to extend the Trans-Texas Corridor north.

As documented in a video clip currently posted on YouTube.com, Paul answered the debate question by saying there was "a conspiracy of ideas" involved in the question.

"This is an ideological battle," Paul told the CNN audience. "Some of us believe in globalism, others of us believe in national sovereignty.

"There is a move on toward a North American Union," Paul insisted, "just like early on there was a move on toward a European Union."

NAFTA is moving toward a NAFTA highway, he contended.

"These are real things. It's not like somebody made these things up. It's not a conspiracy," he said. "They don't talk about it, and they might not admit it, but there's been money spent on it."

Texas, for example, unanimously passed legislation to stop the Trans-Texas Corridor, he said.

"They are planning on millions of acres taken by eminent domain for an international highway from Mexico to Canada," said Paul.

Oklahoma State Republican Sen. Randy Brogdon, a strong opponent of the NAFTA superhighway, agreed with Paul.

"Senate Joint Resolution 22 was submitted to the Oklahoma legislature in 1995 calling for the support and creation of a NAFTA superhighway, which was spelled out in exactly those words," Brodgon told WND. "What more evidence does Newsweek need?"

WND worked with Newsweek for a week to provide sources and information, but most were ignored.

Oklahoma state senator Randy Brogdon and Amanda Teegarden, founding member and research chair of http://www.ok-safe.com/ OK-SAFE, are both strong opponents of well-documented moves to extend north into Oklahoma the four-football-fields-wide Trans-Texas Corridor planned in Texas to be built parallel to Interstate 35, known as TTC-35.

As WND reported, Brogdon told a Sept. 29, OK-SAFE audience in Tulsa, "The NAFTA Superhighway stops here, at the border with Oklahoma."

Brogdon explained to the 300 people in the Tulsa audience his efforts in the Oklahoma legislature to block proposed legislation which would have altered Oklahoma laws to provide the public-private legal infrastructure needed to expand the TTC-35 toll road into the state.

In a Dec. 2 e-mail to WND, Kovach explained her failure to contact Brogdon or OK-SAFE, writing, "Thank you for trying to help me find more information for the story about the fears of a NAFTA Superhighway."

"I had already spoken with the Oklahoma director of transportation, however, and the editors felt that we had enough information for the story," she continued.

Brogdon and Teegarden both affirmed to WND that Kovach never interviewed them for the Newsweek article.

Kovach's explanation did not satisfy Brogdon.

"Newsweek evidently doesn't like to be confused by the facts," he told WND. "The article is obviously misguided or the author is just uninformed on the issue.

"Unfortunately, the magazine decided to resort to name-calling," Brogdon continued. "Newsweek evidently decided to rely only on sources that told them what they want to hear."

Teegarden agreed with Brogdon.

"The article was an attack piece," Teegarden said. "The piece was an attempt to marginalize any attempt at discussing activities that threaten U.S. sovereignty by name-calling and pooh-poohing the topic.

"I didn't realize Ms. Kovach had a degree in psychiatry," Teegarden wrote, "yet she pronounced a diagnosis of paranoia. Is she licensed?"

Teegarden said Oklahoma will be directly impacted by the construction of the Trans-Texas Corridor transportation systems.

"Oklahomans don't want to make it easier for Chinese goods to come through our state," she said. 'We value the U.S. sovereignty, the free enterprise system and private property rights. We want a transportation system that promotes 'Made in Oklahoma," not Chinese goods coming inbound!"

One of the few outside sources Newsweek pursued for quotation was Texas Transportation Commissioner Ric Williamson for a denial.

Williamson told Newsweek he was "startled by superhighway fears," claiming he never heard of a North American Union "until people started badgering him about it."

Williamson continued, "They say, 'Is this [the TTC-35] part of the NAU and the amero?' And I say, 'What the hell are you talking about?'"

Readers weigh in

Dozens of reader comments posted under the article on the Newsweek website were sharply critical of the magazine's attempt to dismiss the NAFTA Superhighway as a conspiracy theory.

Readers were particularly critical of Newsweek's reliance on government sources who sought to debunk concerns about the Trans-Texas Corridor and the possibility the Security and Prosperity Partnership – the trilateral agreement between the U.S, Canada and Mexico – might lead to further North American integration.

"Kovach should do her homework," wrote one reader.

"Had Ms. Kovach done the bare minimum of research, rather than calling the Highway Dept. in Oklahoma, she would have found out there really is a NA Superhighway planned," another reader wrote. "There have been two votes in Texas to retard the process and several Oklahoma congressmen are also trying to thwart it."

As WND reported in June, Texas Gov. Rick Perry vetoed several bills overwhelmingly passed by the Texas legislature designed to place a two-year moratorium on the TTC-35 and reform eminent domain rules in Texas to make the construction of a superhighway economically infeasible.

Perry's vetoes came toward the end of the most recent Texas legislative session or after the legislature had already adjourned, to avoid a veto override vote. The Texas legislature is not scheduled to hold its next session until January.

Other Newsweek readers pointed to multiple websites the article had not examined, including a government site in Alberta, Canada, that lists multiple planned north-south NAFTA trade corridors.

Readers also pointed to a North American Forum on Integration website that similarly lists multiple north-south "North American trade corridors."

Another reader referenced a recent Larry King television interview, writing, "I would have agreed with your article if I hadn't heard President Vicente Fox himself talk about the plans he and President Bush were laying out for the future."

As WND reported, Fox in a televised Oct. 8 interview with Larry King on CNN confirmed the existence of a plan conceived with President Bush to create a new regional currency in the Americas, expanding on the North American integration vision begun with NAFTA.

Other readers pointed to a 2005 Council on Foreign Relations task force report entitled "Building a North American Community," with one writing, "It is inescapable that certain individuals and groups with an internationalist ideology want to create some kind of North American Union."

"Now I remember why I gave up my Newsweek subscription over 10 years ago," another reader commented.

Several Paul supporters were sharply critical of Newsweek's suggestion that the congressman was promoting a baseless conspiracy theory to play the politics of fear.

"In reference to Ron Paul, the corporate-owned media has an agenda that cannot be accomplished with a Constitutionalist like Mr. Paul leading the country," a reader identified as "An American Patriot" wrote. "Unless we united and kick these globalist politicians and their corporate backers to the curb, American freedom, liberty and sovereignty will soon be part of history."

Another Paul supporter challenged the magazine, writing, "Congressman Ron Paul is the ONLY presidential candidate telling the truth, a VERY rare thing in the world of politics!"

WND has noted previous instances in which deniers of the NAU and NAFTA superhighways have resorted to ridiculing proponents as "conspiracy theorists."

WND reported President Bush at the third summit meeting of the Security and Prosperity Partnership Aug. 21 responded to a question from Fox News, claiming it conspiratorial to argue that the SPP could lead to a North American Union or NAFTA superhighways.

WND also reported Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., rebuked DOT Undersecretary of Policy Jeffrey Shane for "gaming semantics" when Shane testified to a House subcommittee that the NAFTA Superhighway was an "urban legend."

In an exclusive WND interview with Goode, the Virginia congressman told of asking DOT Secretary Mary Peters questions about the NAFTA Superhighway before his subcommittee.

"Of course, she answered, 'There's no NAFTA Superhighway.' But then Mary Peters proceeded to discuss the road system that would come up from Mexico and go through the United States up into Canada."

'Critics outnumbered advocates 3 - 1'

And there were more critics locked out of the building, as fire codes were being enforced for the first time in my memory of MPO meeting attendance at Monday's vote on toll rates for Highway 281. I stood outside with about 50 other anti-tollers, many of whom were senior citizens who were living on fixed incomes. The woman who came out to explain to us that we would not be allowed in or allowed to speak told us that there had been people filling the room already at noon, when the meeting started at 1:30 pm.

Ring any bells? Sound like Austin CAMPO? As Sal Costello puts it, "The M.O.? A smaller than needed venue, Chamber of Commerce getting the profiteers out early, and a bunch of politicos ignoring the public will - as they vote to shift another public asset to an unaccountable revenue-generating machine. Critics outnumbered advocates 3-1."

But the "market research" has been conducted (how much did that cost?), and though many residents are still unaware of the impact that terms like, "non-compete clauses," and "tolling existing highways," will have on their lives, the MPO is forging ahead with what they've banked on being a fait accompli all along.

Mike Huckabee's being criticized for raising taxes to pay for schools and roads in Arkansas--and while this is not necessarily a candidate's endorsement, you've got to give the guy props for having the wherewithall to provide for needed improvements the fair and old-fashioned (if not popular) way.

"There are times when that is necessary," Huckabee says. "Ronald Reagan raised taxes when he was governor of California. He raised taxes when he was president."

Instead, we are going to let unelected boards and private companies levy tolls? That's a more equitable mechanism?

But hey, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that voters in the last election just handed TxDOT five billion in bonds (to be paid back by us, with interest) after the agency was found by the state auditor to have a $45 billion discrepancy in funding accountability.

--D. F.

Toll rates OK'd for U. S. 281

By Patrick Driscoll

From San Antonio Express-News

It took toll roads to turn a quiet planning board into a red-hot public forum, and it took a vote Monday on setting toll rates to pack in a record crowd.

The Metropolitan Planning Organization, an intergovernmental board that until a couple of years ago was familiar mostly to policymakers and road industry officials, voted 12-4 to approve rates for the proposed U.S. 281 tollway.

"Our next step must be for progress," board member Bill Weeper, a Selma city councilman, said moments before casting a vote in favor.

The vote set toll fees for U.S. 281 at 17 cents a mile for cars by 2012, with rates increasing annually with inflation.

A second vote, cast on identical lines, shifted $43 million in public funds from other toll projects to help pay to rebuild 8 miles of U.S. 281 into a tollway with free frontage roads from Loop 1604 to Comal County.

In all, $112 million in public money will subsidize the $476 million project, a cost that includes construction, engineering, land purchases, utility relocations, environmental work and the first several years of operation and maintenance.

Construction could start next summer and finish in stages from 2011 through 2018.

Unlike years ago, before "toll" became a buzzword on talk radio and in the media, the vote didn't happen in a sedentary meeting where officials fought back yawns.

By the time board members convened at the VIA Metro Center, the 208-person capacity room was full and dozens of people were locked out, prompting complaints that the meeting should have been held in a larger room.

For the first time at an MPO meeting, people entering had to empty their pockets and let a guard use a hand-held metal detector to search them.

"Safety," agency spokesman Scott Erickson explained. "One-word answer."

The crowd was split — in opinion and location.

When speaker Terrell McCombs, chairman of the San Antonio Mobility Coalition, asked toll advocates to stand, nearly everybody on one side of the room got up.

When Terri Hall of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom later asked toll critics to do so, nearly everybody on the other side of the aisle stood.

"A 'yes' vote will mean that we have grown and matured into one of America's greatest cities and have the courage and determination to solve our own problems," McCombs said.

Hall told board members: "It's clear that tolling this freeway is a tax grab. Put special-interest politics aside for the benefits of all Texans."

More than 30 people spoke. The meeting lasted five hours, the longest in recent memory. Critics outnumbered advocates 3-1.

"Each and every one of you will have to look in a mirror every day," a woman said. "And eventually you'll have to look yourselves in the eye."

Congressmen troubled by TxDOT

By Charles Davis

Texas Public Radio's Capitol Correspondent

Last month members of the Texas congressional delegation received an unusual letter from the Texas Department of Transportation.

In the letter TxDOT is demanding that Texas congressmen seek approval for all transportation projects with them in Austin before obtaining federal funding.

Republican Congressman Ted Poe of Humble, Texas, said that’s not how the funding process works. He was blunt about what he thinks of TxDOT’s demands.

“They’ve gotten too big for their britches. Obviously,” Poe said.

He argues only lawmakers should choose what projects are built because only they are accountable to their voters.

“TxDOT is an administrative group and they are to spend the money as we direct that they are to spend it, whether they like it or not. Their responsibility is not to determine projects. Their responsibility is to build bridges and roads and freeways,” Poe said.

TxDOT spokesman Randall Dillard says the agency just wants to make sure that those bridges and roads are built where they are most needed.

“We didn’t mean to offend anybody by the letter. We’re certainly sorry if it did offend people. Our intent is just to make sure that we can advance transportation projects here in Texas,” Dillard said.

But unless TxDOT compromises on their position, some lawmakers feel funding for their districts could be in danger.

San Antonio Democratic Congressman Charlie Gonzales thinks TxDOT’s letter was strange, and says the agency’s position could hurt the state.

“For TxDOT to basically say ‘don’t send us any federal dollars’ is not truly in the best interests of Texans and our communities that are petitioning and requesting their representatives here in Congress to seek those funds.” Gonzales says he understands TxDOT’s concern over which projects get federal funding. But he argues that Congress only appropriates money where it’s needed.

“Obviously we’re not asking for these funds unless someone has brought some great need to our attention,” Gonzales said.

South Texas Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar said he is also upset at TxDOT. But he’s more diplomatic about it.

“I understand and respect the Department of Transportation for the position that they’ve taken. But for us to pre-clear everything through them – it’s just not the way things are done,” Cuellar said.

Cuellar said he thinks TxDOT won’t actually turn down any federal money. He says the agency needs to work closer with Congress to determine the state’s most pressing needs.

“You know we can also set priorities, that if they have a difference I think they can sit down with us. But to send a letter like they did, without even talking to us; I think was not the right thing for them to do,” he said.

TxDOT receives about 40% of its budget from Washington. But the agency usually needs to match those funds, sometimes for projects that might not be a priority. Spokesman Randall Dillard says TxDOT wants to ensure lawmakers work together for the state, not just their district.

“We just want to make sure that when our congressmen and women in Washington are securing dollars for specific projects, that those projects are coordinated and that we’re all working to advance that same project,” said Dillard.

According to the US Census, Texas’ population is growing by almost twice the national average. Dillard says Congress needs to work closely with TxDOT to find the best solutions to the state’s growing transportation needs.

“Every three years we add the equivalent of a city the size of San Antonio to our population. So the challenges are out there, and it’s a situation where with the rising congestion it’s impacting peoples safety, it’s impacting air quality, it’s impacting the overall quality of life for millions of people,” said Dillard.

But lawmakers argue that TxDOT officials aren’t elected, so they shouldn’t choose which projects are built.

Congressman Gonzales says he and other lawmakers wrote a letter to TxDOT explaining their concerns.

“I thought it was a very polite letter saying, ‘look, what do you mean by this and it doesn’t make any sense,” Gonzales said.

“Do you really want us to stop attempting to gain federal dollars for Texas highway dollars when we have every other state in the union fighting for the same dollar?’

Most lawmakers think their dispute with TxDOT can be worked out before federal transportation dollars are threatened. But almost a month after their letter was sent, they say they have not even received a response.

Not in my backyard

By Jim Forsyth

From WOAI Radio

Bizarre comments by the chair of the Metropolitan Planning Authority are raising new questions about the Authority's judgment on the eve of Monday's critical vote on whether to build new toll lanes on US 281 outside Loop 1604, the first toll road project in Bexar County, 1200 WOAI news reports.

In a meeting of east side neighborhood associations Wednesday night, Sheila McNeil, who is also the city council member for District Two, repeatedly told listeners that 'those people,' in a reference to residents of north central San Antonio where the first toll lanes will be built, 'can afford' to pay the toll, because 'the average income out there is $300,000 a year.'

"Out on 281?" McNeil asked a questioner who grilled her on the toll road plan. "The average income out there is $300,000 a year. We tested the market."

According to City of San Antonio statistics, the average per capita income in north central San Antonio is just over $31,000 a year. The 'median family income' in the state of Texas, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, is $52,000 a year. The Census Bureau lists no community in the entire country where the 'average income' is $300,000 a year.

Repeatedly referring to north side residents as 'those people,' McNeil stressed that residents in her east side city council district will not be affected to the tolls, and hinted that she would use her position as head of the MPO to make sure they are not affected.

McNeil Friday afternoon said she did not mean anything racial by her use of the term 'those people.'

"My intent with the use of the word was simply referring to an area of town," she said today.

In her comments Wednesday night, McNeil made it clear that she would step in and protect her east side constituents from having to pay tolls.

"We are having this conversation in this community," McNeil said. "The decision we're making Monday affects the north side community. It is not going to affect this community. Most of the people who are going to use this road live out in that area. That's who it impacts. Now when they start talking about coming out here on 35, then we can talk. But right now, the decisions we're making next week in 281, and the folks who live and drive out there, and 'those people' can afford a toll road, because the income out there is probably around $200,000 to $300,000 a year."

Terri Hall, who heads the anti toll group 'Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, called McNeil's comments 'outrageous.'

"I don't think its right to use class warfare and pit one part of town against another when it comes to the toll road fight," Hall said. "We are all in this together."

This is the latest in a series of odd comments and public relations nightmares prompted by toll road supporters. For years, toll road backers had vowed there were 'no plans' to toll existing highways. In September, 1200 WOAI news revealed a secret TexDOT memo which proposed that existing Interstate highways be purchased from the federal government so tolls could be collected on them. Then, in his State of the County address in October, County Judge Nelson Wolff, a backer of toll roads, called toll opponents 'dangerous' and claimed to have once called a Sheriff's Deputy to protect him from an anti toll activist who was threatening him. No police report of that alleged incident could be produced.

What outraged Hall the most was a comment McNeil made to east side citizens concerned about the cost of the toll.

"For people who don't have the five dollars, it's still a free road," McNeil said, indicating that lower income people should stick to the access roads, which will have slower traffic and more frequent stops. Hall said that's the 21 century equivalent of telling people to 'sit in the back of the bus.'

McNeil's east side district has the city's largest proportion of African American residents.

"She is basically asking the black community to become second class citizens by her own vote," Hall said. "It is unbelievable to me."

Hall also blasted McNeil's comments which appeared to indicate her willingness to protect the east side from tolls.

"As long as it's not in my back hard, its okay," Hall said. "These are public highways that everybody uses. It's not like the freeway system stops at the District Two line. We all drive these roads, and we all pay for these roads. It's just an abomination, what's going on."

Mayor Phil Hardberger Friday blasted Hardberger's comments as divisive.

"I think there were some misfortunate use of words there," Hardberger said. "Of course, the really correcvt word is 'our people.'

The MPO board, which McNeil heads, is scheduled to vote on Monday whether to construct new toll lanes on US 281. About half of the members of the MPO board are unelected staff members, including two who actually work for the Texas Department of Transportation. McNeil herself is serving her second term on San Antonio City Council and is prohibited by the city's term limits law from seeking another term.