Truth Be Tolled

TURF and TxDOT

TxDOT must act on promises

An editorial from the San Antonio Express-News

The Texas Transportation Commission sounded the right notes last month in its first meeting under new leadership. Deirdre Delisi, recently appointed by Gov. Rick Perry to chair the commission, and her fellow commissioners finally seem to have gotten the message — the Texas Department of Transportation has lost the public's trust.

For those with short memories, here are a few highlights that explain how that happened:

•TxDOT fought to keep details of Perry's proposed Trans-Texas Corridor secret. It denied repeated requests from the media and landowners to let the public view a plan that calls for hundreds of miles of toll roads.

•When Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott issued an opinion that TTC documents should be made public, TxDOT joined in a suit with the design contractor to keep the information sealed.

•While TxDOT officials complained about a shortage of funds for freeway projects, they diverted $9 million to an advertising campaign to promote toll roads.

•The transportation agency quietly produced a report that advocated turning existing interstate highways into toll roads and giving tax breaks to private companies for investing in toll projects.

•The report only became public when agency officials sought congressional support to enact the controversial, previously unknown plan.

Given this recent history, Delisi's concern about rebuilding the public trust is well placed.

At its May meeting, the Transportation Commission pledged it would open up TxDOT's financial data, restrict tolling options to new roadways while keeping existing roadways free, and ban noncompete clauses that limit improvements to existing roadways as part of tolling contracts.

The commission said all the right things. Now it has to deliver.

If it doesn't, the staff of the state's Sunset Advisory Commission has a solution: Abolish the Texas Transportation Commission and replace it with an appointed transportation commissioner who must answer to a Legislature with greater oversight authority of the state's transportation system.

Lawmakers may decide to adopt the recommendations of the Sunset review during the next session, regardless of what Delisi and her colleagues do. At minimum, the Sunset Advisory Commission's recommendations about accountability deserve serious consideration.

If the Transportation Commission doesn't follow through on its newly made commitments, it will simply make the decision for lawmakers easier.

TxDOT tries to mend rifts in Congress

By Bennett Roth and Stewart Powell

From the Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — The Texas Department of Transportation, long viewed as hyperpartisan and arrogant by some members of the state's congressional delegation, has been trying to soften its image by reaching out to lawmakers of both parties in the nation's capital.

But while state transportation officials are having some success in easing the personal animus, they still face a stiff challenge in selling their policy agenda to the state's elected officials in Washington.

Many Texans on the Potomac cringe at the agency's embrace of toll roads, the controversies surrounding the Trans-Texas Corridor and TxDOT's resistance to many of the highway earmarks they deliver to constituents.

"I think it's a marriage that's on the rocks," said Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, who sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. "TxDOT has burned some bridges with the Texas delegation."

The charm offensive comes as Congress begins work on the reauthorization of the massive transportation legislation that expires in 2009. The reauthorization effort will chart priorities for federal highway spending and for programs into the next decade.

Transportation officials in Texas, who have been warning of highway funding shortfalls, hope to increase their share of federal dollars, which amounted to $3.6 billion in 2006. But they also want the flexibility to tap other sources of revenue, such as toll roads and private leasing of highways.

TxDOT has a lot of animosity to overcome. Democrats hold a grudge against the agency for ignoring them during the years of GOP dominance in the House and for using state taxpayer dollars to hire a lobbyist linked to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land.

"They bought the Kool Aid and thought Republicans would be in the permanent majority," said Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, referring to the GOP lobbyists hired by TxDOT. "It is no secret they didn't talk to Democrats."

Thawing relations

Lawmakers say the thaw in relations with state highway officials began last fall when the late Ric Williamson, the hard-charging and very partisan chairman of the state Transportation Commission, flew to Washington to make peace with the delegation after Democrats regained control of Congress. That effort continued after Williamson's death in December.

"There may be hard feelings about things that happened in the past, but we have significant challenges in the future," said Deirdre Delisi, appointed by Gov. Rick Perry to lead the five-member Transportation Commission, which oversees TxDOT and the state's extensive highway and bridge system,

TxDOT also has taken action that appears to be aimed at placating Texas Democrats and acknowledging the party will likely remain in control of Congress for the near future.

In February, the agency quietly ended outside lobbying contracts, worth $117,692 a month, including one held by the Federalist Group, which is run by Drew Maloney, DeLay's former chief of staff.

Democrats had been miffed at the contract in part because Maloney had contributed $15,500 to Republican congressional candidates — including $5,500 to DeLay — since 2003, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Maloney also gave $750 to an opponent of Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, the top Texas Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.

The same month it canceled the outside contracts, the transportation agency hired Rebecca Reyes, the daughter of Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, as one of its two staffers in its Washington office. Silvestre Reyes is an ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, who named the Texan to head the House Intelligence Committee.

The moves, said Chris Lippincott, a TxDOT spokesman, were not taken for political reasons. He said that the outside contracts were terminated because of budget cuts and that Rebecca Reyes was hired because she has a background in lobbying.

Silvestre Reyes defended the hiring of his daughter, saying she "went through the same rigorous hiring process as every other applicant who applies to work for the state of Texas."

Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Stafford, said it was "probably true" that TxDOT had experienced problems adapting to the new Democratic congressional leadership.

"There has been an expression of interest in coming here and building relationships," he said, "but I (still) haven't seen that happen at this point."

Lawmakers from both parties have a litany of grievances about the transportation agency's approach to Congress.

Edwards complained that agency officials "have been instructed to blame Congress for the inability to improve highway projects." In reality, he said, federal spending for highways in Texas has risen faster than state spending.

The friction with state highway officials came about, Poe said, "when TxDOT wanted to tell us what should be built in Texas. It doesn't work that way."

The Trans-Texas Corridor

Many lawmakers do not support plans for the Trans-Texas Corridor, envisioned by Perry as a project stretching from Texarkana to Mexico that would be operated by a private consortium. The corridor would include toll lanes for cars and trucks; tracks for freight and passenger trains; and space for pipelines, power lines and communications.

Landowners and local governments whose property would be affected by the project have angrily protested the routes in a series of town hall meetings.

"It is public enemy number one in my district," said Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands.

Some lawmakers have signaled a willingness to meddle with plans for the corridor.

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Lake Jackson, has introduced a bill that would prohibit federal funding for the project. The proposal is backed by Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, whose district runs from Austin to western Harris County and is a hotbed of opposition to the corridor.

As a pre-emptive move, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, inserted a provision in an appropriations bill that barred the state from putting tolls on existing highways for a year. The bill subsequently became law.

Texas' other senator, Republican John Cornyn, who is up for re-election, said he doesn't believe the corridor is a good idea.

"Obviously, we need more transportation infrastructure in Texas," he said. "But I don't think we need to plow up a bunch of new ground on private property across the state to get there."

Earmarks criticized

Another area of dispute has been the willingness of lawmakers to insert earmarks — orders funding projects — into transportation bills.

Lippincott said the earmarks, totaling $208 million for the state, often force the delay of other projects.

But some Democrats, such as Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Dallas, believe the earmarks are necessary to ensure a fair distribution of state highway funds.

"I'm going to support earmarks as long as I am here breathing," Johnson said.

Ned Holmes, a transportation commissioner and Houston businessman, said he believes the rift between TxDOT and the Democrats can be repaired through better communication.

Although he is a Republican, Holmes said he has remained on good terms with congressional Democrats and noted that he contributed $2,000 to Edwards' re-election campaign in March.

For years, Holmes said, "TxDOT was one of the most respected state agencies.

Perry picked a puppet

The following is an editorial from the San Antonio Express-News:

Perhaps Gov. Rick Perry is right. Perhaps Deirdre Delisi is the most qualified person in Texas to lead the state Transportation Commission. There's no denying that the Duke University graduate, who also has a master's degree in international policy studies from Stanford University, is a very bright and competent individual.

But there's also no getting around the fact that the primary reason Perry tapped the 35-year-old Austin resident to head the commission is that she worked for him for nine years as chief of staff, senior deputy chief of staff, deputy chief of staff and director of Perry's 2002 gubernatorial campaign, as well as serving on his staff when he was lieutenant governor and working in his campaign for that office.

In a February interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, the no-nonsense chairman of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee, offered his opinion about the rumored appointment.

“We don't need political hacks in that position,” he said. “We need people who understand the business. We need people who understand transportation. We don't need someone who's unpopular with the Legislature.”

Major missteps and public relations fiascos have destroyed public confidence in the Transportation Commission and the Texas Department of Transportation. The interim chairmanship of Hope Andrade, after the sudden death last year of Ric Williamson, had begun to repair some of that damage. The selection of a chairman based on cronyism will further erode public trust.

What makes Delisi's appointment more galling is that Perry is replacing Andrade on the commission. The move means that between the chairman and four commissioners, none lives in South Texas, denying an often-neglected region representation on the crucial commission.

A governor who wasn't tone deaf to public criticism wouldn't make that kind of mistake. Unfortunately, it's what Texans have come to expect from the increasingly oblivious leadership of Rick Perry.

Under the influence

From Associated Press

GEORGETOWN, Texas — A Texas state lawmaker who helped pave the way for major toll road projects is facing drunken driving charges.

Rep. Mike Krusee of Round Rock, the Republican chairman of the House Transportation Committee, was charged with first offense driving while intoxicated late Wednesday. He is not running for re-election this year.

Krusee was arrested after a Department of Public Safety trooper noticed his car driving erratically in northwest Austin and that his vehicle registration was expired, DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange said.

The trooper also reported a "strong smell of alcohol" when Krusee was pulled over and Krusee failed a field sobriety test, Mange said.

Krusee was arrested and taken to Williamson County Jail, where he refused a breath test. Under state law, Krusee's license is automatically suspended for 180 days for refusing the breath test. Bail was set at $1,000 and Krusee was released Thursday morning.

Krusee is charged with first offense DWI, a Class B misdemeanor with punishment ranging from probation to up to 180 days in jail and fines up to $2,000.

Krusee's office referred questions to his attorney, Jason Nassour, who did not immediately return a telephone message.

Krusee has served in the House since 1993. He was a close ally of Gov. Rick Perry on transportation issues and in 2003 sponsored the law that opened the door for major toll road expansion.

Dewhurst, Craddick seek audit of TxDOT

By Michael Lindenberger

From Dallas Morning News

Texas' two top legislative leaders have called for an independent audit of the Texas Department of Transportation, saying they have concerns about the agency's finances and spending decisions.

In a letter sent last week, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick, both Republicans, asked State Auditor John Keel to perform a comprehensive review of the "entire financial process of TxDOT."

Earlier this month, transportation department officials testified at a joint meeting of the Senate finance and transportation committees, where they defended the agency's declarations that it is running out of cash for new construction projects.

The department has said that it welcomes an independent review of its finances.

'Hell to pay'

"This is the governor's program. If we go in and try to scrap some piece of his program, I think we're going to have hell to pay with our boss, and that's the governor. He was elected by the citizens, not us. We are an extension of what he believes."

--Transportation Commission member Ted Houghton of El Paso, quoted by Peggy Fikac in Toll road agency looking to future regarding changes that will or won't be made in the Governor's support of toll roads and public-private partnerships

How it happened

"We got the pass-through toll concept from Europe. They do it slightly differently, and we just took it and changed it to put a Texas twist on it. But I would have to say that the rest of it is homegrown. When it started out, we hired a group of professionals, we sent them to Europe to visit all the big public-private partnership companies there. We sent them all across the United States to visit what little privatization was going on here. Paid for by the state—we wouldn't let the industry pay for it. We hired what we think is the best lawyer in the nation—the Nossaman firm out of California—to represent us. We hired what we thought were the best financial advisors; we got all of them away from the private sector first. The legislature let us put them on contract at a high enough rate to keep them with us, and then they helped us build our body of law and our whole approach to the problem.

In effect, the governor decided to put his print on this and make it a priority for him, lobbying the legislature with us. He empowered us to do this exactly right from the start. Even with the retrenchment of the last session—that was to have been expected. You can't go as far, as fast, and as hard as we did without having some pushback from some of your citizens and from some of your policymakers. What we went though was entirely understandable and entirely expected. And it really is good for the system—it washes out the anger and lets it get to the side of the road, so to speak, where you can move on down the road. But I would say it's mostly homegrown".

--Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson, in Reflections of a Texas Transportation Trailblazer, an interview conducted by Leonard C. Gilroy of the Reason Foundation in September of last year, a few months before Williamson's untimely death

'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."

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.