IIMMEDIATE
RELEASE:
Citizen outcry halts rush to
sell-off TX hwys to foreign
operators
Contact: Hank Gilbert, Board Member,
Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom
(TURF), President of Piney Woods
Sub-regional Planning Commission (903)
570-3613, WEB:
www.TexasTURF.org
Legislature blinks as it contemplates
the largest tax increase in Texas
history, the sale of TX roads to foreign
corporations
(Austin,
TX – July 1, 2009)
Today, concerned citizens of Texas
challenged the Legislature to stand-up
to Governor Perry’s road privatization,
toll road, and Trans Texas Corridor
agenda in a press conference on the
South Capitol steps in Austin. Texans
demanded the Legislature not just roll
over and play dead for Perry's agenda
while the leadership of both chambers
ram through three bills that will affect
Texans for generations. Concerned
citizens are hopping mad about
lawmakers’ suspending the rules that are
in place to protect the public from a
railroad job, and rushing to get home
for the 4th of July holiday rather than
give due consideration to what some have
dubbed the largest tax increase in Texas
history, selling Texas highways to
PRIVATE foreign corporations. Such a
deal inked in North Texas will charge 75
cents PER MILE, or $13 a DAY (like the
deal just signed for the Tarrant Express
to privatize I-820) in new toll taxes,
for Texans to access PUBLIC roads.
Taxpayers want Perry’s controversial and
virtually universally detested road
privatization schemes to die a natural
death August 31 as scheduled, which will
also KILL the mechanism to build the
Trans Texas Corridor.
Today, it appeared the citizen outcry
over the bill, HB 3, to re-authorize
such private toll road contracts called
Comprehensive Development Agreements (or
CDAs) was dead on arrival in the House.
“Texans cannot stomach any more of Gov.
Perry's version of AIG (arrogance,
ignorance and greed)! His continued
insistence to force privatized toll
roads down the throats of working Texans
is fiscally irresponsible and morally
wrong,” insisted
Hank Gilbert,
Texas TURF Board member and President of
Piney Woods Subregional Planning
Commission.
“With these types of projects failing
all over the United States, as well as
Texas (SH 121), every landowner and
taxpayer in Texas will be responsible
for the ‘bailout’ of Perry's AIG. Add
to that, the possibility of investing
state employee and teachers retirement
funds into these road projects, with his
proposed ‘Texas Revolving Fund,’ and you
have a Governor that has lost all
respect for the people of Texas!
“The elected members of the Texas House
and Senate need to do what the public
elected them to do…Just Say No! If they
don't, then it may very well be the last
bad decision that they are allowed to
make for the citizens of the great state
of Texas!” said Gilbert.
Public subsidies for private profits
CDAS are
half-century long sweetheart deals that also
suck-up virtually ALL available gas
taxes and other highway funds to prop-up
toll projects that aren't even toll
viable (can't work without subsidizing
them). Read about the deals in North
Texas that use $1 billion dollars of
Texans' gas taxes and public funds, yet
motorists won't be able to use the roads
without paying $13 a DAY in homage to
Spain
here.
TURF argues that proponents tell us the
private operators are bringing all the
money to the table so it's okay to
sell-out the taxpayers in sweetheart
deals (like non-compete agreements that
prohibit ANY new lanes or NEW roads from
being built that would "compete" with
the private operators toll cash cow as a
way to GUARANTEE congestion on free
roads). But the FACT is our GAS TAXES
and other PUBLIC money are going into
these deals, in some cases more public
cash than private, then the foreign toll
operator charges motorists a DOUBLE TAX
to access PUBLIC roads. CDAs also mean
massive multi-generational DEBT!
"These public subsidies for private
profits are the centerpiece of Rick
Perry's special session, yet he claims
to be a 'conservative' whose ranks
opposed the federal bailout bill that
socialized the losses (of private
industries) and privatized the profits.
There's a name for that - hypocrisy,"
notes TURF Founder,
Terri Hall.
Toll authority to raise toll rates 32%
because BURIED in debt it can't repay
Read about it
here.
Concerned citizens see this as an
ALL-OUT ASSAULT on our freedom to
travel!
For more info on how just how bad these
private toll contracts are for the
taxpayers, read more
here.
SB 1 to raid public employee pension
funds & teacher retirement fund
In another bill for the special session,
SB 1, lawmakers resurrect Sen. John
Carona's
SB 1350
that will set-up a Transportation Bank
as a private corporation (controlled by
the Governor's political appointees, the
Texas Transportation Commission) in
order to raid teacher retirement funds
and public employee pension funds to
invest in these risky toll road schemes
that are failing all over the country.
"The revolving fund could provide a
vehicle for the Texas Retirement System
and Employee Retirement System to invest
in state infrastructure, a policy (Sen.
Steve) Ogden supports." -
Texas Monthly,
April 28, 2009
This idea is designed to set-up a
"Revolving Fund" to finance toll
projects they can't find private
investors to bankroll. TURF said
it’s the duty of our lawmakers to
protect the integrity of public employee
retirement funds.
In addition, the Revolving Fund only
contributes to the gas tax diversion
problem since it will divert MORE gas
taxes to toll roads (gas tax can be
deposited into the Revolving Fund and
recycled to fund toll roads that aren't
viable/100% self-sustaining).
Connecting the dots...
Perry, Dewhurst
backroom deal
to raid funds.
Texas Monthly calls raiding pension
funds "irresponsible" and "immoral"
here.
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