Is there ANY elected official looking out for the taxpayers anymore? So much for taxpayer protections and oversight from Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott. Even after Abbott held-up several controversial comprehensive development agreements (CDAs, also known as public private partnerships, PPPs) for months declaring them unconstitutional, he recently gave final approval to allow a contract with Spanish toll operator, Cintra, to takeover parts of the LBJ freeway, I-635, in Dallas. The deal will use Dallas Police and Fire Pension System and will charge 75 cents PER MILE to use toll lanes, and even worse, a half a billion in gas taxes will subsidize the deal with Cintra, in a massive DOUBLE TAX scheme.
It's the hefty amount of public money in the deal that caused Abbott to deem it unconstitutional - to have one Legislature bind a future Legislature with its obligations. Wasn't this a major objection to the Wall Street bailouts? Privatizing profits and socializing losses?
Governor Rick Perry, who has grown fond of criticizing Washington, has taken a page out of their playbook and applied it to Texas toll roads. There's a reason these deals are called public private partnerships. The private operators come in and milk the taxpayers by exploiting the government powers of eminent domain and raiding public money to subsidize toll roads that aren't viable otherwise, and they walk away with the profits for a half-century at a time.
CDAs are sweetheart deals that guarantee congestion on free routes through the use of non-compete agreements (which prohibit expanding or building free routes without paying penalties), guarantee 12-19% annual profits, lower the speed limits on surrounding free routes (to drive more traffic to the toll road), and cash-in on taxpayer-backed low interest loans.
The authorization to enter into CDAs expired last week. The grassroots saw to it that such deals were squashed in Perry's special session that attempted re-authorize the contracts that sunset August 31. Many lawmakers took offensive to being called back to Austin for to extend sweetheart deals for private industry.
However, Perry and some sold-out legislators made certain that about a dozen CDAs were excepted out of a moratorium passed in 2007 to allow many CDAs to move forward until 2011, including the LBJ project, I-820 in Tarrant County, Loop 9 in North Texas, the Grand Parkway in Houston area, and both Trans Texas Corridor contracts among others.
As the details of these remaining CDAs are made public, the taxpayers must remain vigilant to require the Attorney General to do his job and protect taxpayers from billions in risky leveraged debt that prices 90% of motorists off our public freeways. The race for the next Governor, Attorney General, and state legislature must keep these CDAs and toll road policies front and center. In every public forum, ask each and every candidate his/her stand on privatized toll roads, the Trans Texas Corridor, and how he/she plans to address transportation funding in the next session.
Comments
Thank you for a concerned article.
Now let's track and report the CINTRA (or their U.S. subsidiary front group) campaign donations to the PACS supporting Abbott, Perry and the other enablers. Quid pro quo is alive and well.
54- 58 cents was the upper limit after 14 years into the contract as presented at the NTTA/CINTRA vote as a per mile estimate.
Please consider looking into and writing about the TxDot rule that a traffic signal device is enough for a road to be considered in the future to be considered as a toll road.
What are the specifics of how many people are traveling a road before it becomes a divided highway? At what point is it then considered eligible for tolling? Can you write about the lack of economic development along I 30 going to FT. Worth?
Instead of Route 9, why not use that already built freeway as a corrider for rail/truck traffic?
Thanks for all that you do.
With no apologies to Reagan, "Mr. Perry, tear down these toll booths!"
It sounds like we'll have to "pick our poison" when it comes to the upcoming governor's election. Do we select Rick "toll everything" Perry or Kay "spend stimulus funds everywhere" Hutchinson. Too bad Texas can't come up with a real conservative to run for governor!
When will Texans wake up?
David, you and everyone else should take a good hard look a Debra Medina. She wouldn't do the things Perry and Abbot are doing, that's for sure!!
Foreign operations of toll roads is how to get thrown out of office in two easy steps.
Take a look at Debra Medina for Governor. See her website at rundebra.com It is time for Rick Perry to go and Kay Bailey would just give us the same old politics. Debra Medina would come without the old politics of Kay Bailey or the business buddies of Rick Perry. She also wouldn't be under the thumb of Lt. Governor David Dewhurst
Goodbye Mr. Perry. I can't say it's been nice knowing you. Maybe Barak will have a job for you when you are kicked out. The Governorship will go to a person with much more political compassion for Texas. You have done a very pathetic job for the people of Texas. Pretty soon not only our roads will belong to foreign country's but our houses, our cars and our jobs as well. It will be nice to see you go!
Medina is definitely worth the look. The sorry same old Perry and Hutchinson need retired from politics permanently, at least in Texas. The east coast might be more to their liking. The only strike against Medina is the party she is representing to run for the office. OUT with the GOP AND the Democrats until they understand we aren't buying their hocus pocus say this do that any longer. Big business trumps the population it would seem in every instance. ...Shall we teach them all how to listen once again with boycotts and our votes?
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