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09/11/06 Money from here
to spend there ...
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How did you react last winter when you learned
drivers in Dallas County and Collin County were going to have our toll
fees raised to pay for an unconnected toll road in Fort Worth? At
the time, I couldn't believe it. If I were to hear the news today,
it would be just par for the course, and hardly surprising. We
have become accustomed to our elected officials playing shell games with
our money. |
It's bad enough that people we
elected are playing fast and loose with their fiduciary responsibilities, but it
is worse that they are allowing a shadow government to do this to us -- people
we don't know and had nothing to do with having the power they wield over us.
The North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA)? North Central Texas Council of
Governments (COG)?
Just for reminder purposes:
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CBS 11 News) DALLAS Dallas County is considering dropping out of the North
Texas Tollway Authority. Tuesday commissioners will meet privately with
lawyers to mull over legal options. They're upset with the way
the Tollway Authority wants to bankroll a toll road in
Fort Worth.
... Dallas County leaders are upset because they
believe Tarrant County could be getting more than it deserves. They?re
opposed to the idea that drivers who use the North
Dallas Tollway and the George Bush Turnpike will have to subsidize the
Southwest Parkway in Fort Worth.
... A Collin County Commissioner wants to reconsider the county's
plan to have the Tollway Authority build and operate the new Highway 121
toll road between Central Expressway and the North Dallas Tollway.
"I don't think it's a good thing for
us to do because our citizens are going to take the brunt of the carrying of
the toll road over in Tarrant County," said Commissioner Jerry Hoagland.... |
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How many
times have you been to Ft. Worth in the past two years? What about
since January of this year? Why should you have to pay higher toll
charges on a toll road between Downtown Dallas and Plano to Baja
Oklahoma, so someone in Fort Worth can have a tollway that is not
remotely connected to our toll road system? You must pay it
because it was decided by those bureaucratic ghosts on the North Texas
Tollway Authority, which is now dominated by non-Dallas County
activists. Bureaucratic ghosts decided it -- not your elected
officials, but ghosts who most of us have never heard of and wouldn't
recognize their names if we did. |
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... The idea would involve
more fully mingling revenues from state, regional and toll road
agencies, according to Michael Morris, director of transportation for the
North Central Texas Council of Governments.
... The proposal stems from the recent flare-up
concerning the Texas Department of Transportation's push for privately
operated toll roads. The Southwest Parkway project in Fort Worth also played
a role in Mr. Morris' push for a single toll system for the region.
Tarrant, Denton, Collin and Dallas
counties have sparred over how much toll revenue to dedicate to the
estimated $825 million project.
The tollway authority has committed
to pay $446 million of the cost. But preliminary estimates show that
tolls would pay for only about 55 percent of
that commitment.
The remainder
would be paid with tolls collected on other area toll roads, most of which
are in Dallas and Collin counties.
... The first draft of Mr. Morris' proposal would
establish a minimum revenue threshold that proposed tollway authority
projects should meet.
For example, if tolls on a new road
don't pay 75 percent of that project's costs, then either the toll road
would not be built or the Texas Department of Transportation would be asked
to make up the difference with revenues from gas taxes or from other
privately operated toll roads.
... If a toll road generates 75 to 99 percent of
the revenue needed to pay costs, the tollway authority would make up the
difference from tolls on existing toll roads.
The idea, Mr. Morris said, is to
establish a single financial system to avoid difficult negotiations on
major toll projects such as Trinity Parkway,
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They
barely have half of what Tarrant County needs to build the Ft. Worth
toll road, Southwest Parkway. In the minds of the bureaucratic
ghosts of the NTTA, it is appropriate for Dallas County and Collin
County drivers to pay the difference. I didn't think it was
appropriate in January, and I like it less today.
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Hartzel uses the term
"more fully mingling revenues". How is it "mingling revenues" when one
side gets nothing for their confiscated toll fare, and the other side gets all
the benefit of other people's money?
Hartzel makes an even more frightening point:
If
a toll road generates 75 to 99 percent of the revenue needed to pay costs, the
tollway authority would make up the difference from tolls on existing toll
roads.
Then, he cites the Director
of COG, Michael Morris, as stating the obvious. Setting up the Ft. Worth
toll road rip off scam was really a prelude and just a vehicle to fund the even
less needed Trinity Parkway toll road.
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CBS 11 News) NORTH TEXAS The battle over north Texas toll roads is heating
up again. A much publicized meeting between four area counties to iron out
differences has been cancelled.
... What's at stake could affect toll road users
for decades.
As CBS 11 News
first reported last November, the leaders of Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, and
Denton Counties have been feuding over who will build future toll roads and
how much you will pay to use them.
... Dallas and Collin County leaders say Fort
Worth's Southwest Parkway toll road won't pay for itself and will be
unfairly subsidized by toll road users in their counties.
The North Texas Tollway Authority has
voted to spread the cost of the road more evenly among
the counties.
Collin County Judge Ron Harris
... ?But working together is
a whole lot different than highway robbery,? Judge Harris said.
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Tarrant County Commissioner Whitley believes the regional transportation
council should have the final say over these issues. But Judge Harris says
Tarrant County needs to pay for its own toll roads. |
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See the
difference between an elected official and a ghost bureaucrat?
Unfortunately, Collin County Judge Harris lost his primary election last
March, and he won't be around after January to be a voice of alarm and
reason. The ghost bureaucrats of the NTTA will be there when God
comes for his mother. |
In
Eye Candy,
Jim Schutze reports how the Regional Transportation Council (RTC) had considered
diverting money from the Mix Master project to apply to costs of the first
Calatrava String Thing Bridge. Now, DMN's Tony Hartzel reports that same
ghostly Regional Transportation Council is ready to divert monies from the
SH-121 and SH-161 toll roads to the LBJ project. It may be more worthy
than the String Thing Bridges, but it's still a shell game, and a bad precedent.
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Longstanding plans to expand a major
part of LBJ Freeway could cost $1.5 billion.
But state and local governments only
have about $420 million for the project.
... Now, regional leaders
are considering revenue from future, unrelated toll road projects to make up
part of the shortfall. And the project ? including the plan for
tunnels under LBJ Freeway ? may eventually change dramatically to help cut
expenses.
A proposal before regional leaders
would dedicate $200 million in future toll road revenue from State Highway
121 and State Highway 161.
... Using some of that money for LBJ would mark
the first time in North Texas that revenue from one toll project would be
shared with another, unrelated Texas Department of Transportation project.
The Regional Transportation Council, which sets
priorities for North Texas road projects, is expected to approve the measure
at its meeting this week.
... "This is the last increment that the Regional
Transportation Council can give to the LBJ project," said Michael Morris,
director of transportation for the North Central Texas Council of
Governments, the regional planning agency. "If LBJ can't be done for this
amount, they will have to go back to the drawing board."
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I couldn't help but wonder if
the politicians and ghost bureaucrats would have to resort to this shell game if
we were only doing necessary projects, rather than building bridges and toll
roads to nowhere. I'm not the only one wondering.
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Letters to the Editor
Saturday, September 9,
2006
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Remember the Trinity
Re: "New bridge bids expected to drop ? Dallas: Officials say
estimates fell after talks with Calatrava's firm," Thursday Metro.
The Dallas City Council should stop
wasting the city's money on fancy bridges and give the citizens of Dallas
what they actually voted for in regard to the Trinity River plan. Instead of
a marina and trails, we get overpriced bridges to nowhere and a toll road
inside a levee.
Fanciful bridges might seem like a
nice idea to council members, but when they're traversing a smelly drainage
ditch into an area of urban blight, what good are they?
John McClelland, Dallas |
Whether the politicians or
bureaucratic ghosts want to admit it, the public gets this disaster, and we
don't like it. Whoever is "consulting" Councilman Mitch Rasansky's
potential mayoral race has picked up on this mood.
Friday, Councilman Rasansky
announced he would ask for a council vote to put the String Thing Bridge matter
on the November ballot as a referendum. This time, DMN's Emily Ramshaw
broke the story.
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'Signature' bridges lose
council member's support;
Possible mayoral contender wants vote, says
constituents upset
Saturday,
September 9, 2006
By EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News
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Dallas City Council member and
possible mayoral contender Mitchell Rasansky said Friday that he no longer
supports plans for three high-profile bridges over the Trinity River, and
said voters should get another chance to veto the
?signature? spans.
The North Dallas representative will
ask his colleagues to include an item on an upcoming ballot giving voters
the option to trash the costly bridges ? a combination of local and federal
dollars ? and proceed with conventional bridges instead.
... ?We need to ask the people, do they still want
them?? Mr. Rasansky said of the Woodall Rodgers, Interstate 30 and
Interstate 35E bridges. ?The public is frustrated. They?re saying, ?Enough
with the Trinity bridges.? We?re wasting time and money on this.?
Mayor Laura Miller said Friday that
she was ?heartbroken? by Mr. Rasansky?s comments and predicted that he won?t
find support on this issue from his City Council colleagues. She said
even talking about a referendum on the bridges sends
the wrong message to North Texas? congressional delegation, which has
worked tirelessly to secure funding for the bridges.
... Ms. Miller said. ?It?s 2006, and things are
expensive. But we?re going to make sure we get this bridge built.?
Mr. Rasansky, the council?s fiscal
watchdog, said he?s been asking city staff for years whether Dallas has
enough money for the bridges.
City officials said yes, Mr. Rasansky
said. But judging from June?s $113 million low bid for the Woodall Rodgers
bridge, up from Mr. Calatrava?s $57 million estimate, that wasn?t the case,
he said.
Now, he said,
he?s hearing from many of his constituents that they?re fed up with broken
budgets and losing faith in the I-30 and I-35E bridges. They want to build
traditional bridges and move on, Mr. Rasansky said ? and he agrees.
... Mr. Rasansky, who hasn?t decided whether he?ll run for mayor,
said he knows his stance on the bridges may not aid his popularity. But
while it?s too late to put a referendum on the bridges on the November
ballot, he said he?s going to push to do it in an upcoming election.
?I just think enough is enough ? it?s
gone on far too long,? he said. ?I?m sticking to my guns. I want to lead
that charge.? |
Masterful politicking, and
possibly the ticket that will separate Councilman Rasansky from the pack of 20
or so mayoral hopefuls. God knows, I love the political aspects of it all,
but the Councilman is simply right. As Schutze points out in
Eye Candy,
we never got to vote on those String Thing Bridges. If we are going to
jeopardize our entire road system in North Texas just so the elite can have
aesthetic pleasure, then let us vote.
Why are the pro-String Thing Bridge folks afraid to let the people vote?
Do they think the Calatrava things are a foolish waste of time and money?
Do they think the voters will see through the propaganda and vote against the
Bridges?
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We are tired of the shell game being played with our
transportation dollars. We want our tax dollars spent where we
need for them to be spent, not on frivolous ego monuments. All of
the Trinity road money (toll road or bridges) should be spent first on
fixing LBJ. We need to spend our money where people already are,
and stop trying to foresee the future. |
Building bridges to nowhere is
a waste of our tax dollars, and a shell game that is going to have terrible
consequences for the present and the future.
sb
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