Perry's toll road sins mostly in woulda-coulda status now

[white cloud]

Transportation has become Kay Bailey Hutchison's go-to issue as she attempts to take down Gov. Rick Perry in the March 2 Republican primary.

Unlike other policy areas, which tend to break down along clear partisan lines, transportation policy historically has been harder to pigeonhole. But in his nine years as governor, Perry has compiled a clear-cut record of sweeping and often controversial change in that area.

Perry and the late Ric Williamson, his point man on the Texas Transportation Commission from 2002 until Williamson's death in 2007, shifted state transportation funding from a gas-tax-based, pay-as-you-go system to a market-based approach swamped with toll roads.

They pushed through a law allowing free roads to be "converted" to toll roads, in theory eliciting gushers of transportation money. They pushed to have private companies, most prominently one from Spain, front the money for toll roads on the state highway system and then operate and profit from them for 50 years. And Perry proposed (and got statutes written to allow) the creation of 4,000 miles of tollways, railways and utility corridors across the state,
>>>>>>>>http://www.statesman.com/news/local/perry-s-toll-road-sins-mostly-in-woulda-193585.html

[sonias]

1. One of the worst examples of selling our assets off

Perry has always been a supporter of having private business make money off of any government related task. If he could privatize the Texas National Guard we would do that as well.

Roads mean nothing to him. He flies to the major cities he has to travel to. He has no understanding of what a working person who commutes to work has to deal with - or what it costs.

And his support for projects like the Trans Texas Corridor is his typical starting position. "How can we sell something and who is the highest bidder?" And we of course suspect that those businesses that buy our assets then turn around at some point and donate to his campaign.

In a related note - some our our county commissioner courts are doing just as bad a job. :(

Fort Worth Star-Telegram 1/23/10
Hundreds of millions spent on Texas transportation projects that have little to do with traffic

No one disputes that the Woodall Rodgers Deck Park under construction in downtown Dallas is innovative.

The 5-acre park is being built on top of an eyesore freeway. Soon, the concrete canyon of a roadway will be covered by an elevated green space where people can walk, ride bikes or play checkers.

But nearly all the money that’s being spent on the first phase of construction — $42.7 million — comes from federal transportation funds, supported largely by gasoline taxes that Americans pay at the pump.

The Woodall Rodgers project is a glaring example of how, at a time when many Texans distrust their transportation leaders, huge chunks of federal and state money are being spent on projects that have little or nothing to do with directly improving traffic.

The story doesn't clarify who actually decides on the projects and who approves them, but I think it's the county court of commissioners in the respective counties. And it sounds like Ray LaHood from the Obama Transportation Dept. is going to be a little more involved.

During a Fort Worth visit late last year, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood wouldn’t specify his plans for enhancement funds, but he said his agency is reviewing how money is distributed.

"We’re getting out of the sort of mode of business where highways get X amount and transit gets X amount," LaHood said. "We’re working with the Department of Housing and Urban Development so we can put transit lines where people really want to live. We’re going to try to create pools of money that really integrate with walking and biking trails with some of our highway money."

Sonia