So much for Williamson’s “No Scandal” policy…
Former Executive Director of the Alamo RMA (our tolling authority) Tom Greibel has taken an executive position at a highway engineering firm, Pape-Dawson Engineers in Austin. Read about it in the Biz Journal. Haven’t we heard plenty about this problem in the national news lately thanks to Abramoff? See [...]

Direct from her office is this statement:
The Senator does not support widespread tolling because it is contrary to Texas’ tradition of free, clear and well-maintained roads and because it imposes another tax on those whose taxes have already generated the revenue for highway construction. She believes that decisions to construct new toll roads should [...]

It’s standard to keep the contracts secret even after the contracts are signed, too!
The Great Ontario Toll-Road Cover-Up; Highway 407 bidding is cloaked in a veil of CIA-like secrecy.
Some choice quotes from the article by Peter Samuel…

All information the government chooses to release is being held in a secure government office called a Data Room, [...]

The two “competing” bidders to build San Anotnio’s toll starter system are Cintra (Spanish Consortium) and Macquarie (Australian consortium). How are partners billed as competitors? No matter what scenario, Cintra-Macquarie gets the contract and hence control that guarantees a certain level of profit for the next 50+ years. See history of public-private partnerships (or PPPs [...]

It’s about time Krusee, Perry, Williamson, and Cintra-Zachry get exposed for who and what they really are! Great work, Ben!
Read this choice reporting ASAP!

A supporter forwarded this article to me and it really hits the nail on the head regarding tolls. Those of us who have followed this issue any length of time already know this isn’t about traffic relief or TxDOT being out of money. It’s not about free market or what we normally associate with privatization. [...]

Read the article in the Houston Chronicle here.
Notice how much column space is devoted to toll proponents versus those of us against Perry’s toll plans. The reason for the article is our rally and the building of a political movement that crosses party lines and draws the attention of gubernatorial candidates. This is an issue [...]

Here are some very well stated comments to the Transportation Commission from a fellow supporter in Waller County. I couldn’t have said it better, Alice!…
I don’t understand how TxDOT can relinquish its task of right of way acquisitions for building public roads to multinational financial conglomerations whose primary interests and talents are in making and [...]

Talk about a faux pas…
We sent out an email asking our supporters to call Senator Hutchison’s office to question why she would endorse a “toller” given the following comment by the Senator: “I’m opposed to slapping a toll on a highway that’s already built”–Texas Monthly, November 2004
Today candidate for re-election as State Representative, Carter Casteel, [...]

It doesn’t come as a surprise to those of us following Perry’s “innovative financing” to tolling Texas highways that local officials in Dallas are being railroaded by TxDOT in a public-private partnership takeover of the 121 toll project. Read it in the Dallas Morning News.
Here’s some of the highlights. Note how the local officials [...]