Link to article here.
Laughing out loud…the SH 130 toll road is SO EMPTY during rush hour traffic that a plane can land on it, sit there all day while it gets repaired and take off later that evening! Something is seriously wrong when we’re building billions of dollars of toll roads scarcely a soul can [...]

Pro-toll Terrell McCombs, who is paid to lobby for toll roads by those who will profit off of them, opines that the Express-News asked concerned citizen and San Antonio Toll Party and Texas TURF Founder, Terri Hall, to do a blog for their paper. The BIG MONEY can’t handle losing its monopoly on the discussion. [...]

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Rick Perry wants to try and force the Legislature to continue to give his highway department the authority to sell-off Texas roads to private, foreign toll operators which will charge Texans 75 cents a mile to access PUBLIC roads. This from a so-called conservative who sent out his minions to [...]

IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Perry vetoes bill to prohibit TxDOT’s ad campaigns to sway public opinion in favor of tolls
Citizen lawsuit to stop TxDOT’s taxpayer-funded lobbying to continue
(Austin, TX – June 23, 2009) Governor Rick Perry vetoed HB 2142 (authored by Rep. Ruth McClendon), which could have settled the issue of the Texas Department of Transportation’s (TxDOT) misuse [...]

Link to article here.
Hutchison: Forget Instituting Double Toll Taxes, Create Fair Highway-Funding
Texas Insider
June 17, 2009
U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
“Taxpayers Shouldn’t Be Charged Time and Time Again to Drive on Roads They Already Paid For”
Maintaining and improving our nation’s vast surface transportation network has become nearly as daunting as negotiating the gridlocked roads of many [...]

Link to article here.
The North Texas Tollway Authority is drowning in a sea of debt. Toll road ridership is down, so they’re at risk of not being able to make bond payments, so they’re looking to raise toll rates, which will in turn make ever fewer people able to afford to take the tollways. It’s [...]

Link to article here.
There’s scarcely more sacred ground in Texas than the Alamo, and Rick Perry trampled on it Monday when he faked signing a bill that was really a constitutional amendment that didn’t need his signature. Even worse, the amendment that was already headed to the voters was personally watered down by Perry’s goons [...]

Link to article here.
Senator Robert Nichols removed the State Auditor from oversight over these private toll rip-offs, called CDAs, in his bill SB 1669 (which didn’t pass), so he is likely the one who removed the Attorney General from any oversight in the TxDOT sunset bill, HB 300 (which also didn’t pass). Nichols knew what [...]

Link to article here.
Politics and the Financial Crisis Slow the Drive to Privatize

Left, William Thomas Cain/Getty Images; John Gress/Reuters
A deal to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike, left, failed last year. Private operation of Chicago parking meters has run into criticism.
By LESLIE WAYNE
New York Times
June 4, 2009 It was hailed as a win-win for Main Street [...]

WE DID IT!
HB 300 IS DEAD!
It was messy, and full of drama, but the grassroots, with the help of infighting among lawmakers over the “local option” gas tax hike, managed to slay a beast of a bill that would have unleashed horrific provisions upon Texans for GENERATIONS to come.
Thank you for all the phone calls [...]