Take a day of vacation and make your voice heard on Friday, March 2, 2007.

What: Don’t Tag Texas Rally

Who/Why: Several organizations led by Hank Gilbert, Farm & Ranch Freedom, and others are sponsoring a rally to protest the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) and the National Animal Identification System (NAIS).

When: Friday, March 2, 2007 - Texas Independence Day

Time: The March will begin at 2:00 pm. The rally on the steps of the Capitol will be from 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm.

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Staging Area for the March:  We have reserved a parking lot at the northeast corner of Cesar Chavez (1st) and Red River.  If you plan to be part of the march up Congress, please be at the staging area around 1 pm and NO LATER THAN 1:30 pm.  Click here for a map of the area — the lot is marked with a star.

Route for the March: Everyone will march together down Cesar Chavez (1st) Street to Congress, and then up Congress Avenue.  When we reach the Capitol, the people on foot will remain there.  Tractors and livestock will turn right on 11th Street and go to Red River, and the go down Red River back to the staging area.  People will then be bused and shuttled back to the Capitol steps.  We need volunteers to watch the animals back at the staging area from 2:30-5:30.  Please let us know if you are willing to help.

Don’t worry if you can’t make the march, just join us at the Capitol when ever you can for some great entertainment and excellent speakers!

To wrap things up tonight, I wanted to point y’all to a great article over at The Facts that sums up the biggest problem people have with toll roads… it’s a secret tax.

We hope taxpayers — better yet voters — are smart enough to see the Texas Department of Transportation’s plan to make most of all new highway projects toll roads for what it is: an in-our-faces consequence of government attempting to sneak through a tax increase.

For a long time now, “holding the line on taxes” has translated to little more than a shell game. Austin or Washington can say it hasn’t raised taxes, can demand its departments turn in zero-sum budgets or spending plans that reflect cuts from what they spent last year, and voters will be satisfied those fiscal conservatives we elected are keeping their campaign promises.

Everybody’s happy.

That is, until the incidentals start creeping in. The sin taxes, the higher fees for visiting a state park, for vehicle registration or for a hunting or fishing license. Or until the services start being cut: reduced hours, staff cuts resulting in longer wait times for services and the like. Or until the sliding tax burden hits taxing entities further down the food chain through unfunded mandates, forcing them to turn to us anyway to make up the difference.

On the subject of parking, there should be plenty since more State offices should be closed that day in honor of Texas Independence Day. Here’s a link to spaces around downtown Austin as well as a link to the ‘Dillo’s that run around downtown. These are a free transportation service that runs in downtown thanks to CapMetro.

Of course, no week would be complete without more information on what a disaster the TTC project has been so far. More on the true cost (over 100 BILLION DOLLARS!) at Muckracker, Eye on Williamson, Somervell County Salon and Off the Kuff. As it turns out, the only people who’ve been telling the truth about the TTC have been the ones who oppose it.

The hearing will be held March 1, 2007, in the Extension Auditorium of the State Capitol in Austin. The
hearing will begin at 8:30 AM and is expected to go until 6:00 PM. To give as many people as possible
the opportunity to testify, each witness will be limited to three minutes of oral testimony. There is no limit
on the amount of written testimony a witness may submit.

You can find the meeting notice and the testimony forms here. Here’s a map of the Capitol and the auditorium is E1.004 in the Extension. Thank you, Senator Carona!

Seriously, this is best Rick Perry could do with the appointment of the Chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission? A man so hellbent on tolling Texans that he can’t even be bothered to meet with the Senator who is the chairman of the committee in the Senate that oversees the TTC?

It seems odd that in some instances the government is hell bent on setting aside land for growing grass or simply calling it a “wetland,” while at the same time threatening use of eminent domain to build this Trans-Texas Corridor and other toll ways which will be privately owned.

Taking property from one private party for the use of another private party cannot be the intent of eminent domain as originally written, regardless of the government’s perceived benefit. The government needs to use better fiscal management before resorting to more theft of the citizen’s property than is already exacted through taxation.

Toll-road financing (SB 256): The growing practice of contracting with private entities to build and operate toll roads calls for hefty upfront payments. For example, the State Highway 121 project, under way in Collin and Denton counties, should produce about $2 billion in advance money that local governments can use for other vital improvements that the state can’t fund anytime soon.

This bill would outlaw up-front payments, thus inhibiting the ability to start separate projects immediately. It would also put up a roadblock to the proposed, privately operated Trans-Texas Corridor, a reliever turnpike for the overburdened I-35. Neither would be a good outcome.

Many Texans have been in a lather about the expanded use of toll roads – especially the pioneering corridor project – and contend that public-private partnerships are not in the state’s best interest. It’s fine if Mr. Carona’s provocative legislation stirs discussion and addresses legitimate questions. But the state should not hobble itself by ruling out valuable financing methods – and roads properly supported by user fees – when no viable options exist.

Let me make it clear to the Ed Board at the DMN… this is the equivalent of selling for $1 today an asset that will be worth $10 in a few years. Further, no one knows what the contracts prohibit and what kind of special concessions are being given to the private companies to entice them to make these deals. If tolls are such a great idea, why can’t a publicly owned entity (and the citizens of Texas) benefit from it? On that $2 billion, for someone to front that kind of money they have to expect a larger profit in the future. They will obtain it from Texans and it will create a monstrous drag on our economy in the future as money is siphoned out of the state and not spent by consumers here.
The long and the short of it is that the best way to fund transportation in this state is a gas tax. It spreads the burden widely to all parties (from individuals to corporations), eliminates waste and removes, to the greatest possible extent, greed from the equation.

Yes, Texas does need to spend money to expand the infrastructure that our rapid population growth has overburdened. However, we should not do it at the expense of current and future generations of Texans who won’t benefit while a few large corporations, many of them foreign, profit.  We’re paying today for the mistakes and poor planning we did in the past. Let’s make sure we stop it now, instead of exacerbating the problem with tolls.

It’s time for all Texans to come together in Austin and let our elected officials know that we see what they’re up to and demand they take actions that will benefit all Texans, not just a privileged few.

For tonight, we’re keeping things short and I’ll just point you over to a post at McBlogger about the toll roads around Central Texas, a toll road operator that is buying up media assets and intimidation from the toll happy TXDoT.

Again, welcome to the blog! Hope we’ll see more of you soon!