TEXAS
"Public-Private Partnership" Driving Trans-Texas Corridor

Rising number opposed to Gov. Rick Perry's plan to sell off highways to private companies in order to finance Trans-Texas Corridor.

By Thom White

AUSTIN, Tex.  February 5, 2007 -- Gov. Rick Perry announced the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) project in 2002. Perry's grand 4,000 mile scheme encompasses 11 separate corridors that will criss-cross the state. The corridors will cost $180 billion to build, will take 50 years to complete and, according to Gov. Perry, will greatly benefit Texans.

Although Gov. Perry says this massive project is being carried out to meet the needs of growth and commerce in Texas, critics say that Texans in fact don't want the Trans-Texas Corridor and see "TTC-35" (the first leg of the corridor running parallel to I-35) instead as the first piece of an international NAFTA-inspired highway, intended to increase trade with Mexico, and speed the importation of goods from Asia into Eastern North America.

The AP's Jim Vertuno reported that the purpose of the Trans-Texas Corridor is to "enable freight haulers to bypass heavily populated urban centers on straightshot highways that cut across the countryside." The corridors will also allow corporations to transport their toxic industrial waste through the state without directly endangering residents in populated urban and suburban areas.

Gov. Perry's plan calls for the Trans-Texas Corridor to be a quarter of a mile wide (about four football fields, in American-speak) with "six lanes for cars, and four for trucks, plus railroad tracks, oil and gas pipelines, water and other utility lines, and broadband transmission cable."

The passage of Proposition 15 (November 6, 2001) put in a "constitutional amendment creating the Texas Mobility Fund and authorizing grants and loans of money and issuance of obligations for financing the construction, reconstruction, acquisition, operation, and expansion of state highways, turnpikes, toll roads, toll bridges, and other mobility projects." This change in the Texas Constitution would pave the way for the Trans-Texas Corridor, though few knew it at the time.

In 2003, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 3588, authored by House Transportation Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Krusee (R-Round Rock), now well-known as one of the major "pro-toll" politicians. Mr. Krusee's bill gave appointed Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) officals broad new powers needed to legally build the Trans-Texas Corridor.

TxDOT officials have awarded the $175 billion contract to build and maintain the Trans-Texas Corridor to Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, S.A. of Spain. Cintra has already paid the State over $1 billion for the right to negotiate final construction and maintenance of the entire corridor.

TxDOT is working with Cintra on the first leg of the Trans-Texas Corridor, a $7.5 billion corridor stretching from the Oklahoma border around Dallas and down to near San Antonio.

Cintra will spend $6 billion on the road, and is giving $1.2 billion to the state for other improvements. However, because the corridor will be built with private funds, there will be little public oversight.

According to Governor Perry, "Some thought the Trans-Texas Corridor was a pie-in-the-sky idea," but he now proclaims to those yet convinced, "We have seen the future, and it's here today."

CINTRA-ZACHRY MONEY CONNECTIONS

The obvious reason why the State of Texas considers private company Cintra as the best qualified to control Texas citizens' newest high-speed roads and transportation utilities is the fact that Cintra could pay (off) the State (officials) much more cash up front than the other companies that placed competing bids.

Gov. Perry spokeman Mr. Robert Black has indicated that Cintra won the road-controlling contract because they offered the most money. "Cintra promised the State of Texas the best bang for the buck. Besides they threw in to the deal over $1 billion that the State of Texas could use however we want to."

Cintra has formed a "limited liability corporation" with Zachry Construction Co. of San Antonio, which will be organizing much of the project on the ground. Cintra is the majority partner with 85% of the capital, even though Zachry is the more experienced company. Cintra has reportedly only built 20 miles of road in its entire company history, while Zachry Construction has worked for years building roads for the State. There are many ties between Gov. Perry's people and Zachry Construction owner H.B. Zachry, Jr., a man who stands to earn millions to construct the Trans-Texas Corridor.

Terri Hall of the San Antonio Toll Party told Jerome Corsi (July 12, 2006) that H.B. Zachry, Jr. has contributed money to elect almost every single office holder in Bexar County (where San Antonio is the county seat). Ms. Hall said, "Zachry owns San Antonio and he has spread his money inside and outside Bexar County to make sure he drives the highway lobby." The Institute on Money in State Politics estimates that Mr. Zachry has contributed $112,112 to political campaigns in the last few years, and a total of $35,000 to Gov. Perry's re-election campaign in 2006.

Campaigns for People, an organization opposed to the TTC, said that aside from Zachry Construction, the "Top 10" TxDOT maintanence and construction contractors gave $1.1 million in political contributions between 2001 and 2004, the period when Trans-Texas Corridor plans were first being solidified by TxDOT officials. In apparent exchange for this financial support, TxDOT officials (appointed by elected representatives) awarded these 10 companies over $6,000 million dollars in contracts to build and maintain roads (by anyone's standards, a fine return on investment).

In June 2006, Cintra-Zachry, LLC provided $1.3 billion to TxDOT so that it could complete a toll segment of TX-130 north of Austin. Unfortunately for citizens, in exchange for this fast cash, TxDOT agreed to sign away the rights to revenue off the toll segment to Cintra-Zachry for the next 50 years.

The first new toll roads have opened in North Austin, with elevated lanes linking Mo-Pac (Loop 1) up to Round Rock. Cintra intends to charge 10 to 20 cents per mile on its tollways, but many say this is a much higher charge per mile than on other toll roads. Critics cite the turnpikes in Oklahoma where, for example, the entire 86-mile Turner Turnpike costs a driver only $3.50, an average cost of 4 cents per mile. The current gas tax for Texans is about 38 cents per gallon, meaning that with a car or truck that gets mileage of 20 miles per gallon, the driver is likely to pay less than 2 cents per gallon in tax to fund the highways.

"TEXAS RAIL FUND" AND PROPOSITION 1 (2005)

In November 2005, Proposition 1 was passed by Texas voters. Opponents of the Trans-Texas Corridor say that this proposition was a "smoke-screen" to lay more of the legal and financial framework necessary to realize the TTC.

Proposition 1 amended the Texas Constitution to authorize the creation of the "Texas Rail and Relocation Fund" which allows the State to go into debt to build the TTC. For this proposition to have an effect, the Texas Legislature must vote to sell bonds to put into the Texas Rail Fund.

Rick Perry's Republicans are afraid to raise taxes to pay for their corridor projects, so instead they will pay crews of men with credit guaranteed through investment banks who purchase the state bonds. The Texas Rail Fund appears to be another example of our governments' bankrupt spending habits.

"Prop 1 unlimited taxpayer debt is no different than using a credit card when you know you have no funds to pay the bill when it arises," said Sal Costello, founder of the Austin Toll Party.

One local project that will be funded through this method of public debt aims to move Union Pacific Railroad out of the city of Austin, and to new facilities and rails several miles east of town along where the new Cintra-run TX-130 toll road is being constructed as the first realized segment of the Trans-Texas Corridor.
Rail corporations stand to gain millions in free rail if the State allocates money for the Texas Rail Fund and foots the bill for these enhanced facilities.

Sal Costello summed up the injustice of the debt scheme behind Prop 1's Texas Rail Fund: "Funding for the private sector should be left to the private sector. With the rising cost of gasoline and heating fuel, Texas families simply can't afford to pay billions in corporate welfare for Governor Perry's railroad fat cat contributors. Texans need to rise up and say 'No' to the unlimited tax and debt of the Proposition 1 rail fund."

Mr. Costello opposes the obvious "corporate welfare" inherent in Proposition 1, and said, "Profitable rail corporations should not be subsidized by us taxpayers." He added that private rail corporations like Union Pacific have had recording-breaking profits in recent years.

RURAL TEXANS LEAD OPPOSITION TO TTC

The AP's Jim Vertuno reported that, "Ranchers and farmers who stand to lose their land through eminent domain are mobilizing against" the Trans-Texas Corridor.

To make room for Gov. Perry's corridor, TxDOT will in effect declare legal war on much of rural Texas, confiscating some 584,000 acres of private land. According to David M. Bresnahan of the Texas Toll Party, once the state legally takes away people's land using "eminent domain" statutes, land and natural resources will be "turned over to private corporations to make profits."

Bresnahan reported that over 30 counties have formally opposed the construction of the Trans-Texas Corridor.
According to Jerome Corsi, as many as one million people will be displaced from their current residences by the corridor construction, and "dozens of small towns in Texas will be virtually obliterated in the path of the advancing TTC behemoth."

Now TTC critics charge that Macquarie, a fellow international toll road conglomerate along with Cintra, has bought a package of small-town Texas newspapers in order to silence critics of the toll road project.

It was reported in January 2007 that toll road giant Macquarie Bank agreed to purchase American Consolidated Media, which owns forty local newspapers, primarily in Texas and Oklahoma, for $80 million. Macquarie Bank is Australia's largest capital raising firm and has invested billions in purchasing roads in the US, Canada and UK. Most recently the company joined with Cintra Concesiones of Spain in a controversial 75-year lease of the 157-mile Indiana Toll Road.

Sal Costello says that Macquarie's purchase is directly related to the 4000-mile Trans-Texas Corridor toll road project. "The newspapers are the main communication tool for many of the rural Texan communities, with many citizens at risk of losing their homes and farms through eminent domain," Costello wrote.

Many of the small papers purchased, most with circulation of 5,000 or less, have been critical of the Trans-Texas Corridor. An article in the Bonham Journal for example, states, "The toll roads will be under control of foreign investors, which more than frustrates Texans."

Trans-Texas Corridor
as NAFTA Superhighway

Along with land, some critics say Americans in Texas are also surrendering another important possession: national sovereignty. Rick Perry's rail/truck/pipeline network for Texas is only the first segment of a new international corridor meant to bind Canada, Mexico, and these united States together into a previously unthinkable, massive superstate: The North American Union.

Dr. Robert A. Pastor's 2005 report to the Council on Foreign Relations includes the Trans-Texas Corridor as part of a grand network envisioned for a proposed "North American Community." According to the CFR plan, Canada, the USA, and Mexico will be joined together with a common perimeter and "harmonized" trade and security laws that will allow easier penetration of Chinese produce and manufactures to Eastern North America. Instead of going through Washington State, Long Beach, CA, or the Panama Canal, goods will be deposited at deep-sea loading stations off the southwest coast of Mexico (the port of Lazaro Cardenas), and then shipped on a non-stop route through Mexico, Texas and up to Kansas.

For the purposes of this "NAFTA Superhighway," the Rio Grande River will no longer be any type of border or obstacle between Mexico and Texas. To speed Asian and Latin American exports into the USA, cargo trucks will be marked with special "Trusted Driver" electronic tags that will allow them to continue on over the international border between Mexico and Texas without inspection by the Border Patrol. Only in Kansas, thousands of miles inside the U.S., will the "customs" documentation finally be demanded.

Opponents of new toll roads tend to ask tough questions for the pro-tollers. One such question is, "Where is the toll money going? Will Central Texans' toll money be used to finance other NAFTA Superhighway transportation infrastructure in Mexico?"

LEGISLATIVE ACTION IN 2007
ON THE TOLL ROADS

Patrick Driscoll of the San Antonio Express-News (01/13/07) reported that public opposition to the toll roads has surged in the last year as people found out that TxDOT "wants to toll every new highway lane feasible and is willing to limit improvements to free roads to guarantee use of tollways."

State Sen. John Carona (R-Dallas), chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, may be leading a charge to put a halt to TxDOT's out of control "Public-Private Partnerships" with companies like Cintra. "There is growing concern about the wide authority that has been given TxDOT in recent yearsa as well as abuse of that authority," said Carona.

Officials in El Paso say TxDOT officials tried to "coerce" them into going along with Trans-Texas Corridor plans in their region. State Rep. Joe Pickett (D-El Paso) told the Express-News, "It's our own fault. We gave them too much authority and trusted them too much."

According to the Express-News, TxDOT is now pushing for the power to "suspend drivers' licenses and deny vehicle registrations when people fail to pay tolls and related fines, and to give the same power to companies operating tollways for the state." TxDOT also wants to get rid of the 50 and 70 year legal limit on its "concession" contracts with companies like Cintra.

Jerome Corsi reported that TxDOT has also withheld from the public key sections of their agreements with Cintra-Zachry, and critics wonder aloud what might be these secret provisions that on TxDOT and Cintra-Zachry insiders fear revealing.

"Non-compete" provisions in the State's sell-off of highway operations to Cintra are also controversial. Current contracts indicate that Texas should not (and may not legally be able to) upgrade free roads in the future that "compete" with Cintra toll roads.

Sen. Carona has offered up Senate Bill 149 which would outlaw "non-compete" provisions which hamstring state improvements on existing free roads. He is also pushing SB 165, a bill which would raise the state's gasoline tax, a bid meant to provide the State with more revenue without implementing the toll road tax.

CONCLUSION

Austin is growing and it is clear that new and expanded roads are needed to meet the crowds of new residents trying to get around town. Everyone driving on Mo-Pac or I-35 from time to time has cursed the gods of traffic while trying to get somewhere important.

But why the big change in road funding? Texas has traditionally relied on federal highway funding from gasoline taxes to build its roads, and the roads have generally been freeways. Who is in the driver's seat (and in high gear, 2007) along with Gov. Perry, pushing for this "paradigm shift" away from the traditional publicly-run (free) highways of the American West, and to a new system, and a new imposition whereby our most valuable transportation utilities, our highways, are sold off to the highest bidders?

Sen. Carona will hold a hearing on March 1 to answer some of these questions, and for the following day, March 2, Texas Independence Day, activists plan a "March on the Capitol" in protest against the Trans-Texas Corridor.

Questions about the Trans-Texas Corridor

Many conscientious Americans in Texas are asking questions about the Trans-Texas Corridor, such as:

1. What is the Trans-Texas Corridor?

2. Which politicians and public officials are clamoring for the Trans-Texas Corridor?

3. Which citizens will be hurt by construction of the Trans-Texas Corridor?

4. Which companies and contractors will benefit from the Trans-Texas Corridor?

5. Are these normal toll roads? Where will the toll funds from the Trans-Texas Corridor go?

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