National Coalition
Formed to Oppose
Privatization of Toll Roads
New
coalition of highway user groups
will combat the growing trend toward the privatization or leasing
of toll facilities to private investors.
Group to hold government
accountable for ensuring financing is transparent, motivated by
public good and dedicated to transportation purposes.
MORE>>
Assemblyman Questions Role of Goldman Sachs,
MIG & Cintra
Concern raised about privatization advisors with a vested
interest.
MORE>>
Promises Made To Investors
DUNCANVILLE
— Texas Transportation Commission confirms private investors set rules
for public safety
agency use of public owned toll roads.
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Seeing Gold at the End of the Privatized
Road
"Thirty years from
now, when they're charging exorbitant tolls and the adjacent
roads are way over capacity, [motorists will] be looking for
someone with pitchforks"
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RPA: Proceed with Caution on
Public-Private Partnerships
Report Identifies
Steps to Protect Public Interest
Before Deals are Pursued on Turnpike, other Transportation
Assets
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A Documentary Film
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What Does That Mean?
Transportation Glossary
MORE>>
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TIME MAGAZINE ASKED...
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"IF YOU AGGRESSIVELY INVITE THE PRIVATE SECTOR TO BE YOUR PARTNER,
YOU CAN'T TELL THEM WHERE TO BUILD THE ROAD"
MORE>>
CorridorWatch.org Submitted Three
TTC-35 Draft Environmental Impact Statement Comment Documents
August 17, 2006
August 21, 2006
CorridorWatch.org Files Complaint with the Federal Highway
Administration
charging that TxDOT is using a CDA to circumvent NEPA requirements.
MORE>>
Cintra Lobbyist With Ties To Governor
Perry
Offers TxDOT Officials and Key State Lawmakers
a
4 Day, 3 Night,
All Expense Paid Trip to Canada.
MORE >>
Resolution Filed in U.S.
Congress Objecting to NAFTA Superhighway System and Foreign Consortium
Funding and Management.
MORE>>
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Who Represents You?
Cintra's Inside Man: Dan Shelley
Cintra consultant turned
Governor Perry's legislative aide, turned
Cintra lobbyist. It's hard to
keep up with who is working for who. Or is it?
Austin lobbyist Dan Shelley has been one of Governor Perry's aides
and Cintra's inside man.
Shelley worked for
Cintra making introductions to
TxDOT just in time to see them get a winning proposal submitted for the
Trans Texas Corridor. Then he worked for Governor Perry just in time to
lobby the Legislature to protect and strengthen laws benefiting
Cintra. Now he's back working
for Cintra again planning all
expense paid trips to Canada for TxDOT and Texas law makers.
MORE
>>
CorridorWatch.org Files Comment and Complaint at NEPA Tier One
TTC-35 DEIS Public Hearing
During the July 27, 2006, Public Hearing in Dallas, Texas, David
Stall presented oral comments and submitted written comments on
behalf the members of CorridorWatch.org.
"TxDOT has failed its NEPA mandate to alert and inform the public of
their planned actions."
"Under the leadership and direction of the Texas transportation
commission TxDOT has failed the NEPA mandate of a careful and informed
decision-making process conducted fully and in good faith."
MORE>>
US SUPREME COURT RULES GOVERNMENT CAN SEIZE
YOUR PROPERTY FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
June 23, 2005, the Supreme Court abandons
a long-held, basic limitation on government power.
The U.S. Supreme Court has greased the wheels of the Trans Texas
Corridor.
MORE>>
"If you look
behind the surface you'll see that a lot of what we 'know' about
privatization is mere puffery. Groups such as the Reason Foundation and
the National Council for Public Private Partnerships (formerly the
Privatization Council) have spent a lot of time and money convincing the
public that privatization is better."
Ellen J. Dannin, Professor of Law,
Wayne State University Law School
MORE>>
SCORE: Taxpayers 0
Wal-Mart $2.8 Million
The State of Texas has gone into
the land development business using powers and leverage only
available to government. By doing so the State is now directly
competing with private enterprise and violating the most fundamental
principles of capitalism.
MORE>>
The Newest Oxymoron:
Private Property Rights
Texas Representative Frank
Corte of San Antonio issued a release saying, "The right to own and use
property is inherent to a free society. When a government decides they
know how to use private property better than the individual, private
property rights cease to exist." CorridorWatch.org couldn't agree more.
MORE>>
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Trouble
in Public-Private Toll Road Paradise?
CorridorWatch.org learned some of the most interesting information
about public-private partnerships and related activities taking place in
the U.S. from sources outside the country. April 2008 was no exception.
An article
titled,
"Macquarie model blowtorched,"
appeared in that Friday's
Sydney Morning Herald and it told us there was trouble in PPP paradise.
The Herald report pointed us to a document just released by
RiskMetrics Group,
an international corporate governance service headquartered in New York.
The document they authored is a report titled,
"Infrastructure Funds: Managing, Financing and Accounting; In Whose
Interest?"
The 39-page report
details a host of concerns and issues that should give pause to anyone
who thinks PPP infrastructure deals are free of serious risk.
Michael West of The
Sydney Morning Herald writes, "The RiskMetrics research is likely to
send shockwaves through the sector and give both state and federal
governments cause for concern as governments have mostly privatized
public assets via these structures." And so it should.
We
have often described the financial model being used by
Cintra's partner
Macquarie as 'Enron-style accounting.' History has demonstrated time and
again that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't true.
This report is another step forward in debunking the PPP easy money
myth. We have consistently described the Trans Texas Corridor financial
scheme as highway alchemy and are certain we will eventually be proven
right.
Summarizing
the report the Herald article says, "RiskMetrics critiques the
financially-engineered infrastructure model for its high debt levels,
high fees, paying distributions out of capital rather than cashflow,
overpaying for assets, related-party transactions, booking profits from
revaluations, poor disclosure, myriad conflicts of interest, auditor
conflicts and other poor corporate governance."
We
hope government officials at both the federal and state level will
carefully study the RiskMetrics report. As we all know tremendous
pressure is being applied by the Federal Highway Administration to push
state government into public-private partnerships deals, partnerships we
fear will lead to disaster. We also hope this report will give rise to a
greater examination of the financial impact these partnerships will have
on the public. Special caution must be exercised to ensure that public
infrastructure such has highways, rails, and utilities serve the public
interest above any private interest.
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It's
not about transportation . . . It's about
revenue.
"Governor Perry and his friends spent a great deal of
time researching ideas to create more revenue"
— Transportation
Commissioner Ric Williamson
(March 25, 2003)
[citation]
[full
text]
"in your lifetime most existing roads will have tolls"
— Transportation
Commissioner Ric Williamson
(October 11, 2004)
"It's either
toll roads, slow roads or no roads"
— Transportation Commissioner Ric Williamson
(May 2004)
[more
about tolls]
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"It's either toll roads, slow roads
or no roads"
— Transportation Commissioner Ric Williamson
(May 2004)
"Highway tolls are yet another form of
regressive taxation, designed to push the burden of public costs downward
onto the average taxpayer/driver, while the lion's share of the benefits go
to the industries demanding state-subsidized mobility and infrastructure."
— Michael King, Capitol Chronicle: Blame It on the Kids, Austin
Chronicle
(February 1, 2002)
[link]
"If you aggressively invite the private
sector
to be your partner,
you can't tell them where to build the
road"
– Ric Williamson,
Chairman,
Texas Transportation Commission, May
24, 2006
Borrowing money by issuing bonds will make highways more expensive.
Bonding will not generate new money for highways.
Toll roads represent double taxation.
Creates
an incentive to turn toll projects into cash cows.
Users of toll roads will subsidize other highways.
Undermine legislative oversight bypassing legislative control of a
treasury-based fund.
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The
California Experience
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"When the state first
embraced toll roads, think tanks, politicians and government
officials couldn't find enough superlatives to describe them."
But this public-private toll plan
turned into disaster.
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Camino Colombia
Toll Road
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The
state's first and only private toll road fails, Jan.'04.
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"Simple logic
should tell us it's impossible for the private sector to deliver the
same service for less and make a profit as well." —
Ellen J. Dannin, Professor of Law,
Wayne State University Law School
[more]
"The highways of
Texas are built and paved in part by paths of gold leading to the
Texas Governor's Mansion."
— R.G. Ratcliffe, Highway plans bring money to
politicians, Houston Chronicle
(August 30,
2002)
"Highway contractors, chemical pipeline
executives and financial bond firms that stand to benefit from the
plan have contributed more than $300,000 to Mr. Perry."
— Wayne Slater, The Dallas Morning News
(January
2002)
"Texas 130
underwriters Goldman Sachs, Salomon Smith Barney and Lehman Brothers
will earn about $21 million for handling the state bond sales for
the highway. Goldman and Salomon gave $10,000 each to last year's
campaign to pass Proposition 15, a state constitutional amendment
that significantly changed the way Texas finances roads." — R.G. Ratcliffe, Highway plans bring money to
politicians, Houston Chronicle
(August 30,
2002)
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