Thread: PREMEDITATED MERGER NAFTA Superhighway hits bump in road

Given severe blow as Texas Legislature voting to block program

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Posted: April 23, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern


By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com


EL PASO – The Texas legislature moved closer to blocking the Trans-Texas Corridor last week with a bill that would place a two-year moratorium all public-private partnerships that would involve the construction of new toll roads financed and operated by private foreign investment groups.

Last Thursday, the Texas Senate unanimously approved Senate Bill 1267, requiring the study of long-term partnerships such as the Texas Department of Transportation recommended in the construction of TTC-35, a four-football-fields-wide NAFTA superhighway financed and operated for 50 years by the Cintra investment consortium in Spain.

The Texas Senate action takes place less than two weeks after the Texas House passed by a 137-2 margin House Bill 1892 that includes virtually identical language to the anti-TTC bill passed by the Senate.

The wide margins by which both measures passed assured seasoned observers of Texas politics that the anti-superhighway, two-year moratorium will likely pass both houses of the Texas legislature with more than enough votes to override a likely veto by Governor Rick Perry, a stalwart supporter of the Trans-Texas Corridor concept.

This measure follows a hotly contested Texas gubernatorial race in which Governor Perry faced anti-TTC competition from all three rivals – Carole Keaton Strayhorn, a Republican-turned-independent, a former comptroller of the state who fashioned herself as "One Tough Grandma"; Kinky Friedman, an outspoken independent with a characteristic mustache and limited goatee known for his country-and-western troubadour style and his ever present cowboy hat and cigar; and Democratic candidate Chris Bell.

Perry won re-election with 41 percent of the vote, which was widely interpreted by superhighway opponents as a 3-2 vote against the foreign-financed toll road concept.

In the hotly contested summer round of public hearings throughout Texas, strong local opposition was voiced to Perry's plan to build a 4,000-mile system throughout Texas over a 50-year period, removing in the process some 580,000 acres of land from public tax rolls and displacing an estimated 1 million Texans from their ranches, farms, businesses, and homes through eminent domain.

The moratorium vote by the Texas legislature also comes as a strong rebuke of the Bush administration, under which the Federal Highway Administration has devoted a section of the agency's website devoted to teaching state governments how to implement "PPP" projects designed to lease public highways to investment consortia desiring to run the roads a toll roads under long-term leases.

In March 2004, the city of Chicago leased the Chicago Skyway to an investment syndicate that included Cintra of Spain and Macquarie, an Australian private investment group.

In September 2005, Cintra and Macquarie finalized a long-term lease to operate the Indiana Toll Road.

In June 2006, negotiations were completed by the Virginia Department of Transportation with Macquarie to operate the Pocahontas Parkway under a similar long-term PPP lease.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/artic ... E_ID=55331

In March 2004, the city of Chicago leased the Chicago Skyway to an investment syndicate that included Cintra of Spain and Macquarie, an Australian private investment group.

And the cost of our tollways have almost tripled as a result. Tolls went from being 40 cents to $1.00 in most cases and .60 to .80 cents in some places. Its a total rip off of the taxpayer.

Way to go Texas, I'll bet the other states leased the highways with out the citizens knowing it.

wait


we stopped it?


YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HAW!!

You sure did!! Great job Texans!!!

Go home illegals and globalists!

At the source link are various addresses of legislators.
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Bill Putting Brakes On Trans-Texas Corridor Project Sent To Governor
(May 2, 2007)—The Texas House Wednesday gave final approval to a bill placing a two-year moratorium on private toll road contracts.

Lawmakers sent the bill to Gov. Rick Perry, setting up a showdown over the future of the state's transportation policy.

Perry, who's backing his proposed Trans-Texas Corridor highway and rail project, had urged the Legislature to reject the freeze.


The House approved the measure 139-to-1.

The lone dissenter was Representative Mike Krusee of Round Rock, a Perry ally on toll roads and chairman of the House Transportation Committee.

The Senate approved the bill last week.

The moratorium includes exceptions for a few projects across the state.

Those projects would be subject to scrutiny by the attorney general's office, the state auditor's office and the Legislative Budget Board.

The proposal also tightens controls on the comprehensive development agreements, reducing their maximum duration from 70 years to 40 years and allowing the state to buy back a project.

The legislation gives local authorities more power over toll projects in their areas.

http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/7297681.html

Perry, who's backing his proposed Trans-Texas Corridor highway and rail project, had urged the Legislature to reject the freeze.

Follow the money and see what cookie jar Governor Perry has he sticky little fingers in.

Originally Posted by WhatMattersMost

In March 2004, the city of Chicago leased the Chicago Skyway to an investment syndicate that included Cintra of Spain and Macquarie, an Australian private investment group.

And the cost of our tollways have almost tripled as a result. Tolls went from being 40 cents to $1.00 in most cases and .60 to .80 cents in some places. Its a total rip off of the taxpayer.

Just 2 weeks ago I drove around Chicago on 290 and paid $1.60 3 times...