WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Charles
Grassley (R-IA) today introduced two bills to eliminate expensive
federal subsidies that now flow to privatized highways.
Several state and local governments
have already leased to private companies existing highways,
including the Chicago Skyway and Indiana Toll Road, which
were leased to private operators for 99 and 75 years, respectively.
When a state or city leases a highway, it receives significant
compensation, but taxpayers almost always end up paying higher
tolls to the private operator.
Faced
with drastically cutting service this fall and possibly shutting
down for good in two years, Tri-Rail is in survival mode.
It
comes down to this: Officials say they have one last shot
this week at persuading state lawmakers to prop up the financially
troubled commuter train for another year.
Legislators
will return to Tallahassee at the end of the week in an extended
session for a final vote on the budget. So far, no money has
been allocated for Tri-Rail, which carries about 14,700 passengers
on weekdays on its 72-mile line between Miami and Mangonia
Park.
A new
plan, called for on Sunday, would raid funds allocated for
the controversial SunRail commuter rail project in Central
Florida that was killed by the Legislature Friday.
A proposal
for a $2 rental car tax dedicated to Tri-Rail also died Friday,
the final day of the regular session.
The
rental car tax and SunRail were linked together in the same
bill that many senators refused to support because of the
cost and an insurance policy that put too much risk on the
state and taxpayers.
When
the Palm Beach County Commission's most ardent Tri-Rail defender
throws up his hands, you know the 72-mile long community rail
line is in serious trouble.
That's
what Commissioner Chair Jeff Koons has done. Following the
legislature's failure to yet again come up with a dedicated
funding source for Tri-Rail, Koons said he would not support
any county funding for Tri-Rail funding beyond what the state
law governing Tri-Rail requires -- $1.565 million.
And
that's so far removed from the normal Palm Beach County donation
of $7 million annually that, and if both Broward and Miami-Dade
follow suit (and both have given strong indications that will
be the case), then Tri-Rail itself says it has only about
18 more months of life.
How
heavily it is subsidized?
By
Tri-Rail's own admission it gets back -- and from all sources,
including fares -- about 18 cents for every dollar it spends
to operate the rail line annually. The rate hike will raise
that to about 22 cents on every dollar.
Which
means that Tri-Rail is functioning as no other business in
the real world would function - 80 percent of its income not
being earned, but instead coming from taxpayer handouts.
A
dozen Florida members of Congress today urged the state Legislature
to fund two commuter-rail projects: SunRail in Central Florida
and Tri-Rail in South Florida.
The
federal government is pumping millions into Tri-Rail through
the economic-stimulus bill and a share of this year’s
transportation spending. But most of that money is supposed
to pay for capital improvements, such as buying locomotives,
and cannot be used for operating costs.
John
Cline, Tri-Rail’s lobbyist in Washington, says the commuter
rail will be forced to limit its hours and reduce services
if it can’t get enough operating funds.
The
U.S. House members told leaders of the Legislature that state
spending would lure more federal dollars. They
signed a letter saying it would guarantee $307 million in
federal transit funds and lead to more money for major transportation
initiatives.
"Speaking immediately after
today’s catastrophic passing of the bailout bill in the
House, Ron Paul said that - among
other things - the bill was unconstitutional."
“This time the bill was much worse,” Paul said.
“It’s amazing. You take a very very bad bill, you
take it back out, and you make it much worse. It tells you
a little bit about what’s going on here in Washington.
“The one very bad part of this bill was the fact that
the tax portion of this bill was
written by the Senate, and under the Constitution, only the
House can originate tax bills. So that in itself was unconstitutional.
“But it’s been done before and it will be done again.
But that’s just sort of the way things happen around
here.”
Congressman Paul added that the
bill doesn’t deal with the problem, and that it was simply
symbolic of our overspending and over extension - “the
absolute bankruptcy of this country.”
This $700
BILLION DOLLAR BAIL-OUT is Unconstitutional, it is Excessive,
Abusive, Despotic, Oppressive further Endangering the Rule
of Law of the Constitution's Law of the Land. Attorneys in
Congress.. You are aware of the LAW and the Oath of Office
you took to uphold, protect and defend the Constitution of
the United States, against all parties, foreign and Domestic..,
but you Attorney's are in to 'attournments' are'nt you.. You
are into breaking Contracts rather than upholding them.. Isn't
that so?! After years of being
blindsided; WE, the People are not in agreement with what
is going on in this FINANCIAL TERRORISM which involves our
Homes, Farms, Business's, Industry, Manufacturing, Health
Care, Education, Highways and By-ways, Waterways etc.. which
we have discovered were sold off by Executive Order 12803
by former President George H.W. Bush which is verified in
these Historic Documents at http://www.theantechamber.net/...
. The President did not have the authority to grant, vest
or convey that which did not belong to him.. these properties
belonged to THE WE, THE PEOPLE because it was built with TAX
DOLLARS. See: Marbury vs. Madison. U.S. S.Ct. in Res Judicata:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/....
.
We the
People appear to have a problem with our alleged Elected Representative
Body albiet the Executive Branch, Legislative Branch and Judicial..
in the Acknowledgement they took an Oath to Uphold, Protect
and Defend the Constitution i.e., Law of the Land, Against
All Parties, Foreign and Domestic!" While of equal
measure.. all the before mentioned have the opinion ALL are
ABOVE ALL LAW and can set forth destructing and dismanteling
the SUPREME LAW of this Nation by and through UNWHOLESOME
EMERGENCY EXECUTIVE POWERS?!
A previous statement of COLOR OF ALL
LAW was made.. Do you know what COLOR OF ALL LAW IS?
COLOR OF LAW. The appearance or semblance,
without the substance, of legal right. Misuse of Power, possessed
by virtue of state law and made possible only because wrongdoer
is cloathed with authority of state, is action taken under
"color of law" .. check out 42 U.S.C.A. Sec. 1983
TITLE 42 > CHAPTER 21 >
SUBCHAPTER I > § 1983
§ 1983. Civil action for deprivation of rights
How Current is This?
Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation,
custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District
of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen
of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction
thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities
secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the
party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other
proper proceeding for redress, except that in any action brought
against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in
such officer’s judicial capacity, injunctive relief shall
not be granted unless a declaratory decree was violated or
declaratory relief was unavailable. For the purposes of this
section, any Act of Congress applicable exclusively to the
District of Columbia shall be considered to be a statute of
the District of Columbia. source: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/42/1983.html
.
"A $12.8 billion bid by a Spanish-American
consortium to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike has expired
and is no longer on the table."
"The bid proposal from Abertis
of Spain and Citigroup of New York expired on Tuesday, Sept.
30, and the investment group did not seek an extension."
"Highway users who oppose the
privatization of existing roadways said taxpayers can breathe
a sigh of relief at least for now"
.“I think the financial markets
had something to do with it, but more importantly, I think
that the folks that were lobbying on behalf of Abertis up
in Harrisburg, PA, started to see the writing on the wall,”
Mike Joyce, director of legislative affairs for the Owner-Operator
Independent Drivers Association, told Land Line Now on XM
Satellite Radio."
"The Dulles Rail project’s largest source of funding remains
threatened by a lawsuit being considered by the Virginia
Supreme Court, despite its resurrection this week"
"The suit, filed in January 2007 by users of the Dulles Toll
Road, seek to reverse the state’s hand-off of the highway —
and its revenue — to pay for the Metro extension’s initial 11.6-mile
phase. It says the Kaine administration needed legislative approval
to give the toll road to the Metropolitan
Washington Airports Authority, which is managing the rail
project." "They
were only fixing a mistake" More proof that governmental corruption
is destroying our infrastructure.
"Relax, defenders of the Constitution! They were only fixing
a mistake."
"Since
last August, we've been trying to figure out how Rep. Don
Young (R-AK) managed to change the language in a bill after
it cleared both houses of Congress. Now we've finally got a
little bit of clarity -- Young's staff has finally fessed up
to making the change. What remains unclear, however, is whether
Young told them to do it."
"It was no mystery that Young himself was responsible for the
earmark, which provided $10 million to build an I-75 interchange
at Coconut Road in Lee County, Florida. Local officials had
sought money for a more general project to widen the highway,
but real estate developer Daniel Aronoff knew the way to get
things done. He held a $40,000 fundraiser for Young in Florida."
The allegations are part of a counterclaim that follows TCI's
defenses to a lawsuit filed against the hedge fund by CSX. "
NOT
NECESSARY TO TOLL, A&M EXPERT SAYS Tuesday, December 05, 2006 Texas
Monthly blog
Few things are duller than a committee
meeting in the interim between legislative sessions. Witnesses
drone on about policy choices involving arcane issues. Some
of the committees exist only for a short duration and will vanish
once the legislative session begins in January. The media almost
never shows up for these meetings, which explains why the November
28 meeting of the Study Commission on Transportation Financing
received virtually no attention. But a few minutes into the
hearing, David Ellis, a co-author of a report by the Texas Transportation
Institute (TTI) at Texas A&M, dropped a bombshell on the commission.
He said that Texas could finance its highway needs without toll
roads. The headline for this post is based on Ellis’s testimony.
I have not come across any mainstream media reports of Ellis’s
remarks. Toll Tax Dollars Fund Light Rail
– Not Roads!!!
The Feds have denied funding for
a Dulles rail project (see article “Feds Slam Dulles Rail”).
THANK YOU FTA!! However, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors
officials won’t give up. Now they are begging for funding and
will use TOLL REVENUES TO FUND THE
LIGHT RAIL. Once again this proves that toll roads
are a tax scam against the motorist and more reasons to oppose
toll roads. Please read on and take action now.
“We have a unique project that not
only provides increased transit capacity to the Dulles Corridor,
Tysons Corner, and Dulles International Airport by providing
about 100,000 transit trips daily, but
also provides for the most cutting edge of financing of any
transit project in the nation.
Our funding is comprised of a $400 million tax improvement district
on commercial and industrial properties petitioned by landowners
and almost $1 in billion
toll revenue from the Dulles Toll Road,
and business and professional licensing fees. For Phase I of
this project, the FTA funds of $900 million comprise about 36%
of total project cost and fall to 17% when Phase II is factored
in. No other project in the nation has these varied sources
of public and private funding, and tolling, and none has requested
such a low percentage of federal participation. This project
should be a model for the nation. Feds
Slam Dulles Rail Project
"Federal Transit Administrator James
Simpson said this afternoon that his agency has serious questions
about whether the Washington airports authority can build the
rail line to Dulles and whether Metro can operate it."
The agency has a "real concern" about a gap of billions of dollars
between what Metro has in the pipeline and what it would cost
to maintain the Dulles line in a state of good repair.
"As of today," Simpson said, "the project does not meet requirements
necessary to advance it."
Today, it's unclear whether those concerns can be adequately
addressed, but it's real clear that this is a serious setback.
Contact Federal Transit Administrator James Simpson and oppose
the Dulles Rail Project and the Central Florida Rail project.
1) Rail is not a solution for some communities. 2) Toll revenues
should NEVER be used for mass transit. It is an unfair tax against
motorist along with all the other issues that toll roads create.
James Simpson, FTA Administrator
1200 New Jersey Ave. SE
4th & 5th Floors - East Building
Washington, DC 20590
Office of Communications and Congressional Affairs
(202) 366-4043 FTA
Web Site Feds
may disrupt Orlando commuter-rail plan They want to see how rerouting
trains would affect Polk County.
Jay Hamburg | Sentinel Staff Writer - February 15, 2008
“An unexpected environmental study could delay or disrupt plans
for Central Florida's commuter-rail system, some worried officials
warned Thursday.”
“The federal government has ordered a survey of how freight
trains, which are being moved from a downtown Orlando line to
Polk County, would affect residents in the surrounding areas,
including Lakeland.”
“The problem is that the study and any appeals could cause the
commuter-rail project to miss deadlines for major federal funding,
state officials said. At a minimum, that could cause long delays
in the project scheduled to open its first leg from DeLand to
Orlando in 2010.”
Taxpayer Alert…….
Check out the Orlando Sentinel Blog for this article and see
what the people of Central Florida think – they openly and loudly
oppose this rail boondoggle. Then you must contact your Federal
Officials and the U.S. DOT and Rail Administration and oppose
the waste of Federal tax dollars. This is a Congressman John
Mica Boondoggle to help make his CSX friends rich while our
traffic congestion gets worse!!
On Monday, U.S. Reps. Phil English
and John Peterson introduced the Free Highway Protection Act
of 2007, which they claim would eliminate the state's economic
incentive to toll the highway. It would also establish a federal
excise tax -- equal to the amount of the I-80 tolls -- on new
tolls placed on federally financed interstate highways.
"We are not going to stand idly
by and watch Harrisburg politicians pick the pockets of western
Pennsylvanians to prop up Philadelphia’s mass transit system.
Imposing tolls on I-80 will only burden our local communities,
while shifting the benefits elsewhere,” said English, a former
Executive Director of the State Senate Transportation Committee.
“We recognize that it is going to be a fight, but we are committed
to keeping a toll free I-80 even if we have to throw ourselves
under the state government’s steamroller."Read
More Vote
for candidate who will stop tolls Published: 1/25/2008 12:17 AM
Given all the problems you've exposed
in the toll collection system, a system you decry as "inequitable,
insensitive and inept," there is one solution that has been
ignored -- get rid of the tollways!
Look at the millions of dollars that would be saved on bureaucracy,
court costs, equipment, etc., not to mention the reduction in
stress for the unintentional violators and the motorists who
are made criminals for what? Not paying another unjust tax that
feeds the bloated, corrupt government?
How much of the total money collected, tolls and fines, goes
to fix the roads? Maybe one-third? Who pockets the rest? What
good does that money do for society? NC
Tolls and it’s Impact 8/1/2007
Although several lawmakers tried,
this year's budget does not include language that forbids transfers
from the highway trust fund into the general fund. Legislators
transferred $170 million from the state's Highway Trust Fund
to the General Fund.
“The
promise of the expressway was that the journey from Delhi
to Gurgaon would be reduced to a reliable 20 minutes compared
to the 50 to 70 minutes drive over surface arterials.
“But news stories turned sour
within a day as the mainline toll plaza at Km24 couldn't cope
with the traffic and regularly developed backups described
as "several kilometers long". Just the trip through
the toll plaza in peak hours is said to be regularly 20 to
30 minutes. One reporter said stingingly it was the first
expressway to be slower than the regular road.”
Orlando
Evora, vice chair of the Orlando Orange County Expressway
Authority (OOCEA) has resigned. This means that four of the
five board members have gone in the last year since the authority
was embroiled in controversy over secret payments to an anti-toll
activist of over $100k, allegations of improper land dealings
and developer influence over road routing, a major fight with
the Authority's long established marketing and PR firm, all
leading to a county audit which found poor accounting and
mismanagement of consultants.
However
criminal charges foreshadowed by a county prosecutor failed
to materialize.
Evora, a local lawyer said he was resigning
due to increased professional and family obligations. He was
not di rectly involved in any of the scandals or furores but,
according to the Orlando Sentinel he declared a conflict of
interest on 168 issues he voted on in five years, and this
made him the subject of criticism.
Evora had a year of his term left to
serve.
The state governor, Charlie Crist (Repub)
will appoint a replacement.
57/34 Public Opposition
To NJ Governor's Tollroads Plan - PublicMind Poll Posted Tue, 2008-01-22 12:09
“Governor Jon Corzine is
not close to winning public support for his radical public
toll concession plan, according to a new opinion poll. The
poll conducted by Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind
opinion polling outfit was conducted by telephone from Jan
14 thru 21 using a random sample of 927 registered voters.
The poll has a sampling error of +/- 3 percentage points at
the 95% level of confidence.”
VDOT issues death notice
on I-81 truck toll lanes concession proposal Posted Wed, 2008-01-16 20:16
Virginia DOT has announced an
end to the botched procurement of a toll concession to fund
improvements to I-81. Since October 2006 it has been clear
that the project was going nowhere. Today VDOT used a letter
from Kellogg Brown and Root, a lead company in the STAR Solutions
consortium, as justification for issuing the official death
notice.
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Get Involved to stop the
"Lexus Lanes" on Interstate 4 and Reform Florida
Transportation.
Matt Falconer is a local activist.
He has just released a book "The Socialist Republic of Florida"
How Florida went from one the best economies of all time to
a "Government-Induced Recession"
A
dozen Florida members of Congress today urged the state Legislature
to fund two commuter-rail projects: SunRail in Central Florida
and Tri-Rail in South Florida.
However
criminal charges foreshadowed by a county prosecutor failed
to materialize.
