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It's designed to generate revenue first and
provide transportation second. The Corridor plan is
designed to provide transportation funds, more than
transportation. Rather than identify specific transportation needs
and offer solutions, the Plan defines funding as the need and the
Corridor as the solution. Accordingly it's not important where the
Corridor is built, as long as it generates revenue.
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Potential for tremendous liabilities created
by Comprehensive Development Agreements. The Corridor plan is
based on design-build-operate-maintain contracts called
Comprehensive Development Agreements (CDA). While new to Texas,
these CDAs have been used in Mexico, Chile, Colombia, China,
Malaysia, and Hungry. These contracts often include equity
guarantees, debt guarantees, exchange rate guarantees,
subordinated loans, shadow toll payments, and minimum revenue
guarantees. Most troubling is a class of support called "revenue
enhancements" that may limit competition and allow the development
of ancillary facilities.
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The Plan is based on uncertain assumptions. The Corridor plan is
predicated on a projection that Texas population growth will
continue at a rate of 30,000 new residents a month. The Plan
however does not share projection details such as population distribution or how the proposed corridors will serve
that population.
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Doesn't solve the problem. The singular
focus of the Corridor plan is to build corridors that connect
regions of the state intentionally bypassing urban centers. Those
metropolitan areas are left to deal with their own traffic and
mobility problems, including access to the Corridor. Since
our large cities are the traffic generators the Corridor will
offer little if any relief.
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Inefficient transportation plan. A basic
transportation principal is that an efficient highway connects two
destination points with the shortest and most direct route. The Corridor plan
however makes no direct connections to regional traffic generators
nor destinations. The result is a longer traffic path, higher
construction costs (including land right-of-way acquisition),
higher maintenance costs, higher vehicle fuel consumption, more
air pollution generation, higher tolls, and longer travel time.
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Adverse
economic impact. Taking business away from hundreds of Texas
communities by limiting traveler access and providing, in its
place, State contract concessions that will include gas, food,
hotels, stores and more, apparently without limit. This smacks of Nationalizing the state's
travel and tourism industry. Relocating businesses won't add to
our economy. In fact, it will drive local government costs up by
requiring new infrastructure to support them.
[more]
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Private Interests v. Public Interests.
Private investment and partnership sounds like a good idea until
you realize that 'their' goal is strictly profit driven (not
transportation). Private investment will involve bonds and
bondholders who naturally want to protect their money and will
insist on terms and conditions that can be contrary to the public
good. That leads
to the kind of 'bad' deals made in California necessary to keep
the private money interested. [more]
[privatization white paper]
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Loss of local property taxes.
The
approximately 580,000 acres consumed by the Corridor will become
State land taken off county and school district tax rolls. Local
taxpayers will absorb the difference. Every mile of Corridor will
take approximately 146 acres of land off the tax rolls. And that's
before land is added for other corridor developments. And when
concession businesses develop on this State land there will be
lease payments but there won't be any real property tax growth for
the local jurisdictions.
[source]
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Too much money! We simply can't afford
a $184 BILLION Dollar project. It doesn't matter whether it is
tolls, fees, or taxes - If they create the debt (public or
private), we the citizens of Texas will ultimately pay
the tab whatever you call it. Urban centers will pay even more
just so they can address their own problems and connect their highways to the Corridor.
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Creates a 'soft' terrorism target.
This is not the
time to put so many critical infrastructure elements in one place.
Given the design and placement, the Corridor will be an incredibly
soft target, the protection of which would be not only impractical
but virtually impossible.
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Dividing the State. Nearly one-quarter mile wide corridors will cut Texas up into pieces like
the Great Wall of China, making it more difficult to get from one
place to another. Many landowners will find that they have the choice of
keeping land they can no longer access or sell it to the state.
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Turns private land into State land.
The Trans Texas Corridor project authorizes the Commission to take
private land away from its current owner to lease it
for any commercial, industrial or agricultural purpose. More than
one-half million acres will become government property used not
only for transportation but as State owned rental property in
direct competition with private business. [more]
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Toll roads represent double taxation.
Motorists already pay for highways at
the gasoline pump, vehicle registration counter, and at auto supply retailers.
They should not have to pay for highways again when they exercise their right to
travel on them. [proposition
15, house briefing paper]
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Passenger rail hasn't worked anywhere in
the world except in dense urban districts — That ain't Trans-Texas
pardner! And that's too bad since this is the only forward
thinking transportation element in Corridor plan.
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Air pollution. A don't fix it,
just move it approach. This plan doesn't reduce pollution, it
simply pushes vehicle pollution away from the large urban district
into rural Texas. what's more, it generates more air pollution
since vehicles moving between large cities will travel further
with their engines running longer than taking a direct route. Thanks guys!
