Draylen Mason Studio
Toll Road Plan Preposterous
RECEIVED Wed., June 9, 2004
Dear Chronicle,
The plan to build $2.2 billion in Austin-area toll roads, largely with borrowed money, is the craziest scheme the road lobby has ever come up with ["Here Come the Transporters," News, June 4].
World oil production will reach its peak and begin a permanent decline within the next few years. If you want proof, read "The End of Cheap Oil" in the June National Geographic. More scientific evidence can be found in the Oil and Gas Journal, or at www.peakoil.net. The energy crisis is here to stay. So the idea of paying off the proposed 30- to 40-year toll road bonds is nonsense.
As the road lobby's "official statement" to the bond houses admits, the bonds are sound investments only as long as the price of gasoline does not rise above $2.50 over the lifetime of the bonds, and as long as basic travel behavior in this area does not change in the future. No modern metropolitan area can afford to risk bond default because we depend on borrowed money for so many public projects.
The "road lobby" consists of unelected bureaucrats within TxDOT, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, and "Citizens for Mobility" – the same special interests in real estate and construction that have always promoted road-building in Central Texas. These groups are now trying to pressure our elected officials on CAMPO to immediately approve the entire $2.2 billion toll road package in July after only one public hearing. A large part of the future costs will be paid for by suburban residents who will be charged toll fees on existing roads they've already paid for with tax dollars.
These same special interests are trying to hold a relatively small $65 million regional rail plan hostage to the immediate approval of their far larger $2.2 billion toll road package. Mike Krusee's threat is that if rail advocates don't support the toll roads, then the road lobby will slash Capital Metro's budget and permanently cripple rail. But a modest and workable rail plan should not be held hostage to fast-track approval of billions in future debt for ill-conceived, special-interest toll road bonds that will never get paid off.
TxDOT's mismanagement crisis is so acute that it hasn't even reserved money to maintain the roads it's already built. Now they want taxpayers to go deeply into debt to continue business-as-usual road-building policies as the "End of Cheap Oil" is upon us. Voters must demand that elected CAMPO officials delay toll-road approval long enough to carefully examine, diagnose, and try to cure the craziest scheme the road lobby has ever concocted.
The plan to build $2.2 billion in Austin-area toll roads, largely with borrowed money, is the craziest scheme the road lobby has ever come up with ["Here Come the Transporters," News, June 4].
World oil production will reach its peak and begin a permanent decline within the next few years. If you want proof, read "The End of Cheap Oil" in the June National Geographic. More scientific evidence can be found in the Oil and Gas Journal, or at www.peakoil.net. The energy crisis is here to stay. So the idea of paying off the proposed 30- to 40-year toll road bonds is nonsense.
As the road lobby's "official statement" to the bond houses admits, the bonds are sound investments only as long as the price of gasoline does not rise above $2.50 over the lifetime of the bonds, and as long as basic travel behavior in this area does not change in the future. No modern metropolitan area can afford to risk bond default because we depend on borrowed money for so many public projects.
The "road lobby" consists of unelected bureaucrats within TxDOT, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, and "Citizens for Mobility" – the same special interests in real estate and construction that have always promoted road-building in Central Texas. These groups are now trying to pressure our elected officials on CAMPO to immediately approve the entire $2.2 billion toll road package in July after only one public hearing. A large part of the future costs will be paid for by suburban residents who will be charged toll fees on existing roads they've already paid for with tax dollars.
These same special interests are trying to hold a relatively small $65 million regional rail plan hostage to the immediate approval of their far larger $2.2 billion toll road package. Mike Krusee's threat is that if rail advocates don't support the toll roads, then the road lobby will slash Capital Metro's budget and permanently cripple rail. But a modest and workable rail plan should not be held hostage to fast-track approval of billions in future debt for ill-conceived, special-interest toll road bonds that will never get paid off.
TxDOT's mismanagement crisis is so acute that it hasn't even reserved money to maintain the roads it's already built. Now they want taxpayers to go deeply into debt to continue business-as-usual road-building policies as the "End of Cheap Oil" is upon us. Voters must demand that elected CAMPO officials delay toll-road approval long enough to carefully examine, diagnose, and try to cure the craziest scheme the road lobby has ever concocted.
Roger Baker
