Highway Hyenas
March 15th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
The debate over toll roads is getting uglier as a bill that would impose a two-year moratorium on the pay-as-you-go highway contracts edges forward in the Texas Legislature. Peter Samuel, who lives in Maryland and publishes an industry newsletter called TOLLROADSnews, today referred to local Austin blogger, Sal Costello, as an “anti-toll hyena.” Toying with Samuel much like, well, a large cat, Costello fired back, “Peter, my freeway tolling pal, the hyena has one of the strongest jaws in the animal kingdom — able to crunch through bones like they were mere saltines.”
Samuel doesn’t seem to understand why Texans don’t want mega-corridors the width of four football fields criss-crossing the state. Seeking answers, he interviewed UT’s Lisa Loftus-Otway, among others, to find out what was up with the sheep over at the “Leege” who have been struck dumb by the “anti-toll frenzy” gripping the natives. The UT official offered lots of theories, but she appears to have overlooked the simple fact that the natives may have a little more sense than the bureaucrats at TXDOT who seem delighted with the idea of turning over the state’s infrastructure to private companies for the next century or so.
She did mention that grassroots organizations have been a factor in turning public opinion against toll roads. Actually, organizations like Corridor Watch, the San Antonio Toll Party, and hyenas like Sal Costello have probably been the major factor in the debate. This morning, Corridor Watch reported that 25 of 31 senators and 93 of 150 House members have signed on to a bill that would place a two-year moratorium on toll-road contracts. Speaker of the House Tom Craddick has referred the bill to the House Transportation Committee. That committee is chaired by Round Rock Rep. Mike Krusee, who several years ago rammed through the omnibus bill that served as a charter for the current road-building binge. A spokesman in his office said this afternoon that the committee was definitely going to debate the bill, possibly as early as March 27.
March 15th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
These tollers act like they can take the fat profits with them, when they take the dirt nap.
Samuel slammed TxDOT and its freeway tolls last year, on his website: “It has no coherent explanation for its project selection, or for the way tax and toll monies are mixed. It has been cavalier in proposing tolls on highways already funded — breaching a long-established piece of political wisdom about tolling.”
WE ARE ALMOST AT 100, WE HAVE 98!
Sal Costello
http://salcostello.blogspot.com/
March 16th, 2007 at 8:16 am
The pro-tollers want to return to a simpler time when Texas Tax payers would compliantly sidle up to have the milking machines attached to their udders like docile cows. They see themselves as old-time cattlemen and we are the stock. Any future transportation plans need to include lightrail, not more fossil fuel burning, way over produced automobiles. Too many cars are killing us, and we are not here to insure some foreign companies’ bottom line.People like Samuel are here to exploit us,without any concern for the truth. We have woken up, and there are more of us everyday. We won’t be stopped.