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Texas leads the nation in road debt as Perry solicits ideas for tax relief:...
TxDOT is having to open fully-paid-for-roads (State Highway 45 SE) as toll roads to try and cover the debt on failing toll roads. By Terri Hall | February 4, 2013 In his State of the State speech,...
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Focal Point Texas: The Coming Trade Tsunami and the Greater Push Toward...
The Panama Canal is the largest Free Trade Zone in the Western Hemisphere. Sixty-percent of the total cargo tonnage that traverses the Panama Canal has a U.S. port as its origin or destination. Texas...
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Tea Party Texans say ‘No’ to more tolls, debt and taxes
Texans don’t take kindly to unelected boards and commissions raising taxes on them, and that is just what these toll agencies can and will do if lawmakers don’t change course now. By Terri Hall | March...
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Sequester prompts Texas governor to take over municipal airports
Considering gas tax revenues are the primary source of funding for TxDOT, this is yet another diversion of road taxes for non-road purposes. By Terri Hall | April 9, 2013 It sounds like something you’d...
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Gateway to globalization: Texas toll roads, reinvestment zones and trade...
Under new legislation, Regional Mobility Authorities (RMAs) expand their authority into regions unrestricted to adjoining counties, which can now build and operate any toll projects for any county in...
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NAFTA superhighway underway in South Texas
I-69 through Texas will follow US 59 from Texarkana down through Houston and eventually south from Victoria to the valley. The valley will split off into three trunks: I-69W from US 59 to Laredo,...
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Tolling Texans by ‘rule change’: TxDOT’s end run around the legislature
The key to this new rule change is it obligates the ‘state highway fund’ to reimburse the private toll concession companies, but not from the collection of toll revenues. So every Texas taxpayer will...
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With toll road failures widespread, TxDOT issues state highway fund-backed...
The Texas state highway fund has been chronically underfunded as well as raided for non-road purposes, leaving the highway department few options for financing new construction other than debt and...
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Lawmaker to TxDOT: Time to say ‘We made a mistake’
Four state lawmakers and more than a dozen local officials, mostly mayors and county judges, descended upon TxDOT and blasted its recent actions for stepping on the sovereignty of cities and counties...
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RFID Spy Chips: Toll Tags & Tracking Drivers
Radio Frequency (RFID) readers are not limited to toll roads. One driver tweaked his toll tag to make a sound go off every time it’s detected and picked-up by an RFID reader. He discovered it went off...
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Texas: Downgrading paved roads to gravel and planning license plate...
In a state like Texas so rich in resources, with surpluses and so much going for it, it’s astounding that it can’t get its act together enough to maintain our road system. Downgrading 83 miles of...
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Texas downgrades foreign-owned toll road to junk bond status
All U.S. taxpayers are on the hook for repayment of a $430 million federal TIFIA loan on the SH 130 project. It’s the TIFIA loan that complicates any default and the potential for the tollway to be...
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TxDOT proposes elevated toll lanes over Interstate Highway 35
Governor Rick Perry appoints the five un-elected Transportation Commissioners, and they have been dutiful foot soldiers in implementing Perry’s proliferation of toll roads and even handing over control...
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Toll tyranny and social engineering in local transportation policy
San Antonio’s proposal smacks of the European-style congestion tax imposed on downtown London, Stockholm and Milan, which carries serious implications for environmentally targeted cities all across...
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