Trans Texas Corridor: Politicians Get Burned Paving Texas Backwards, From the Top Down

The Texas Department of Transportation declared Governor Rick Perry’s controversial vision for the $175 billion Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) officially dead. While the governor's grand dream has vanished as a political target, some of the toll roads will live on. The path to these roads was paved with $3.4 million in campaign contributions and up to $6 million in lobby expenditures. While the rush to toll roads creates windfalls for some contractors, the benefits for Texas motorists and taxpayers are unclear.
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San Antonio Express-News: Toll road foe sues over TxDOT ad campaign

Terri Hall of the San Antonio Toll Party and Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom wants a state court order to halt spending on the "Keep Texas Moving" campaign because, she contends, it violates a state prohibition on state officers or employees using their authority for political purposes. "Unlike purely educational public relations efforts such as the 'Don't Mess with Texas' campaign, the KTM campaign is a one-sided attempt to advocate one political point of view on a highly controversial matter that is far from politically decided," Hall said in her court petition. Read the article the San Antonio Express-News

Toll road foe sues over TxDOT ad campaign

Peggy Fikac - pfikac@express-news.net
Austin Bureau
September 21, 2007

AUSTIN - An activist outraged over state transportation officials' multimillion-dollar campaign to promote toll roads and the Trans-Texas Corridor is taking her fight to court.

Terri Hall of the San Antonio Toll Party and Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom wants a state court order to halt spending on the "Keep Texas Moving" campaign because, she contends, it violates a state prohibition on state officers or employees using their authority for political purposes.

"Unlike purely educational public relations efforts such as the 'Don't Mess with Texas' campaign, the KTM campaign is a one-sided attempt to advocate one political point of view on a highly controversial matter that is far from politically decided," Hall said in her court petition.

She also wants to block lobbying attempts by the transportation officials to persuade Congress to allow more tolling, such as a proposal on tolling interstates.

The state is asking that Hall's claim be denied and her petition dismissed, saying the Texas Department of Transportation is allowed by law to promote toll projects and that its campaign is responsive to a call from the public and elected officials for more information on road initiatives.

"Merely because plaintiff disagrees with the tolling of roads in Texas does not provide her with an avenue for relief," said the filing by the state attorney general on behalf of Steven Simmons, interim executive director of TxDOT, and Coby Chase, director of the agency's government and public affairs division.

TxDOT spokesman Chris Lippincott said, "For quite some time now TxDOT has heard calls from elected leaders and the driving public to explain what we are doing to improve mobility in our state and why we are doing it. The 'Keep Texas Moving' public involvement campaign is an effort to engage Texans on these issues and seek their participation in solving some of our state's most serious problems."

A hearing had been scheduled Thursday, but the state objected to the case being heard by a visiting judge. The hearing was delayed until Monday.

"Selling toll roads like soap is an outrageous use of the taxpayers' money. Whether or not it constitutes highway robbery under the law is a question best left to the judge," said Craig McDonald of Texans for Public Justice, which tracks money in politics.

Toll roads and the ambitious proposed transportation network known as the Trans-Texas Corridor have been touted by Gov. Rick Perry and others as necessary in the face of congestion.

But the initiative has drawn widespread criticism over the potential corridor route and the state partnering with private companies to run toll roads.

The campaign includes a range of advertising and elements, such as training for officials who will appear on radio talk shows. It is estimated to cost $7 million to $9 million in state highway funds.

San Antonio Express-News: Don't like toll roads? TxDOT is talking to you

The Texas Department of Transportation, which complains about chronic underfunding, has launched a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign that promotes the divisive Trans-Texas Corridor plan and toll roads. Craig McDonald of Texans for Public Justice, which tracks money in politics, said the campaign appears to go beyond providing information, which he said isn't right although he knows of no law to prevent it. "The tone of their public relations campaign seems to be to sell Texans on a very unpopular transportation scheme," he said. "That is, they are using our money to make us happy about spending money for every mile we drive through tolls." Read the article at the San Antonio Express-News

Don't like toll roads? TxDOT is talking to you

Peggy Fikac, Express-News Austin Bureau
Aug. 20, 2007

AUSTIN - The Texas Department of Transportation, which complains about chronic underfunding, has launched a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign that promotes the divisive Trans-Texas Corridor plan and toll roads.

The campaign is anticipated to cost $7 million to $9 million, according to a memorandum titled "Keep Texas Moving: Tolling and Trans-Texas Corridor Outreach" sent to transportation officials by Coby Chase, director of the agency's government and public affairs division.

Such use of state highway fund dollars is drawing concern and questions from some. Others, including the department, say it's an important effort to educate and engage Texans.

Put Rep. Warren Chisum, chairman of the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee, in the first category.

"I wonder what for? So people wouldn't hate 'em so bad?" he said of the campaign. "It's a waste of money, and they have no business out there trying to get public opinion to be in their favor."

The money would be better spent fixing roads, Chisum, R-Pampa, added: "It would probably take care of three or four potholes."

But Rep. Mike Krusee, House Transportation Committee chairman, said the campaign addresses lawmakers' concerns by explaining new financing methods.

"The Legislature has been beating TxDOT over the head for two years, telling them they need to explain what the Trans-Texas Corridor is and why it is necessary to the public. They've been telling TxDOT they are moving too fast ? they are moving before the public and the Legislature has the chance to understand what they are doing and why," said Krusee, R-Round Rock. "I think it is the Legislature that has pressured TxDOT to do this sort of program."

If the outreach is effective, Krusee said, it could save money in the long run.

"Texas is losing money for roads by the hundreds of millions of dollars every year simply due to delay, because the Legislature and the public doesn't understand the need to move to a new finance method. And so an expenditure of a few million dollars could literally save hundreds of millions of dollars per year," Krusee said.

The agency's budget is more than $7 billion for fiscal year 2007 and more than $8 billion for fiscal year 2008.

The Trans-Texas Corridor--an ambitious transportation network--and toll roads have been championed by Gov. Rick Perry and others as necessary in the face of congestion and of gas tax revenues that can't keep up with huge transportation needs.

But the initiative has drawn widespread criticism over the potential route and the state partnering with private companies to run toll roads. Lawmakers this year sought to rein in new private toll projects.

The new campaign, as outlined in the memorandum obtained by the San Antonio Express-News, started June 1 with television, radio, print, billboard and Internet advertising meant to push people to the Keep Texas Moving Web site ( www.keeptexasmoving.com).

That site compares the Trans-Texas Corridor to "Eisenhower's Interstate System." Its toll road section lists a slew of benefits including "A Choice to Go Faster" and "More Roads, More Choices, More Time."

The campaign also will include direct mail pieces on Trans-Texas Corridor segments known as TTC-35 (parallel to Interstate 35) and TTC-69 (from East Texas to Mexico); training for agency representatives to appear on talk radio; and ads, events and guest editorials surrounding hearings on TTC-69.

Sal Costello, who founded the TexasTollParty.com group because of anger over the way tollways were being planned under Perry, said, "I just don't think an agency that has been ignoring the public and ignoring our representatives for years should be able to take our tax dollars intended for freeways and spend one dime on lobbying and selling their unaccountable schemes."

TxDOT spokesman Chris Lippincott said the aim of the campaign is to address concerns that the agency hasn't done enough outreach and the public hasn't had enough input. State law allows the agency to spend money on marketing toll roads, he said.

"The clearest and most often repeated criticism of the department during the legislative session was that we needed to do a better job of engaging the public. We heard that message loud and clear, and we're acting on it," he said. "You're going to see us expanding the way we talk with people instead of at people. We think that's really important."

Craig McDonald of Texans for Public Justice, which tracks money in politics, said the campaign appears to go beyond providing information, which he said isn't right although he knows of no law to prevent it.

"The tone of their public relations campaign seems to be to sell Texans on a very unpopular transportation scheme," he said. "That is, they are using our money to make us happy about spending money for every mile we drive through tolls."

SA Express-News:Donors with stake in toll roads give Perry $1.2 million

Charles Lawrence has donated nearly a quarter of a million dollars to Gov. Rick Perry over the past six years, by far the largest amount of anyone with a vested interest in the governor's controversial Trans-Texas Corridor. Lawrence is chairman of Kirby Corp., a Houston-based transportation company operating the nation's largest fleet of inland tank barges and towing vessels. Read the article at the San Antonio Express-News

Donors with stake in toll roads give Perry $1.2 million

Web Posted: 11/04/2006 2:00 CST
San Antonio Express-News

AUSTIN — Charles Lawrence has donated nearly a quarter of a million dollars to Gov. Rick Perry over the past six years, by far the largest amount of anyone with a vested interest in the governor's controversial Trans-Texas Corridor.

Lawrence is chairman of Kirby Corp., a Houston-based transportation company operating the nation's largest fleet of inland tank barges and towing vessels.

His donations, totaling nearly $229,000, make him the largest contributor to Perry of anyone with a strong interest in transportation in general and the Trans-Texas Corridor in particular, according to a database analysis by the San Antonio Express-News.

Perry, a Republican, received upward of $1.2 million over the past six years from individuals or political action committees that, like Lawrence, have a stake in the proposed $7 billion system of toll roads and rail lines Perry has championed. Lawrence did not return calls for comment.

That's 71/2 times the amount transportation interests gave Carole Keeton Strayhorn, an independent gubernatorial candidate, in the same time period. She came in second of the four major candidates in such donations, according to the Express-News survey.

In 2001, Strayhorn expressed support for toll roads as a way to improve transportation without raising taxes but has opposed the plan touted by Perry, saying it amounts to "the largest land grab in Texas history."

Chris Bell, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, took in $1,750 in transportation-related contributions since he announced his bid for statewide office last year and began filing campaign finance records, the newspaper found. Independent candidate Kinky Friedman received just under $68 since last year. Both Bell and Friedman have campaigned hard against the toll project.

The Express-News survey was not exhaustive, but analyzed names of participants at two Texas Department of Transportation hearings this year regarding transportation issues.

Campaign donors and recipients contacted for this story said donations to public officials had no effect, in their view, on government contracts or public policy.

"There is not a quid pro quo," said Joe Householder, a spokesman for the San Antonio-based debt collection firm Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson LLP.

That firm or individuals associated with it have given Perry at least $125,000 over the past six years, putting them fourth among Perry donors with transportation-related interests. The firm would stand to profit if the Trans-Texas Corridor was constructed and it was selected to collect delinquent tolls.

A spokesman for Perry adamantly rebutted the notion that political contributions influence the political process.

"There is no link," Robert Black said. "The governor has lots of contributors. Thousands of contributors. ... They give money because they believe in what he wants to do and where he wants to lead Texas. If they have any other motivation, they need not give."

Grass-roots anti-toll activists said the evidence is as plain as the brand-new highways being built across Texas.

"It's the money interests that get to call the shots, instead of the electorate," said Terri Hall, regional director of the San Antonio Toll Party,which boasts 5,000 members and whose leaders say there's no level playing field because members don't have the resources to contribute to politicians.

The issue of money in the political system surfaces virtually every time a big donation is made, a billion-dollar contract won or a highway paved.

Do politicians make public policy decisions without regard for the contributions they receive?

In 2005, a consortium led by Cintra of Spain and Zachry Construction Corp. of San Antonio signed a contract with TxDOT to develop a plan for a 1,200-foot-wide super-corridor linking Mexico with Oklahoma.

Texas would own and control the roads, but Cintra-Zachry would maintain them and collect tolls for 50 years.

Critics objected to the contract's secretive nature — details were released only in late September — the planned seizure of enormous tracts of land, the involvement of a foreign company and the idea of a pay-as-you-go transportation system.

Zachry family members have given Perry $141,700 since 2000. A Zachry political action committee has given an additional $5,000.

Zachry spokeswoman Vicky Waddy said the $2.4 billion company was awarded the contract because of its work, not its contributions. "We benefited because we have an 80-year history of being a quality company," Waddy said.

Black said neither Perry nor his office had anything to do with the awarding of the corridor contract. It was solely TxDOT's decision.

Andrew Wheat, research director for Texans for Public Justice, an Austin-based group that pushes for campaign finance reform, said he believes there would likely be "a fair amount of discretion involved in something this complicated." And contract award decisions would rest with Perry appointees.

Householder said if his firm's contributions swayed the bidding process, the company would have won the two-year, $1.39 million contract a competitor snagged in June to collect delinquent tolls along the Central Texas Turnpike project.

Perry's top transportation donors also happen to be among Strayhorn's biggest transportation donors. Lawrence, for instance, No. 1 transportation donor to Perry, ranked eighth among those donors to Strayhorn, giving her $5,000.

Perry's second-largest transportation contributor, Dannenbaum Engineering, was Strayhorn's top contributor, giving her $45,000 compared with Perry's $197,500. Perry's fifth-largest, Union Pacific Fund for Effective Government, was Strayhorn's second-largest.

Strayhorn spokesman Mark Sanders said contributions to Strayhorn from transportation interests have all but dried up.

"Her money is older money," Sanders said, referring to the donations made mostly before 2003.
lsandberg@express-news.net

News Researchers Kelly Guckian and Julie Domel reported from San Antonio.

Dallas Morning News: Trans-Texas firm hires ex-Perry aide

Once again, Gov. Rick Perry's former liaison to the Legislature is working for the Spanish company that won the rights to develop the $7 billion Trans-Texas Corridor. Lobbyist Dan Shelley worked for the firm as a consultant just before he went to the governor's office, a connection first revealed in 2004. State officials denied any connection between that circumstance and the decision, three months later, to award Cintra the huge highway contract. Now, Mr. Shelley has left the governor's office, and he and his daughter have large contracts to lobby for the road builder. Read the article at the Dallas Morning News

Trans-Texas firm hires ex-Perry aide

He worked before for company that won bid for transit corridor

August 18, 2006
By PETE SLOVER and TONY HARTZEL / The Dallas Morning News

Once again, Gov. Rick Perry's former liaison to the Legislature is working for the Spanish company that won the rights to develop the $7 billion Trans-Texas Corridor.

Lobbyist Dan Shelley worked for the firm as a consultant just before he went to the governor's office, a connection first revealed in 2004. State officials denied any connection between that circumstance and the decision, three months later, to award Cintra the huge highway contract. Now, Mr. Shelley has left the governor's office, and he and his daughter have large contracts to lobby for the road builder.

This week, Mr. Shelley had planned to take four state lawmakers – including two Dallas-area senators – on a four-day, all-expense-paid trip to Canada. But the trip was abruptly postponed after The Dallas Morning News asked questions about it.

A call to Mr. Shelley seeking comment was returned by an Austin spokeswoman for Madrid-based Cintra, who said that Mr. Shelley's contract with the company prohibits him from discussing his work with reporters.

Spokeswoman Rossanna Salazar confirmed that Mr. Shelley was helping to arrange the fact-finding trip to visit a Cintra toll road near Toronto.

"Dan Shelley was going to cover those costs" for the lawmakers' expenses, Ms. Salazar said. "He would have had to publicly report those costs to the Texas Ethics Commission."

Though the payment of trip expenses by Cintra would have been legal, companies stand to gain by having lawmakers' undivided attention for several days, said Tom "Smitty" Smith, director of Public Citizen of Texas, a watchdog group. Lawmakers should use their campaign funds for such expenses, Mr. Smith said.

"That's preferable from taking money from corporations that stand to make billions in the continuation of this Trans-Texas Corridor project," he said.

Mr. Shelley resigned his state job in September and struck a lobbying deal with Cintra worth between $50,000 and $100,000 to work from March through the end of this year. In addition, his daughter and lobbying partner, Jennifer Shelley-Rodriguez, will earn between $25,000 and $50,000 from the company over the same period, state records show.

The Trans-Texas Corridor is Mr. Perry's vision for a statewide network of toll roads, rail lines and utility lines to improve transportation for the next 50 years. Cintra won the development rights in 2004 to the first corridor section that will parallel Interstate 35E.

The corridor has become an issue in his re-election campaign, as rival Carole Keeton Strayhorn has stoked landowners' opposition to the project.

Consultant status

When Mr. Shelley worked for Cintra before, he never registered as a lobbyist. Instead, he worked nine months as an unregulated "consultant" trying to generate business for the company in Texas – a role that included such functions as making introductions and attending meetings with state transportation officials.

At the time, the governor's office said Mr. Shelley was never paid by the company, because his fees were to be based on any deals closed. They said that when he left the firm before the contract was complete, he gave up the right to such fees.

Such contingency arrangements are illegal for lobbyists, but the law does not mention consultants.

The law does not restrict former gubernatorial staffers from lobbying, but Mr. Perry has instituted his own rule for former high-level staffers: They can lobby the Legislature and state agencies but are banned from lobbying the governor's office for a year, or until the end of the first legislative session after they've left, which ever is longer.

That means Mr. Shelley has voluntarily committed not to lobby the governor and his staff until after the Legislature's session next year, said Kathy Walt, the governor's press secretary.

"Governor Perry has the strongest ethics policy that any Texas governor has ever had," she said.

Even with those limits, Mr. Shelley has built a healthy lobby clientele: This year, he reported to the state lobbying work worth between $550,000 and $1.1 million.

The director of a group that tracks money in politics said the case demonstrates that the policy and the laws both need tightening.

"The can't-lobby-the-governor rule is meaningless in the real world," said Craig McDonald, director of Texans for Public Justice. "It's a pie-in-the-sky policy that has absolutely no teeth: Texas needs a law to close the revolving lobby door."

Proposed itinerary

On the Toronto trip, the group would have viewed Cintra's state-of-the-art Highway 407 Electronic Toll Road. Interviews with Ontario government officials also were scheduled.

Among the lawmakers included was Rep. Mike Krusee, the Round Rock Republican who heads the House Transportation Committee. Also invited were three members of the Senate committee that writes the state budget: Democrats Royce West of Dallas and John Whitmire of Houston, along with Republican Kim Brimer of Fort Worth.

The travel plans changed, though, about 24 hours after The News first inquired about the trip. Transportation department officials said they postponed the trip because a more pressing duty arose.

Mr. Brimer said he knew nothing about how the trip came about and if he had, he would have paid for it with campaign funds.

"I don't need a handout," he said.

The other lawmakers did not return calls seeking comment.

Seven top employees of the Texas Department of Transportation were also scheduled to go, though their agency was to pay their way.

"It's to look at what they do [in Toronto] and the lessons learned there so we can come back and do it better in Texas," said transportation department spokeswoman Gaby Garcia, who said state employees have gone to California to review toll roads. "We're not shy about going out and seeing what others are doing."

Lobby Watch:Perry’s Political Tollbooths Line $1 Billion of State Roads

In recent years Governor Rick Perry raked in $235,133 from highway contractors that landed almost $1 billion in state contracts in the past nine months. It’s enough patronage to make a conservative tax and spend.
Read the Lobby Watch