Defending Our Property Rights & Freedom to Travel
ELECTION 2016
TURF launches Voter Guide

The word Vote on a red ballot box for collecting votes and ballots in a democratic election to choose a new president, governor, representative, senator, congressman or other official or
As voters contemplate who to vote for before heading to the polls for early voting (February 16-February 26 for the March 1 primary), TURF has been hard at work vetting and researching candidates in key contested primary races to help inform you of where candidates stand on toll issues.

If you don't see a race listed, it's either because there's no opponent in that race or because they didn't return our survey. If a candidate is an incumbent, you can see how they voted on transportation legislation here



Spread the word on Facebook and through other social media. Also be sure to share with any groups your active in.  
 
Important public meetings
DFW & San Antonio need to voice your opposition to tolls
before a conference the microphones in front of empty chairs.     Note  Shallow depth of field

MPOs to hold meetings on transportation plans  

Every city with population of 50,000 or greater has a Metropolitan Planning Organization or MPO. To make things even more confusing in DFW, the MPO is called the Regional Transportation Council or RTC. These MPOs are required to produce your region's transportation plans (basically a project priority list) and to hold public meetings when they undergo a major update to the plans known as the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP - short-range 4 yr plan) and Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP - long-range 20 yr plan).

While hosting the public meetings is just a way for the agencies to check a box and not really engage the public or incorporate any meaningful public feedback, it's important to get opposition to tolls on the official record. Remember, silence is approval! Opposition on the official record can be very useful in killing toll projects or any other ill-conceived projects or priorities the community opposes (like rail).

DFW MOBILITY 2040 MEETINGS:

Tuesday, Feb. 9 
6:30 pm   
Richardson Civic Center 
411 W. Arapaho Road        
Richardson, Texas 75080

Wednesday, Feb. 10       
2:30 pm   
North Central Texas  
Council of Governments  
616 Six Flags Drive     
Arlington, Texas 76011

Monday, Feb. 15         
6:30 pm   
Mary Lib Saleh 
Euless Public Library  
201 N. Ector Drive    
Euless, Texas 76039

After the Arlington meeting, a video recording will be online at www.nctcog.org/input

Submit comments to: transinfo@nctcog.org  

*************

SAN ANTONIO MPO TIP MEETINGS:

All meetings are from 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
 
Northeast Bexar County Location TBA
Tuesday, February 23

Central Bexar County 
Via Metro Center 
1021 San Pedro (just north of downtown) 
San Antonio, TX 
(This meeting will be live streamed online) 
Wednesday, February 24

Northwest Bexar County 
Leon Valley Conference Center 
6421 Evers Rd., Leon Valley, TX 
Thursday, February 25

Comal County 
New Braunfels Civic Center
375 S. Castell, New Braunfels, TX 
Tuesday, March 1

Kendall County 
Boerne Civic Center 
820 Adler Rd., Boerne, TX 
Wednesday, March 2

Guadalupe County 
Seguin-Guadalupe County Coliseum 
950 S. Austin St., Seguin, TX 
Thursday, March 3
 
Be sure to attend and give input opposing toll roads and 'managed lanes' of ANY kind of lane that restricts travel based on cost, mode of travel (ie - car, bike, carpool, bus), or number of occupants in a vehicle. Get your input on the official record by submitting formal comments.

The MPO's own consultant said HOV lanes do NOT increase carpooling, so why are on earth would they impose them all over Bexar County? Via insists no one on the north side will take their buses unless there's congestion on the free lanes. Something smells rotten, and it can't be good for freedom of mobility or for taxpayers. 
DFW residents petition to stop TexRail
Sign the petition TODAY!
train_highway.jpg
Residents in the DFW area are stepping up efforts to stop TexRail, a planned high speed rail line between Ft. Worth and the DFW airport. It's an ill-conceived, $1 billion boondoggle fraught with problems. Rail is notorious for sapping money from badly needed road projects.

Senator Konni Burton wrote a fantastic op-ed on the problems with  TexRail in the Star-Telegram.


THEY'RE BACCKKK...
Congress advances NAFTA superhighways in FAST Act

Remember the Trans Texas Corridor? It was the poster child of the NAFTA superhighway blueprint for international trade corridors. These highways are designed to facilitate the flow of cheap labor and goods into the U.S.

Congress quietly sneaked 12 new corridors into the recently passed federal highway bill, the FAST Act.

 
NEW FRONTIER
Police seizing your car even when you're not guilty of ANY crime

luxury_car.jpg
Congress puts the brakes on civil asset forfeiture.

See why civil asset forfeiture threatens property rights and your personal liberty.

 
Next TURF gathering in February

cafe-waiter-tray.jpg
TURF Meeting
Thursday, February 25    

Chester's Hamburgers
16609 San Pedro
San Antonio, TX
6:00 PM (for those ordering dinner)
6:30 PM (meeting begins) 

You won't want to miss our first meeting of 2016. The Texas legislature is cranking up its interim hearings on transportation with many new studies looking at funding, inefficiencies, and how to reduce and even eliminate many toll roads. TxDOT will also undergo another sunset review this year, so expect a year packed with opportunities to put the nail in the coffin of Texas toll roads.

IT'S ELECTION TIME!
While most Texans have their eye on the presidential race of 2016, there are many very important local and state races you need to know about. Come hear about the many good guy candidates taking on entrenched pro-toll incumbents and how you can help elect enough new representatives to FINALLY reform Texas toll road policy during next year's 85th legislative session.

DISCONNECT
Austin Mayor calls for toll lanes on I-35 while TxDOT pushes for non-toll

After years of fighting toll lanes on I-35 through Austin, TxDOT finally relented and backed off its plan now that we've restricted all of its new funding to non-toll projects only. However, the Austin Mayor, Steve Adler, in a total disconnect, is pushing to add 'managed' toll lanes to I-35 anyway, despite no revenue source to pay for toll lanes. He wants it as a means to 'manage' congestion and force drivers out of their cars and into a bus or carpool.

However, there are no more toll viable projects in Texas. That means they already know they can't possibly collect enough toll fees to pay back the money they borrow to build it. So they have habitually abused taxpayers by dipping into gas taxes (and every other source of revenue available to TxDOT and the feds) to subsidize their loser toll projects and DOUBLE tax Texans to take a toll road paid for with their tax money.  

Well, the money available to subsidize has quickly dried up (thanks to our efforts in the legislature blocking Prop 1, Prop 7, and Texas Mobility Funds from going to toll roads). So it's unclear how Adler plans to fund toll lanes without tapping state funds. Gas taxes can still be used to subsidize toll projects, however, the Texas Transportation Commission under Abbott's new leadership is rethinking that policy and may rein in those funds, too.

BE IN THE KNOW... 

GET THE SCOOP FIRST! SUBSCRIBE TO TERRI'S COLUMNS 

money_grass.jpg
BLOAT: Austin toll road cost triples


........


Congress passes bloated highway bill that diverts road more road funds

........
HEADLINES...
euro_wallet.jpg
..........

Senator Burton: TexRail bad deal for Texas taxpayers
..........

Toll debt a major problem for Texas drivers  
   
   Read more...  
..........
Property rights vs oil & gas  
Big Bend pipeline closer to reality
 
........... 
Road to nowhere: Five TX roads you can't take because bloated bureaucracies never finished them

DONATE TODAY
checkbook-pen.jpg
With the 84th legislative session now over, our work continues educating the public about what their lawmakers did and how to hold them accountable at the ballot box. We'll also continue to help local communities fight toll roads in their backyard using the legal and political tools we've refined over a decade of advocacy. We provide vital materials like a Legislative Report Card and Voter Guide, all of which takes resources.

We'd appreciate a donation to support the work TURF does on behalf of taxpayers.

With HUNDREDS of toll projects planned in Texas, EVERYONE will be effected by these NEW taxes!

Or send in a check to:
Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (or TURF)
PO Box 29254
San Antonio, TX 78229-0254
"I...place economy among the first and most important of republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared... Taxation follows that, and in its turn wretchedness and oppression."
--Thomas Jefferson,
Letter to William Plumer, 1816