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Straus, Wolff try to re-write toll road history in Alamo City
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Texas House Speaker Joe Straus faces a tough re-election. So does his friend, Bexar County Commissioner Kevin Wolff. It's interesting to watch both claim credit for taking tolls off San Antonio freeways at election time, yet both were instrumental in bringing tolls to the Alamo city for years.
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ELECTION 2016
Anti-toll endorsements |
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.
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TURF gathering next Thursday
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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.
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Important public meetings
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San Antonio needs to voice opposition to tolls
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 MPO to hold meetings on transportation plans
Every city with population of 50,000 or greater has a Metropolitan Planning Organization or MPO. 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).
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SAN ANTONIO MPO TIP MEETINGS:
All meetings are from 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Northeast Bexar County
Tuesday, February 23
Morgan's Wonderland Event Center
5223 David Edwards Dr., San Antonio, TX
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.
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DFW residents petition to stop TexRail
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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.
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Austin board approves toll road cost increase
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El Paso gets streetcar boondoggle
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 The Capital Area MPO just approved the tripling of the cost to build Austin's US 183 toll lanes. Plus, El Paso gets a wasteful street car that diverted $92 million in road dollars to a two-mile transit boondoggle. |
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GET THE SCOOP FIRST! SUBSCRIBE TO TERRI'S COLUMNS
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 BRAKES: Congress de-funds civil asset forfeiture
The New Frontier in battle over property rights, seizing your vehicle when you've committed no crime
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BLOAT: Austin toll road cost triples
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Senator Burton: TexRail bad deal for Texas taxpayers
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License plate readers turn cops into mobile debt collectors
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Property rights vs oil & gas
Big Bend pipeline closer to reality
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Road to nowhere: Five TX roads you can't take because bloated bureaucracies never finished them
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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
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"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
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