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He's baaaack...
Crew's private toll company seeks toll road into San Antonio

Blacklands toll road operator strikes again in Cibolo!


	John Crew, President of Public Werks, Inc., seeking to build a private toll road through Cibolo, TX

In recent days, the Alamo city has caught wind of John Crew and his Public Werks, Inc. private toll road company's plans to build a connector from FM 1103 to I-10. Our supporters remember Crew as the guy Texans chased out of East Dallas when he tried to build the Blacklands Tollway from Garland to Greenville. His company had the power of eminent domain then. We stripped it from him last session, but he's back to do some more damage - this time to Cibolo, Texas.

Cibolo is a suburb of San Antonio. The congestion-weary commuters sometimes experience 45 minute commutes just to get to the nearby interstate. But rather than make TxDOT do its job and address congestion with our tax dollars, the residents of Cibolo will lose their land to a private, for-profit toll company. While Crew's company cannot directly take the land using eminent domain, he's allowed to have TxDOT do his dirty work for him.

It's still eminent domain for private gain and Texans should NOT tolerate it!

Just like with the Blacklands project, Crew promises he won't use eminent domain, that he'll only resort to that if there are hold outs. Well, guess what? He can remove those obstacles with the mere threat of eminent domain. The way these private firms operate is to give landowners a lowball offer and tell them either accept it or TxDOT will take it using eminent domain and pay you even less! It's real easy to get landowners to sign settlement agreements when you have access to the governmental power to forcibly take someone's land for your own personal profits!

Taxpayers on the hook for the losses

Just like he did in East Dallas, Crew is also promising the Cibolo City Council that no public money is involved. We're to believe that he and his investors are willing to risk $110-$150 million of their own money for a toll road that basically only serves residents of a small Texas city, and yet there's not one toll project in all of San Antonio that was found to be financially feasible. Something doesn't smell right.

Most won't pay the toll except during peak hours and it could devalue residents' property values if the only practical way in and out of the city to jobs in San Antonio will cost them hundreds of dollars every month in tolls.

As open records requests with the Blacklands project revealed, Crew sought a federal taxpayer-backed TIFIA loan and low interest, tax-exempt bonds, which is also backed by the taxpayer. So we can't trust what he says! He lies!

ACTION ITEM

Every resident of Cibolo needs to tell their Mayor and City Council NO WAY to this private toll road, and FAST! The best way to stop it is to nip it in the bud before Crew secures an agreement with TxDOT and wins a vote of approval at the MPO.

Contact the Cibolo City Council here.

They need to hear from the opposition loud and clear that residents DO NOT want this private toll project, they want TxDOT to use some of the $5 billion in NEW money voters gave them to address congestion without new taxes and fees!

MOBILIZE RESIDENTS/LANDOWNERS

If you live in Cibolo and want our help organizing opposition to this project, please contact me ASAP! The residents impacted by John Crew's Blacklands tollway chased him out of their towns, so can YOU!

Come meet Kyle Biedermann

Welcome meet & greet BBQ dinner tomorrow night

We're delighted to have another Good Guy State Representative (District 73 - Texas Hill Country) heading to Austin to represent WE THE PEOPLE against toll roads and to fight for common sense TxDOT reforms.

Don't miss this opportunity to share with Kyle the issues that are important to you! Stop by or stick around for the good eats, either way, you won't be disappointed!

Meet Kyle Biedermann

BBQ Dinner

Wednesday, June 29

Tavern in the Gruene

830 Gruene Rd.

New Braunfels, TX 78130

7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Stop the Hwy 249 toll road!

Attend this vital meeting Thursday, June, 30!

If you're anywhere near Grimes County, you need to be one place on Thursday night - Navasota! The SH 249 toll project has been a disaster for both landowners and taxpayers alike from the git-go. It's a proposed toll road from FM 1774 to SH 105 in Grimes County. It is 100% paid for with your gas taxes, yet they plan to charge you tolls to drive on it!

Landowners and concerned citizens have showed up to the Texas Transportation Commission every month to express their opposition, only to have their cries fall on deaf ears, despite Gov. Abbott's promise to fix our roads without tolls.

So it's ALL HANDS ON DECK to attend the TxDOT public hearing on Thursday!

SH 249 Toll Road Public Hearing

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Navasota Junior High School

9038 State Highway 90 South

Navasota, TX 77868

Open House: 5:30 p.m. (Cafeteria)

Hearing: 6:30 p.m. (Gym)

Get your official comments ON THE RECORD to create controversy, which can help residents fight back both legally and politically.

Say 'No' to the SH 249 toll road

Tell TxDOT you want the 'No Build' option and to upgrade existing highways instead of building this greenfield toll road using our TAX dollars - which is DOUBLE TAXATION! If a road is built with tax dollars, it should be a FREEway, not a tollway!

Submit comments via email here.

Beware of 'transportation' bonds

Both Austin and San Antonio to face mega transportation bonds on the ballot

City bicycle riding on bike path alternative ecological transportation. Commute on bicycle in urban environment asphalt gray bike lane with bicycle markings

I'm sure you've figured out by now that government bureaucracies NEVER think you give them enough of your money.

Both in Austin and the Alamo city, voters will be asked to issue massive new bond debt to pay for 'transportation' projects. That change from 'road' to 'transportation' is key this election cycle, since both cities are run by the same 'planners' who want to put you on a road diet to make driving so unpleasant, you'll be willing to ditch your car and take mass transit.

Details in Austin are slowly leaking out, and drivers will face a net LOSS of four lanes on Lamar Blvd. to make way for bike lanes and wider sidewalks. Austin Mayor Steve Adler publicly admits his purpose is to get drivers to sell their cars and take buses to get around. The proposed 'transportation' bond will cost $720 million - that's approaching $1 BILLION, and Austinites won't get ANY congestion relief. In fact, they'll get their roads shrunk and more congestion!

Theft of road dollars in Alamo City

In San Antonio, drivers won't fare much better. Tomorrow, a city council committee will vote on recommending stealing half of the local sales tax that currently goes to roads in order to give it to the Via transit agency. This is a complete fraud upon the voting public who was told, when they approved the ATD sales tax hike back in 2004, that half of the money would go to roads and half to transit.

READ THE WOAI STORY ON IT HERE.

Less local road funds means more toll roads

Now the city council is set to BREAK THAT PROMISE with the voters and direct half of the road sales tax to transit! Not only is this fraud and misrepresentation, but these funds were sold to the public as a local source of road funding to be used as matching funds to draw down more of our federal and state road funds WITHOUT having to use toll revenue for matching funds.

Both 281 and 1604 are being expanded with ATD funds. It enabled us to gain access to TxDOT's Texas Mobility Funds that require local leveraging. So with a greatly reduced pot of money to use for leveraging, this doubly hampers highways. Yet what is the number one excuse we hear as to why we MUST accept toll roads? There just isn't enough money. So how can any of these people, with a straight face, steal more road funds and give it to transit agency with empty buses then tell us we need to pay more to get our roads fixed?

It's a SCAM!

On top of all that, they want to issue NEW debt for more 'complete street' nonsense that will bankrupt San Antonians (through higher property tax bills) to implement mass transit, bike lanes, and wider sidewalks in order to punish drivers into getting on a bus.

Panama Canal expansion means mega trucks to strain Texas roads

Officials warn of national security threats

After 10 years, $5.4 billion dollars, 40,000 workers and lots of delays, snags, and snafus, the Panama Canal expansion finally opened on June 26.

But amidst all the hoopla, impacts to Texas cannot be understated. Not only will these new mega ships that offload triple the cargo onto mega trucks strain our infrastructure and clog our highways, the expansion triples the threats to national security.

Officials admit that since there is now nearly triple the capacity of the old canal, it also means transnational criminal networks have triple the space to try and smuggle people and goods into the United States.

Interstate 35 is already log-jammed with 18-wheelers 24/7. Imagine the impact of TRIPLE that number! While state lawmakers have 'studied' this issue to death, they have failed to take any meaningful action to address the coming onslaught. Why should Texas taxpayers have to pay for China to ship more of its cheap goods into our country at our expense? It's no wonder 'the Donald' is making waves in Texas.

Watch for lawmakers to say we still haven't parted with enough of our money to sufficiently add the needed capacity to our highways, despite both Prop 1 and Prop 7 giving TxDOT $5 billion MORE per year to address congestion. They'll be asking you for more, and if you say 'no,' they'll threaten more toll roads as the answer! We already know trucks won't take toll roads. In fact, Texas taxpayers are already paying $20 million a year to reduce truck toll rates on SH 130. How much more will we be asked to shell out to handle the influx of Chinese goods coming through Texas?

The global corporations always find a way to make YOU, the taxpayer, foot the bill for them!

Dems and GOP can agree:
Neither likes toll roads!

Both platforms want to reduce unaccountable toll roads, especially foreign-owned tollways

The grassroots elbow grease finally paid off! Now that the dust has settled and both parties have held their state conventions, both the Republican and Democratic platforms call for an end to unaccountable toll roads.

A Texas-sized THANK YOU goes out to all the activists statewide who helped us get good anti-toll planks in the platform of BOTH parties this year!