Today's reality is you can have your pick: 1. Toll roads 2. Gridlock 3. Higher gasoline taxes Back during the Whitmire administration I had this dream that the city would open the HOV lanes to approved high efficieny vehicles. Then the city and state would offer a tax abatements for companies that would come here to build carbon composite, electric hybrid cars for the HOV commuters. The city would be safer and cleaner and we would have a whole new industry with high paying jobs. But......we don't allow people who like to adjust their body chemistry to be involved. You have to worship an unseen power and money.
That is so damn funny right there. I wish those people would stop hammering their vegeterian **** at me when they have some leather boots on.
We'll see. Gammons and Costello (http://www.stopdoubletax.com/about.htm) are looking into a recall effort to begin with mayor wynn. I am also going to ask Slusher what can be done. I'll keep you informed.
Sadly, RR, they were just words... something to run on. Nothing has come of it, and it wasn't a new idea at all. Look at wht he's doing, not what he says. He's refusing to fund a whole raft of vital programs by threatening to veto any kind of tax increase, no matter how many services are cut, no matter how much the financial burden falls on local governments, no matter how absurd this whole toll mania gets. Why are we facing toll roads all over the place? Because the state is not raising revenue. Why are our schools underfunded and we rank near or at the bottom in a host of national rankings? Because the state has cut their % of funding. Why? So the Republican state government can run proclaiming, "We didn't raise taxes!!" But they did... they just shoved them down to the local level, where the resources for coherent planning to use that tax money are not up to the task. There is a reason we have state government. The current political party who runs things could care less. They only want to reward the lobbyists that represent those who fund the next campaign or promise a nice job when they leave office.
Rail between cities in Texas will not happen because of: * Continental (based in Houston) * Southwest (based in Dallas) * American (based in Dallas) * Perry's an idiot - I cannot emphasize this enough. He'll say ANYTHING * the cities are not pedestrian-friendly enough (except maybe San Antonio) * the arguments you hear against light rail will be amplified even more if going between cities - remember, it's likely to never ever turn a profit and needing assitance forever (AmTrak?) * if you look at the way most things work out, high-speed trains never go as fast as advertised because of going through high-residential areas I think it would kick. I'd like to see it happen. But it's low on the list of priorities (like Deckard said, it sure would be nice to have decent schools).
I also don't mind toll roads in general. The Bush Turnpike opened just after I moved to Plano, and it's been great for me. I don't mind paying for it because it was a useful addition. The North Dallas Tollway is also useful for me. I don't mind paying for it, even though the bonds that built it have been retired, because I've always paid for it, and it's a useful route for me. But if the state suddenly decided that I-35E or North Central Expressway was going to become a toll road after being a free road for all of their existence, I would fight that. Using Toll Roads to provide new traffic opportunities doesn't bother me. Taking existing roads and routes and turning them into toll roads is wrong to me (or even returning I-30 between Dallas and Fort Worth to toll road status would be bad, in my opinion) and smacks of nothing but ways to find more money to spend rather than being a necessary part of providing services. New toll roads? Okay. But if the road is already there (heck, my great-grandparents paid for North Central with their taxes), it's too late. Plus, I think tollroads can hurt the economy. I'm far less likely to pop off a tollroad to get a quick meal or a snack or whatever since it costs me extra every time I get off the road. So much of the frontage area along tollroads becomes potentially wasted development areas. I don't know if there's been any study (or if an accurate one could even be designed), but I wonder if tollroads end up costing more in economic development than they produce.
