Taxes or Tolls on the Trans Texas Corridor
by Ron Paul | February 24, 2008
Texas Straight Talk
One major concern I discussed a few weeks ago regarding the Trans Texas Corridor is where the land will come from. Another concern is where the money will come from. Official government websites for the TTC assure that public-private partnerships will shield the taxpayer from bearing too much of the cost burden, but a careful reading shows the door is definitely open to public funding sources, while at the same time there is no doubt of the intention to charge tolls on the road.
Taxpayers already pay for their transportation system through hefty gasoline taxes, vehicle registration fees, and other fees. They have every right to expect the roads they have already paid for to be properly maintained and toll-free.
However, private foreign corporations have flocked to this country eager to participate in toll collection on our poorly managed toll roads, and they make a lot of money doing so. Taking over the management and maintenance of an existing toll road is one thing. Converting taxpayer built roads into cash cows for big corporations is quite another. Using eminent domain to take privately owned land, and taxpayer funding to build a highway that is designed to bring in private revenue is nothing short of highway robbery.
Cintra/Zachry, a private Spanish firm, is poised to make billions from TTC tolls. Yet my fear is that as planning progresses, more and more public burden will creep into the process, and more profit will be pledged to the private corporation. The costs will be socialized and the profits will be privatized.
And to add insult to injury – private lands will be taken for this road which will be, for all intents and purposes, a private business. The government should not use the power of eminent domain to seize and redistribute land for the benefit of a private company. This is wrong and unconstitutional. Cintra Zachry should negotiate with each individual land owner and go through the normal private land acquisition process to start its new business. If mutual agreements can be reached, fine. If not, government force is not appropriate. Our government should protect property rights, not facilitate theft.
Toll roads should not be paid for with taxpayer dollars, or even bond funding that pledge future tax dollars. Taxpayers should not have to pay additional fees for something they have already paid for. Eminent domain should absolutely not be used for private businesses. This public-private partnership has all the makings of the worst of both worlds. I am doing my part at the Federal level in Congress to limit the damage to the taxpayer. I introduced a bill in that prohibits the use of federal funding for any part of the TTC and I will continue to push for this bill, and other bills protecting property rights, taxpayers rights and our national sovereignty. The government should not fund and enforce private efforts like this and thumb their nose at land owners and taxpayers.
Anti-TTC March & Rally
March & Rally in Austin at the Capitol tomorrow (April 5th).
Details here: http://www.texasturf.org/
Time for us Texans to step up! I'll be there.....Will you?
A few more info tidbits
on the TTC:
This monstrosity is being built through the rural counties where we absolutely do NOT have any traffic problems except for maybe the occasional livestock on the roads.
These areas are served almost exclusively by unpaid/volunteer fire departments.....The equipment and manpower they have will quickly be overwhelmed by a major collision of any size.
These areas are served by small, county hospitals (I don't think most of you can really appreciate how small these facilities are) which are already straining their budgets. Collisions involving injuries will quickly bankrupt these small clinics...Expecially those involving foriegn travellers that will not pay a single dime of their medical own expenses. I'm sure the local taxpayers will be expected to fund this medical care for these non-paying travellers.
The only law enforcement in these ares are rural sheriff's depts and a few DPS troopers....No way they have the manpower to police an international roadway like this.
Remember, this would be a designated HazMat corridor.....They probably need to put up signs along the road that say "Drive at Your Own Risk....They County Through Which You Are Driving Has No Money or Resources to Save Your Life If You're In a Crash"
The state wants to take private property to build this road, thereby removing it from the local county's tax rolls. The state will provide NO additional resources to those counties to pay for the increased expenses that they are required (by the gov't) to provide, such as emergency medical care.
The counties through which this passes are rural & poor. We are a "soft target" for this nightare since there are so few of us and even fewer "deep pockets" to just buy ourselves a politician.
Protest & Ralley opposing the TTC will be held in Austin next weekend (I believe that's Apr 5th) and I know that RP was one of the few invited to come and address the crowd.
Mexico is “flattening” the topography and building super highway
Food crises yields an African opportunity.
Small family farms are more efficient than industrialized agro business.
Nyamata, Rwanda – When he was a boy, Charles Munyawera’s parents abandoned the Rwandan countryside in search of richer opportunities in Kigali, the capital city.
Now the 62-year-old entrepreneur is heading back to this nation’s agricultural heartland, lured by worldwide food crises that is turning a backbreaking and often-unprofitable way of life into what may be one of the hottest opportunities around.
In Africa, a place all too familiar with chronic malnutrition and recurring famines, the international food crisis’s playing out in some surprising ways.
Soaring prices are pummeling urban dwellers who rely on imported food and often earn less than $2.00 a day. Riots have already rocked Somalia and Cameroon.
But in rural areas, home to most Africans, small farmers live largely on what they grow. The food crisis could be a boon for such farmers, who depend far more on last season’s rainfall and the condition of local roads than on crude oil prices.
As governments focus on reducing their dependency on imports, small farmers are poised to receive some overdue assistance. And rising prices will mean farmers have incentives to plant more after decades of productivity declining under the weight of poverty, foreign competition and a marketplace flooded with subsidized food.
Helping African farmers help themselves will be far cheaper for the international community than a more drastic measure such as an emergency bailout, said Pedro Sanchez, director of tropical agriculture at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, a poverty research and advocacy group.
Contrasting, Brazil makes a big deal about “biofuels” but the hidden secret is oppression and very poor working conditions for those cutting the cane fields.
As I write, Mexico is “flattening” the topography and building the super highway. The mineral and resources are claimed along side the highway (and underneath) for 10 miles on either side, meaning a 20 mile wide “foreign zone” that extends from deep inside Mexico direct to Canada, well over 2,000 miles. Add this to the “portrayed”
(betrayed ownership) of 80% of USA resources “owned” by foreigners, and good bye living wages.
Bring our family farms back and be aware (beware) of the super highway and the economic and quality of life implications dismantling sustainable permaculture and confounding local populations.
Never forget, “Humans, despite our artistic pretensions, our sophistication and many accomplishments, owe the fact of our existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.”
And never forget, “Humans, despite our artistic pretensions, our sophistication and many accomplishments, owe the fact of our existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.”
Bildeberg Group
Perry was a guest. He is bought and paid for. I hope Texans give him the big two steppin boot real soon.
"Obamney care," Nuff said.
Already Being Built
My buddy from Angelo, TX came into town to visit me in Cleveland, OH. During a recent Lake Erie Monsters game that he and I were watching, he informed me how the road is already under construction. It's unfortunate that the machine is not being stopped.
I'm so paranoid now after
I'm so paranoid now after today that I first read this as:
"Taxes or TROLLS on the Trans Texas Corridor"!
LOL! Run 'em BOTH over!
what?
Didnt factcheck.org debunk the whole corridor/nau thing? HAHA
Please help Texas, sign petition to stop Trans Texas Corridor
Dear Friend,
I wanted to share this NEW "Gov. Perry Land Grab & Double Tax Tolls" video.
Watch the cartoon and learn more about Gov. Perry and his schemes to take a HALF MILLION ACRES of Texans homes, via eminent domain, so foreign corporations can profit. Gov. Perry is also forcing tolls on freeways we’ve already paid for all across Texas!
http://www.texastollparty.com/action_tellAfriend.php?from=te...
What you can do to stop the North American Union!
If you want the Federal Reserve gone, and our Constitutional Republic to be restored, promote and elect Ron Paul.
http://www.stopthenorthamericanunion.com/WhatYouCanDo.html
RON PAUL
HOPE FOR AMERICA
BE A PART OF IT
Also note that tolls are regressive taxes
People traveling for work or to shop must pay the Toll, as a tax on their travel. However, companies hauling freight will pass the cost for the tolls on to the consumer, so you will pay the toll a second time.
E-470
This problem is ongoing and pervasive. The newest toll road in Colorado has been turned over to private corporations from I believe, Spain or Portugal and Brazil. These corporations did not build the roads but now operate them and collect the fees. Most people have no idea and don't care. The new HOV lanes on I-25 built and paid for by taxpayers is now a combined HOV/Toll road with the tolls going to , you guessed it . The major land abstracts being pulled in Weld county are from a company named, Haliburton. This in an attempt to force landowners off their land so that a "SuperSlab" commercial highway can be built from Pueblo to Cheyenne. Hmmm. They don't call it the NAFTA superhighway because that will piss us off. They call it the TTC or the superslab or whatever. But they piece it all together and what do you have? Wah La. The NAFTA superhighway! Caught you asleep again. Stupid American! Wake Up!
HELP "STEVE ALTON" THE SHELL GAME (New Book) at
http://www.stevealten.com/index.html
AND
AUDIO - Two hour interview on the true story of an Author WAKING - UP!
at ( Feb. 26th - Tuesday )
http://www.republicbroadcasting.org/index.php?cmd=archives.m...
explain why Ron Paul & Denise K. are having so much problems running for the Top Office in The Land...
jonjan
HELP "STEVE ALTON" THE SHELL GAME (New Book) at
http://www.stevealten.com/index.html
AND
AUDIO - Two hour interview on the true story of an Author WAKING - UP!
at ( Feb. 26th - Tuesday )
http://www.republicbroadcasting.org/index.php?cmd=archives.m...
explain why Ron Paul & Denise K. are having so much problems running for the Top Office in The Land...
jonjan
$$$North American Union$$$
The North American Union is here to continue the destruction of the U.S.A. For more information go to ................ www.stopspp.com ..........and learn more than you need to know that this is not a myth.
If you are curious about the deaths surrounding the Clintons (and now because of this campaign there could be more to come the latest last weekend another accident) ...... go to ......... www.arkancide.com ......... If you want to know about the organization that control american elections go to www.youtube.com and then in there
type in .............. CFR .....................................and watch the videos.
We will post videos about Obama and McCain and Huckabee in the future.
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foreign investment
Don'y you just love that term? (FI). It sure is. I read That Greenspan was suggesting the dollar was dumped by the Arab Oil countries today on Prison Planet? If the dollar is devalued to help mortgage payers and debt owers it will also mean that foreigners can buy more US assets up and charge you for using them. I think this is what some people wish for because the wealthy people of this world have thier money in gold already and probably foreign currencies already. If the dollar devalues then they will be even richer.
There's a good english economist who likes bacon and his name is Liam Halligan if you want to googlerize him.
02/24/2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/...
'I always think of all you canvassors and precinct leaders at the front line.
Good luck out there &Thank you. It's appreciated'.-fip -U.K
'I always thank of all you canvassors and precinct leaders and delegates who were at the front line and caucuses.
Good luck out there &Thank you. You're a gift.
This is what I have found on
This is what I have found on the subject:
The private foreign companies will pay for the work and in return will run everything for 50 years. They will get paid back by tolls paid from using the toll roads. This is why the companies are going to decide where to start building the roads so they can receive the biggest upfront profit.
They will also decide how much to charge, the states don't have any say so. Although they will say they created the "formula" that the companies will use to come up with a figure.
The thing they leave out is who is going to pay for the bridges to pass over the toll roads for all the county and state roads that are existing and will be cut through by the toll roads. If the foreign companies decide to build some of the bridges, then that means we will have to pay something to go from one side of the state or county road to the other if the toll road crosses it. If they do not build it then it is up to the county and state to fork over the funds.
Another interesting thing is they will not guarantee that existing cemeteries or historical landmarks will not be affected.
anational globalists
...they will not guarantee that existing cemeteries or historical landmarks will not be affected.
What do these anational globalists care about the vermin cluttering their private landscapes, aside from being their natural servants?
"We don't have to start a brand new revolution...All we have to do is restore the original Constitution." -Ron Paul
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"...a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people." -John F. Kennedy
Outrageous!
It is totally absurd and morally outrageous that American taxpayers are being expected to also pay fees to drive on roads that were built using tax dollars, while at the same time we are spending hundreds of millions of dollars building infrastructure in Iraq and Afghanistan. (The fact that the citizens of those countries are also destroying that infrastructure as quickly as it can be built only adds to the absurdity.)
As to the use of eminent domain to further private enterprise, that is exactly what one can expect in a fascist state.
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"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive."
Texas polling stations
We should have people at every Texas polling station armed with big signs that say 'STOP the Trans Texas Corridor' and a big pile of copies of this press release.
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Live Free or Die - Amen to that
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Live Free or Die - Amen to that
Has CNN's Toobin found CNN's Dobbs
Regarding this issue? It seems, when last I checked, that one thinks it's a fantasy and the other thinks it's real. Since the facts are out-there, it would be interesting to see if one or the other could (gasp!) actually admit to being-wrong...
JMR
Pennsylvania is facing
an interesting dilemma. It has stated the need to place tolls along Interstate 80 in order to shore up Penndots funding. However Penndot has silently entered into a very pricey contract with a company called Visage in order to implement Real ID. All was done without legislatures approval or knowledge. The principals of Visage seem to be of the CIA ilk and have certainly lived up to their reputations for skull and dagger work here. They were so refined that state representatives were stating that nothing had been done with regards to Real ID until activist working to thwart it showed them the stock reports from Visage quoting the contract with PennDot to their shareholders. Talk about subversives !
If not us than who?
Stop TTC
Support HR 5191- Prohibits the use of federal funds to build this monster
Sponsor: Ron Paul
Regardless of their
Regardless of their assurances otherwise, the land and the money will both come from the very people who are crying out against the whole mess.
But even if that were not true, even if they somehow managed to pay for it all without one tax dollar or one seized acre, it would still cost We the People dearly. The price would be the shame of betraying our Founders, and the Revolutionary Patriots who died for the documents that are now being forcefully stuffed into the shredder.
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