Slew of New Taxes for Rail Plan

The Transit Working Group (TWG), a CAMPO committee engaged in planning several new passenger rail lines for Austin, revealed part of its financing plan last week. Most of the new taxes fall squarely on the backs of people who own or drive cars in Central Texas.

We learned last year that drivers who use the proposed MoPac Toll lanes will be forced to contribute a portion of their tolls to subsidize construction of train lines. The TWG now proposes taxes for driving on any road (at least in Travis and Williamson counties.) This would come in the form of an “emission tax” charged with annual vehicle inspections. There would also be a vehicle-miles-traveled tax due at inspection time.

Even if you leave your car parked in your garage you would have to pay a mobility tax with your annual registration. A new tax would also be levied on parking lots. It takes a lot of taxes to generate the $4 billion dollar cost of the plan. Part of the local sales taxes collected would also be dedicated to rail.

If looting the sales tax leaves insufficient money to fund public safety and general government, property taxes would have to go up. Most cities and counties in the CAMPO area would have to commit to gouging their residents for the new taxes. Many have indicated their intention to do so. The Elgin City Council has already voted to pay its share (and not a single citizen of Elgin knows it.)

Some of these taxes could be levied today. Others would require legislative approval and / or a vote of the citizens.

What could go wrong? The plan is heavily dependent on having another 1.5 million people moving into the area. (Yikes, they want to Houstonize Austin!) The plan is also dependent on a bankrupt federal government chipping in umpteen billion more dollars. (The local $4 billion would only pay for a fraction of the operations and maintenance cost of the trains.)

Read more here, but keep in mind that we have already spent $325 million for the “$60 million” dollar Red Line and a couple hundred million more has been or soon will be spent just planning and preparing for the transit dream.

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Categories : Texas Department of Transportation, Toll Roads
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Hearing report on HB80

This past Wednesday (April 10, 2013) the State Affairs Committee discussed HB80, Rep. David Simpson’s Texas Travel Freedom Act, and received comments from citizens about the bill.

The hearing began at 1pm, but HB80 discussion did not occur until about 3:30pm. The discussion began with Rep. Simpson “laying out” the bill, as is commonly done in these hearings. He described the effects the bill would have upon current law, namely how the “official oppression” section of Texas code would be amended so that any agent of the state would be forbidden to touch citizens in private areas without probable cause (or a warrant). The “agents” the bill affected would include those employed by Texas and those employed by the Federal Government.

The committee then proceeded to ask Simpson a litany of questions about the bill. Of great import to them was whether Simpson felt that HB80 would cause the Feds to behave as they did in the previous session, sending the Department of Justice over to “inform” the House and Senate that they would turn Texas into a “no-fly zone” if they passed the bill.

Simpson’s response: Let them come. He reiterated that this would again become a “Come and Take It Moment” for Texas, indeed for the United States. He said that HB80 is better than the bill from last session and ought not evoke the same response — but why should the fear of such a response stop us now?

Following Simpson’s deposition, the floor was opened for citizens to testify for and against the bill. Five people testified in support of HB80, including TexasTravelFreedom.com. No one testified against the bill. Many people attended the hearing and signed up in support of the bill while opting not to testify.

Overall, the committee’s response to the bill was fairly non-committal. Such means that citizens need to take up the cause themselves and inundate this committee with emails, letters, and phone calls letting them know that we want this bill to pass.

TTF encourages everyone to use our special form that lets you email every member of the State Affairs Committee at once. Make your voice heard, and then let others know how they can do the same!

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Categories : Texas Legislation
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HB80 to be heard in State Affairs Committee on Wednesday, April 10

Last Friday, the Texas State Affairs Committee announced that they would consider Rep. Davids Simpson’s “Texas Travel Freedom Act” (HB80) in a hearing scheduled for April 10, 2013, at 1:00pm.

From an earlier press release: “HB 80 aims to restrict unconstitutional violations of travelers’ persons and dignity — particularly by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which has made itself infamous for intrusive and humiliating pat-downs of innocent travelers.”

This is first major hurdle in the campaign to pass comprehensive legislation that will restrict government enforcers from being able to search citizens without probable cause. If you are in Austin this Wednesday, we hope you will make an effort to attend the committee hearing and make your voice heard.

But there is another way you can help: TexasTravelFreedom.com has created an easy-to-use form that will allow you to email all 13 members of the State Affairs Committee at once. Send your personalized message today, and then share it with your friends on your favorite social network to spread the word. (The form will be active until 1pm Wednesday.)

Details for the Committee Hearing: http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/83R/schedules/html/C4502013041013001.HTM

COMMITTEE:   State Affairs
TIME & DATE: 1:00 PM or upon final adjourn./recess, Wednesday, April 10, 2013
PLACE:       John H. Reagan Building, Room 140
CHAIR:       Rep. Byron Cook

Really important point: The Reagan Building is separate from the capitol building — it is immediately northwest on the south side of 15th street (Map Link). Plan on being there 10-15 minutes before the committee hearing starts so you can sign up to testify.

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Categories : Texas Legislation

Stopping TSA Abuse: A Biblical Perspective

Wesley Strackbein, founder of TSA Tyranny, published an article with the Chalcedon Institute about the TSA and fourth amendment liberties with a fascinating biblical perspective. TTF readers should certainly check it out:

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) institutionalized the shaming of America’s citizenry in late 2010 when it implemented new invasive screening polices at commercial airports across the U. S. The new procedures involve the use of full-body scanners that capture near-nude images of air travelers, which are viewed by TSA officers behind closed doors, and the use of aggressive, full-body pat-downs that entail TSA agents touching the private parts of innocent citizens. Both procedures are now routinely performed on air travelers, despite the fact that the persons screened have demonstrated no probable cause of wrongdoing.

This frontal assault on human dignity has prompted widespread outrage, as stories have emerged of little children being inappropriately touched and 85-year-old grandmothers being strip-searched and humiliated. Such cases are hardly isolated, as the ACLU received 900 complaints of TSA abuse in a single month.

The TSA’s screening polices are in clear contempt of America’s Bill of Rights, as the Fourth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution prohibits federal agents from such tyrannical invasions of privacy: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated …”

Read the rest here.

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Categories : Travel Freedom
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Cintra SH 130 Public-Private Partnership Drowning In Debt

In a recent Austin American-Statesman front page article (Tuesday, March 26), Ben Wear quotes Moody’s Investor Service as saying that they will probably lower the rating for Cintra’s State Highway 130 bonds. Cintra’s reserve account has $30 million left and that will be exhausted by June. The distress is caused by low traffic volumes on the 85 mph toll lanes. Wear did not give specific traffic numbers.

Rep. Paul Workman (a Travis County Republican) wrote a bill this month that would have bought out Cintra’s and TxDOT’s SH 130 segments for $3 billion, despite the fact that Cintra and TxDOT only ‘invested’ $2.4 billion in the highway. If you think that is a sweetheart deal, consider that SH 130 might only fetch $1 billion if put up for sale at auction.

Workman’s bill is not expected to pass but you can see the fascist mindset that pervades the Texas legislature. Somebody has to take a loss for TxDOT’s and Cintra’s blunders and it’s going to be taxpayers. Not only would taxpayers have to bailout TxDOT and Cintra, they would have to pay triple what the properties are worth so that TxDOT and Cintra can make handy profits on their blunders.

The Texas Transportation Commission (TTC) ruled this week that TxDOT and Cintra must reduce the toll on trucks to the same rate paid by car drivers. The pretext is that trucks that currently use congested IH 35 will choose to use SH 130 instead. No meaningful number of trucks will switch. IH 35 will be the same next year as it is now. There has been no change on IH 35 for 20 years. It is perma-gested. (A future article will look at IH 35.)

The fact that the TTC can make rules affecting a single private company proves that no privatization occurred on the south 40 of SH 130. Cintra is no more than a contractor working for the State of Texas. They build roads and collect taxes for the state. What sets Cintra, and other Public Private Partnership deals, apart from other contractors is that they get implicit guaranties of profits. When their Indiana Toll Road went bankrupt, taxpayers bailed them out. And they will get a bailout on SH 130.

Taxpayers should also understand that the public “investment” in SH 130 is far higher than commonly stated. Rick Perry gave a $250 million tax break to get a F1 track built on SH 130. (He wanted to generate toll trips on SH 130 in a vain effort to prop it up.) It turns out that the real incentive is >$300 million since other events at the track (Motocross, concerts) get tax breaks too, and local governments must provide matching money. Local governments have also spent millions on infrastructure. The total tax break could exceed $400 million.

F1 is only one of many sweetheart deals on SH 130. There was even talk of moving state office jobs from downtown Austin to SH 130 (and then leasing the downtown state buildings to private companies.) All to prop up the massive failure of government bureaucrats playing Monopoly with public money.

(Don’t get me wrong. I support tax breaks but only when everyone gets the same break. RepubliCrats only give juicy tax breaks to billionaires.)

TxDOT doesn’t learn from its mistakes and is now asking for authority to do more public-private partnership (PPP) deals with Texas roads.

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Categories : Texas Department of Transportation, Toll Roads

Texas Travel Freedom is Expanding!

TTF is pleased to welcome Vince May into our small group of excellent writers and researchers.

To date, TTF has been oriented toward TSA news and legislation. Vince will be focusing on a different set of travel issues important to Texans, including toll roads, DoT corruption, checkpoints, and anything else relating to land travel and property rights.

We are excited to have him on board and look forward to the great things he will do with us.

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Categories : TTF News
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A retrospective on the first anti-TSA-groping bill

An image used by early supporters of Rep. David Simpson's anti-groping bill.

An image used by early supporters of Rep. David Simpson’s anti-groping bill.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” –George Santayana

Forgive the over-used quote, but it’s the most appropriate one I can think of given our short legislative memory here in the Lone Star State.

I had the privilege of wearing a Capitol Press Corps badge during the last Texas Legislative session and covered Rep. David Simpson’s (R-Longview) now-famous anti-TSA groping bill, HB 1937.

I watched it along every step of the legislative process — from relative obscurity as a bill filed by a renegade freshman to gaining a bipartisan majority of supporters and a Senate companion bill by Sen. Dan Patrick (R-Houston).

How the anti-groping bill grew from a story on the back pages of The Lone Star Report (where I worked from 2008-11) to the home page of The Drudge Report to headlines of major news outlets nationally and across the world is a story worth repeating and remembering by all those working to preserve our freedom of travel.

This session, Simpson and Patrick put up HB 80 and SB 20, respectively (see Fellow Traveler’s comparison of the two bills).

In the upcoming weeks, I hope to offer an analysis of why HB 1837 broke down during the 82nd Legislature, and what can be done to pass the two new bills in the 83rd. But before we proceed any further, let’s take a moment and review what happened last session.

Below are some of my articles (unless otherwise noted) from the late, great Lone Star Report that give the whole story in better detail than what we can recall after two years.

* * *

82nd SPECIAL SESSION:

Feature stories:

Anti-groping, sanctuary cities final casualties of 2011 session

(by William Lutz) 7/1/2011

Anti-groping bill makes a comeback, feds make concessions this time

6/24/2011

Blog posts (latest to earliest):

Simpson gives stern rebuke to colleagues following anti-groping bill defeat

6/29/2011 11:56 AM

TSA bill clears committee, heads to House floor tomorrow; may signal new life for courts bill

6/28/2011 7:17 PM

Anti-groping bill uses 8th of its 9 lives

6/28/2011 4:27 PM

House anti-groping bill breaks down, Senate version up Monday

6/24/2011 2:53 PM

Anti-groping bill gains traction

6/21/2011 2:52 PM

Perry adds transportation ‘official oppression’ to special session call

6/20/2011 5:16 PM

Rep. Simpson responds to Governor: ‘Still time to pass the bill’

6/20/2011 10:20 AM

Anti-groping bill clears committee, gathers enough support to pass both chambers; Perry says there’s ‘not enough time left’

6/16/2011 4:56 PM

State GOP execs urge Governor to include anti-groping bill in call

6/7/2011 9:19 AM

Dewhurst writes Perry to request anti-groping bill, congressional redistricting on special session call

(By William Lutz) 5/30/2011 5:18 PM

* * *

82nd REGULAR SESSION:

Feature story:

Feds warn of Texas ‘no fly zone’ if anti-groping bill passes

5/27/2011

Blog posts (listed from latest to earliest):

Senate deadline approaches

5/25/2011 10:27 PM

Patrick claims Dewhurst reason for anti-TSA-groping bill’s failure

5/25/2011 12:08 AM

DOJ letter: ‘TSA would likely be required to cancel any flight …’

5/24/2011 11:52 PM

DOJ warns Texas Senate against anti-groping-bill (UPDATE: HB 1937 pulled)

5/24/2011 8:10 PM

Anti-groping bill clears Senate committee

5/20/2011 7:01 PM

Both Simpson body scanning bills out of committee

5/5/2011 4:41 PM

Rep. Simpson: Airline body scanning  ‘ridiculous excess’

4/7/2011 7:29 PM

Simpson files anti-body-scanner bill

3/4/2011 2:53 PM

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Categories : Texas Legislation

Will sequestration reduce the TSA’s power?

According to Becky Akers at the New York Post, not so much:

You may well languish in an airport line as monstrous as the national debt, either now or in warmer weather — but you can thank the TSA’s usual incompetence and nonsense, not sequestration or some supposed shortage of folks eager to grope their neighbors for a living.

On the contrary, anecdotal evidence abounds of the agency’s overstaffing. One of the first unfriendly nicknames that angry victims supplied for the acronym “TSA” was “Thousands Standing Around” — doing nothing while travelers missed their flights.

A recent report from a House Homeland Security subcommittee (optimistically titled “Rebuilding TSA into a Smarter, Leaner Organization”) confirms that impression. The number of travelers running (or willing to run) the TSA’s airport gantlets continues to fall, yet the agency just as continuously expands.

The TSA, like any bloated government bureaucracy, operates on a simple principle: whatever resources we have previously used, we need more more more. Since they do not have the free market’s signaling of “profits” for good “performance,” they perpetually seek to grasp at everything they can get their dirty little hands on. Maybe, just maybe, the sequester will do something to slow the TSA down a bit, but that could be hoping for too much. Ultimately, it needs more than a sequester, it needs to shut down entirely.

Read more at the New York Post.

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Categories : TSA News
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What are the differences between HB80 and SB20?

http://www.brownfieldcoalitionne.org/wp-content/uploads/legislation-hammer.jpgAt present, there are two bills in the Texas legislature that address problems of travel freedom in airports and otherwise: David Simpson’s HB80 and Dan Patrick’s SB20.

In short, HB80 and SB20 seeks to amend what are called the “official oppression” statutes, which describe what state actors cannot do to citizens while under the color of their office. These critical statutes protect citizens from abuse by public officials, and citizens can seek remedies and prosecution of the officials whenever they encounter abuse. HB80 and SB20  amend the statutes to include non-probable cause searches amongst the list of prohibited activities.

Both bills are good, but there are a few reasons why HB80 is slightly better than SB20.

1. HB80 includes language that prohibits the removal of a child from a parent or guardian for a non-probable cause search. SB20, however, does not have such language. The TSA says they do not have a “separation” policy, but this language is important because it ensures they are legally bound not to do so.

2. HB80 does not include the “knowingly or recklessly” standard used in SB20. Retaining such a standard gives the state actor a potentially vague language to take advantage of in a suit. Clarifying that it is only intent that matters, as in HB80, is more important.

3. HB80 states clearly that travel cannot be prohibited if you refuse a non-probable cause search. Currently, if you were to refuse to be scanned or patted-down in an airport and wished to simply leave, you could not do so and you would be arrested if you tried. This insane policy has to stop, and HB80’s language not only stops the potential of citizens being arrested for refusal, but forces the state to acknowledge that you may travel even if you refuse the non-probable cause search.

4. HB80 defines both federal AND state employees in the definition of “public servant”. SB20 only applies to federal employees such as the TSA, but HB80 is actually applicable to ALL Texas employees as well, such as police officers or sheriffs. The Constitution needs to apply to EVERYONE.

5. HB80 includes a “severability clause”. What this clause does is makes each element of the enforcement of the statute separate from one another in a potential case. In other words, if a state actor is found not guilty for one part of the statute, such a verdict does not prevent him from being guilty of another part.

These differences are not trivial, and TTF would encourage Sen. Patrick to consider these differences carefully and to change SB20 accordingly. If you are in Sen. Patrick’s difference, please encourage him to continue progress with his bill and make it even better for the people of Texas.

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Categories : Texas Legislation
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Transportation Secretary threatens passengers with longer lines if feds don’t get their money

Outgoing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood gave Congress an ultimatum today:

Come to an agreement on federal spending or passengers will soon have to wait up to three hours in line just to board a plane.

And earlier this week an organization of travel industry executives “warned” us that our travel nightmare would only be beginning if the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) do not get their money.

You heard them right: Give us our money, or the passengers get it!

Yes, it seems that Secretary LaHood and even travel industry leaders are intent on taking out their woes on the flying public if automatic spending cuts (the “sequestration” you may have heard about) whittles away even a portion of the budgets of the federal agencies which manage our air traffic controllers and TSA security officers.

Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood

Transportation Secretary (for now) Ray LaHood

As reported in USA Today Feb. 19, $85 billion in across-the-board cuts is likely if Congress and the President do not reach a compromise by March 1.

“This truly could become a nightmare for travel,” said Geoff Freeman, chief operating officer of the U.S. Travel Association, via the article.

Hold the jet bridge: You mean we were not already in the middle of a nightmare?

Let’s review what nightmarish airline restrictions are already in effect in our post-9/11 world: Ridiculous prohibitions such as banning whole bottles of shampoo; exorbitant fines for “contraband” in the neighborhood of $10,000 or more; virtual strip-searches via body imaging machines; manual searches of genital areas for those who opt-out of body imaging scans; recommendations that travelers show up two hours ahead of schedule; the list goes on.

On a more social note: children can no longer visit the cockpit and dream of becoming pilots; the days of greeting loved ones at the gate or having a meal with them in an airport terminal restaurant are long gone; and let’s not forget the persistent foot odor at TSA checkpoints now that everyone is required to take off their shoes.

I suppose Secretary LaHood and/or the TSA does have the power to make the lines extra-long so that everyone can continue to be groped or peeped at. And it’s possible that TSA and Customs can take even longer to thumb carefully through our belongings.

But isn’t the nightmare already bad enough? How about a better solution?

Let’s end this bad dream in a way that both saves the taxpayers money AND shortens the line at the airport — all while keeping American passengers secure.

I suggest we do away with the unnecessary security measures that created this nightmare to begin with. Travel safety does not mean multiple blue-gloved officers standing guard at every airport checkpoint and examining everyone’s private parts.

Reasonable precautions should be preserved and developed. Drug and bomb dogs can continue to sniff for explosive and illegal substances. Luggage can continue to be X-rayed as it was before 9/11. Suspicious passengers should be made to stand aside and be (modestly) patted down as they were before 9/11. Pilots should be allowed to carry weapons in order to defend their cockpits form hostile takeovers.

By the way, all of these methods could have prevented ANY of the attempted attacks over the past 12 years. Groping or visually examining every airline passenger has done nothing.

Let’s all work to sequester a decade’s worth of excessive regulations and privacy rights violations that have done absolutely nothing to make us safer in the skies.

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Categories : Travel Freedom, TSA News
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