Subject:     BIKE:  Travis County road bonds
Date:        8/10/01 12:29 AM
From:        Roger Baker

Talk about a stacked deck!

(I'm writing this late at night without reference to notes or papers,
but this following account is reasonably accurate).

There was a final "citizen" Travis County bond committee hearing and
approval meeting tonight on the proposed $250 million worth of Travis
County road bonds. The package had been supported for some time by AARO
(their point man on the AARO road subcommittee Howard Falkenburg was
sitting right up front), the Chamber of Commerce, and the Real Estate
Council. 

However Howard kept nearly silent and the spoken testimony tonight was
from Sierra Club environmentalists and various sprawl opponents like
myself and the Austin neighborhood Council, who were overwhelmingly
opposed to both the sprawl roads and the tripling in size of the bond
package compared to its earlier size. But the committee nearly totally
ignored all our testimony when the time came to vote. (At an earlier
hearing at the County Commissioner's hearing room several weeks ago,
there was similar heavy and nearly unanimous opposition, plus heavy
neighborhood opposition to an extension of Slaughter lane through a
destination park in Southeast Austin).
 
There were a few other bond hearings too which I did not attend, and
there may have been some developer and possibly citizen support for the
road bonds at these, but nearly all of what I heard at the two meetings
I attended was opposition on various grounds.

This "citizen" group of road supporters  began in Feb. recommending $80
million-$100 million. I think three reps were chosen from each of the
four precincts to be on the bond committee. There was no environmental
representation at all on the group, but mostly suburban reps, I suspect
probably chosen to vote predictably for business/real estate interests
(including Barbara Johnson of the secretive but heavily real
estate-influenced business think tank, the Austin Area Research
Organization or AARO). Labor leader and old time liberal Democrat Walter
Timberlake was the sole opponent of nearly a dozen ANY of the many
projects -- on the grounds that he opposed raising taxes and also
supported environmental preservation.

The Real Estate Council had done an unsolicited private poll a month or
so ago that claimed that the public would support $200-$400 million
worth of roads and then used this poll to lobby the bond committee to
nearly triple the limit and raise county taxes enough to allow the $250
million bond package, mostly for roads to serve sprawl. 

So the committee did indeed approve the big increase tonight, August 9,
by approving $242 million for mostly roads and another $12 million for
administration, which included all the right of way requested for new
state highway projects -- this despite the practically unanimous citizen
testimony in opposition beforehand. 

The bond package thus now amounts to welfare for the real estate
industry with no bike or pedestrian projects, except what might be
incidental to new roads. The worst thing is that the Travis County taxes
come overwhelmingly from inside the city, and yet 100% of this bond
money is proposed to be spent outside the city, some for parks and
drainage and bridges but roughly 2/3 on new roads desired by land developers.

For example, the proposed package includes $66 million for SH 130 right
of way alone, plus roads to serve new development over the aquifer like
$13 million for Frate Barker road to tie into the new proposed SH 45
toll road over the Edwards Aquifer (which feeds Barton Springs, which is
in the most environmentally sensitive area of the city but is being
polluted enough that Fish and Wildlife now claims that the Barton creek
salamander is being threatened).

The Travis County Commissioners are scheduled to vote on the
recommendations Tuesday morning, but so far as I know, only Margaret
Gomez is upset at the big Travis county property tax increase the bonds
would require. In other words, the vote appears to be politically wired
at this point by the nearly unanimous vote of the bond committee to
approve all the projects. 

So far as I am concerned, the next step is to publicize the fact that
the bond group ignored overwhelming public testimony and environmental,
neighborhood and tax increase opponents in favor of the real estate
lobby. With property values sinking fast, a quarter billion in new
(mostly) road bonds would mean a large property tax increase for all
Austin city residents to subsidize sprawl outside the city. A coalition
of financial conservatives and environmentalists and progressives may be
able to prevent this enormous scale ripoff if it gets much publicity.
The road lobby is counting on the fact that the public is ignorant and
thinks that big new roads to serve sprawl will relieve congestion, when
precisely the opposite is true. 

Despite what the public may imagine, congestion is really caused by low
density car-addictive land suburban use patterns promoted by the kind of
crooked politics we saw at the hearing tonight, and not any deficiency
of new roads to serve such sprawl. -- Roger Baker

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