January 22, 2007
It's 6:30, do you know where our CAMPO board members are?
The CAMPO Phase II meeting, which was to start at 6:00, has still not started. The conf room is packed, but a quorum isn't present because of a wreck on MOPAC. Apparently, our board members are not smart enough to do what I do almost daily... Take an alternate route when MOPAC is jammed up.
Come on, y'all! Briscoe and Jabba Gattis managed to make it! We need you to be here so we can riot and sacrifice you all to the freeway gods!
UPDATE: 6:40 Jennifer Kim, Krusee and 'Can I sell you a car?' Maxwell have arrived. Finally. Krusee and Maxwell are now chatting privately while watching the crowd that is, apparently, unified in opposition to tolls. The gutless Ogden, apparently has sent an alternate. Kirk just walked so I guess now we can begin.
Krusee... Damn. He just looks like a mook. Granted, beating up on him is a bit like kicking a puppy. It's a shame for him I have no compunction about kicking puppies.
UPDATE:7:11 - some guy just spoke and finished with 'remember Karen Sonleitner' and the crowd erupted. It's weird because most of these people don't look like your traditional activist nutters, they all look normal. Sal Costello is speaking now about Watson's time as Mayor of Austin regarding the prop 1 bond issue which was supposed to be for free roads.
UPDATE 8:48 - Sal Costello asks the board to drop the six month waiting period before the vote on the Phase II plan and vote against it tonight. Pandomonium erupts including one jackass sitting down from me who kept yelling 'Can you hear us now, Watson'.
Dukes has just made an amendment regarding the racial makeup of CAMPO which is kinda funny because honestly the current makeup of the board actually looks a lot like the racial makeup of Austin metro. This amendment was to the motion made by Maxwell to adopt item 5 which were the changes proposed by the CoC.
Someone is speaking now asking them to move up item 10 which is Phase II.
Just to clarify, the Gattis mentioned here is his stand in because his grandmother died.
Posted by mcblogger at January 22, 2007 06:31 PM
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Comments
That prop 1 money was ALWAYS supposed to be used for tollways like SH130 - promotional material ahead of the election mentioned SH130 and Loop 1 North explicitly. The actual ballot language didn't; but neither did it say that the money was going to "free" roads.
Posted by: mdahmus ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.mcblogger.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at January 23, 2007 11:03 AM
MD:
Ahh, so the catch was the clarity. Look, I'm opposed to tolls for one simple reason... it's bad public policy. All transportation taxes are going to be regressive, but the most regressive is the toll tax. It's just a bad idea.
As for Prop 1, that's part of the problem with much of this. These are never written clearly, just like the constitutional amendment that helped create TTC.
There is another issue that many are loathe to discuss, the fact that tolls create a pool of money that stays at TXDoT. Self funded bureaucracies are always a bad idea.
Posted by: mcblogger at January 24, 2007 11:22 AM
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