I attended the Transportation Committee meeting today to hear the discussion and observe the vote on SB.3091 which is the expansion of toll road projects in Tennessee. There was no vote and not much discussion on this bill. I’m not sure if that was good or bad. Considering the pandering or should I say salivating by Ed Cole (Asst Commissioner of Planning – TDOT) at the possibility of toll funds rolling into TDOT or the disinformation campaign issued by Rep. Pinion, maybe it was Rep. Pinion blaming the Iraq War for the lack of funds for Tennessee roads or Rep. Pinion’s personal relationship with the Toll road lobbyist. Suffice it to say, I was less than impressed by the interest in understanding this expansion bill by the members of the committee. Suffice it to say, I was less than impressed by the knowledge displayed with all of the bills presented to the committee.

The vote and discussion for toll expansion was delayed to April 9th (time unknown). I did take the time this evening to write to the members of the committee regarding my visit this afternoon. I liberally referenced recent postings by both Ben Cunningham (Taxing Tennessee) and Terry Frank. of which I am going to truncate this portion in the email below since y’all can just click on their links to read what they had to say.

From: toni
Date: Wed, Apr 2, 2008 at 7:14 PM
Subject: SB 3091 – Expansion of Toll Authority Bill
To: sen.jamie.woodson@legislature.state.tn.us, sen.micheal.williams@legislature.state.tn.us, sen.steve.southerland@legislature.state.tn.us, sen.doug.jackson@legislature.state.tn.us, sen.mae.beavers@legislature.state.tn.us, sen.andy.berke@legislature.state.tn.us, sen.lowe.finney@legislature.state.tn.us, sen.tommy.kilby@legislature.state.tn.us, sen.jim.tracy@legislature.state.tn.us
Cc: Jack Johnson , rep.glen.casada@legislature.state.tn.us

I attended the committee meeting this afternoon in concern for the expansion of toll roads in Tennessee. What I didn’t hear in the questions to Rep. Pinion or Sen. Kilby was “what happens when the funding for these toll projects is fulfilled?”.

Ben Cunningham has video where Ed Cole states the tolls don’t end at this point. The tolls continue and will be used to fund additional road projects! Are you aware these tolls will continue without end?

Here is Ben’s link (http://taxingtennessee.blogspot.com/2008/03/toll-road-videos-blast-from-recent-past.html) (you can find the video there) and here is the posting from Taxing Tennessee:

The Senate Transportation Committee has a very important Toll Road Vote on Wednesday. Its VERY instructive to look at these videos again about the promises vs the reality of Toll Roads in Tennessee.

1- Will the Tolls ever be removed? Even after the bonds for a particular project are paid off? the answer: NO, the tolls will never be removed, they will simply become another tax. In fact, Ed Cole from TDOT says they will identify very popular projects to toll so they can pay for less popular projects. (toward the end of the video.)

[go to Ben's site for the video here]

2- Will we try a few toll road projects and see how those work? NO, that was discussed when the bill was passed but now, according to Rep. Pinion, the very powerful Chairman of the House Transportation Committee, any local official who wants a toll road “bad enough” can have one.

[go to Ben's site for the video here]

Another item that disturbs me regarding Rep. Pinion’s advocacy for unlimited toll projects in Tennessee is his personal involvement with Velma Jones who is a toll road lobbyist. This smells to high heaven. This information was found at Terry Frank’s site (http://terryfrank.net/?p=3137). You will find the information regarding this association at the end of Terry’s story.

Toll Road House Vote

Below I will list the legislators voting in favor of wide open toll roads across the state of Tennessee (HB2868 by Pinion). (And to you free marketers out there, this toll road plan still has the taxpayer on the hook. It’s not free market.)

But first, I want to draw your attention to a comment made by Rep. Frank Nicely on the House floor. You can find a bit about it in Eric’s AP article here. Here’s the quote:

Niceley said he’d prefer to see the state withdraw from the federal highway program and keep the gas tax money it currently sends to Washington.

Pinion was dismissive of Niceley’s comments.

“With all due respect to my esteemed colleague from the East, I don’t know if I have any idea what you’re even talking about,” he said.

What? Who is right? Can we opt out? I wanted to know so I called Frank Nicely. We’re going to talk with him about this on air today. But in my conversation with him, he says we send millions more to Washington than we get back. So I asked, does this mean we’re sending it to D.C. and they’re using it to build roads in Wyoming? He said “yes, and now I really like the people in Wyoming. They’re good people. But I don’t want to be in the business of building their roads.” I can agree with that!

To read complete post go here.

In concluding this email, today was the first time I had attended a committee meeting at the Tn Legislature. I expected to find professionals serious about the business at hand. I found snippets of that behavior but to a larger extent was disappointed with the level of cavalierness, casual attention to the subject and knowledge of the bills at hand by members of the committee. The love fest (or not) for former legislator Cohen was a waste of time. When the two citizens got up to speak I was especially disturbed by the rudeness of the various committee members who were moving about, talking between each other and with other associates while the citizens were speaking.

I truly wish more citizens would take the time to watch their legislators in action and hold them accountable, maybe our legislators would be a bit more attentive. I hope with my next visit to your committee you all will prove to me this was a fluke and not business as usual.To the 2 citizens who got up to address the committee with their questions, Thank You!

Technorati Tags: TN legislature, TN Senate Transportation Committee, Ed Cole TDOT, SB 3091, Toll Road Expansion

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