Travis County Commissioners Court
January 2, 2007
Citizens Communication
Citizens Communication is next. This item gives residents an opportunity to address the Commissioners court on any matter not on the agenda for up to a full three minutes. And vincent may has signed in. Anybody else here for citizens communication? Good morning, mr. May.
>> good morning, judge.
>> I live on the Travis County line, east of Austin. I'm here to talk, not about a toll lane, but an alternative to tolling, that's pass through finance. That's the method that other counties in Texas like Williamson and hays have used to avoid having to -- having to -- to toll their existing roads. And my purpose here today is to ask you to put that on the agenda for a public hearing. Campo is a kwan degree. They -- quandary. They need your guidance on that. Campo is talking about another six-month delay. That means that it will be three years since the matter of tolling first came up before campo and it was voted on and they still don't have an answer. We have an alternative. I think it would be the preference of at least 90% of the citizens of Travis County, to not toll. And with this alternative, we have an opportunity to avoid that. We can do better than I think Williamson and hays did. They have to -- to pay the interest on the bonds that they sell. Txdot pays the full principal amount, so it's not that bad. But even a small increase in the property taxes is not going to be warmly received by anybody. But I think we have time and -- in this session to pass a two cent local gas tax increase, whether that's for Travis County or for all three counties, we can do that and two cent gas tax increase would pay the interest and then some and leave extra for more road building projects. It's that simple, that's how we can avoid tolling. I really -- I really with like you to put this on the agenda as soon as possible. Time is of the essence because campo is going to have to act on this and either make the delay or who knows what they are going to do. They don't know what they are going to do. So a January 9th hearing would be -- would be I think not too early at all. That would be the best. If not that, then the next possible meeting after that. I would recommend that it be a night hearing so that working people can attend. If that's not possible, we can't do that. So I would like the commissions perhaps, beginning with Commissioner Davis and around the board there to make a motion to you to put this on the agenda.
>> thank you, mr. May.
>> thank you.
>> thank you very much.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, January 2, 2007 6:14 PM