Monday Morning Report
|
Internal
The Executive Committee of the Austin-San Antonio Corridor Council is scheduled to meet at 2:00 pm this Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008, at the Council offices in San Marcos, 304 C.M. Allen Parkway.
The Economic Development Committee‘s tour of the Central Texas Technology Center, (CTTC) and Airport in New Braunfels is scheduled for Wednesday, February 27th. Please RSVP to jeffwebb@thecorridor.org or call 512-558-7360 for more information.
The next meeting of the Austin-San Antonio Commuter Rail District Board will be held in San Antonio in the Alamo Area Council of Governments conference room on March 7, 8700 Tesoro St, at 10:00 am.
Infrastructure
The Federal Government Accountability Office has issued a report discussing methods for safeguarding the public interest in public-private toll projects but stops short of making direct recommendations to guide lawmakers and transportation officials. The report also found:
It's likely fees on private tollways will rise faster than public tollways;
Decent competing roads can provide price-gouging protection;
Privatized highways can cost more than public projects;
The public gives up some control in privatization deals, such as setting toll rates. Pat Driscoll's blog has some additional insights here; The entire report can be downloaded here.
Now you know it's serious: TxDOT has informed Dallas officials that they will no longer pay to maintain the leafy medians and planter boxes that once lined parts of Central Expressway, saying that the agency never agreed to a permanent plan to maintain the vegetation. Unless the city comes up with some money next year, plants will be pulled from the rest of the medians that line the walls of the highway. The city's options include: TxDOT will fill the medians with concrete for free; for $750,000 a year, TxDOT will maintain the medians as they were; or for $375,000 a year, the state will replace the landscaping with native grasses.
The Texas Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security, the setting for real fireworks over TxDOT funding issues earlier this month, will meet again on Tuesday, August 12, 2008, in Irving at the Omni Mandalay Hotel. The Committee hearing will begin at 8:00 am and hear testimony on the Implementation of legislation and related issues.
Economic Development
Kerrville and Kerr County are looking for ways to create economic development incentives such as tax abatements and workforce training to spur business growth. Officials there formed an Economic Development Incentive Committee, which will draft development proposals. Kerrville currently lacks incentives such as those used by other communities to attract new business and industry.
Owens Corning manufacturing plant in New Braunfels plans to close its manufacturing plant this summer, with a loss of 120 jobs. Employees were notified last Wednesday. Owens Corning produces insulation, roofing, manufactured stone veneer, asphalt products and glass composite materials. It has operations in 30 countries and reported sales of $6.5 billion in 2006.
“A technology for solving the physical problems had been perfected, but not the methods and machinery for the creation of large-scale urban public works in a democratic society; the American system of government almost seemed designed to make such creation as difficult as possible."
- Robert Caro, The Power Broker