live_tv
Livestream Starting Soon
00
Hours
:
00
Minutes
:
00
Seconds
Up next in 10
Report to the 7/28/14 meeting of Texans for Accountable Government at Sherlock's in Austin, Texas, of the TAG Transportation Committee.
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
hiring so I'm gonna let give the
0:02
transportation committee tags
0:04
Transportation committee the floor
0:07
hi um Ed gave us a very good
0:11
tips about Project Connect
0:14
um it's way over budget for one thing
0:16
they're going to roll
0:19
uh the rail Bonds in with
0:22
Road bonds and they're going to be Bonds
0:25
in there that are going to pay for toll
0:27
roads in other words they'll use a tax
0:29
May pay or money to pay for these toll
0:31
roads
0:33
and um
0:36
there there is some opposition to this
0:39
if it doesn't pass this time they're
0:42
going to try to get it to pass next time
0:44
so this is going to be a long battle
0:47
there's a city council meeting Thursday
0:49
August and 7th and they're going to work
0:52
on the working
0:54
for this project connect we should go
0:57
and have some people show up and maybe
1:00
if we can find a good speaker here then
1:03
can try to speak to the city council
1:06
that would be great Ed if you could do
1:08
that that would be wonderful
1:10
but um I'm going to turn this over to
1:13
Vince May he's going to give us more
1:15
information on it you will see brochures
1:18
that I put out at all the tables uh
1:21
breaking down the cost of this
1:23
so here we go all right Vince May thanks
1:27
Mary
1:28
um
1:29
there's another important reason that uh
1:32
the city council should not vote to put
1:34
this on the ballot can you speak a
1:35
little bit louder
1:37
and the reason that the city the other
1:39
reason that the city council should not
1:41
put this on the ballot is because this
1:44
train project is one small part of
1:47
Project Connect
1:49
Project Connect is big they want to take
1:52
two-thirds of all of our transportation
1:54
money and pour it into Project Connect
1:57
and they say that the different parts of
1:59
the Project Connect are all dependent on
2:02
each other so if we pass this uh if they
2:05
put this on the ballot and it passes
2:07
that's presuming that you want all the
2:10
other parts of Project Connect
2:13
let me point to one of them that road
2:15
out there is Burnet Road
2:19
I've got a Campo document that says they
2:21
want to reduce that to two layers wide
2:24
and convert the other two lanes into a
2:27
bus Rapid Transit uh Lanes
2:31
they want to do this and they want to do
2:33
that from the domain
2:34
all the way down burn it and under Lamar
2:37
and down South Lamar to Westgate
2:39
Boulevard that's on the that's on the
2:42
Campo plan so if you want the train if
2:44
you want to reduce that road capacity by
2:48
50 same thing is true in South Congress
2:51
and North Lamar
2:54
and
2:55
they did have uh Martin Luther King from
2:59
State Highway 130 to North Lamar this is
3:03
part of Project Connect and these
3:06
projects don't necessarily have to come
3:08
up for a vote
3:09
so if this item the preferred local
3:13
alternative train the Highland Mall
3:16
project gets on the ballot and passes
3:19
people are in essence approving all of
3:22
these other projects
3:24
so on August 7th I think Mary you were
3:28
wrong that's when they're going to vote
3:29
to put this on the ballot
3:32
it's not a work session okay okay and I
3:34
would like to see tag people show up and
3:38
oppose that on August 7th at the city
3:41
council meeting
3:42
uh really we need to have a tank again
3:46
oh it's August 7th the uh Thursday
3:49
regularly scheduled city council meeting
3:52
and I live in Elgin
3:54
so if I show up you know they're going
3:56
to wonder if people could righteously
3:58
say well why is your important you know
4:01
uh your opinion important to us where
4:04
this is Austin
4:05
so we should have people from the city
4:07
of Austin and we should have people who
4:10
can speak better than I do so Vince last
4:12
time I
4:20
budgetary travesty uh almost everybody
4:23
raised their hand so who is going to
4:25
show up on August 7th
4:28
okay so at the end towards the end of
4:31
this meeting we're going to break out
4:32
into our transportation committee micro
4:34
group and I I would like the people that
4:36
raise their hands and people that are
4:37
interested to be here so that we can
4:39
organize and get there we have to get
4:42
organized and action has to happen in
4:45
between tag meetings
4:47
well I'll just tell you a couple other
4:49
uh horror stories about Project Connect
4:52
they want to put tolls on downtown
4:54
streets and you already marked Cesars
4:57
Boulevard from Mopac to Congress as
5:01
being a toll road
5:04
that's to earn money to pay for the
5:08
trains
5:09
they want to put a toll on each of the
5:11
bridges crossing the Colorado River
5:14
Congress South First and Lamar
5:17
that's to convince you that you should
5:21
and ride the bus because if you don't
5:23
your calls are going to pay for the
5:25
buses well I'm about finished up if
5:28
anybody has a question
5:31
remember we're about to convene our
5:32
micro groups here in a few minutes if
5:35
you want to ask a question right now
5:36
that's great but you will get your
5:38
question if
5:41
one more one question
5:44
okay let's let's just ask what time
5:46
Thursday is it usually the morning or
5:48
the afternoon or is it
5:51
you just you can look on the city
5:53
council website and see they'll give a
5:57
number and a name for the issue that
6:00
they're going to speak on and an
6:03
approximate time is that right man
6:05
uh I'm really not familiar with Austin
6:08
city council does their business uh they
6:11
they could it's probably going to be an
6:15
evening thing but we will be able to
6:16
find out when the item is posted to the
6:19
agenda
6:24
they're they're going to make this as
6:27
difficult on you as possible but this is
6:29
where your ability to communicate with
6:31
your group Justin is going to be
6:34
important if you want to be there when
6:35
the issue comes up to be able to get
6:38
electronic communications checks or
6:39
emails or whatever
6:41
but it's also like one of the state
6:43
legislature you can sign in for or
6:46
against a particular measure we'll find
6:49
out which agenda item number it is even
6:52
if you can only show up at some point
6:54
during the day when we know the agenda
6:57
item number and say I'm against it item
7:00
you know 63 or whatever it is
7:03
that counts
7:05
and then the people that are actually
7:07
there
7:09
can get three minutes of speaking time
7:11
no they're gonna they're gonna cut that
7:14
off no doubt but you can you can give
7:17
speaking time to another person so if we
7:20
have people
7:22
you can hear more speaking time and
7:23
that's the effective way to get to get
7:26
the microphone Vince May and Mary
7:28
Anderson with the tags Transportation
7:30
committee
7:31
foreign
#Urban Transit
#Legislative Branch
#Public Policy
#Local News
#Carpooling
#Traffic & Route Planners
#Transportation