Washington, DC (Wednesday, November 14, 2007) Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson today called on President Bush to make the enactment of the 2008 Transportation, HUD appropriations bill, a top priority before Congress adjourns this year.

Congresswoman Johnson successfully secured $86,250,000 for Dallas Area Rapid Transit's new Green Line, currently under construction. Congresswoman Johnson also secured $250,000 for the Martin Luther King Family Center in Dallas.

The Administration said today that the President intends to veto the bill.

"The Transportation and Housing conference report addresses the important challenges of community development and keeping our transportation system safe and strong, and does so in a way that strengthens the economy and is environmentally responsible," stated Congresswoman Johnson. The Transportation and Housing Conference Report provides approximately $70 billion in federal funds for vital community development projects, highway, transit and other critical infrastructure programs throughout the country.

"Contrary to President Bush’s stance, our country cannot continue to put an arbitrary cost ceiling on investment in our public works. Simply put, this legislation is about meeting our commitments to the nation on protecting lives and livelihoods through bolstering our crumbling infrastructure."

Specifically, the conference report invests:  

·  Community Development Block Grants: $3.79 billion, $100 million above 2007, rejecting the President’s plan to cut the program by $822 million, to fund community and economic development projects in 1,180 localities. This level is still $400 million below 2001.  

·  $40 billion in the nation’s highway system for construction of new roads, repairs and improvements;  

·  $1 billion to address deficient bridges across America – accepting Senator Patty Murray’s amendment for a 25 percent boost to bridge funding – following the 1-35 collapse;  

·  Sufficient funds to renew all current housing vouchers, and provides 15,500 new vouchers for veterans, the disabled, and low income families;  

·  A 500 % increase in funds to alleviate problems caused by the sub-prime mortgage crisis by providing housing counseling to help homeowners stay in their homes;  

·  $3.5 billion for airport efficiency, modernization and safety grants;  

·  $1.45 billion for Amtrak;  

·  $110 million to provide access to air travel in rural communities; and  

·  Over $85 million to improve pipeline and rail safety.  

The House will soon vote on an override of the President’s cruel veto. 

Unfortunately I don’t have the opportunity to link to this story from the dallasblog.com right now, but I’ve gotten a number of e-mails regarding my “Vote No” post last week. Here’s the post and I’ll clean it up and give the proper credit later.

From DallasBlog.com

Texas Transportation Chairman Ric Williamson agreed there would be delays, but he said he can’t imagine a scenario where Project Pegasus would be scrapped, according to KERA. Project Pegasus is TxDOT’s plan to improve the Canyon/Mixmaster.
“If the toll road as envisioned now is radically changed, Project Pegasus will have to be redesigned. I’m not taking a position; it’s just a logical conclusion,” Williamson said. “Project Pegasus is so important to the clean air plan and congestion relief for North Texas. I can’t imagine a circumstance where it wouldn’t be redesigned and moved forward. It’s just that important.”

The Vote No! campaign and Michael Morris of the North Central Texas Council of Governments have continued to scare voters into believing that Project Pegasus depends on a reliever route. In fact, Morris’s 10 reasons to build the Trinity Parkway was published in The DMN and no. 5 says “creates opportunity to rebuild Canyon/Mixmaster.”

This is taken from the story’s intro.

Michael Morris, NCTCOG’s director of transportation, says that nearly $5 billion of needed transportation projects would be in jeopardy if voters pulled the plug on the Trinity Parkway. Without the planned toll road, improvements to roads such as Interstates 35E and 30 and U.S. Highways 67 and 175 cannot be made.

So you can choose to believe Morris, who has been giving presentations with the Vote No! campaign to help convince voters that voting yes will kill other needed transportation projects in Dallas, or you can believe Ric Williamson, who hasn’t inserted himself into this campaign and is the top transportation official in the state.

I have tell you, I had written an entire post titled "I'm voting Yes," with all these reasons why.  Many of them were in line with facts detailed by Renee at Blue Island.  

The Vote "No" people have not been straight with the citizens of Dallas in their reasoning.  They have used hot button issues to tug at emotions.  And I have been reluctant to align myself with the crew that has been assembled in the 'No' camp. 

But my No vote is based on a paragraph and a half that I read in the Dallas Morning News on August 15.  When I ran back across it in my research, it was just too much for me to ignore.

For a decade, TxDOT has crafted a two-pronged approach to unsnarling traffic through this critical spaghetti bowl of highways. Project Pegasus includes the redesign and reconstruction of the downtown interchange. And the Trinity Parkway provides congestion relief by carrying 90,000 to 100,000 vehicles per day.

This information came from Tim Nesbitt, Texas Department of Transportation project manager.  The downtown interchanges are embarrassing.  Project Pegasus should have happened long ago if Dallas' leaders had any vision.  

I will reluctantly vote "No."  I don't want their tollway in our park, but we can't go back to the drawing board. Our park may suffer for their lack of foresight, but now we have to look towards the future.