Unaccountable toll tax loving Senator Steve Ogden, the Senate Finance Chairman, proposed a radical plan to intermingle state pension funds and toll roads today. Ogden supports creating more levels of bureaucratic government for our tax dollars to get lost in...
First, Ogden's historical love affair with unaccountable toll taxes goes way back.
Sen. Ogden was a Co-sponsor of Krusee's HB 3588 (which made it legal to steal our roads and land - freeway tolls/TTC). Ogden is also a former CAMPO board member who voted to divert our tax dollars to shift our Austin freeways to tollways in 2004 and 2005.
From QuorumReport.com today:
"PLANS TO OPEN TOLL ROAD INVESTMENTS TO STATE PENSION FUNDS GET PUSH IN SENATE FINANCE
Chairman Steve Ogden said using pension funds to invest in Texas roads a win-win but other Senators sound cautionary notes; Senators also cautioned that funds' focus on high rates of return need to be balanced with risk management.
A joint Senate panel tossed around today a novel way of paying for more roads – getting pension funds to invest in new projects. And to give the discussion an added twist, Senators were also asked to consider creating a new quasi-public entity that would funnel pension fund money from Texas and elsewhere into new road projects."
And from Sen. Odgen's Op-Ed in the Austin American Statesman today:
"...I want to explore the possibility of investing a portion of our state's trust funds (i.e., Employees Retirement System, Teachers Retirement System, Permanent School Fund, Permanent University Fund) in TxDOT toll projects."
Get more dirt on Texas crooks HERE at my daily Texas Muckraker blog.