The Clean Air Coalition has declared 2009 the year of “The Big Push” during the upcoming ozone season running from April 1st to October 31st, to reduce ozone formation by better control of air emission sources. Through concerted effort, Central Texas partners can prevent air quality conditions that would require the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to decide in 2010 that the air quality is insufficiently protective of human health (non-attainment status). The air pollution sources that are most important to address with the Big Push include voluntary reduction of vehicle emissions, changes in operations by businesses/government, and changes in personal and household behavior.

The consequences of dirty air affect our health and our economy. Health concerns due to high ozone include:

•    Shortness of breath
•    Coughing
•    Headaches
•    Nausea
•    Throat and lung irritation
•    Increased asthma attacks

High ozone is linked with increases in hospital admissions and school absences. Sensitive groups to ozone include children, the elderly, people with lung disease, and adults who are active in outdoor pursuits. In addition, high ozone levels affect vegetation by resulting in reduced crop yields, reduced survival of tree seedlings, and increased susceptibility of plants to disease and pests. Economic costs associated with high levels of ozone include increased health care, decreased property values, and diminished quality of life. Reducing air pollution is costly too in terms of planning, implementation and enforcement of air pollution control strategies.

As a member of the Clean Air Coalition, Travis County is implementing internal procedures to address high levels of ozone including:

•    Restrict county operations on Ozone Watch Days;
•    Institute a special Ozone Watch Day teleworking schedule;
•    Educate county employees on commuting options; and
•    Expand communications to Travis County citizens and county employees.

Travis County is encouraging other Clean Air Coalition members as well as major employers to join the effort.

What you can do:

IN THE CAR
•    Limit driving and delay errands. For short trips consider riding a bicycle or walking. Other options include carpooling, vanpooling, working at home, and teleconferencing.
•    Ride the bus. Plan your trip online.
•    Don’t let engines idle unnecessarily. When you can, avoid drive-thru services.
•    Minimize “cold starts” by combining trips. Emission levels are highest when vehicles are first started.
•    Postpone refueling your car until after 6:00 p.m. on hot, sunny days. This reduces the time that escaping fumes have to “cook” during the heat of the day and form ozone.
•    Maintain your vehicle for fuel efficiency. Maintain recommended tire pressure, replace air filters, keep the engine tuned up, and change the oil regularly for peak gas mileage.
•    Don’t overfill or “top off” the gas tank. The refueling process releases ozone-producing fumes. Check to see that the gas cap fits tightly.
•    Be sure that gasoline engines (including boats and mowers) are properly tuned and maintained. Ask that the catalytic converter on your vehicle be inspected for proper function.
•    Avoid traffic congestion. Whenever possible, drive during off-peak hours.
•    Avoid driving for your lunch break. Take a lunch to work or walk to lunch.

IN THE HOME
•    Apply paint with rollers and brushes (instead of sprays) to cut down on fumes.
•    Use latex paints rather than oil-based paints to cut back on ozone-forming fumes.
•    Compost yard waste (instead of burning it) to reduce air pollution.
•    Use an electric or push mower instead of a gasoline-powered mower. A typical gasoline-powered lawn mower generates as much air pollution per hour as 11 cars.
•    Ensure that when you dispose of a gasoline-powered mower that it is destroyed and unusable. Otherwise, it could be resold and it remains a pollutant source.
•    Use rakes, hand edgers, or brooms or other non-gasoline-powered equipment for other yard chores.
•    Conserve energy. Burning fossil fuels in the production of electricity is a source of pollution contributing to ozone formation.
•    Insulate and weather-strip your home.
•    Adjust thermostats to reduce electric consumption.
•    Run dishwashers and washing machines only with a full load.
•    Conserving water also conserves energy—it takes electricity to treat and deliver drinking water.

The following chart illustrates how our region is better off than our state and our country in most metrics of economic health.

This is not to say there aren’t folks in our community that were hurting before the downturn and even more folks who are hurting now.

For long-term economic health we as a people must invest in education and healthcare. While our school districts and our healthcare district and its partners do what they can with inadequate public funding, these issues largely require action at the state and federal level.

In the short term, local government has a role to play in lessening the impact and duration of the downturn. In addition to supporting our school districts and our healthcare networks, county government can:

•    Keep taxes as low as possible;
•    Provide good and necessary jobs in county government;
•    Accelerate needed county capital improvement projects and road projects to inject additional work into the construction industry;
•    Provide workforce training and placement for those in need of work;
•    Provide rent and utility assistance to those who are struggling;
•    Provide foreclosure prevention counseling to those in fear of losing their homes;
•    Provide down payment assistance and lease-to-own opportunities for qualified home buyers; and
•    Target specific industries as a bulwark against economic uncertainty.

I hope that the first seven bullets above are not controversial. I expect and welcome controversy on the last bullet.

“Special support” is most often understood as some form of preferential tax treatment or abatement to lure a large employer to our region that would not otherwise locate here. I am not a fan of tax abatements generally for several reasons. First, the best ways for county government to attract and support businesses of any size are to keep taxes low, services high and infrastructure maintained. Second, most jobs are created by small businesses. And third, academic research over two decades indicates that, more often than not, tax abatements simply reward industry for going where the market was taking them anyway. However, I believe there is utility in offering abatements to industries providing a social benefit in a timid market, such as:

•    Encouraging businesses to locate or remain in targeted areas;
•    Innovation with a social benefit that has not yet gained sufficient market share to be cost competitive; and
•    Hiring and training of the otherwise under-skilled or under-employed.

An Economic Development Subcommittee of the commissioners court has been formed to examine all the tools for economic enrichment available to county governments. Tax incentives or abatements are among those tools along with other more traditional lures such as workforce training, robust infrastructure, public safety and the like. The members of the subcommittee are Commissioner Ron Davis, Commissioner Margaret Gomez and me.

I hope that the subcommittee will not favor an entitlement program of abatements distributed to all comers meeting a scoring matrix. My initial thoughts are to recommend a policy requiring an appropriate weighing of:

•    Desired future conditions for the community – what geographic areas of the county are most suitable for industry, what demographic populations are most in need of job training and employment, and what industries best fit these geographic circumstances and demographics?
•    Objective criteria – a scoring matrix including such elements as type of industry, numbers of jobs created, health insurance coverage provided, cost of utility, road and other infrastructure necessary to support the proposed business, demonstrated venture capital investment, etc.; and
•    Current economic circumstances – will the impact of the tax abatement shift undue burden onto other taxpayers or will the job creation benefits outweigh the shifted burden?

What you can do:

•    Attend and testify at our Economic Development Subcommittee meetings. I will post the meeting times and places on my website at www.SarahEckhardt.com.
•    Write or call the subcommittee members with your ideas:
         Commissioner Eckhardt – 854-9222, sarah.eckhardt@co.travis.tx.us
         Commissioner Gomez – 854-9444, margaret.gomez@co.travis.tx.us
         Commissioner Davis – 854-9111, ron.davis@co.travis.tx.us
•    Join the policy debate within other local governmental entities through attending public meetings, writing Letters to the Editor and talking to your neighbors and colleagues.

EK ♥    Wednesday, July 15th, from 8 am to 9:30 am @ North Rural Community Center (Activities Center), 15822 Foothill Farm Loop, Pflugerville, TX 78660
EK ♥    Wednesday, August 19th, from 8 am to 9:30 am @ our office, 314 West 11th Street, Room 500, Austin, TX 78701

Coffee Jolts are held monthly on the third Wednesday in coffee shops and hosted locations in Travis County Precinct 2. Please note that dates and times are subject to change.

The first of the toll roads formerly known as Phase II is 290E, also known as the Manor Expressway.  Because the project cannot stand on its own merits from a financing perspective the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA) is proposing to “backstop” the debt financing of 290E with toll revenue from 183A through the creation of a “system.”  In this system comprised of 290E and 183A, toll revenue and resultant debt capacity/obligation for both roads would be commingled and belong to the system, not to the transportation shed in which the user fees were collected.  This diversion of revenue is exactly the circumstance the covenants were designed to address. 

Under this circumstance the public comment provisions in the covenants should kick in.  But, they haven’t.  The covenants require that a Statement of Purpose be developed by the CAMPO Policy Board and that public hearings be held both region-wide and within the donor corridor.  Instead, the acting chair of CAMPO without consultation with the CAMPO Policy Board has declared a Statement of Purpose and an alternate public comment plan.  

The covenants were passed at a time when the reputation and credibility of CAMPO were at an all time low.  The public felt that CAMPO withheld information, stifled public input and that decisions were made out of the public eye or with insufficient information.  The public comment provisions of the covenants were meant to turn the page on that era.  While public meetings take time, money and can become contentious, there was an understanding that citizen participation leads to better government decisions.  That unanimous commitment to a fair and open process has been ignored in favor of the acting chair’s alternative.
In addition to the public comment provisions, the covenants require a two-thirds vote of the CAMPO Policy Board to divert toll revenue from one toll project to another outside the transportation corridor.  I will not be among that two-thirds majority.  The roads in this proposed system are 14 miles apart.  The commuters in these two corridors have no significant overlap.  One argument made by toll road supporters is that tolls are not really taxes, they are user fees paid by those who use the specific roads.  If one believes this argument (I don’t), then why should we create a system where the tolls paid by a driver in northwest Travis County are used to finance a road 14 miles away in eastern Travis County?  

We need a comprehensive and integrated regional transportation system including not just roads, but also rail, rapid bus and HOV.  We need a broad-based revenue stream as the primary source of funding for that system.  The CTRMA has the statutory authority to build that system.  But, the organization has no reliable and broad-based revenue stream to create the true “system financing” it begs for.  Without that broad-based revenue stream its credit worthiness is stymied and it must continue to borrow from toll payers over here to benefit toll payers over there.  To keep this carrousel of toll backed debt spinning the CTRMA concentrates on toll roads to the exclusion of any other mode of transportation even when there is excess revenue in a tolled corridor in which rail, rapid bus and HOV are lacking.  The broad-based revenue stream needed by the CTRMA to create a true system has been and should continue to be the gas tax.