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Vince May: Austin Project Connect
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Jun 5, 2025
Report to the 7/28/14 meeting of Texans for Accountable Government at Sherlock's in Austin, Texas, of the TAG Transportation Committee.
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hiring so I'm gonna let give the
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transportation committee tags
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Transportation committee the floor
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hi um Ed gave us a very good
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tips about Project Connect
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um it's way over budget for one thing
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they're going to roll
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uh the rail Bonds in with
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Road bonds and they're going to be Bonds
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in there that are going to pay for toll
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roads in other words they'll use a tax
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May pay or money to pay for these toll
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roads
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and um
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there there is some opposition to this
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if it doesn't pass this time they're
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going to try to get it to pass next time
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so this is going to be a long battle
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there's a city council meeting Thursday
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August and 7th and they're going to work
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on the working
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for this project connect we should go
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and have some people show up and maybe
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if we can find a good speaker here then
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can try to speak to the city council
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that would be great Ed if you could do
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that that would be wonderful
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but um I'm going to turn this over to
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Vince May he's going to give us more
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information on it you will see brochures
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that I put out at all the tables uh
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breaking down the cost of this
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so here we go all right Vince May thanks
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Mary
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um
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there's another important reason that uh
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the city council should not vote to put
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this on the ballot can you speak a
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little bit louder
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and the reason that the city the other
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reason that the city council should not
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put this on the ballot is because this
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train project is one small part of
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Project Connect
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Project Connect is big they want to take
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two-thirds of all of our transportation
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money and pour it into Project Connect
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and they say that the different parts of
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the Project Connect are all dependent on
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each other so if we pass this uh if they
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put this on the ballot and it passes
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that's presuming that you want all the
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other parts of Project Connect
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let me point to one of them that road
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out there is Burnet Road
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I've got a Campo document that says they
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want to reduce that to two layers wide
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and convert the other two lanes into a
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bus Rapid Transit uh Lanes
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they want to do this and they want to do
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that from the domain
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all the way down burn it and under Lamar
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and down South Lamar to Westgate
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Boulevard that's on the that's on the
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Campo plan so if you want the train if
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you want to reduce that road capacity by
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50 same thing is true in South Congress
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and North Lamar
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and
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they did have uh Martin Luther King from
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State Highway 130 to North Lamar this is
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part of Project Connect and these
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projects don't necessarily have to come
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up for a vote
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so if this item the preferred local
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alternative train the Highland Mall
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project gets on the ballot and passes
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people are in essence approving all of
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these other projects
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so on August 7th I think Mary you were
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wrong that's when they're going to vote
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to put this on the ballot
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it's not a work session okay okay and I
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would like to see tag people show up and
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oppose that on August 7th at the city
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council meeting
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uh really we need to have a tank again
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oh it's August 7th the uh Thursday
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regularly scheduled city council meeting
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and I live in Elgin
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so if I show up you know they're going
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to wonder if people could righteously
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say well why is your important you know
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uh your opinion important to us where
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this is Austin
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so we should have people from the city
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of Austin and we should have people who
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can speak better than I do so Vince last
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time I
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budgetary travesty uh almost everybody
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raised their hand so who is going to
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show up on August 7th
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okay so at the end towards the end of
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this meeting we're going to break out
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into our transportation committee micro
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group and I I would like the people that
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raise their hands and people that are
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interested to be here so that we can
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organize and get there we have to get
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organized and action has to happen in
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between tag meetings
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well I'll just tell you a couple other
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uh horror stories about Project Connect
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they want to put tolls on downtown
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streets and you already marked Cesars
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Boulevard from Mopac to Congress as
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being a toll road
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that's to earn money to pay for the
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trains
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they want to put a toll on each of the
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bridges crossing the Colorado River
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Congress South First and Lamar
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that's to convince you that you should
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and ride the bus because if you don't
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your calls are going to pay for the
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buses well I'm about finished up if
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anybody has a question
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remember we're about to convene our
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micro groups here in a few minutes if
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you want to ask a question right now
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that's great but you will get your
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question if
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one more one question
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okay let's let's just ask what time
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Thursday is it usually the morning or
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the afternoon or is it
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you just you can look on the city
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council website and see they'll give a
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number and a name for the issue that
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they're going to speak on and an
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approximate time is that right man
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uh I'm really not familiar with Austin
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city council does their business uh they
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they could it's probably going to be an
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evening thing but we will be able to
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find out when the item is posted to the
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agenda
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they're they're going to make this as
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difficult on you as possible but this is
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where your ability to communicate with
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your group Justin is going to be
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important if you want to be there when
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the issue comes up to be able to get
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electronic communications checks or
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emails or whatever
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but it's also like one of the state
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legislature you can sign in for or
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against a particular measure we'll find
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out which agenda item number it is even
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if you can only show up at some point
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during the day when we know the agenda
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item number and say I'm against it item
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you know 63 or whatever it is
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that counts
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and then the people that are actually
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there
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can get three minutes of speaking time
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no they're gonna they're gonna cut that
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off no doubt but you can you can give
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speaking time to another person so if we
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have people
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you can hear more speaking time and
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that's the effective way to get to get
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the microphone Vince May and Mary
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Anderson with the tags Transportation
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committee
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