Koch Brothers Quietly Seek To Ban New Mass Transit In Tennessee

[MrScorpio]

BY KATIE VALENTINE ON APRIL 1, 2014 AT 10:47 AM

The Tennessee Senate passed a bill last week that, if approved, would broadly ban mass transit projects in the region, an anti-transit effort that’s gotten some help in the state from Charles and David Koch.

On Thursday, the Tennessee Senate passed SB 2243, which includes an amendment that “prohibits metropolitan governments and any transit authorities created by a metropolitan government from constructing, maintaining or operating any bus rapid transit system using a separate lane, or other separate right-of-way, dedicated solely to the use of such bus rapid transit system on any state highway or state highway.” The amendment is aimed at Nashville’s proposed $174 million rapid bus system called the Amp, but would apply to any mass transit system proposed in Tennessee’s cities.

The Amp, a proposed 7.1-mile bus rapid transit system that would cut commute times along one of Nashville’s major corridors, has been staunchly opposed by the Tennessee branch of Americans for Prosperity, a lobbying organization founded in part by the Koch brothers. AFP’s Tennessee director told the Tennessean that SB 2243 was the result of a conversation he’d had with the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Jim Tracy. In addition, AFP pushed the Senate to vote on the bill — efforts that led to StopAmp.org, one of the lead groups opposing the Amp, thanking AFP in a press release after SB 2243 passed the Senate. The transit system’s opponents say it would create traffic problems and safety issues due to its middle-lane location, a claim that a spokesman for the Amp Coalition disputes.

Holly McCall, Nashville’s Metropolitan Transit Authority’s spokesperson for the Amp project, told ThinkProgress AFP has kept a low profile throughout the campaign for and against the Amp. She said she’d suspected AFP was involved in the Amp’s opposition, but didn’t know for sure until StopAmp.org thanked the group in their press release.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/04/01/3421088/koch-brothers-tennessee/

[Warpy]

1. Thus demonstrating their uttter brainlessness and disqualify them from running anything

An astute billionaire would realize that's the wave of the future and seek to create and control it.

Not these guys, they are living in an imagined past of oil running everything and refuse to look at the way the country and the world are changing.

They're getting on in years and will die soon, although not soon enough. One hopes their heirs have been able to go outside the hermetically sealed billionaire bubble long enough to notice the real potential out there for surpassing the old farts' limited vision and creating the next infrastructure.

[elleng]

5. DEFINITELY not soon enough.

[Brigid]

8. One problem, though:

Don't they have spawn?

[AverageJoe90]

2. Now *this* really is a violation of freedom!

But you won't hear FOX News talk about this, will you?.......

[kelliekat44]

3. Is it because jobs for the working poor might be created? nt

[NYC_SKP]

7. They want growth, and sprawl, and waste; not high density, socialized efficient transportation.

They are fossil fuel pro-growth pro-waste developers who hate progress.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

4. Is there no law or no way we can find to justify hunting these two fuckers down and

holding them as subversives attempting to undermine our democracy?

[spanone]

6. Koch brothers group works to stop Nashville Amp

The movement to stop a Nashville mass transit plan has gotten an extra boost of horsepower from an unexpected source: the Koch brothers, out-of-state billionaires with a knack for riling America's liberal masses.

The Tennessee office of Americans for Prosperity, a lobbying organization founded and funded by Charles and David Koch, played a big role in passage of state Senate legislation that would stop the $174 million bus rapid transit project known as the Amp. The bill, which is different from the House's version, would make it illegal for buses to pick up or drop off passengers in the center lane of a state road.

StopAmp.org Inc., the leading opposition group, thanked AFP in a news release Thursday, and Andrew Ogles, AFP's state director, said that the group didn't back the effort financially but that the bill grew out of a conversation he had had with Sen. Jim Tracy, the sponsor.

Charles and David Koch live in Kansas and New York, respectively. Their interest in a Nashville transit project doesn't sit well with its supporters.

more at:

http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2014/03/31/koch-brothers-group-works-stop-nashville-amp/7100469/

[blkmusclmachine]

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