They have cut the funds away from “Our Historic Railroad” built and paid for with “Our Money”. If you can get out to East Texas and ride the TSRR this summer do so. It’s a great trip and may well be our last chance until we can vote in some new more park friendly weasels down in Austin. If you are a fellow Texan or anyone who cares about this wonderful piece of history and our parks please let those responsible hear you loud and clear. http://www.texasstaterailroad.com/.
From the TSRR web Site…
The Texas State Railroad needs your help.
We are fighting two battles trying to save the TSRR.
One is the severe budget cuts to Texas Parks and Wildlife, which have drastically impacted the Texas State Railroad and the adjacent Rusk State Park. We lost a number of employees with the cutbacks, and started the 2006 season without trains running from the Palestine Depot. The TSRR was promised $500,000.00 NEW money from the Legislative Budget Board to restart Palestine trains, but that money never came and apparently is not coming. Instead, the Parks Dept is having to shuffle money around within it’s own department, and borrow $250,000.00 from the TSRR’s 2007 budget in order to run the Palestine trains. This is a deplorable way to run our state parks. We have been told that the train will become a “static display” after this year, shutting down our historic railroad, and laying off most of the staff. We cannot allow this to happen. The TSRR is vital to our economy and is the major tourist atraction in East Texas. We cannot allow our vintage rail cars to sit and rust from neglect.
We did it in December of last year. It is really nice. Made a KERA donation and the tickets were part of the package. The park is really beautiful and kept up very well.
While the TSR closing may not be the end of East Texas it IS a major source of tourist dollars in the area. It’s loss will cause a very big loss to local merchants and affect their lives. There isn’t that much to see tourist wise and do other than fishing and hunting in the area.
Nearby Lufkin has a lot of interesting things to do and they are also railroad related. The Texas Forestry Museum there has an authentic logging train, fire tower and great interior displays. It’s very informative and really a must if logging holds even a tiny interest.
Also of interest is the Lufkin Zoo. They have many native East Texas species there and also a nice, long miniature train ride around the zoo and through some great picnic areas and across a cool trestle. Not to be missed is the beautiful logging Mike #110 on the picnic grounds. Lufkin is a great place to spend most of the day before or after riding the TSR.
The TSR is a very professional operating museum with a nice long ride and it will be a terrible loss when it goes away.
And the royalties per barrel of oil payed to the State of Texas at $70.00/bbl puts exactly how much into the state treasury per hour ? ? Just how much has the state collected since oil went over $40.00 per barrel?
Not sure what you’re driving at here, but if the “royalties”, as you put it, on oil are fixed as they are with gasoline, then the State is collecting what it’s always collected. If they’re not fixed, then the State is using the increased revenues to cover increased costs, such as asphalt (derived from oil) and so on.
For every barrel of oil pumped out of Texas soil, producers must pay a certain amount of money to the State of Texas, in some areas it’s called a “royalty” this fee is determined by the state and each state is different, as the price of oil and natural gas rise, so does the percentage of revenue to the state, you can imagine the difference between a percentage on $40.00 per barrel oil and $70.00 per barrel, it’s astronomical. Alaska even pays each resident a cash bonus yearly from it’s revenues, The Province of Alberta has gained so much profit from oil it counts it’s revenue hundreds and hundreds of dollars per minute and they are about the lowest oil revenue areas. See Norways take on their oil.
Texas produces a little less than 1 Million BOPD. The average well in Texas produces 6.23 BOPD. Production has been on a continuous decline year after year since 1970. There are about 151,000 wells left in the state from a high of about 210,000 in 1985. Though new wells go on line they do not offset the decline in production. Texas has a population of better than 22,000,000 plus whatever the ill legal folks add up to. As far as astronomical amounts go I think you have a few miss conceptions about the situation. See the production tax info bellow. Bruce
Oil production tax: 4.6% (.046) of market value of oil.
Reduced Oil Production Tax Rates for Certified Exemptions: Enhanced Oil Recovery Exemption (EOR) 2.3% (.023) of market value of oil; Incremental Production Exemption 2.3% (.023) of market value of oil; Co-Production Project Exemption 2.3% (.023) of market value of oil; Texas Experimental Research and Recovery Activity (TERRA) 0.0% (.000) of market value of oil; Three Year and Two Year Inactive Well Exemptions 0.0% (.000) of market value of oil.
Regulatory Tax: 3/16 of a cent ($.001875) per barrel.
Regulatory Fee: 5/16 of a cent ($.003125) per barrel for report periods prior to September 2001. For
Seems to me most of ya’ll missed the point
You need to contact your representavie to voice your opinion on what is happening to the Texas State Railroad.
Quit arguing on how ot fund it… they are already doing that in Austin.
I wrote a letter directly to the governor and it was forwarded to the Legislature
quit bickering about oil and actually do something!
The reality os it would be a shame if any park or landmark of any historic significance were to close because they will never reopen. The city I live in learned its lesson the hard way. We had a beautiful Andrew Carnigy library perched high on a corner hill across from city hall. It was torn down when they converted the old school next to it into a courthouse. They used the library property as a parking lot! For years the library reopened in a downtown storefront. Then 10 - 15 years later the city leased and renovated an old warehouse next to where Kawasaki makes subway cars, built a nice library but it will never hold the historic significance that the old one did. Save that park!
It would be a shame for them to close that down. I remember well riding that railroad as a kid and just absolutely loved it. Was hoping to take my kid on it as well one of these summers if we ever made it back there for a summer vacation. Like was stated previously it is a great trip to take.
I road the TSRR when i was living in Texas. IT was a fun trip and it would be a shame to see it shut down. I signed the petition. I think its history is really interesting as well. Would be a shame to make that history a “static” exhibit. People learn so much more when they are immersed in history.