"Governor Perry and his friends spent a great deal of time
researching ideas to create more revenue"
— Ric Williamson, Texas Transportation Commissioner,
appointed by Rick Perry to govern TxDOT
"in your lifetime most existing roads will have tolls."
— Ric Williamson, Texas Transportation Commissioner,
appointed by Rick Perry to govern TxDOT
"Since 1997, he has received more than $1 million from highway
interests, according to reports filed with the Texas ethics commission."
– TIME magazine, "The next wave in super highways
or a Big, Fat Texas Boondoggle?" 12/04
"Governor Rick Perry received $30,000 from California based
Fluor Corp...less than a week before the corporation signed a
$1.5 Billion state contract to build Texas 130 toll road."
– Houston Chronicle, 8/02
Rick Perry's "innovative financing solution" means taking existing highway projects that are fully funded, on the verge of completion, and turning them into toll roads at the last minute. This is the "Rick Perry double tax loophole", as he say's he won't toll "existing" highways. This loophole allows him to take hundreds of Millions of dollars worth of funded public freeways across Texas, and turn them into daily tax booths. It's a double tax.
And his unelected, unaccountable freeway tolling authorities set the toll rates for what we've already paid for!
Or, in the case of the Trans Texas Corridor, Perry is taking private land away from generations of farmers and giving secret 70 year deals to a foreign corporation to profit.
Perry is a tax, toll and spend Governor who is creating brand new taxes on Texas families while his special interest friends make record profits.