Posted on 02/04/2006 2:25:04 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Despite ardent opposition to Gov. Rick Perry's Trans Texas Corridor transportation plan, the political arm of the Texas Farm Bureau has decided to endorse Perry's bid for re-election.
"It's not just about the corridor. We will continue to oppose it, and will kill it if we can," farm bureau spokesman Gene Hall said Friday. "(But) the farm bureau is not a single-issue organization."
Perry, the son of West Texas tenant farmers, has worked well with the farm bureau on other issues such as water rights and the government seizure of private property known as eminent domain, Hall said.
Officially, the endorsement comes from the Texas Farm Bureau Friends of Agriculture Fund, the bureau's political action committee, which can donate money to a campaign. Hall said a donation would be made to Perry's campaign but declined to say how much, noting that such information will later be available to the public.
"There's a lot that happens (at the state Capitol) and we have a stake in most of it," Hall said. "We covet our seat at the table."
The Trans Texas Corridor is Perry's sweeping $184 billion vision of thousands of miles of highways, railways and utilities crisscrossing the state.
Perry has said the corridor project, a 50-year project that hinges on the development of new toll roads, is necessary for Texas to meet its transportation needs of the future. Spanish consortium Cintra-Zachary is already developing a plan for the first phase, a 600-mile traffic and trade route from Oklahoma to Mexico to run parallel to Interstate 35.
Farmers and environmentalists worry that landowners and small towns will pay the greatest cost. The Texas Farm Bureau had resisted the corridor project because of worries that farmers could be forced to give up land without adequate compensation.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
By Dan Genz Tribune-Herald staff writer
Friday, February 03, 2006
The first leg of the massive Trans-Texas Corridor may lack a staple of most modern highways, if some members of a citizens advisory committee are able to convince the state to ban billboards along the route.
“This road could go through some of the prettiest rural areas of our state and there are some of us who believe it is important to protect the scenic views,” committee member Sandy Greyson said.
The 1,200-foot-wide proposed tollway, railroad and utility network will take travelers and freight between San Antonio and Dallas-Fort Worth. The 24-person advisory committee is debating how roadside advertising should work as it waits for an anticipated update on where the road will be built.
Greyson, a former Dallas city council member, said the corridor would be more attractive and lucrative for the state if it banned billboards and provided only blue and brown highway attraction signs sanctioned by the state.
Advertisers pay the state for a spot on those signs, while they pay billboard operators and owners for the much larger signs. For the Trans-Texas Corridor, the road's builder, Cintra Zachry LP, is expected to have the rights to billboards along the route.
Waco area committee member Roy Walthall, a professor of political science at McLennan Community College, said the suggestion received close to unanimous support during its meeting last week in Austin and is worth considering, but he warned that it could make the deal less appealing to Cintra Zachry, who could lose millions.
One opponent of the proposal cautioned that it could hurt hotels, gas stations and restaurants that rely on billboards, as well as travelers trying to get acquainted with the new road.
“Billboards are very informative, if used correctly. They're not just these ugly things in the sky,” said Mat Naegele, a vice president and general manager of Lamar Outdoor Advertising, the largest operator of billboards in Central Texas.
“If you get out in the country – which is where they're building this thing – would you know where to stay, where to get gas, where to eat?” Naegele said.
If travel-related business owners thought the state's blue signs, which advertise lodging, gas and food options at exits along interstates, were sufficient, Naegele said, “I wouldn't have a business.”
Greyson said the state sign system could be expanded to provide a better platform for businesses and better notice to tourists.
The committee has not formally recommended the idea, but may make that action or ask for further study at its next meeting, Feb. 24, Walthall said.
Gov. Rick Perry created the panel last year so its members could provide input on issues related to transportation, his spokeswoman Rachael Novier said.
“There is some precedent for this sort of thing,” she said, citing a no-billboards clause in the construction of Texas Highway 130 in the Austin area.
The Texas Department of Transportation will soon announce a 10-mile-wide study area for the highway, but is waiting for environmental approval of that broad route.
The corridor, which could begin construction in 2010, is expected to run through McLennan County.
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
First they said they'd start turning dirt for TTC-35 in 2007, then it bacame 2009, now it's 2010. I wonder if I'll be retired by the time they start actually building the thing, if it doesn't get torpedoed? (My desired retirement date is 2037 in order to max my SS income.)
Well, they got one thing right...
Oh...and thanks for the ping, TSR!
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahaha
funniest thing I've read all week!
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahaha
ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha*cough*hahahaha
ahhaahhaha*gasp*hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahaaha*thunk*(Z falls out of his chair)hahahahahahahaha
You think SS will pay you more than a pittance in 2037? If so I want to talk to you about investing in bridges.
Believe you me, I've already thought ahead. 10 percent of my income is going into a 401(k), and some more is going into a Roth IRA. I will not be caught flat-footed when SS goes under (estimated to be 2042, IIRC). I will, however, have about 5 years to enjoy maxi-SS benefits from retiring at age 70, in order to get some of what was stolen from my paycheck, and squandered, back.
So, laugh it up. You and I will retire comfortably while the SS socialists will be wringing their hands going "What're we gonna do???"
:-)
You and I will retire comfortably while the SS socialists will be wringing their hands going "What're we gonna do???"
I fully expect that the moochers will try to take what we have by government force. Of course, by then, I figure I'll have very little to lose, so it might not be extremely pretty.
Thanks for the ping!
"The first leg of the massive Trans-Texas Corridor may lack a staple of most modern highways, if some members of a citizens advisory committee are able to convince the state to ban billboards along the route"
Well...they better ask Governor Perry what he wants FIRST!!I dare the people of Texas to get ANY ideas such as that before consulting HIM first.Whew!!!...the audacity of people nowadays!
"... We will continue to oppose it [TTC], and will kill it if we can..."
The Texas Farm Bureau will not oppose the corridor...for heaven's sake!!They're already gonna support the man that's said he's gonna take the farm & ranch land from the legal owners.Why would they "oppose it?"They'll all piss on their leg and tell 'em it's raining---and they believe it.
BTTT
You're welcome. :-)
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