Posted on 08/23/2006 7:43:39 AM PDT by Froufrou
One out of every eight votes in Rick Perry's margin of victory in the 2002 race for governor came from the rural counties along the Interstate 35 path of Perry's proposed Trans-Texas Corridor. Now, as he seeks re-election, Perry's long-range transportation vision is turning into a political liability for the Republican chief executive.
More than 14,000 Texans — almost all opposed to the Trans-Texas Corridor — turned out at public hearings held by the Texas Department of Transportation this summer to express their displeasure with the highway and the governor.
"I'd like to admit that I made one big mistake in my life. I voted for Rick Perry," Rogers-area farmer Leonard Cobb testified at one hearing.
All four of Perry's re-election challengers oppose the corridor. Democrat Chris Bell, independent Kinky Friedman and Libertarian James Werner all have spoken out against it. Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, running as an independent, attended many of the hearings and called the project the "Trans-Texas Catastrophe" while promising to stop Perry's "land-grabbing highway henchmen."
One of Perry's fellow Republicans on the statewide ballot — U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison — also has criticized the project, saying it imposes too heavily on rural landowners.
The Republican Party of Texas in June passed a plank in its platform calling for the repeal of legislation authorizing the Trans-Texas Corridor.
The Texas Farm Bureau — a longtime Perry political supporter — wants the state to scrap the project.
A dozen alternative routes for Trans-Texas Corridor 35 are under consideration. The toll road corridor would run parallel to Interstate 35 through rural areas from Laredo to Oklahoma, bypassing city congestion to become the new trade highway.
Many of those at the hearings referred to the top alternative on the color map of the Trans-Texas Corridor as the "blue line," a pathway of eminent domain that would take homes and farms and churches for a toll road that likely would be built by a consortium headed by a Spanish company.
Farmers claim the 600-mile-long swath will cause the condemnation of about 136 square miles of land, could divide farms and could force rural school buses to go miles out of the way to get from one side of the corridor to the other. Many local officials fear it will remove land from their local property tax base.
"This lipstick has already been put on this pig. Now the only way to stop this boondoggle is to send Rick Perry home in November," Mark Wilson testified at a Waco hearing.
Texas Transportation Chairman Ric Williamson said the corridor concept is the only feasible means of easing congestion on state highways while guaranteeing future expansion when needed.
"For every 14,000 people who congregate and protest, there are 1.4 million in downtown Dallas and Fort Worth that recognize congestion on 35 is a problem and somebody's got to do something about it," Williamson said.
Officials of the Dallas-Fort Worth area have been generally neutral on the corridor concept, but they questioned the specific plan because its route bypassed the cities and would have done little to relieve local congestion.
Perry last Friday ordered the corridor study to include an alternative route proposed by local officials.
Dallas County Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, a Republican, said he believes people in the Metroplex largely would oppose the plan because it relies heavily on tolls and has included little public input in the planning.
"I dare say, if you took a vote in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, it would be voted down," he said.
The Trans-Texas Corridor actually is a series of new transportation corridors proposed across Texas that would be financed and built by private contractors and likely paid for with tolls.
The corridors probably would be about 1,200 feet wide to accommodate separate lanes for truck traffic, passenger traffic, freight rail, commuter rail and utilities.
So far, only two projects are even remotely on the drawing board.
TTC35 would run parallel to Interstate 35. The state has contracted with a consortium led by Zachry Construction Corp. of San Antonio and Cintra of Spain to develop a master plan for the corridor. That plan is what has been the subject of public hearings and public angst this summer.
TTC69, which would run from Mexico to past Houston, is in the preliminary planning stage.
"Fourteen thousand people is a nice turnout, but the fact of the matter is we're looking for input, any better ideas," Perry said of the hearings.
Perry said the population growth in the state and traffic congestion demand additional highways and that toll roads are a good way to pay for them. He said most of his political opponents have offered no alternatives, chiding Strayhorn for supporting expensive double-decking of Interstate 35 without explaining how to pay for it.
"As the chief executive officer of the state, as a person who has laid out a vision, I think it makes sense for most communities," Perry said. "I think it makes sense to build toll roads."
But the road for Perry's election may not be that easy on this issue.
Strayhorn on Monday outlined a plan to scrap the project and improve I-35 in the existing right of way with additional lanes and double-decking in places. Perry has contended that double-decking would be prohibitively expensive, but Strayhorn said it would be more appealing to affected Texans.
"This agency is not listening to the people," Strayhorn said of the transportation hearings.
Greg Gerig, a corn farmer and a director of the Blackland Coalition opposed to the corridor, said there is a feeling that state officials have been arrogant in their reaction to the turnout at the meetings.
"Perry has in effect said, 'We don't care what people at the hearings said; we're going to build it anyway,'" Gerig said.
Perry said he believes he can persuade voters to look at his entire record.
"If it is just a single-issue person who doesn't want toll roads, I'll do everything I can to explain to him why it is good, thoughtful public policy for the entire state of Texas."
The corridor would move up from the third-world straight into the USA's heartland. The purpose is to ease the transportation of goods up from, and in to, Mexico and South America (CAFTA).
The corridor will provide a wide open avenue for transporting a LOT more than Mexican produce...It should not be built.
Hydro, here is some info about Kinky Friedman (formerly of Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jew-boys)
Q: Are our border problems important to Kinky?
A: Extremely. Kinky believes the border issue is one of the biggest problems facing Texas today, and it can no longer be ignored. Texas policy under Governor Rick Perry has been "give us your tired, your weak, your poor, your criminals, your drug dealers and your terrorists—welcome to Texas".
If elected, Kinky would meet with Governors Bill Richardson (New Mexico) and Janet Napolitano (Arizona) to develop a coordinated border state plan to supplement federal efforts at stemming the tide of illegal immigration. To date, Governor Perry, a Republican, has not met with Democrats Richardson or Napolitano.
Q: How would Kinky improve the education system?
A: Kinky proposes several options that, if implemented, would bring new money into the education budget and improve the state of education in Texas:
Legalizing casino gambling ("Slots for Tots") to bring in billions per year,
Closing corporate loopholes so that the 10,000 Texas businesses that are not currently paying taxes will be charged,
Increasing teacher salaries—currently $6,000 below the national average,
Establishing a Trust for Texas Heroes program to increase the salaries of teachers, cops, and firefighters through a 1 percent tax on oil and gas produced in Texas
Outsourcing sports funding to sports companies/retailers, and
Stopping the practice of "teaching to the test." The TAKS shouldn't be the sole focus of education in Texas.
Q: What's Kinky's feeling on gun control?
A: The second amendment is every bit as important as the others. Texans have the right to keep and bear arms, as well as to hunt.
Q: How does Kinky feel about Trans-Texas Corridor (and toll roads in general)?
A: Kinky is opposed the Trans-Texas Corridor since it relies on toll road construction. He feels that the TTC is a land grab of the ugliest kind, with land being taken from hard-working ranchers and farmers in little towns and villages all over Texas. The people who will ultimately own that land are the same people who own the governor.
Q: What's Kinky's position on capital punishment?
A: Kinky is not anti-death-penalty, but he IS "anti-the-wrong-guy-getting-executed." Texas needs to take a serious look at the way it implements capital punishment—no one in this state wants the blood of innocent people on their hands.
Q: How does Kinky feel about abortion?
A: Kinky believes in a woman's right to choose.
Q: What is Kinky's position on gay marriage?
A: Kinky supports gay marriage and equal rights for homosexuals. He believes that the constitution protects everyone. As he says, "I believe love is bigger than government. And besides, they have a right to be as miserable as the rest of us."
Q: What is Kinky's position on school prayer?
A: Kinky favors optional, non-denominational prayer in school. He believes there's nothing wrong with children believing in something even if it's a rock or a tree.
Q: What is Kinky's position on the National Animal Identification System (NAIS)?
A: Though many livestock owners agree with the idea of a national tracking system, Kinky believes the proposed system places too much of the burden on the animal agricultural community and should not be mandatory.
Q: What is Kinky's position on stem cell research?
A: Kinky favors both state and federal funding of stem cell research.
What do you like about them?
We don't need no stinkin' road to Mexico.
Loyalty can evidently be as tough as eating crow...
What is wrong with you Texans???? GW promised Vincente!!! Now, move out of the way --- here comes the dozers.[/s]
As to the claim that "Perry isn't listening to the people" because many of the 14,000 who showed up at the nearly 100 meetings (I thought the claim was that this was a secret project?) were opposed to this plan, a few months ago I saw several hundred thousand march in Dallas and elsewhere over several days in favor of illegal aliens, amnesty, and skipping school. Nowhere near as many showed up at counter-rallies, what was the largest group, a few hundred? Should Perry thus "Listen to the people" and push for amnesty, or is your logic inconsistent?
Of course the truth is that very few go out of their way to attend a meeting in favor of something, unless they think it is threatened. Most of the people who show up are anti whatever it is being discussed. Nonetheless, if the TTC-35 proposal is so unpopular and we assume that those who show up are indeed representative (which is NEVER the case), where are the polls demonstrating such? The media is almost united against Perry because he is a Republican, and they've never hesitated in the past to do polls on issues if they go against the GOP position.
Actually part of the theory of NAFTA is that by creating more jobs and thus more middle income in Mexico, it will reduce the number of illegal immigrants coming to the US for jobs and a higher standard of living. Free trade brings lower costs for goods, leaving more leftover money for a person to spend on other things (imported goods that produce importing, distribution, retailing, and finance jobs, domestic goods, and domestic services) and thus stimulating our economy.
So if we shut down free trade and job growth and income growth slows in Mexico, odds are that more of them are going to attempt to come north.
Amnesty, OTOH, is about bringing more workers to the US to provide cheaper labor for domestic firms. NAFTA and amnesty are really different topics.
Just to be clear, are there any Republicans running this year that you can name and go on record as supporting in this election?
I agree that we need a strong fence (like the Minuteman design, not just some bollards), but that is a separate project that can be done concurrently with the TTC-35.
Since the first section of the TTC to open will be from San Antonio to Dallas in 2015, and there are no plans to build the Laredo-San Antonio portion until after 2025, why do so many call it a road to Mexico that is just about smuggling in illegal aliens and terrorists? If it isn't going to Mexico, how is it a road to Mexico? Can you at least support this road from San Antonio-Dallas?
Gibbs
Hutchinson
Dan Patrick
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
Thanks for the ping.
Why can't the health "clinicas" be run by local government or charities. I would support that.
Hasn't Mexican job growth been stagnant over at least the past few years? My impression is that the NAFTA benefits don't really seem to be trickling down to the Mexican people.
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