By Elizabeth Pierson
The Brownsville Herald
AUSTIN – Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn on Monday criticized Republican Gov. Rick Perry’s transportation plan that includes proposals for toll roads along the Interstate 35 corridor and possibly along routes leading to the Rio Grande Valley.
Spokesmen for two of Strayhorn’s opponents said her stance is a turnaround from about five years ago when she suggested using toll roads in some cases.
Perry’s campaign spokesman said Strayhorn has no plan to pay for the urgent road needs of Texas.
If elected Strayhorn would expand I-35 along its existing corridor without using tolls, increase the use of Texas ports, encourage telecommuting and expand the rail system along existing rights of way, she said.
The announcement at Strayhorn’s campaign headquarters came on the last day the Texas Department of Transportation accepted comments on its Trans-Texas Corridor 35, which is being built and run in part by Cintra, a private company based in Spain.
If elected, she will work with legislators to repeal the laws that allowed the project. She thinks “cooler heads will prevail” in the Legislature, she said.
“If cooler heads do not prevail, I will certainly use the governor’s pen,” she said. “All of TxDOT’s funding is on the line.”
Strayhorn argues there is plenty of money to move forward with big road projects without tolls. The state transportation budget for 2005-2006 is about $15.2 billion, a 24 percent increase over the previous biennium, said Brad McClellan, her campaign manager.
But that money has already been dedicated by the Legislature to help large cities reduce congestion, said Robert Black, campaign spokesman for Perry. A current expansion project on Interstate 10 near Houston will cost $3 billion alone, he said.
“We are using every bit of existing funds we can, but there’s too many projects on the books that this state needs to build that we don’t have the money for,” Black said. “All she’s proposing is moving money around that we’re already using. Where are the new funds coming from?”
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell thinks Strayhorn is hypocritical about the toll roads because she once proposed using them in a report, said Bell’s spokesman Jason Stanford. But he agrees with Strayhorn that existing roads should not be tolled.
“There are so many ways in which Rick Perry is wrong, but in this he is so aggressively wrong,” Stanford said. “He’s talking about taking half a million acres in Texas and giving it to some conquistadors.”
The battle between landowners and the state along I-35 could foreshadow a possible fight to come in the Valley. The state is determining which of three routes will become the southern end of Trans-Texas Corridor 69.
TxDOT is proposing one or more of three routes to make an interstate: U.S. Highway 77, U.S. Highway 281 or a new route through farmland about 20 miles west of U.S. 281.
Strayhorn would endorse a new highway to the Valley only as a last resort, but prefers expanding an existing highway, McClellan said.
Perry thinks the TxDOT public comment and environmental study process will identify the best route for TTC-69, Black said.
Also running for governor are independent candidate Kinky Friedman and Libertarian James Werner.
Voters are the only way TTC-35 will be stopped
Weatherford Democrat Editorial
The Trans-Texas Corridor, at least in its current incarnation, is bad for Texas.
It costs too much. It offers the opportunity for foreign investors to have too much say in Texas’ own sovereignty. It uses taxpayer funding to help private business. And, most of all, it requires a massive land grab to make it happen.
First of all, the cost, which has been estimated as high as a quarter of a trillion dollars, is an incredible boondoggle in the making. With very little apparent citizen support, the project will effect taxpayers in the Lone Star State for longer than the road will last.
There is no doubt we need a transportation plan for now and for the future, but this one is not feasible.
Secondly, Texas should be able to find its own funding for infrastructure. If, between one of the most economically diverse states in the Union and the United States government, a transportation project can’t be funded, it should be shelved, if not discarded altogether.
Just like the majority of Texas families, the Legislature needs to be able to say, “That would be nice to have ... but we can’t afford it.”
In addition, as any borrower knows, the banker calls the shots.
If Cintra-Zachry, the Spanish company set to cash in on the TTC, fronts the money, it is because there is something in it for the company. And that something is massive profits, profits that would be better spent within our own borders.
Next, the project uses a 1,200-foot swath of Texas land from north to south and, if built, will include right-of-way easements for utilities and rail transportation, neither of which should be funded by the state or aided by Texas’ power of eminent domain.
And speaking of eminent domain, the million-plus acres the Trans-Texas Corridor will require will give lawmakers and transportation officials the impetus to snatch valuable real estate now on tax rolls from innumerable Texas landowners who don’t want to sell.
The Legislature-sanctioned land grab will require farms and towns to be divided by the asphalt behemoth, which will also steamroll over privately-owned homes and businesses, in the name of a questionable political legacy.
The only way to stop this money-driven juggernaut is for Texans to raise a ruckus with those who can do something about it.
Contact your Senators, John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison. Hutchison, who is up for re-election in November, especially needs to hear from Texans. After promising to resist efforts to force the project upon us, Hutchison accepted campaign funds from Zachry’s political action committee before reneging on her promise to Texas voters and supporting the superhighway.
Contact Phil King, our local representative in the Texas House. Contact Craig Estes, our voice in the Texas Senate.
Contact Rick Perry’s Office.
Call them. E-mail them. Write them letters.
And make them accountable.
And stop this travesty before it’s too late.
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
I'm still PO'd that Ryun got tripped in Munich during the 1500.
Just another hyperbolic lie. The Trans-Texas Corridor is a planned road, not a border crossing. It isn't going to add another crossing, and I'm sure that has been explained to her before, but she is counting on people not knowing the details. Typical tactics of Democrats and the dishonest.
How exactly does she plan to do that? During Perry's tenure the Port of Houston is about to open the new Bayport expansion, with cruise ships calling within a year and container ships soon after. His econ. development office worked with the port to bring huge Home Depot and Walmart distribution centers nearby in Baytown that were lured by the port expansion. Seems like we're doing just fine right now.
Weatherford Democrat Editorial
First of all, the cost, which has been estimated as high as a quarter of a trillion dollars
Estimates by opponents that they just pulled out of their rear based on the proposed 50-year possible buildout of 4,000 miles. But actually only 2 roads are being studied, TTC-35 and TTC-69, less than 1200 miles total. The rest are probably at least 20-years away from starting, and much may never be built if each project isn't economically viable. So either this editorial writer is ignorant and too lazy to pick up the phone and get actual facts, or just dishonest and trying to fool people into thinking this is very different than what is actually under consideration. With the media, its hard to tell which is the case, or perhaps both.
The Trans-Texas Corridor, at least in its current incarnation, is bad for Texas. It costs too much
Odd, since it is only costing taxpayers less than $50 million (less than $20 mil. IIRC) in studies and meetings. Compared to nearly $10 billion if taxpayers fund a comparable expansion of I-35. Democrat math, I guess.
Secondly, Texas should be able to find its own funding for infrastructure. If, between one of the most economically diverse states in the Union and the United States government, a transportation project can’t be funded, it should be shelved, if not discarded altogether.
Yeah, yeah, we're so rich a country that we ought to be able to provide everybody free health care. OMGosh, those evil capitalist companies might actually make a profit! Socialists unite! Angst in the name of Ignorance!