Posted on 01/26/2007 1:45:05 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
AUSTIN - A legislator from San Antonio has filed a bill to kill G-O-P Gov. Rick Perry's Trans-Texas Corridor toll road proposal.
Perry spokesman Robert Black today said the governor will fight the anti-corridor measure.
Democratic Representative David Liebowitz says his bill would take away the Texas Department of Transportation's authority to buy land and do contracts for the project.
Liebowitz told W-O-A-I radio that the Trans-Texas Corridor would "destroy rural Texas as we know it."
But Black says we face a serious issue in transportation infrastructure in Texas.
Black says you have to "think outside the box and come up with solutions," which the spokesman says is what the governor has done.
Perry in 2002 proposed the Trans-Texas Corridor as a four-thousand mile transportation network using toll roads and rail systems.
ON THE NET
http://www.keeptexasmoving.org
http://www.bettertexasroads.org/index.asp
YEEEESSSSSS!!!!!!!
That's not the issue., here.
I see. Thanks for the clarification.
Sorry, by assuming that you understand that issue, I was trying not to offend your intelligence.
I understand the issue, but the opponents of TTC offer a variety of objections, some of them quite bizarre.
A few are worthy of discussion. Some are moonbat stuff. It's not a good coalition.
Governor Goodhair is in the wrong this time. This is a highway to hell.
Well, I suppose that, depending on your point of view, my objections to the TTC could fit in the moonbat category. LOL! I object to the TTC because of the following bizarre reasons:
1) The negotiations have been conducted in secret and I don't believe that Perry has been forthcoming about the details
2) The TTC agreement includes parts of Interstate 35 - a publically owned highway that the taxpayers have paid for several times over and would have to pay for again via the tolls imposed on the road
3) I believe that the Texas Legislature is getting its cake and having it too. We pay a federal and state tax on every gallon of gas pumped into our vehicles. The purpose of that tax is the maintenance and upkeep of publically-owned roads such has I-35. Instead, the Texas Legislature has diverted those highway funds to other purposes and has not upheld its obligation to maintain this road. Now they want to hand it over to a private developer who will use portions of this road as part of its privately owned toll road.
4) I am somewhat concerned about the fact that this road will be 1/4 mile wide with railroad, gas and electric utilities running up the middle. The road will have limited access and egress points and will be walled on either side. (Here comes my hysterical moonbat argument that you can use to ignore my other moonbat points) This provides a great opportunity for terrorists to inflict significant damage by using a charge that, with the walled sides, would have the effect of being a shaped charge that could ultimately cause significant damage. Do I think this is a huge possibility? No. I just think it's a possibility that adds to the negative aspects of the overall road.
The roads have already been built with TAX PAYERS money
The negotiations are always conducted in secret. You don't invite the public in to watch them because nobody would get anywhere. You just can't negotiate that way.
I've negotiated with the State. You do it in the office or in a small conference room, depending on how many people need to be there.
I don't think the TTC includes part of I-35. If it does, I'd like to see confirmation of it. If you're right, that's a legitimate objection.
I don't think the objection that it's a quarter of a mile wide is a legitimate objection. True, it does concentrate a lot of transportation within that narrow corridor, but opponents need to decide whether they'd like future transportation routes to be less concentrated (and thus take up more land), or not. You can't have it both ways.
As far as it being a terrorism target, what isn't? The Houston Ship Channel is far more tempting.
This would be a new road. New.
2) The TTC agreement includes parts of Interstate 35 - a publically owned highway that the taxpayers have paid for several times over and would have to pay for again via the tolls imposed on the road
No Sir. Not all NEW. It includes 45, 35 and many miles of road already built at taxpayer expense. Which the consortioum (sp) headed by the king of spain would profit from.
If there is a profit to be made from the roads built and maintained by the taxpayers of Texas the profit needs to be made and maintained in Texas, NOT SPAIN.
I think you're misinformed, but I invite you to show me where the TTC would take over ANY existing roadway.
And the concept does not involve having the roads built by Texas taxpayers. In fact, the beauty of it is that it WON'T.
If you go to the TTC site http://www.keeptexasmoving.org/projects/ttc35/ you will note that the proposed TT Corridor includes parts of I-35 between Austin and Waco, and picks up north of Dallas. Regardless of how much or how little of I-35 may potentially be consumed as part of the TTC, the people of America own every inch. It is not Governor Perry's to give away.
Yeah, I pretty much figured you would relegate all my objections to the moonbat wing. I'm not really surprised.
Glad someone with some sort of power and guts has the stones to try and stop this madness...
No, I didn't relegate any of them there.
The moonbat wing thinks a new road will form a North American Union where we're all we are all wearing sombreros while drinking skanky beer from Ontario.
They see it as some New World Order conspiracy.
Those weren't your objections.
I understand that point, but Perry has not been forthcoming about the details. That doesn't speak well for what is in the agreement. It is equally disturbing that when hearings were conducted across the state last year on this project, the majority of people who attended the hearings expressed objections and negative remarks - opinions that Perry and the legislature have completely ignored and dismissed.
As far as using any part of public roads, please see the URL in my post #34 that is from the TTC site. The stretch between Laredo and San Antonio is virtually all I-35, and other parts between Austin and Waco, and north of Dallas all could consume existing portions of I-35.
I'm returning to the moonbat cave now.
Part of the highway would be near I-35, but it hasn't been decided how close and on which side according to the site you linked.
I don't think any plan envisions taking over I-35 and turning it into a tollway. If you could link me to a non-moonbat site that suggests that is in the works, I'd be much obliged.
See non-moonbat site here: http://www.keeptexasmoving.org/projects/ttc35/
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