Rick Perry thought he could pull a fast-one on the citizens of Texas. He was going to let a foreign company build a massive toll road from Laredo to the Oklahoma border, and then that company would get all the tolls collected for the next 50 years. To make matters even worse, if the company didn't make as much toll money as they thought they should then Texas taxpayers would have to make up the difference.
But the people of Texas made it clear that they did NOT support the foreign-owned toll road that would cause the loss of hundreds of thousands of acres of valuable Texas farm and ranch land. Yesterday, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) yielded to the pressure from citizens and announced they had chosen the "no action" alternative for the first leg of the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC). For the present, that means the TTC will not be built.
Texas Transportation Commissioner Bill Meadows said, "The reason that's being given for the no build option is that people don't want it. They said, 'Hell no.' What we basically are doing is we are terminating the process. Formally, absolutely, TTC-35 is dead. We are cancelling the contract with Zachry."
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson's campaign is also speaking out about the TTC. I don't normally agree with much of what the senator says, but I think she's right on this matter. Her campaign manager says, "The Trans-Texas Corridor will not be officially dead until Rick Perry is no longer governor and his political appointees are no longer running TxDOT. Texans can't trust Rick Perry when it comes to protecting their land from the government, ceasing to lease our highways to foreign companies or ending the Trans-Texas Corridor."
I would go even further. The TTC won't truly be dead until the corporate Republican leadership no longer controls Texas state government.
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