Perry, Hutchison Catfight Shows Absence Of Leadership On Transportation Issues
October 5, 2009
The catfight between the campaigns of Texas Governor Rick Perry and Kay BaileyHutchison shows that Texas has a tremendous leadership void when it comes to state Republican officials doing anything to address the state’s transportation problems.
Written by Hank Gilbert , HankGilbert.com
TYLER—The catfight between the campaigns of Texas Governor Rick Perry and Kay BaileyHutchison shows that Texas has a tremendous leadership void when it comes to state Republican officials doing anything to address the state’s transportation problems.
“Perry and Hutchison can finger-point until the cows come home and it won’t change a thing,” said Hank Gilbert (D-Whitehouse), a Democratic candidate for Governor of Texas. “Both are miserable failures for Texas when it comes to transportation issues,” said Gilbert.
While Perry was scheming to essentially sell off hundreds of thousands of acres of Texas land to foreign-owned companies to build the Trans Texas Corridor and then charge Texans a double-tax to travel on the roads and Hutchison was in Washington voting for laws which would enable Perry’s schemes, Hank Gilbert was busy cleaning up their mess.
“It is really funny to see these two go at each other on transportation. There is only one candidate in this race—on either side of the ballot—that has shown any meaningful leadership on transportation issues in Texas. Me,” Gilbert said.
Gilbert, after his 2006 run for Texas Agriculture Commissioner, co-founded a 300,000 member grassroots organization called TURF (Texans Uniting For Reform and Freedom) dedicated to stopping toll roads and the Trans Texas Corridor.
Hank worked with Democrats and Republicans in the Texas Legislature to stop the Trans Texas Corridor and stop eminent domain abuses in Texas.
Rick Perry’s Trans Texas Corridor would have gobbled up hundreds of thousands of acres of family farms in Texas and gone through many low-income and minority communities in Central Texas where citizens lacked the funds and resources to fight back against the abuse of eminent domain.
“I’ve spent the last several legislative sessions in Austin actually trying to offer solutions to Texas’ transportation problems. I even managed to get myself called names by hand-picked members of Rick Perry’s Texas Transportation Commission. Perry and Hutchison are whining about transportation because that is all they can do. They lack fresh ideas and any real solutions,” Gilbert said.
“Senator Hutchison’s failure to increase DOT outlays for Texas is another example of how she’s failed her constituents. Governor Perry’s quick attack on that point is just another example of how eager he is to hide the fact that he is a miserable failure on transportation issues. It is a choice between bad and worse. They trade barbs and Texas is stuck in traffic,” Gilbert continued.
“What Governor Perry doesn’t want anyone to know is that TXDOT had the chance to allocate the federal funds it’s now having to repay. That’s not Sen. Hutchison’s fault, that’s Rick Perry’s.”
FACT SHEET
Hutchison & Perry: A Duet Of Transportation Failures
HUTCHISON ENABLED PERRY’S TRANS TEXAS CORRIDOR
Senator Hutchison voted for legislation allowing tolls to be charged on interstate highways, and established an Interstate Highway construction toll pilot program. This program allowed states, like Texas with the Trans Texas Corridor, to collect tolls on a highway, bridge, or tunnel on the Interstate Highway System in order to construct more Interstate Highways. (HR 3, 109th Congress, 1st Session, Vote 220, July 29, 2005)
TRANSPORTATION POLICY TO PLEASE CONTRIBUTORS
Senator Hutchison has accepted more than $26,000 in contributions from executives and PACs associated with Zachry Construction—the company that was to build the Trans Texas Corridor. (Center for Responsive Politics)
Governor Perry has taken more than $200,000 in contributions from executives and PACs associated with Zachry Construction. (Texas Ethics Commission).
PERRY SAID TRANS TEXAS CORRIDOR WOULD BE GREAT FOR TEXAS
Among his more outlandish claims, Governor Perry claimed that the Trans Texas Corridor would be beneficial for the Texas environment and actually reduce air pollution, and make Texans better stewards of our environment. (Editorial by Rick Perry; Press Release, Office of the Governor)
NO OTHER DEMOCRAT HAS CREDIBILITY ON PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS
Tom Schieffer was a key player in the first instance of the use of eminent domain in Texas to seize privately held land for an entertainment venue. Between 11 and 13 acres ultimately controlled by the Texas Rangers’ were acquired through eminent domain with landowners owners receiving only $817,220 for the land, which a court later valued at being worth $4.98 million dollars. When landowners sued to get what they should have rightfully received for their land, Tom Schieffer said it was the “silly season in politics” and claimed the suit was a political stunt to derail his friend George W. Bush’s gubernatorial campaign. (SOURCE: Arrillaga, Pauline. “Property owners sue Bush, other officials.” Austin American-Statesman, September 1, 1994 & Zimbalist, Andrew. “If the Washington Redskins Are Worth $800 Million,” Texas Monthly, September, 1999.)
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