“When Texans find out what it is they are adamantly opposed to it.”
Strayhorn becoming a regular at highway public hearings
July 25, 2006
By Noelene Clark
Waco Tribune-Herald
Copyright 2006
Fighting a proposed Oklahoma-to-Mexico thoroughfare has long been a pet plank in Carole Keeton Strayhorn’s gubernatorial platform. Now, speaking up at public hearings about the controversial superhighway is becoming a pet tactic in her campaign strategy.
Monday evening’s Trans-Texas Corridor hearing at the Waco Convention Center was the fifth one that Strayhorn has attended since the Texas Department of Transportation began its 54-meeting circuit two weeks ago, Strayhorn spokesman Mark Sanders said.
“She’s trying to get to as many as she can,” he said.
At each meeting, she argues that an efficient highway system does not require funding from toll roads and criticizes Gov. Rick Perry for his “secret contract with a foreign company” — the U.S.-Spanish consortium that the state has approved to build and operate the $184 billion corridor, which would parallel Interstate 35. The Perry administration is now battling an attorney general’s ruling to fully disclose the contract.
Strayhorn’s tactic of touring public hearings seems to be working. Her complaints about the project are applauded at such forums by rural Texans afraid of losing their farmland.
“When Texans find out what it is,” Strayhorn said in Waco on Monday, “they are adamantly opposed to it.”
At an airport press conference, Strayhorn said, if she were elected, she would appoint a clean-air advocate to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and push for greater use of clean-burning natural gas, wind energy and gasification at utility plants. She said Perry is “fast-tracking dirty, coal-fired plants” through the permitting system, referring to executive orders to expedite approval for 11 controversial TXU coal-fired power plants.
Strayhorn, who is running as an independent, also spoke about her platform on education, which advocates reinstating performance reviews of public schools. She also said she would push the Legislature to fund tax cuts — 10 percent every five years — for fixed-income seniors.
Musician, novelist and political activist Kinky Friedman, another gubernatorial candidate, will be in Waco from 5 to 7 p.m. today to meet with supporters.
The meeting will be at Poppa Rollo’s Pizza, 703 N. Valley Mills Drive.
nclark@wacotrib.com
© 2006 Waco Tribune-Herald : www.wacotrib.com
July 25, 2006
By Noelene Clark
Waco Tribune-Herald
Copyright 2006
Fighting a proposed Oklahoma-to-Mexico thoroughfare has long been a pet plank in Carole Keeton Strayhorn’s gubernatorial platform. Now, speaking up at public hearings about the controversial superhighway is becoming a pet tactic in her campaign strategy.
Monday evening’s Trans-Texas Corridor hearing at the Waco Convention Center was the fifth one that Strayhorn has attended since the Texas Department of Transportation began its 54-meeting circuit two weeks ago, Strayhorn spokesman Mark Sanders said.
“She’s trying to get to as many as she can,” he said.
At each meeting, she argues that an efficient highway system does not require funding from toll roads and criticizes Gov. Rick Perry for his “secret contract with a foreign company” — the U.S.-Spanish consortium that the state has approved to build and operate the $184 billion corridor, which would parallel Interstate 35. The Perry administration is now battling an attorney general’s ruling to fully disclose the contract.
Strayhorn’s tactic of touring public hearings seems to be working. Her complaints about the project are applauded at such forums by rural Texans afraid of losing their farmland.
“When Texans find out what it is,” Strayhorn said in Waco on Monday, “they are adamantly opposed to it.”
At an airport press conference, Strayhorn said, if she were elected, she would appoint a clean-air advocate to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and push for greater use of clean-burning natural gas, wind energy and gasification at utility plants. She said Perry is “fast-tracking dirty, coal-fired plants” through the permitting system, referring to executive orders to expedite approval for 11 controversial TXU coal-fired power plants.
Strayhorn, who is running as an independent, also spoke about her platform on education, which advocates reinstating performance reviews of public schools. She also said she would push the Legislature to fund tax cuts — 10 percent every five years — for fixed-income seniors.
Musician, novelist and political activist Kinky Friedman, another gubernatorial candidate, will be in Waco from 5 to 7 p.m. today to meet with supporters.
The meeting will be at Poppa Rollo’s Pizza, 703 N. Valley Mills Drive.
nclark@wacotrib.com
© 2006 Waco Tribune-Herald :
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Tuesday, July 25, 2006
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