"Citizens Rebellion” brewing
Local protest planned against Trans-Texas Corridor
September 28, 2006
By GARY ENGEL
Brenham Banner-Press
Copyright 2006
The hotly debated Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) won't be built through Washington County, but local opponents have scheduled a protest to show solidarity with their fellow Texans who will be directly affected, for 10 a.m. Saturday.
It will be held at the Washington County courthouse.
Similar protests are set statewide, led by an event at the museum of the “Come and Take It” cannon in Gonzales. Independent gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn, a strident opponent of the transportation plan, is scheduled to appear.
She has been endorsed by the event's sponsors - Independent Texans, the Blackland Coalition, the San Antonio Toll Party, and Citizens for a Better Waller County. Related urban freeway toll projects are also opposed.
“We're going to send a cup of soil” to Gov. Rick Perry, leader of the TTC effort, “and tell him that's all he's getting from Washington County,” Joyce Covington, a local spokeswoman for the effort, said today.
That's what all the county groups, some 186 of them, plan to contribute to the governor. A couple where opposition appears include two along the New Mexico border in the Panhandle.
TTC is a massive highway, railroad, pipeline and communications infrastructure project designed to cut through the middle of Texas from north to south, paralleling Interstate 35 from near Laredo through the Dallas-Fort Worth area as one of its priority routes. One of its builders would be Spanish-based Cintra-Zachary.
The company “would be managing the project and getting the tolls,” Covington said. “We want to keep our money in the U.S.”
Detractors have stated that, in their opinion, the TTC is a money-making scheme, not a transportation solution.
In a press release, Independent Texans said a “citizens rebellion” has been brewing against the transportation plans being promoted by Gov. Perry.
Linda Curtis, founder of Independent Texans, called TTC a “double-tax urban freeway toll scheme.”
Terri Hall of the San Antonio Toll Party said both political parties approved planks opposing the TTC and tolls at their summer conventions.
Agnes Voges, a board member for the Blackland Coalition, said, “You'll note that (Perry's) ranch is not affected by the TTC, but you can't say that about the farmers and ranchers ... who now have to worry about their land being taken for something they didn't even have the right to vote on.”
“Ranchers are not willing to give up their land,” Covington added. “This (event Saturday) is a rally for our fellow ranchers and landowners.”
A portion of the route is projected to swing east of Austin. Area counties directly covered within the TTC priority model include Lee, Milam, Caldwell and Bastrop.
The Texas Transportation Commission received its authority to spearhead the corridor plan from the Texas Legislature. One of the more significant laws relating to awarding that management is House Bill 3588, according to corridorwatch.org.
Covington said a statewide grassroots leadership meeting, “Toll and Corridor Summit II,” is planned in Austin Saturday, Oct. 7.
© 2006 Brenham Banner-Press: www.brenhambanner.com
September 28, 2006
By GARY ENGEL
Brenham Banner-Press
Copyright 2006
The hotly debated Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) won't be built through Washington County, but local opponents have scheduled a protest to show solidarity with their fellow Texans who will be directly affected, for 10 a.m. Saturday.
It will be held at the Washington County courthouse.
Similar protests are set statewide, led by an event at the museum of the “Come and Take It” cannon in Gonzales. Independent gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn, a strident opponent of the transportation plan, is scheduled to appear.
She has been endorsed by the event's sponsors - Independent Texans, the Blackland Coalition, the San Antonio Toll Party, and Citizens for a Better Waller County. Related urban freeway toll projects are also opposed.
“We're going to send a cup of soil” to Gov. Rick Perry, leader of the TTC effort, “and tell him that's all he's getting from Washington County,” Joyce Covington, a local spokeswoman for the effort, said today.
That's what all the county groups, some 186 of them, plan to contribute to the governor. A couple where opposition appears include two along the New Mexico border in the Panhandle.
TTC is a massive highway, railroad, pipeline and communications infrastructure project designed to cut through the middle of Texas from north to south, paralleling Interstate 35 from near Laredo through the Dallas-Fort Worth area as one of its priority routes. One of its builders would be Spanish-based Cintra-Zachary.
The company “would be managing the project and getting the tolls,” Covington said. “We want to keep our money in the U.S.”
Detractors have stated that, in their opinion, the TTC is a money-making scheme, not a transportation solution.
In a press release, Independent Texans said a “citizens rebellion” has been brewing against the transportation plans being promoted by Gov. Perry.
Linda Curtis, founder of Independent Texans, called TTC a “double-tax urban freeway toll scheme.”
Terri Hall of the San Antonio Toll Party said both political parties approved planks opposing the TTC and tolls at their summer conventions.
Agnes Voges, a board member for the Blackland Coalition, said, “You'll note that (Perry's) ranch is not affected by the TTC, but you can't say that about the farmers and ranchers ... who now have to worry about their land being taken for something they didn't even have the right to vote on.”
“Ranchers are not willing to give up their land,” Covington added. “This (event Saturday) is a rally for our fellow ranchers and landowners.”
A portion of the route is projected to swing east of Austin. Area counties directly covered within the TTC priority model include Lee, Milam, Caldwell and Bastrop.
The Texas Transportation Commission received its authority to spearhead the corridor plan from the Texas Legislature. One of the more significant laws relating to awarding that management is House Bill 3588, according to corridorwatch.org.
Covington said a statewide grassroots leadership meeting, “Toll and Corridor Summit II,” is planned in Austin Saturday, Oct. 7.
© 2006 Brenham Banner-Press:
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Thursday, September 28, 2006
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