Published: August 22, 2006 09:26 am      

Voters are the only way TTC-35 will be stopped

The Trans-Texas Corridor, at least in its current incarnation, is bad for Texas.

It costs too much. It offers the opportunity for foreign investors to have too much say in Texas’ own sovereignty. It uses taxpayer funding to help private business. And, most of all, it requires a massive land grab to make it happen.

First of all, the cost, which has been estimated as high as a quarter of a trillion dollars, is an incredible boondoggle in the making. With very little apparent citizen support, the project will effect taxpayers in the Lone Star State for longer than the road will last.

There is no doubt we need a transportation plan for now and for the future, but this one is not feasible.

Secondly, Texas should be able to find its own funding for infrastructure. If, between one of the most economically diverse states in the Union and the United States government, a transportation project can’t be funded, it should be shelved, if not discarded altogether.

Just like the majority of Texas families, the Legislature needs to be able to say, “That would be nice to have ... but we can’t afford it.”

In addition, as any borrower knows, the banker calls the shots.

If Cintra-Zachry, the Spanish company set to cash in on the TTC, fronts the money, it is because there is something in it for the company. And that something is massive profits, profits that would be better spent within our own borders.

Next, the project uses a 1,200-foot swath of Texas land from north to south and, if built, will include right-of-way easements for utilities and rail transportation, neither of which should be funded by the state or aided by Texas’ power of eminent domain.

And speaking of eminent domain, the million-plus acres the Trans-Texas Corridor will require will give lawmakers and transportation officials the impetus to snatch valuable real estate now on tax rolls from innumerable Texas landowners who don’t want to sell.

The Legislature-sanctioned land grab will require farms and towns to be divided by the asphalt behemoth, which will also steamroll over privately-owned homes and businesses, in the name of a questionable political legacy.

The only way to stop this money-driven juggernaut is for Texans to raise a ruckus with those who can do something about it.

Contact your Senators, John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison. Hutchison, who is up for re-election in November, especially needs to hear from Texans. After promising to resist efforts to force the project upon us, Hutchison accepted campaign funds from Zachry’s political action committee before reneging on her promise to Texas voters and supporting the superhighway.

Contact Phil King, our local representative in the Texas House. Contact Craig Estes, our voice in the Texas Senate.

Contact Rick Perry’s Office.

Call them. E-mail them. Write them letters.

And make them accountable.

And stop this travesty before it’s too late.