Perry's Trans-Texas Corridor: Will it continue to be an issue?

Paul Burka has an interesting post asking if Gov. Perry will flip-flop on the Trans-Texas Corridor.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/blogs/burkablog/?p=11103

Burka writes, "Like gay marriage and parental rights, the taking of private property by government is a huge issue with Republican voters. As originally conceived by Ric Williamson, and enthusiastically supported by Perry, the Corridor was a series of toll roads, each with a footprint a quarter of a mile wide, condemning millions of acres of pristine countryside, that would be built and controlled by Cintra, a foreign corporation. The right-of-way would include power lines, pipelines, and high-speed rail lines."

He also notes that some elements of the Corridor are being built individually. "[H]e goofed when he bought into Williamson’s vision of a giant network of toll roads (many of which are being built as I write.)"

See Burka's post and the comments for an update of the Corridor that never quite goes away.

Burka analyzes WSJ "Perry Puff Piece"

Texas Monthly's Paul Burka comments on the WSJ interview with Perry that was the subject of our previous post.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/blogs/burkablog/?p=4502

Burka's is a lengthy post, and there are sure to be many interesting comments eventually. It was just posted at 8:25 p.m. Regarding the quote under discussion in our previous post, Burka says:

"Hmmm. In 1976 Perry was a Democrat. Maybe he was motivated by Reagan, but Reagan wasn’t really Reagan yet. This seems pretty self-serving to me."

HB 300 TxDOT Sunset Bill--filibustered?

Patricia Kilday Hart reports on the burkablog

http://www.texasmonthly.com/blogs/burkablog/?p=4012

that Sen. Carona is considering filibustering HB 300, the TxDOT Sunset Bill, because earlier today the House-Senate conference committee stripped out of it Carona's local option transportation tax. Hart says the final committee report "was not shown to Transportation Chair Carona or Vice-Chair Kirk Watson, but signed and filed by Senate conferees Glenn Hegar, Chuy Hinojosa and Robert Nichols." How does this happen? Did the rest of the committee just wait until the chair and vice-chair of the Senate Transportation & Homeland Security Committee were both out of the room at the same time, sign the thing real quick, and then take off at a run to file it? I'm having trouble picturing this.

In addition to Hegar, Hinojosa, and Nichols signing for the Senate, Linda Harper-Brown, Joe Pickett (Chair of the House Transportation Committee), Wayne Smith, and Carl Isett (author of HB 300), signed for the House. The only House conferee not to sign was Ruth Jones McClendon.

Previously, Carona has said he will not accept the TxDOT Sunset Bill if it does not contain his local option plan. From this point, the signed bill without his local option plan will be printed and distributed to the Senate and the House to be voted on by all members. It is not clear how soon the 1,000-plus-page bill call be printed and distributed, so it is uncertain when the votes in both houses will occur. It has to be before the session ends on Monday, June 1. Is it feasible for a Carona filibuster to prevent a Senate vote and thus kill HB 300? If this happens, TxDOT will have to be continued for two years by the "safety net" bill and its Sunset process taken up by the next session

UT KBH/Gov. 39% poll--redux redux

For those who are keeping score, Burka has responded to the UT internet poll response to his second response to his first response, etc. Comments include more responses by the poll's authors.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/blogs/burkablog/

As I said previously, this could go on for a long time--apparently forever. But with some interesting explanations and insights, for those of us following this "mother of all gubernatorial races" in its nascent stages.