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Governor: No vote on corridor By Kurt Johnson After almost 300 people massed in front of the capitol in Austin Tuesday to protest Gov. Rick Perry's plans to build the Trans-Texas Corridor, his spokesman said the governor is against citizens having an up-or-down vote on the issue. Robert Black, Perry's spokesman, said the governor wouldn't support an initiative-and-referendum vote on the massive project because the need to build it is, in the governor's opinion, obvious. "The people who are opposed to it should come forward with some alternatives," Black said. Representative Mike Krusee of Round Rock, who chairs the House Transportation Committee, said the protesters "aren't interested in results" and are just seeking publicity. The Transportation Committee is holding a bill that would put a two-year moratorium on the corridor project. Krusee said House members already rejected the moratorium idea when it was presented as an amendment to the state's budget bill. The sometimes rowdy crowd, composed mostly of older, rural residents who wore yellow shirts to show their solidarity, repeatedly chanted, "One, two, three, four, we don't want the corridor." They cheered loudest when they received statements from the elected officials who showed up too help them in their cause. State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who has clashed with the governor on a number of issues and who appears to be a likely candidate for governor next year, left nothing to the imagination regarding where she stands on the issue. "We don't want professional politicians and the governor's highway henchmen to make these kinds of decisions for the people," Strayhorn said. "Let the people decide." According to Black, Strayhorn has flip-flopped on the toll-road issue, producing a 2001 news release from Strayhorn that he said proves the comptroller backed toll roads at that time. A spokesman for Strayhorn disagreed and said the comptroller only was identifying a mechanism the state could use for financing toll roads if it wanted to choose such an option. Legislators who appeared at the rally to support the protesters included Sen. Ken Armbrister of Victoria, Rep. Harvey Hilderbran of Kerrville and Rep. Garnet Coleman of Houston. It is Coleman's HB 3363 - calling for the two-year toll road moratorium - that has been held in Krusee's committee. Preliminary maps for the first leg of the corridor released by the Texas Department of Transportation have identified a wide path from the Oklahoma border to Mexico, which passes through the east side of Williamson County. The specific route hasn't been determined. Perry already has signed a preliminary agreement with Cintras, an international consortium, to proceed with plans to build the first leg of the corridor.
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