05.07.13

The wrath from the tea party

Posted in 83rd Legislature, Around The State, Had Enough Yet?, The Lege, Transportation at 1:08 pm by wcnews

Why can’t we have funding for transportation in Texas? Or public education? Or health care and Medicaid expansion? Or higher education? Or water? Or the many other things that we need in this state? The DMN’s Transportation Blog sums it up pretty well.

Transportation lobbyists say they have been counting votes on the bill and believe they have enough commitments of support. At the same time, there is the possibility that some of these “supporters” are privately telling Speaker Joe Straus that they don’t want to have to vote on a fee increase and would be grateful if the bill died in Calendars.

For the tea party, a fee increase is no different than a tax increase, and supporting one could be political suicide for some GOP members.

Many Republicans fear the wrath from the tea party right more than they value support from the business community, and Texas business has been nothing if not foursquare behind better funding of roads. Let the transportation system crumble under the stampede of new Texans, and the Texas miracle evaporates. [Emphasis added]

Yes the scorecard rules their world.

2 Comments »

  1. Sun City Resident said,

    May 7, 2013 at 1:25 pm

    According to Senator Schwertner, at a recent forum at Southwestern University, we already have “mass transportation.” “It’s called buses,” he said. He was clear that he didn’t support any additional “mass transportation” other than more roads and highways. Representative Marsha Farney agreed with him. I guess they didn’t read (or care about?) the recent “survey on aging” in which local citizens indicated that one of their primary concerns for this area is a lack of public transportation.

  2. wcnews said,

    May 7, 2013 at 9:25 pm

    I watched their interview, it was bad enough, but I heard the real good part was the audience Q&A which isn’t online. They have no sense of community or the common good. I doubt they saw that survey, or if they did, didn’t actually comprehend it. Thanks for commenting.

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