Read Driscoll’s article with today’s developments here.
WOAI Radio report on the secret deal with comments from the Toll Party here.
Here’s the pro-toll version in Toll Road News.
Read this press release from Comptroller Carole Strayhorn in response to Perry’s “backroom” deals that benefit the few:
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
(AUSTIN) – Texas Independent Candidate for Governor Carole Keeton Strayhorn decried Gov Perry’s Texas Department of Transportation’s announcement today that it has apparently negotiated behind closed doors and come to another agreement with the same foreign company to build a 40-mile toll road.
“Texans still don’t know what is in the first contract between Gov. Perry’s TxDot and Cintra, the European-based company, in this $184 billion Trans Texas Catastrophe,” Strayhorn said. “And today we find out that the state has been secretly negotiating behind closed doors to let that same company build this 40-mile stretch of toll road.”
“The governor and Cintra and TxDot need to come clean, do their business in the sunshine, and stop turning Texas and our critical infrastructure over to a foreign company,” she said.
TxDot said it will sign an agreement with Cintra Zachary tomorrow to build the road between Austin and Seguin.
“The governor and TxDot – for over a year – are still defying the Attorney General who said the original contract must be made public. Now the governor lets them pop up and announce they are signing another contract worth more than a billion dollars,” Strayhorn said. “They truly are cramming toll roads down Texans throats before they even finish the public hearings.”
“This blatant disregard for the public’s right to know will come to a screeching halt when we change the leadership at the top of this state,” Strayhorn said. “I’m going to open up the system, let Texans have a real say in their future, and stop this Trans Texas Catastrophe.”