By Bill Zeeble, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-877923.mp3
Dallas, TX –
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison blasted Governor Perry's plans to build new roads with tolls, and called The Texas Department of Transportation arrogant and out of touch with Texans.
The Senator is campaigning to unseat Perry, and unveiled her Transportation plan in Dallas and elsewhere Tuesday. She called Perry and TXDOT examples of failed leadership.
Hutchison: The failure of leadership is having a Texas Department of Transportation that dictates to local officials if they want state money they have to put in a toll road, to say that everything is fine when the agency has misplaced a billion dollars and has to cancel highway projects already in place.
Hutchison wants to expand TXDOT's commission and build passenger rail between Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. Perry said the Senator's plans would result in no new Texas roads, and said her proposals offer no way to pay for them. Another GOP hopeful, Debra Medina, called Hutchison's high speed rail idea big-government abuse of tax payer dollars.