Corridor Quotes

"Trans-Texas Catastrophe"

"Stop Trans-Texas Corridor"

John Ricke of Bastrop, hollering, "Remember the Alamo," said he sees the corridor plan as a state "land grab."

"What would you do if you owned land?" asked Eddie Barta, a Fayette County rancher. "Would you give it to them?"

"No more Perry!" the crowd shouted, "Impeach Perry!"

"Perry and his hand-picked highway henchmen say we have a choice: no roads, slow roads or toll roads," Strayhorn said. "I say to Governor Perry and his highway henchmen: Hogwash. Vote our way today for freeways."

The crowd chanted "Clean house, clean house!" in a taunt for the Legislature.

"I'll give my life so my son gets my farm and not Governor Perry!" shouted John Ricke, 66, a retired Houston firefighter who lives on his family farm in Bastrop.

"The Trans-Texas Corridor would be devastating to our community," Socha said.

Actually an old quote from Perry, but it's still good today. "It's not a critters, birds, bees, foxes, jaguars issue," Perry told a landowners rally near Austin in 1994. "It's about land control. You've got it, and the (federal government) wants to control it."

"largest land grab in Texas history."

"There are no traffic jams in Fort Stockton," Stall said. "All this is doing is taking land in rural Texas to ease traffic congestion in the cities. Let the cities solve their own problems."

"One, two, three, four -- we don't want this corridor"

"People need to know how evil, evil has crept into our country," said Betty Meischem, 57, of Bellville, her voice rising to a high pitch as she repeated the word evil.

Moments later, she whispered that this was the first time she had attended a protest.

"I feel that strongly about the issue," she said.

"You can't tell Texans to give up their land and then pay to drive their tractor across it."

David Stall of Fayetville said, “This is a volatile issue. It's been pushed on the public without input, without discussion, without open debate."

"Private property issues, that's a huge issue for many people,” Protest organizer Hollie Ullrich said. “A lot of people are concerned about the tolling system and who would have control of that and where the money would go."

"The government is out of control. They're trying to take our property rights away from us," said Rep. Harvey Hilderbran, R-Kerrville.

"I already wrote a note to his (Gov. Perry) e-mail and said he needs to be run out of town on a rail. But that's too good for him," said Betty Meischen of Austin County.

The state "has never acted this rashly or quickly in matters of such importance in transportation before," said Heidi Ullrich, the rally's organizer and a member of the Fayette County group Citizens Against the Trans-Texas Corridor.


"There's a lot of misinformation that's floating around out there," Nelson (Spokesman for Rep. Krusee) said, regarding the corridor. He said Krusee is receptive to rural Texans' needs, which is why they are holding the public hearings.