Texas Transit Association

Candidate Orlando Sanchez has positioned himself to get into a runoff against one of the other two major candidates in the race, both supporting Houston METRO’s passenger rail plan to be voted on the same day as the mayoral election. Meanwhile, Candidate Bill White speaks to rail’s impact on Houston (article 2).

Article 1:

Sanchez opposes Metro rail expansion
By JOHN WILLIAMS Houston Chronicle Political Writer Sept. 25, 2003

Former City Councilman Orlando Sanchez on Wednesday became the only major mayoral candidate to oppose a Nov. 4 transit referendum, claiming the rail portion of Metro’s plan won’t reduce traffic congestion.

Sanchez announced his position two days after City Councilman Michael Berry, who had been the only announced rail opponent among major candidates for Houston mayor, dropped his mayoral aspirations amid sagging polls to run for another council seat.

“We need a 100 percent plan, not a 1 percent solution plan,” Sanchez said in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon.

The reference was to a road-oriented plan being developed by the Houston-Galveston Area Council, which it calls a 100 percent solution and which Sanchez supports.

Sanchez’s two main opponents, businessman Bill White and state Rep. Sylvester Turner, support the Metro referendum and criticized Sanchez.

White labeled Sanchez’s position as short-sighted, saying Houston needs to expand light rail as soon as possible.

Turner called Sanchez’s plan “an unrealistic proposal to pave our way out of problems.”

Sanchez was the last major candidate to stake a position on Metro’s proposal to spend $640 million for 22 miles of light rail by 2012, $774 million for road projects from 2009 to 2014, and increase bus routes by 50 percent by 2025.

Sanchez, who has said his long deliberation came from a need to study the key issue, said that as mayor he would work toward building enough roads to cut traffic congestion.

He said he will support rail if voters approve the referendum, but that the city and region would be better serviced by building and expanding roads, better synchronizing street lights, deploying a bus rapid transit as well as deploying clean fuel technology on buses to reduce air pollution.

“Houston was once the envy of the nation in traffic congestion relief,” Sanchez said in a prepared statement. “I believe we can again be Number One in traffic relief and on the day one (of taking office) I will begin the task of leading us there.

“It is an optimistic, can-do vision because that is the kind of people we are.”

Sanchez was critical of Metro’s plan, saying that:

· He is inclined to trust Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt’s assertion that Metro has over-estimated its future revenues by as much as $3 billion.

· Metro does not include a long-term protection of sales tax revenues that now go to Harris County and cities inside its service area for roads. Metro has pledged to continue the transfer of this money, called general mobility funding, through 2014. Voters can change that funding pledge in 2009 if Metro conducts another referendum for future rail expansion.

· The plan is not well coordinated with other city, county and state entities involved in transportation planning.

· The rail component of Metro’s plan will not reduce traffic congestion by “any measurable standard.”

In recent weeks, rail has emerged as a defining issue in the race to replace term-limited Mayor Lee Brown.

While voters will consider a broad-ranging transit referendum, rail is the portion that has generated most passion. Under the proposal, Metro would add the 22 miles of light rail to a 7.5-mile line nearing completion between downtown and Reliant Park.

A recent Houston Chronicle/ KHOU-TV poll indicates that 46 percent of likely voters support the Metro proposal while 21 percent oppose it.

Texas Southern University political scientist Franklin Jones said it appears Sanchez wants to appeal to anti-rail voters who had supported Berry.

“It allows him to stay as close as he can to the opposition to rail,” Jones said.

Wednesday, White said Sanchez procrastinated on announcing his rail position and then came forward with a poorly thought-out plan.

White said that the road plan Sanchez is proposing could cost tens of billions of dollars over the next 25 years. While White said he supports the Houston-Galveston Area Council’s long-range planning for roads and other modes of transportation, Houston needs to start rail as soon as possible.

“It’s weak and shows no leadership, and will delay a new mass transportation alternative,” White said. “My plan is to build immediately what we can afford. Orlando’s plan is to talk about something we can’t afford and to start nothing.”

Turner noted that Metro proposes to build rail with matching federal funds, which he said will go elsewhere if Houston rejects rail as Sanchez proposes.

“He has caved into special interests and, in the process, is proposing that a billion dollars in federal funds be left in Washington, D.C., and bypass Houston,” Turner said.

Sanchez disagreed, saying HGAC’s 100 percent solution plan “will generate more matching funds than Metro’s rail plan because it will be supported by state and federal leaders who are responsible for approving transportation funding.”

Article 2:

White predicts rail will play key role in Houston’s growth
By JOHN WILLIAMS Houston Chronicle Political Writer Sept. 23, 2003

Houston mayoral candidate Bill White predicted Tuesday that the area will have a system of light and heavy rail lines in 25 years that will influence the city’s growth patterns.

“Let’s get to the heart of it,” White said during an interview with the Houston Chronicle editorial board. “Our city has been growing 10 times faster than the rest of America.

“That’s incredible; that’s one of the things that makes us a city of opportunity, where people like me and others can move here and make a better life for our families,” said White, who moved to Houston after completing law school at the University of Texas in Austin. “And we are not going to be able to grow unless we find some way that more people can get to and from work — easy.

“That means you have to have a lot of people moving pretty fast in a narrow space because you just can’t triple the size of interstate highways.”

White’s prediction about expanded rail comes as he faces criticism from one of his major opponents, state Rep. Sylvester Turner, that White is lukewarm in his support for rail.

White backs a compromise rail plan that the Metropolitan Transit Agency will put before voters Nov. 4. It will share the ballot with the mayoral election and other local races.

The agency originally considered a rail and bus expansion plan that would have added roughly 39 miles of rail by 2019 to the 7.5-mile light rail line nearing completion on Main Street.

Amid pressure from anti-rail forces who didn’t want the transit agency to stop spending money on roads, Metro reduced the plan to 22 miles by 2012, with an option to have another referendum for more rail in 2009.

Turner has argued for the 39-mile plan, though he told the editorial board Monday that he will vote for the 22-mile proposal.

The third major mayoral candidate, former city Councilman Orlando Sanchez, has not yet taken a position on the referendum.

If the referendum passes, White said, he will work for expanding the system over time because rail helps direct growth in a city.

By 2025, White said, Houston likely will have a light rail system inside Loop 610 that occasionally travels below ground so it can move faster. Spreading out from that backbone will be higher-speed heavy rail lines along existing rail rights of way running to suburban areas and beyond, White said.

The rail lines will be part of a flexible transportation system that will include a lot of cars, buses and flexible working hours, White said.

“What you do when you build rail is you create a corridor for the development of the future Houston,” White said, comparing such development to what has occurred along highways. “You look at every city where rail has been in place for a long period of time, and the city has been built along the rail line.”

If the referendum fails, White said, he will work on building a consensus for another rail system.

In the meantime, he wants to build credibility in Metro through better management, which he said will help the agency build better relationships with its critics.

“We need to let everybody know that Metro will be well managed,” White said. “Last year, the operating budget for buses went up more than $20 million … ridership went down, boardings went down.

“That would be unacceptable in the private sector,” he said. “We need to give people assurances that every penny that Metro takes from taxpayers is well spent.”