Now for some issues... transportation...

Rick smacked down the idea that we need to increase the gas tax (link). Excerpt follows...

AUSTIN — The Senate Transportation and Homeland Security chairman Friday suggested a 10-cent-a-gallon increase in Texas' gasoline tax for a system that's soon to run short of money for new roads.

The proposal touted by Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, got a cold reception from GOP Gov. Rick Perry at a conference of the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association.

“I'm not real fond of raising taxes when there's a recession going on. We ought to be looking at ways to cut taxes, not raise them,” Perry told reporters when asked about the proposal.

[SNIP]

Perry — who has often talked of the need for more transportation funding and pushed what proved to be an unpopular plan that included a strong component of private investment in toll roads — sounded anything but supportive.

“Going to Lubbock, Texas, and telling 'em, ‘Hey, we're gonna raise your gas tax out here a dime so they can build some more roads in East Texas' is generally not a real good political sell,” Perry said.

“It'll probably have about the same result as it has had in the last four or five years, and that's not a very ... warm welcome in the Legislature,” the governor said.

This brings up the issue of paying for roads. Do we raise taxes, do we not build roads, or do we let the private sector pay for the roads but allow tolls? Kay has said no to tolls... sort of. Where does that put her in terms of raising the gas tax?

We know where Rick stands. He takes heat for choosing one of the options. Where does Kay stand? She will have to choose one of the three options... raise taxes, build private roads, or don't build roads.