Tourism Industry

Hundreds of Texas communities expend thousands of dollars every year in an effort to attract visitors to spend money and stay in hotels/motels.  That task is about to get much, much harder.

With the advent of the Trans-Texas Corridor tourists will be sent screaming past all but the largest metropolitan centers. Those that stop for food, gas and lodging will do so at state concessions located on the corridor itself. What communities will benefit from those expenditures? NONE!

Even the Governor's own office of Economic Development and Tourism works hard to sell Texas to out-of-state visitors. With the TTC those visitors will be able to zip across Texas, spend little, see even less, and have more vacation time in Santa Fe, New Orleans or Oklahoma City where they can slow down and spend the money they saved in Texas.

The TTC plan includes keeping all of the highway revenue on the TTC. The loss of traffic and the associated revenues may spell doom for communities across Texas who depend on income generated by the traveling public.

HB 3588 specifically reads, "...contract with a person for the use of part of a transportation project, or lease or sell part of a transportation project, including the right-of-way adjoining the portion used to transport people and property, for any purpose, including placing on the adjoining right-of-way a gas station, garage, store, hotel, restaurant, parking facility, railroad track, billboard, livestock pasturage, telephone line or facility, telecommunication line or facility, data transmission line or facility, or electric line or facility, under terms set by the authority." [Sec. 370.172(a)(2)]