Hegar and Perry rapproachement? Not yet

May 6, 2008

By Ben Wear, Austin American-Statesman

It didn’t take long after state Sen. Glenn Hegar released an op-ed blast Friday at Rick Perry appointee Deirdre Delisi for the story to surface that the Katy Republican and the governor had mended their differences.

Not so, Hegar said, although he has spoken with Delisi twice since sending out the piece saying if asked today to confirm her appointment to lead the Texas Transportation Commission he would vote no. Delisi, named commission chairwoman Wednesday by Perry, called Hegar Friday, he says now, and they’ve talked again this week.

But his position on her appointment, and what he expects out of the Texas Department of Transportation leadership going forward, has not changed. He noted that the governor just a couple of weeks ago was telling the Texas Transportation Forum, a TxDOT-produced event at the Hilton Hotel here, that the Legislature “doesn’t want to solve anything.”

He told Delisi that “not all 181 members are complete idiots… .That broad brush is getting very old.” To make progress on the transportation funding crunch, Hegar said, “we’ve got to sit down and talk to each other. We’ve got to tone down the rhetoric.”

All this is pretty tall talk coming from a freshman senator, especially one from the governor’s own party. But Hegar hails from Katy, which lies in or near the path of the proposed Interstate 69 section of Perry’s Trans-Texas Corridor plan. And his expansive District 18 includes Fayette County, hotbed of rural sentiments against the whole corridor plan of toll roads and rail lines.

And Hegar is on both the Senate Nominations Committee, which will take up Delisi’s appointment in 2009 after she serves for awhile as an interim appointment, and the Texas Sunset Review Commission, which is looking at TxDOT’s operations right now. Hegar may be relatively new to the Capitol — he served in the House from 2003 through 2006 before his election to the Senate less than two years ago — but he’s sitting in two chairs that matter to Delisi and TxDOT right now.

Hegar said his stinging op-ed piece, which ran in the Statesman today, wasn’t part of some grand Senate plan to pressure Perry. It was just something that “has been stewing with me for awhile,” thoughts he had while helping his wife take care of twins born five weeks ago.

Perry, in that talk to the forum, said the Legislature can’t just say no and call that a solution to transportation funding. Hegar said he understands that, and that even the borrowing of billions for roads (favored by legislative leaders) is just a “band-aid” that won’t pay for roads long-term. On the other hand, he said, Perry (and Delisi) need to open their minds about the menu of solutions as well.