John Culberson: “If I could reclaim my time and in response say that the Metro has indicated they are willing to have an election, but we…”

“If I could reclaim my time and in response say that the Metro has indicated they are willing to have an election, but we have not seen the election occur yet. Metro moved forward very rapidly to build this rail plan from downtown Houston out to the Astrodome without asking for voter approval. They could have asked for voter approval, a simple referendum had they chosen to but did not. There are also other mechanisms to allow for a vote and they chose not to do so. The cost of the rail plan coupled with the immense amount of subsidy that is going to be required, when you compare the cost of rail systems in other cities, the cost per rider to taxpayers is about $3,000 a year, the subsidized cost per taxpayer in Los Angeles for each rider is about 9,000 tax dollars a year and in Dallas about $4,000. The geography, the growth patterns, the work patterns in the city of Houston are such that I am not sure that we could support it. In fact every town hall meeting I have held and where I have asked questions on this issue to my constituents, the overwhelming response of my constituents is that almost all of them need their cars in order to get to work. Because of the unique nature of our city, because of where the job centers, the economic centers of Houston are spread out around the metropolitan area, the bottom line is there must be an election and I strongly support the gentleman from Texas (Mr.…”