When Perry took office as governor in 2001, one of his earliest and most ambitious initiatives was the Trans-Texas Corridor, a $184 billion plan to build a network of toll highways, rail corridors and utility lines that stretched 4,000 miles. Partly financed through privately operated tolls, the plan was intended to address clogged roadways to the Mexican border and across the state. Perry's plan quickly ignited a firestorm on the left as well as on the right, where the project was dubbed a "NAFTA Superhighway" that appeared intended to create an open roadway between Mexico and Canada. The blowback ultimately scuttled Perry's plan in 2005. But some conservative activists are already vowing to remind 2012 voters of the Texas governor's initiative.
More recently, Perry has pushed for additional spending to address Texas's mounting water crisis in the face of dwindling supply and a booming population. Faulty infrastructure has caused the average Texas city to lose 25 percent of its water between the source and the tap, according to Andrew Sansom, head of Texas State University's River Systems Institute. The Texas Water Development Board — which is headed by Perry appointees — has estimated that the growing water shortage will cost the state 1.1 million jobs and $115.7 billion in income by 2060 unless major action is taken soon.
In response, Perry has proposed putting $260 million into a state-run water infrastructure fund to speed up the construction of reservoir sites across the state. "The issues that surround our need for water demand frank conversations, visionary planning and tough choices," Perry told the Texas Water Conservation Association in February 2009. "I am convinced that the time to adequately preserve and allocate our water supply is now, so that our children and grandchildren will have access to this life-giving resource for the next 50 years." On his gubernatorial Web site, Perry is described as having "long recognized the vital importance of water," successfully working with the legislature to designate areas for seven new reservoirs in the state.
But Perry's reform plans have never been fully realized, because the GOP-dominated state legislature has shot down every funding proposal for water infrastructure over the past five years. Areas for new reservoirs have been designated under his administration, but they yet to be built. In May, the statehouse defeated a GOP-created proposal for a water infrastructure fund similar to Perry's, as well as a statewide "tap fee" to fund reservoir construction. Having committed himself this year to spending cuts, rather than increases, Perry also hasn't stuck his neck out on the issue, water advocates say. "This has been a legislative issue. I haven't seen a lot of action from Perry on it," Jennifer Walker, a water resources specialist at the Sierra Club's Lone Star branch, told The Post.
Instead, austerity has been the rule: The 2012-2013 budget backed by Perry and Texas state Republicans slashed the budgets for the three agencies that oversee water quantity and quality — the Texas Water Development Board, the state Parks and Wildlife Department and the Commission on Environmental Quality — by as much as 30 percent, which has already led to widespread layoffs.
So how will Perry reconcile the need to fix ailing infrastructure in Texas — and across the country — with his embrace of an "all-cuts, no-taxes" agenda? When asked about his "NAFTA superhighway" after his launching his campaign, Perry didn't backpedal: He defended the plan on WHO Radio this week, "saying the alternatives would be to raise taxes, ask Washington for money or wait for 'the asphalt fairy' to get needed roads built."
In terms of present-day solutions, Perry could end up adopting an alternative, decentralized approach to infrastructure projects that's recently gained a foothold in Texas in the face of legislative gridlock and the new climate of austerity. The state has greenlighted a ballot proposition that will come up this November, expanding the ability of the Texas Water Development Board to issue bonds to local governments, effectively giving them a loan to fix water infrastructure in their areas. Doing so would make local residents and water users, rather than the state, pay for infrastructure — a move that some believe could give Texans an incentive to conserve more water. Perry hasn't publicly championed the issue, but he supported a similar measure in May, signing a bill into law that gave a water wholesaler in drought-stricken Bell County the authority to issue revenue bonds.
Such locally funded measures could serve as a "band-aid"to help alleviate the crisis during a time of austerity, Samson of Texas State University told The Post. They would certainly jibe with Perry's general support for decentralizing government and avoiding state and federal spending hikes. But Texas, like other states, will ultimately need to address its long-term infrastructure needs on a larger scale, Sansom adds. As an example, he points to the massive, federally supported water supply system that distributes water from the Colorado River to Arizona. "It would require more top-down leadership and financing than we're normally used to," he has said, noting that critical federal money from the Environmental Protection Agency for Texas water conservation and infrastructure have dried up as well. "I'd hate to see infrastructure funding disappear."
The last time that Texas faced a record drought, in the 1950s, it used federal assistance to build new reservoirs over the next two decades, the Houston Chronicle points out. Perry, for his part, hasn't talked up the need to revive such costly top-down ventures in the state. During this year's drought, he has highlighted the urgent water shortage in Texas, designating one weekend in April as official days of prayer for rain. But the state's budget crisis has largely overshadowed longer-term investments like infrastructure. With President Obama putting a new federal infrastructure bank at the center of his agenda, however, candidate Perry will soon be pressed to step up on the issue.