The U.S. Olympic Committee welcomed the 4-1 endorsement Houston voters gave last November, pledging city revenues to reimburse the International Olympic Committee for any losses should Houston host the 2012 Summer Olympics. But USOC officials have made it clear that rail transit is also the key to the city becoming the U.S. candidate.
Now a group is circulating a petition seeking 20,000 signatures to force a vote on rail transit, including the 7.5 mile, downtown-to-Astrodome link that’s been under construction since last spring. The petition demands a charter amendment requiring a rail election.
Houston 2012 President Susan Bandy said that the Olympics would be an issue in any referendum on rail. “We think it’s extremely important”, she said.
Jeff Daily, co-chairman of Let the People Vote, the group looking for signatures to force the referendum, said, “let them make that argument. Let the people decide”.
Metropolitan Transit Authority Chairman Robert Miller said that the city plans to have an election as early as November 2003 on a comprehensive rail plan that would require bonded indebtedness to expand into the suburbs. But the petition demands an earlier vote, is somewhat complicated, and gets at the issue indirectly.
The referendum wouldn’t be yes or no on rail. Instead, it would be yes or no on requiring the City Council to hold an election on rail, setting a deadline of no later than eight months after the amendment becomes official. That second election would apply to any rail plan, including the current project, organizers said.
Even if the measure passed Nov. 6, it would be months before anything happened.
It’s not clear that backers can get the necessary 20,000 signatures in time to put the issue on the November ballot. They didn’t start until early August. Charter amendments must be certified 30 days before an election and the city secretary has a a “reasonable time” before that to certify signatures. February appears more likely.
