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EL PASO -- In Texas, when it comes to transportation, money talks and ... well, you know the rest of that saying.
That's why it was surprising to see that Texas gubernatorial candidate and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson would make public an elaborate transportation plan without pinpointing where the money to pay for it would come from.
One of her major initiatives, for example, would be the construction of a commuter rail system to link the Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio and Houston areas. (El Paso's rail would have to wait for the next governor, I guess.)
That rail triangle is an awesome idea. There's a lot of commercial traffic among those cities, and the business people who travel in the area would appreciate a reprieve from the cumbersome airports, I'm sure.
But when each mile of rail costs millions of dollars to build, Hutchinson is looking at a very costly endeavor with seemingly no funding mechanism in place to make it happen.
Perhaps Hutchinson -- who is facing Gov. Rick Perry in a tough Republican primary this spring -- thinks the money will come from the savings that the committee to identify wasteful spending at the Texas Department of Transportation will find.
Or maybe that extra money will go toward building enough roads to keep up with the rapid growth in Texas, since her plan also wants to put a halt to much of the toll-road construction that is helping cities like El Paso get much-needed highways.
Of course, the back-and-forth between Hutchinson and Perry over transportation continues with this plan.
After all, Hutchinson was quick to herald the death of the Trans Texas Corridor earlier this year as a sign that Perry's pull in the state is waning.
It's only fair that he would call her plan bureaucratic and ineffective.
And now that both of these candidates have weighed in on transportation, it's time for Texas' Democratic candidates to speak up.
Maybe their strategy will include El Paso in their commuter rail plan.
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