It has always seemed peculiar to me that Carona’s local option transit tax bill did not include Harris County and Houston, the state’s most populous county and city. Why didn’t they want in? The answer is that Harris/Houston do want in. What they didn’t want was to give Senator Dan Patrick a platform for opposing the bill on the Senate floor. So the decision was made that the Houston region will be included when the bill reaches the House floor, by an amendment, probably authored by Wayne Smith.