By GORDON DICKSON
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Posted on Wed, Mar. 26, 2008
FORT WORTH -- A pair of powerful rural lawmakers got a dose of big-city traffic problems Tuesday.
North Texas officials visited with state Reps. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, and Carl Isett, R-Lubbock, for about two hours.
Chisum is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, which controls the purse strings for state agencies. Isett is chairman of the Sunset Advisory Commission, which is studying ways to revamp the Texas Department of Transportation.
The meeting and brief tour of Alliance Airport and surrounding roads was hosted by state Rep. Vicki Truitt, R-Keller, who wants to ensure that plans to improve traffic flow in the western Metroplex aren't hurt by any statewide changes in highway funding.
"Perspective is really important," Truitt said, "and the transportation issues we have in North Texas are vastly different than what exists in West Texas or the Panhandle."
Transportation Department officials have come under fire recently for overestimating available highway funding by $1 billion, proceeding to plan the controversial Trans-Texas Corridor and attempting to lease toll road projects to private, foreign-owned companies.
But in the Fort Worth area, tolls and other alternative funding sources have been embraced on projects such as:
Proposed new toll and nontoll lanes on Interstate 35W in Fort Worth, and Loop 820, Airport Freeway and Texas 114/121 in Northeast Tarrant County.
The planned Southwest Parkway toll road from downtown to southwest Fort Worth and eventually Cleburne.
A proposal to relieve train traffic at the congested Tower 55 railroad intersection near downtown Fort Worth.
Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief and Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley were among 30 or so people who greeted the lawmakers.
Chisum applauded them for working together and said: "The Legislature itself is incapable of solving the problem without your support. We need you to come to us with the solutions, and we'll assist you in changing the law."
Ogden: Texas can solve the problem of financing road construction
State Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, TEXAS SENATE
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Austin American-Statesman
Recently, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), in its effort to address the highway construction needs of our state, alarmed many in the Legislature and many more in my district. This is counter-productive and unnecessary. I want to report to you what can be done to get things back on track.
TxDOT is not "out of money" and can lift its current moratorium on new construction by selling $1.5 billion of voter-approved bonds. Concerns have been raised on repayment of this large sum of money. In response, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, House Speaker Tom Craddick, House Appropriations Chairman Warren Chisum, and myself as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee recently wrote a letter to TxDOT Chairwoman Hope Andrade. We informed her that $300 million has been appropriated to TxDOT for debt service and committed to increase funding for TxDOT in the next biennial budget.
Last November, Texans overwhelmingly approved another $5 billion in general obligation bonds for highway improvements. During the next session, which begins in January, the Legislature will pass a bill authorizing TxDOT to sell these bonds and use the proceeds for new road construction.
Later this month, the Senate Finance Committee will examine additional financing methods. Specifically, I want to explore the possibility of investing a portion of our state's trust funds (i.e., Employees Retirement System, Teachers Retirement System, Permanent School Fund, Permanent University Fund) in TxDOT toll projects. The argument for this is straightforward. If it is such a great idea for foreign companies to invest in and profit from our roads, why isn't it a good idea for our retired teachers and state employees to invest their trust funds in and profit from these roads?
These same trust funds currently make large investments in real estate and infrastructure outside of Texas. I think some of this money should be invested in Texas and that this would be a "win-win-win" situation. Roads will be built, the trust funds will get a guaranteed return on their investment, and the toll revenue would benefit public education in Texas.
The problem of financing the construction of Texas roadways can be solved. The solutions that I propose do not require new taxes, sales to private concerns, or destruction of the countryside with Trans-Texas Corridors a thousand feet wide. Let's stop arguing and get to work on solutions that Texans will support.
Ogden is the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
State extends comment time for TTC plan to April 18
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
McReynold's constituents don't matter. Neither do anyone else's. The Texas legislature had transcended constituencies.