Posted on 05/15/2007 9:51:54 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
More projects exempted from private toll road moratorium in unanimous Senate vote.
The Texas Senate, after hours of closed-door negotiations stamped out hot spots of dissent, unanimously passed revamped toll road legislation Monday that would supplant a bill languishing on Gov. Rick Perry's desk.
Perry, who has made it clear he would veto the first bill, House Bill 1892, immediately signaled that he would allow Senate Bill 792 to become law if the House passes it in its current form. Lawmakers involved in the negotiations say they hope to get SB 792 to Perry late this week in time to avert a veto, although the often-fractious House might not play along.
"This is a good compromise that allows projects important to local communities to go forward, recognizing that Texas is a fast-growing state with real congestion concerns that cannot be put on hold," Perry said.
The bill, running about 60 legal-size pages after several Senate amendments Monday, further dilutes a two-year ban on private toll contracts with the state that has been the focus of transportation debate this session.
That ban in HB 1892 already had several exemptions for proposed tollways in Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio and El Paso. The Senate on Monday, with SB 792, added the Grand Parkway loop planned for Houston, the potential Interstate 69 from near Corpus Christi to Brownsville, and all of Cameron County.
Perhaps more meaningfully, it would allow private toll road contracts to run 50 years, rather than 40, and make other changes likely to encourage the private sector to continue its keen interest in building and operating Texas tollways. Most new toll projects would be subject to an up-front "market valuation" of how much they might fetch on the private market. If a local government toll agency could not generate that market value, the projects could be put up for bid on the private market.
Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, chairman of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee, who over the past week helped negotiate SB 792's language, said he remains no fan of handing off roads to private concerns. But he said private projects are a necessary evil for now because the Legislature has declined to raise the state gas tax for 16 years.
"Is it my first choice?" Carona said of private tollway contracts, often referred to as comprehensive development agreements, or CDAs. "Candidly, it's my last choice. But communities simply have no alternative until the Legislature sees fit to bring current our gasoline tax rate."
Activists around the state who have opposed Perry's transportation policies, such as the Trans-Texas Corridor of cross-state tollways, say the Legislature, in supplanting HB 1892 just a couple of weeks after passing it, is fixing a problem that doesn't exist. They would rather the House and Senate, which approved HB 1892 in recent weeks by a combined 166-5 vote, hang tough and, if necessary, override a veto.
"CorridorWatch sees serious signs that SB 792 will create loopholes big enough to drive any (Trans-Texas Corridor) CDA through," said David Stall, co-founder of the Fayette County-based group. "If that's the case, we are all wasting each others' time."
Highlights of the compromise toll road legislation
Source: Senate Bill 792
Senate avoids Perry veto, OKs compromise bill on toll roads
Commissioners may opt out of I-69 alliance
Senate backs deal on transportation
Senate Panel OKs Bill To Redirect Toll Road Power
(The reporter's name is Ben Wear, by the way.)
BTTT
Looks like Perry won this one and the legislature sold out.
I agree with your opinion.
bump.
Looks like Perry won this one and the legislature sold out.
Whoever said this whole thing was just a temporary pill for public consumption was absolutely right. All this did was add 50 pages to the transportation code allowing the DOT and the RMAs to have more power.
There will be hell to pay come election time!
THIS IS THE STUPIDEST IDEA EVER FROM TEXAS GOVERNMENT.
IMPERITIVE THAT WE STOP GOVERNOR PERRY’S DRIVE TO DIVIDE TEXAS INTO TWO STATES.
HOW MANY MILLIONS DOES IT COST TO BUILD A CROSSOVER AND INTERCHANGE ON A SIMPLE INTERSTATE?
I DON’T KNOW BUT IT IS MANY MILLIONS.
NOW HOW MANY hundreds OF MILLIONS WILL IT COST TO BUILD A CROSSOVER AND INTERCHANGE FOR THE TTC?
JUST IMAGINE BUILDING A CROSSOSVER BRIDGE WHICH MUST CROSS OVER THE EQUIVALENT OF 2 INTERSTATES, PIPELINES, A RAILROAD, AND ELECTRIC HIGH TENSION POWER LINES?
THERE IS NO WAY THAT MANY CROSSOVERS WILL BE MADE, AND TEXAS WILL BE EFFECTIVELY DIVIDED INTO EAST TEXAS AND WEST TEXAS.
WHAT WILL BE THE TOLL TO CROSS THE TTC?
NOT TO SPEAK OF PUTTING SO MUCH CONTROL OF OUR LAND IN THE HANDS OF FOREIGN COMPANIES AND FOREIGN POWERS.
GET YOUR LEGISLATORS TO KILL THIS STUPDIST OF IDEAS.
CALL THEM NOW.
Why wait until election time? This country can’t survive the continuous selling out of our politicians to internationalist interests.
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