TxDOT Critics Named to Sunset Review Commission-

By Martha Estes - Jan. 9, 2007
FYI: about the Commission
The Commission includes twelve members. The lieutenant governor and the speaker each appoint one public member and five members from their respective chambers. They also appoint alternating chairs and vice chairs for two-year terms. Legislative members serve four-year terms and public members serve two-year terms.

The Sunset process works by setting a date on which an agency will be abolished unless legislation is passed to continue its functions. This creates an opportunity for the Sunset Commission and the Legislature to study each agency closely and make fundamental changes to its mission or operations if necessary. This includes holding public hearings and issuing a final report of findings with recommendations as to whether the reviewed state agency's mandate will be renewed or expired.

Agencies are typically reviewed every twelve years and up to 30 agencies can go through the Sunset process each legislative session. Some of the agencies up for review this term are the Texas Department of Agriculture, the Texas Department of Insurance, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Office of State-Federal Relations, the Texas Department of Transportation and the Texas Youth Commission.

Also FYI: about the Members
On October 9, 2007 Speaker Tom Craddick (Midland) announced the appointments of #1 Rep. Linda Harper-Brown (Irving) and #2 Rep. Carl Isett (Lubbock) and the reappointment of #3 Ike Sugg of San Angelo, a public member of the Commission. Isett will serve as chair of the Commission.
#4 Rep. Lois Kolkhorst (Brenham), #5 Rep. Ruth McClendon Jones (San Antonio), and #6 Rep. Dan Flynn (Van) are members serving the last two years of their four-year terms (2009). Before Rep. Kolkhorst's prominent role in the opposition to the TTC footprint in the 2007 Legislative Session she was the expected Chair for the Sunset Commission.

Note: We need to keep in mind that Sen. Hegar carried the battle in the Senate for the Eminent Domain/Private Property Rights bill # 2006 to protect property owners in Condemnation. It had great support in both chambers and was vetoed by Perry.

Read more at Working for Accountable Government



TxDOT critics appointed to key state commission
By Will Lutz - The Dallas Blog - Tue, Jan 8, 2008

Rep. Linda Harper-Brown (Irving) and Rep. Carl Isett (Lubbock)Rep. Linda Harper-Brown (Irving) and Rep. Carl Isett (Lubbock by Will Lutz http://www.dallasblog.com/200801081001536/dallas-blog/txdot-critics-appointed-to-key-state-commission.html
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst today announced his appointments to the Sunset Advisory Commission, and his appointments could spell trouble for the current brass at the Texas Department of Transportation.

Dewhurst appointed the following people: #1 Sen. Glenn Hegar (R-Katy), #2 Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa (D-McAllen), and #3 Michael Stevens as a public appointee. Dewhurst designated Hegar as the vice chairman of the commission -- the lead Senator on the Sunset Advisory Commission. The appointments are important because the Sunset Advisory Commission is scheduled to review the often controversial Texas Department of Transportation in 2009.

Hegar made stopping the corridor one of the key themes of his successful Senate race in 2006.

Stevens is known for his work on the Governor's Business Council and for chairing the council's Transportation Task Force. The Task Force released a report critical of Department of Transportation's estimated costs of building roads in metropolitan areas.

The Sunset Advisory Commission was originally created to determine if state agencies needed abolition or consolidation. But its mandate has since been expanded to examine how to improve the structure of state agencies. The commission's recommendations become drafted in bill form and then those bills are considered by the Legislature in the next legislative session.

Hegar, Stevens, and Hinojosa join #4 Sens. Bob Deuell (R-Greenville), #5 Kim Brimer (R-Arlington), and #6 Craig Estes (R-Wichita Falls) who are serving the last two years of their four-year terms. Hegar and Hinojosa were appointed to four-year terms, and Stevens was appointed to a two-year term. They join six appointees of the House speaker on the commission."I truly appreciate the willingness of all three of these individuals to serve on this important commission," Dewhurst said. "I know each of them will provide knowledgeable and thought-provoking contributions as the Sunset Advisory Commission undertakes the review of some of our most important state agencies."
Read more in the Dallas Blog

Perry signs legislation to halt private toll roads

But the moratorium excludes virtually all North Texas projects
By CHRISTY HOPPE and JAKE BATSELL - The Dallas Morning News - Monday, June 11, 2007

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry signed a new transportation law (SB792) Monday that
eases some of the fears over runaway toll roads and gives local
authorities more control over road projects.

The bill was a compromise hammered out in the final days of the
legislative session between the governor, who has championed private
toll roads as a way to quickly build highways without raising taxes, and
lawmakers, who have felt the wrath of rural landowners and skeptical
urban commuters.

Legislators revisited a 2003 law that many felt had hidden consequences,
such as allowing private firms to take over large swaths of the state
highway system, stripping property owners of their land and discouraging
public entities from competing for toll projects."Texas was becoming the test tube for private equity plans," said Rep.

Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, who pushed for a two-year moratorium on
private toll deals.

Lawmakers initially – and overwhelmingly – passed a bill that would have
placed more restrictions on the governor's efforts to privatize roads.

Mr. Perry vetoed that bill.

The bill he signed Monday has a partial moratorium in place. But the
two-year freeze was dubbed the "Swiss cheese moratorium" because it's
riddled with exemptions, including virtually all North Texas toll roads
already in the works.

"I am proud to sign this legislation because it will help Texas build
the roads we need to manage our state's tremendous population growth,"
Mr. Perry said.

The bill halts at least one project in San Antonio. And Texas
Transportation Commission members have said the moratorium, despite all
its exemptions, still sends a chilling effect to private investors.

"A seemingly innocuous moratorium is, in effect, a freezing of the
entire program," said Ric Williamson, the commission's chairman, in an
earlier interview.

Mr. Williamson acknowledged that the past five months were humbling for
the Transportation Department.

Lawmakers repeatedly criticized what they described as the agency's (TxDOT)
rogue and arrogant tactics in awarding toll road deals."The whole process has been inalterably changed," he said. "We know
clearly what [lawmakers'] concerns are, what they want us to do, what
they don't want us to do. And we will change our behavior accordingly."

The bill gives local entities such as the North Texas Tollway Authority
the first option to build toll projects, limits private toll contracts
to 50 years and establishes a new process to determine a road's market
value.
On Thursday, transportation commissioners will consider a list of
possible projects to develop under the new legislation, which takes
effect immediately.
...
As lawmakers sought to curb private toll roads, they also thwarted bids
to raise the state gas tax to keep up with inflation and to expand
transit systems through voter-approved sales-tax hikes. They even toyed
with suspending the gas tax for the summer.
...
"What people seem to forget in this whole debate about roads is that the
citizens always pay for the roads," said Sen. Robert Nichols,
R-Jacksonville, a former transportation commissioner and a leading
backer of the moratorium. "The question is, how do you want to collect
the money?"

Read more

UPDATED: White smoke emerges on transportation bill

By Ben Wear - Austin-American Statesman -Wednesday, May 23, 2007

There’s a deal afoot on SB 792, and it doesn’t include Amendment 13.

State Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, one of the Senate conferees on the bill, said agreement was reached earlier this afternoon and final drafting touches are underway. Carona said all five Senate conferees are on board. However one of them, state Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, said later that he is not in on the deal at this point.

On the House side, Carona said that four of the five House representatives are on board. That doesn’t include state Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, who according to one House member was in the governor’s office during the 4 o’clock hour discussing the issue.

Carona said the governor, wielding a veto pen for a bill for which no override is possible, has the upper hand, especially because Rick Perry pretty much is happy with the law as it stands now.

“We have far more to lose on this than the governor,” Carona said. “And he’s given in to the will of the Legislature on a great many points.”

Those points, however, do not include Kolkhorst’s Amendment 13, which would have included so-called “facilities agreements” in the ban on private toll road contracts. The Texas Department of Transportation has already signed what is called a comprehensive development agreement for TTC-35, which would be a tollway parallel to Interstate 35. Individual segments would be built under those facility agreements.

Carona said that no such agreements will be ready to go during the next two years, at least for highways, because of the time it takes to get final environmental approval from the federal government. The department, however, might be ready to go with a new freight railroad from Dallas to Laredo, and would like to preserve the ability to do that before the Legislature comes back in 2009.

“The rail project has never been an issue,” Carona said.

Both houses will now have to consider the conference committee report in up-or-down majority votes. A Senate vote could come as early as Thursday. The House, with its 24-hour layout rule, the ongoing fracas over Speaker Tom Craddick and a likely oppositional push by Kolkhorst, might take longer.

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David Stall of Corridor Watch reports on SB 792

SB792 is Now The New and Improved TTC CDA Moratorium Bill.
Thursday House vote: 145 to 2

Representative Lois Kolkhorst came through on Thursday with a couple great amendments that will ensure the moratorium really stops the Trans Texas Corridor for two years.

SB792 is a virtual bullet-bill, but not bullet-proof.

The vote to pass SB792 on second reading, as amended, was an incredible 145 to 2. Then, only minutes later the House did something rarely seen, they suspended the Constitutional Rules and moved to take a third and final vote immediately without waiting until Friday.

Now the bill will be shot over to the Senate where they had hoped to get it on the Governor's desk by Friday morning. The big question is will they accept it as amended by the House, or complicate the process by going to a conference committee.

Almost three hours of TTC bashing.

The vast majority of discussion and debate that took place on the House floor today displayed open contempt for the Trans Texas Corridor. Most other toll and highway projects where left alone, except SH281 and Loop 1604 in San Antonio. That wasn't the case with the Trans Texas Corridor.

Representative after Representative told the assembled body how much their constituents dislike the TTC. Representative Harvey Hilderbran said that in his district there was, "zero support for the TTC." That caused someone on the floor to reply, "less than zero."

It was very clear that the members of the House have been hearing us and our concerns about the Trans Texas Corridor. It was especially gratifying to hear Representatives say that the TTC comes nowhere near their district.

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