State spending millions to push Trans-Texas plan - Road campaign draws criticism and praise from lawmakers

By PEGGY FIKAC - Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau - Aug. 20, 2007
AUSTIN — The Texas Department of Transportation, which complains about chronic underfunding, has launched a multimillion-dollar campaign that promotes the divisive Trans-Texas Corridor plan and toll roads.

The campaign is anticipated to cost $7 million to $9 million, according to a memo titled "Keep Texas Moving: Tolling and Trans-Texas Corridor Outreach" sent to transportation officials by Coby Chase, director of the agency's government and public affairs division.

Such use of state highway-fund dollars is drawing questions, but the department says it's an important effort to educate and engage Texans.

"It's a waste of money," said Rep. Warren Chisum, chairman of the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee, "and they have no business out there trying to get public opinion to be in their favor."

The money would be better spent fixing roads, said Chisum, R-Pampa.

But Rep. Mike Krusee, House Transportation Committee chairman, said the campaign addresses lawmakers' concerns by explaining new financing methods.

"The Legislature has been beating TxDOT over the head for two years, telling them they need to explain what the Trans-Texas Corridor is and why it is necessary to the public. They've been telling TxDOT they are moving too fast — they are moving before the public and the Legislature has the chance to understand what they are doing and why," said Krusee, R-Round Rock.

If the outreach is effective, Krusee said, it could save money in the long run.

"Texas is losing money for roads by the hundreds of millions of dollars every year simply due to delay because the Legislature and the public don't understand the need to move to a new finance method. And so an expenditure of a few million dollars could literally save hundreds of millions of dollars per year," Krusee said.

The agency's budget is more than $7 billion for fiscal year 2007 and more than $8 billion for fiscal year 2008.

The Trans-Texas Corridor and toll roads have been championed by GOP Gov. Rick Perry and others as necessary in the face of congestion and gas-tax revenues that can't keep up with huge transportation needs.

But the initiative has drawn widespread criticism over the potential route and state proposals to partner with private companies to run toll roads. Lawmakers this year sought to rein in new private toll projects.

The new campaign, as outlined in the memo obtained by the Houston Chronicle, started June 1 with TV, radio, print, billboard and Internet advertising meant to push people to the Keep Texas Moving site (www.keeptexasmoving.com).

Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, who fought for a moratorium on privately run toll roads, said the initiative needs a hard look.

"TxDOT is consistently telling us we have no money to build highways, yet they seem to be spending a lot of money on internal audits and also ad campaigns. That's something that the Legislature needs to look at," she said. "I don't know that we would approve any other agency to do a $7 (million) to $9 million campaign on an initiative as controversial as the Trans-Texas Corridor and tolled roads."

She added that the cost "is a lot of money, and I would hope since it's taxpayer dollars they would approach it with a balanced approach to tell the pros and the cons of toll roads and the Trans-Texas Corridor."

TxDOT spokesman Chris Lippincott defended the campaign. "The clearest and most-often repeated criticism of the department during the legislative session was that we needed to do a better job of engaging the public," he said. "We heard that message loud and clear, and we're acting on it."

Read more in the Houston Chronicle

Hold Those Tolls! Lege leaves question: How will we pay for roads?

By Larry Schooler - The Austin Chronicle - July 27, 2007

It was Dec. 16, 2004, and Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock, was sitting pretty. He was virtually a guest of honor at a meeting of the Texas Transportation Commission, across the street from his Capitol office. A little more than a year before, as chairman of the House Trans­port­ation Committee, Krusee had successfully carried the behemoth House Bill 3588. Among its many and complex provisions, the bill helped smooth the way for Gov. Rick Perry to get the Texas Transportation Commission to approve early plans for the Trans-Texas Corridor. Stretching from Mexico to Oklahoma, the corridor would be a mammoth transportation project running parallel to I-35. As conceived, it would include free and tolled highway lanes, as well as rail and utility lines, and would be built and maintained by the privately held Spanish company Cintra (an international operator of toll roads and car parks) and the San Antonio-based Zachry Construction Corp.

At the Texas Transportation Commission meeting, attended by the governor himself, Krusee didn't say much. Actions spoke louder than words -- and on this day, the commission was acting on a project he had fought long and hard to convince legislators to support. By way of acknowledgment, commission Chairman Ric Williamson duly praised Krusee for his work at the Capitol. Krusee had a flight to catch, but first he took the floor for a brief stroll down memory lane.

"I started thinking about the first time that I met Ric Williamson," Krusee recalled, according to a meeting transcript. It was 1992, and Krusee had just been elected to the House; then-Rep. Williamson invited the 32-year-old Krusee to his apartment. "So I went over there, and Ric had one of his good friends over there, and that was the night I met Rick Perry, who was the ag commissioner, and we talked long into the night about accomplishing great things for Texas, about how to be a great leader for Texas. And we weren't thinking about how to be on Texas Monthly's 10 best [list] -- but you know, Ric, I think we were talking about days like this.

"And you know, governor," Krusee continued, "A little over two years ago when you made that presentation [about the Trans-Texas Corridor] in the auditorium at the Capitol, and I was in the audience, and like everybody else out there, I didn't really fully grasp what the hell you were talking about." The audience laughed.

"You do now, don't you?" asked Perry.

"I do now," Krusee replied. "And I want to congratulate you on your vision and your leadership, and the commission and your staff on your hard work, because you have made this, I think sincerely, the most historic day in transportation, not just for Texas, but for the United States since Eisenhower." With that, Krusee left the meeting.

Flash forward nearly 21/2 years -- to May 2, 2007. Chairman Krusee stood on the House floor, without a single transportation ally. Every House member present, except Krusee alone, voted in favor of HB 1892, which included a two-year moratorium on many of the public-private partnerships such as the one the Texas Department of Transportation had developed with Cintra-Zachry to build the Trans-Texas Corridor. "Who knew that trying to reduce congestion could be such a lonely fight?" wondered Coby Chase, who monitors the Legislature for TxDOT.

Perry eventually vetoed HB 1892, but a nearly identical Senate substitute, Senate Bill 792, later handily passed both the House and Senate, and Perry signed it into law. The massive bill forbids TxDOT from negotiating a tolling agreement with a private company until Sept. 1, 2009, exempting some projects already under­ way. Even among those exempted projects, some got swept up in the post-session, anti-privatization maelstrom. For instance, at its June meeting, the Texas Transportation Com­mission awarded a contract for the State High­way 121 project (in the Dallas/Fort Worth Met­ro­plex) to the North Texas Tollway Authority -- after initially awarding the contract to Cintra.

SB 792 also states that if a company paid TxDOT money up front for the rights to build a toll road in a particular region, TxDOT must use that money on other projects in that region. It requires TxDOT to give local tolling agencies preferential treatment over private companies by giving them free right-of-way and the right of first refusal on building toll roads. In essence, the Legislature left private companies interested in transportation on the bench for the next two years.

Politics or Policy?
So what happened? How could Rep. Krusee, four years earlier, convince all but three members of the House to approve legislation that enabled private companies to build highways, only to find that entire concept rejected out of hand this year? Not surprisingly, it depends on whom you ask.

"What happened was," Krusee said after the session, "TxDOT was going not just against the traditional rural opposition to road building but against Dallas and Houston in a turf battle over who would build the roads." In Dallas, Houston, Austin, and elsewhere, public toll-road authorities were getting outgunned by private companies like Cintra, and they weren't happy, Krusee says, so they asked their legislators to give tolling authorities right of first refusal. Krusee didn't take it personally that he seemed to be the only member of the House who wanted private companies to continue building roads. "I think it was a political vote," he said. "Members thought it was necessary to vote that way to get votes back home; they felt like they'd be criticized for voting against it."

Chase agrees with Krusee and points to the larger political context. "During this last election cycle, we had a candidate for governor; she liked to campaign against foreigners and against toll roads," Chase explained, in reference to gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who ran against Perry as an independent. "And then we had the [federal] Dubai Ports issue, and this was such a misleading discussion in the public. ... This Dubai company wouldn't own any port; they were just going to run them, and the government would lease it to them. Then Cintra becomes the successful proposer on the corridor and ... it kind of kick-started the 'no foreigners doing business in Texas' discussion."

But David Stall, of the anti-Trans-Texas Corridor group CorridorWatch, has a less benign explanation. Stall says legislators belatedly did their homework on public-private partnerships. "The Legislature did not recognize the shift in transportation policy that they were creating" in 2003, Stall said. "We started to see some handwriting on the wall in 2005, with some moratorium bills that didn't go anywhere. The reason they didn't go anywhere was we were still educating people. I think if legislators were educated in 2003 on what the corridor was, if they had understood it, they would not have voted to authorize its creation."

Looking for Consensus
Enter former Austin mayor and freshman Sen. Kirk Watson. Watson wasn't around in 2003 for the original vote on the corridor and agreements with private companies to build toll roads. But he came to the Lege with voices ringing loudly in his ear -- those of his new constituents. "Part of the reason there is this vitriolic, partisan [no-toll or toll] debate is that we haven't had a thoughtful, systematic, transparent means of analyzing what we want to do," he says. "There are clearly two agreements in this community -- one, we are too badly congested, and two, we want it fixed. When we get to three -- how to do it -- now it's not as unanimous."

Watson is unconvinced that letting a private company pay for, build, and make a profit on a new road is the best way to go. "I was skeptical of these comprehensive development agreements -- how long they were, their noncompete clauses. ... I happen to be a believer that if you're going to privatize, it should be for the stuff the public can't get done. I wasn't convinced -- at beginning or end of session -- that we weren't going to just have privatization on stuff that we couldn't get done in the public sector."

In other words, Watson didn't want profit-minded private companies building roads that could be built by government -- especially if, under noncompete clauses, the state has to pay the companies back for highways that take traffic (and potential income) away from the private toll roads. "I wanted to allow local communities to have more say," Watson explained. "It struck me that one of the things that was missing in the process was we needed more accountability in the system, and that probably meant elected officials having a role." That potentially means fewer deals with private companies and more for state tolling authorities or transportation commissions.

Watson had more than just his own rookie legislative voice to add to the discussion -- in January, he became chairman of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (the group in charge of the region's transportation projects) and vice chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee. At his suggestion, CAMPO indefinitely postponed any talk of a second phase of toll roads until it can take more time to sort out how best to finance transportation projects.

But the Legislature's decision to halt most road-building agreements with private companies leaves Central Texas in a bind, as Krusee sees it, when it comes to decongesting traffic. "To my mind, the bad thing about what the Legislature did this session was it took that option away" -- the option to have a private company get started now on building a given road. The Legislature's action doesn't mean that Austin or the surrounding jurisdictions can't build any more toll roads, but it means they can't call on a private company to do so. So as Krusee sees it, we're back at ground zero: Lacking sufficient up-front public funding, the state, via TxDOT, had been looking toward private companies as ideally positioned to help build roads quickly and efficiently, based on the promise of future toll revenue. Now that option is off the table, at least temporarily.

With toll roads built by private companies, says TxDOT's Chase, "You [the state] give up some future revenue to get a project now. You get a guaranteed price on the project, you are guaranteed the project will be returned to you in a certain condition, and the price you pay is you say the company can realize a profit on this over a certain amount of time. Some people had concerns of unlimited company profits without ever reading what the contracts were -- the companies can't raise tolls any time they want. If the profits get to a certain point, it goes back to the region to build more roads."

Often, as was the case with Cintra and the Trans-Texas Corridor, the company pays a large sum -- generally billions of dollars -- to buy the rights to build a road, which could mean the state could get other projects started more quickly using those advance funds.

Even Watson, skeptical as he is that a private company can handle transportation any better than the state, admits that a moratorium on deals with private companies could make it harder to do anything significant about area congestion for the next couple of years. "We're going to need to be honest about limitations of financing tools," he says. "In the state appropriations bill, there was an effective decrease in transportation money, when you consider inflation. There has been more moving of funds from transportation. Many people say they want an increase in gas tax; the House approved a gas tax holiday that would have taken away gas tax money for three months out of the year [that measure died in the Senate]. The money offered to states from federal government is being decreased; we just got notice that federal money rescinded $72 million more. We're going to have to start being honest about the limitations we have on being able to meet the need to fix the problem."

Stranded on the Highway
To that end, Watson has been meeting every two weeks with a CAMPO's Mobility Finance Task Force, which includes elected officials, outside transportation experts, even the executive director of the Community Part­ner­ship for the Homeless. Meanwhile, TxDOT has given preliminary approval to a set of toll projects in the Austin area, including some "managed lanes" (for use, say, by carpoolers or during rush hour) as well as the second phase of toll roads Watson doesn't want to talk about for now. TxDOT is also holding a series of public meetings later this year to explain the ramifications of what the Legislature did in suspending many of the proposed deals with private companies.

"We're doing things that no other department of transportation is doing," says Chase. "We're learning it as we go, and we have never ever had to engage the public on this large a scale in our 90-plus years of existence. And in many cases, we underestimated that challenge."

That last sentiment could also apply to those who want to do something about Austin's traffic congestion. If the Lege managed to placate the anti-toll crowd, at least for the time being, it didn't do much to make it any easier to travel on Central Texas highways, nor to address long-term projections that show regional traffic only getting worse. More broadly, the moratorium doesn't begin to address larger questions raised by traditional highway approaches to transportation: land use, mass transit options, pollution and global warming issues, or even integrated urban planning that might make transportation issues less intractable and expensive.

Those are the kind of issues that Sally Camp­bell hoped the Legislature would consider. Campbell is the executive director of Envision Central Texas, a 6-year-old nonprofit coalition aimed at addressing regional growth. Campbell wanted to hear more discussion and action on giving counties more control over land uses around future highways and relocating Union Pacific away from rail lines that commuters could use. "When we truly want to see this multimodal transportation system develop, the next step is to look at the transit options. And right now, we're trying to figure out what will work and what's the logical system. If you can think about commuter rail from San Antonio to Georgetown by relocating Union Pacific, that makes a whole other mode within the realm of possibility."

But rail relocation, and most other proposals for broadening the state's transportation options, remained stuck at the station during the 80th Legislature. What most legislators wanted to discuss was how to pay for new roads and where to put them. Whether Krusee's interest in more privatization or Watson's desire for greater accountability in transportation policy ultimately win the day in the current discussions, it could be two years -- or more -- before getting around seems much easier, even though commuter rail could start running through the region by the end of 2008.

That will be just in time for the 81st Legis­lat­ure -- and a whole new set of political detours during the next round of transportation debates.
Read more

80-Plus Toll Road Projects OK'd

By JIM VERTUNO - Associated Press Writer - © 2007 The Associated Press - June 14, 2007

AUSTIN — Transportation officials on Thursday approved more than 80 toll road projects across the state, many of which probably would use some private financing.

State lawmakers recently passed a two-year moratorium on some private toll road contracts. The law still allows local and state planners to move on the new toll projects _ with a price range of more than $50 billion _ although the rules have changed.
...
"The message we got was toll roads are OK, but we don't want privately owned roads," said Ric Williamson, chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission, which approved the projects.

The projects touch most of the state's largest cities. Williamson said they need to be built as toll roads because traditional state funding won't cover the cost.

"They will be almost 100 percent private sector financing," Williamson predicted.

According to state officials, the agency's $16.6 billion budget the next two years is only a 2 percent increase that won't cover the double-digit inflation in recent years of road costs. Gas tax collections will not even cover road maintenance, let alone support building new roads.
"These are projects local officials have said are needed to reduce congestion but are waiting in line for funding," Williamson said.

Toll roads and the state's aggressive policies regarding the controversial Trans Texas Corridor were among the major issues of the recently completed legislative session.

Legislators from rural areas were concerned about private property rights. Those from urban districts complained of toll roads financed and owned by foreign companies.

"We were moving faster than most government agencies move and it spooked some people," Williamson said.

Lawmakers originally considered a two-year ban on private toll road contracts. Gov. Rick Perry said it would kill jobs, shut down road construction and prevent access to federal highway money.

The compromise bill signed into law by Perry last week freezes some of the kinds of private funding contracts the state had been using, but also carved out about a dozen exemptions for those projects that were far into the planning stages.

It also created new rules for projects like those approved Thursday, giving local governments more authority to build toll roads.

The compromise bill also imposes limits on comprehensive development agreements, used in contracts for private-public road building. It also set up a process to determine a road's market value.

Comprehensive development agreements, or CDAs, are a relatively new tool meant to let the Texas Department of Transportation complete road-building projects more quickly and cheaply by using a single contract for design and construction.
Those agreements have attracted the attention of multinational consortiums willing to pay large sums up front for the right to operate roads and pocket the tolls for decades to come.

That startled some residents and lawmakers who said drivers will become hostages to the private companies, forced to pay increasingly hefty tolls.

Read more

Criticism jeopardizes Trans-Texas Corridor

By Bob Campbell - Staff Writer -Midland Reporter-Telegram - June 12, 2007

The proposed Trans-Texas Corridor system of "super highways" has become so controversial it may be discarded, a spokesman for the Texas Public Policy Foundation in Austin said Monday.

Addressing 100 people at a Petroleum Club luncheon, Research Fellow Talmadge Heflin said scathing criticism led the 80th Legislature to put a two-year moratorium on projects like the corridor that entail contracts with private companies.

Answering a question from local foundation supporter J. Evetts Haley Jr., Heflin said, "If the waves over Texas about the corridor continue, it will probably meet its demise."

Lawmakers said they were dubious about the corridor's private property impingements and probable high profits for consortium leaders Zachry Construction of San Antonio and the Cintra Corp. of Madrid, Spain.

Heflin, a former 22-year Houston state representative who was chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, praised legislators for ending the session May 28 with a $7 billion surplus.

He also commended them for thwarting North Texas representatives controlled by the Dallas Area Rapid Transit Authority who tried to increase the city sales tax ceiling to 10 percent. "We need to keep the sales taxes where they are," said Heflin.

Foundation board member Ernie Angelo opened the event by saying the group's experts not only write good policy but also maximize their influence by disseminating their analyses to the Legislature. "These folks have an impact," Angelo said.
...
Foundation President and Vice President Brooke Rollins and Mary Katherine Stout noted their organization is largely supported by private donations. Its other Midland board member is Tim Dunn, who said it is effective because "facts and truth have an impact."

Dunn said lawmakers should have dedicated the surplus to a property tax reduction above the school tax cuts enacted last year.

Wagon Wheel Ranch owner Odis Holiman of Midkiff said mineral rights owners do not adequately compensate surface rights owners for damages done during oil production. "They don't have to negotiate and they don't," he said.

Read more

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

Lobbyist describes status of toll roads

by LAUREN THOMPSON - Longview News-Journal - Friday, June 08, 2007

Hank Gilbert was not impressed with the 80th meeting of the Texas Legislature.

Gilbert, a former candidate for agriculture commissioner and Democratic anti-toll road lobbyist, offered his opinions and reported on his efforts, specifically on bills concerning the toll roads, at the Texas Democratic Women of Gregg County's monthly meeting Thursday.

"The 80th session probably had some high points," he said of the Democrats' progress. "But I didn't see them; except the raising of the minimum wage to $7.25, which won't go into effect for another two years."

Gilbert spoke in detail about Texas House Bill 1892, a piece of toll-road legislation putting a two-year moratorium on all toll-road projects.

"They said, 'Hey, let's stop where we are, study the vitality of these roads and make a decision from there,'" he said.

The bill was approved by the House and the Senate with a combined vote of 166-5. Gov. Rick Perry promised to veto the bill, prompting the Senate to compromise with Senate Bill 792. This new edition added amendments protecting certain roads and businesses from the two-year moratorium, including the development of Interstate 69, as it would hinder the economic development of the Rio Grande Valley. Interstate 69 is expected to extend from Northeast Texas to Mexico.

He said he saw this compromise as big business deliberately infringing upon smaller towns' rights, which will be affected if the Trans-Texas Corridor continues adding highways through small towns.

The Trans-Texas Corridor is a 4,000 mile plan of tollways, according to texastollparty.com.

"We have to work together to campaign against the legislators down in Austin who aren't there to represent their people regardless of their political party," he said.

Read more

Who held the line in the Texas House against Perry's demands

Who held the line in the House and didn't cave to Perry
By Faith Chatham
These are the House Members who refused to accept a butchered moratorium bill. Without Amendment 13 guaranteeing that the TTC stayed in the moratorium, there was no point in passing the bill. With Perry's demands that MARKET VALUATION be applied to Texas Transportation projects, SB 792 had more disadvantages to the public than advantages. These Representatives stood firm against Perry and refused to vote to pass SB 792.

14 Democrats and 5 Republicans held the line.

From the NCTCOG - DFW area 6 voted against Perry's Market Valuation Scheme
DFW NT Region - 2 Dems + 3 Republican
Democrats:
Burnham (DFW REGION - Fort Worth)
Veasey (DW REGION - Fort Worth
Republicans:
Miller (DFW REGION - Stephenville)
Paxton (DFW REGION - McKinney)
Laubenbert (DFW REGION - Rockwall)

In the ALAMO COG Region 8 voted against Perry's market valuation scheme:
San Antonio Alamo Region - 7 Dems plus 1 Republican
DEMOCRATS:
Castro (San Antonio)
Puente (San Antonio)
Villarreal (San Antonio)
Martinez-Fischer (San Antonio)
McClendon (San Antonio)
Leibowitz (San Antonio)
REPUBLICANS:
Straus (San Antonio)
Macias (Bulvedere - Comal - Kendall Counties)

In the CAPITOL COG - AUSTIN REGION 1 voted against Perry's Market Valuation scheme.
1 Democrat - No Republicans
DEMOCRATS:
Farias (Austin)

In the HOUSTON-GALVESTON COG Area 4 voted against Perry's Market Valuation scheme
Houston - 4 Dems no Republicans
DEMOCRATS:
Coleman (Houston)
Farrar (Houston)
Hernandez (Houston)
Thompson (Houston)

In the East Texas COG Area 1 voted against Perry's Market Valuation scheme.
1 Democrat No Repubicans
DEMOCRATS:
Frost (ET - New Boston) - a Democrat in a highly Republican district

The above analysis is based on UNCERTIFIED VOTE of the House on approval of the Senate/House conference committee version of SB 792. Senate final vote has not been posted. When certified returns are posted this will be revised to reflect any changes.

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.

Read more

Action Alert on SB 792 by David Van Os

The Trans-Texas Corridor moratorium bill needs YOU
David Van Os - Texas Kaos
A few days ago it looked like the people of Texas were going to get a two-year moratorium on the TTC monstrosity. It looked like overwhelming numbers of legislators in both the House and the Senate had heard the voices of the people. It looked like our House members and Senators were going to get us breathing room in which to continue to spread information and education to our fellow Texans about the intolerable scar Dictator Perry and his campaign contributors want to rip across the face of our state. Read more

T.U.R.F. warns that Market Valuation in SB 792 allows backdoor CDAs

By Terri Hall - Executive Director Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom
YOU’VE BEEN HAD! TXDOT’S GOTCHA IN SB 792

MARKET VALUATION(IE - CONCESSION FEES) WILL BE MANDATORY ON ALL TOLL PROJECTS IF SB 792 PASSES AS WRITTEN! TRADITIONAL TURNPIKES NO LONGER AN OPTION!

In seeking clarification on the implications of “market valuation” on toll projects (Sec. 228.0111), TURF has learned that if SB 792 passes as written, ALL toll projects around the state MUST USE market valuation to establish toll rates and to set toll rate escalation. Traditional turnpikes, where an entity simply sells bonds for the actual cost of building the road and the tolls pay back that debt, WILL BE OFF THE TABLE!
Read more

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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SB 792 about summer break, not passing a good bill

May 18th, 2007 by Terri Hall (Executive Director of T.U.R.F. and San Antonio Toll Party)

The REAL truth behind today is that Governor Perry called the Legislature’s bluff. He successfully did what he did to win re-election…he got North Texas and Harris County to drink his poison pill last weekend (remember that three extra days he bought himself for arm-twisting by refusing to accept HB 1892), which was evidenced by the unanimous vote of the Senate Monday.

This is why veto overrides are so rare. The whole thing was a ruse. The Senate used HB 1892’s vote margins as leverage to get Perry to the table. They never intended to override him. Harvey Kronberg was right! The rest of this was a foregone conclusion ever since. Our San Antonio guys were ready to vote against this disastrous “compromise,” but voted for it since HB 1892 had a loophole for the corridor. So SB 792 with all it’s horrific flaws was the only means to get a moratorium that also included TTC 35. San Antonio roads were already in both (even stronger language made it into SB 792).
However, there are so many exceptions to this moratorium, that of all the CDAs currently being negotiated, only TTC 35, San Antonio, and El Paso are in it. The moratorium does stop TxDOT from signing more. So here we are again in yet another session where a last minute omnibus transportation bill where the good stuff gets watered down and the bad stuff gets rushed through with people voting on things WITH NO DEBATE. They had a shell of a debate with foregone conclusions at the outset. It ended up being like what happened to Senator Robert Nichols who was sandbagged and brought in and asked for his opinion on the bill AFTER they had the votes to outnumber him.

Word in the “back room” today was follow Wayne Smith. The leadership said if he votes for something, follow. If he votes against, follow. That’s what the Governor wants. So it went something like this: thumbs up, thumbs down, that’s our ticket out of town. They had a special room off to the side of the House floor with TxDOT arm twisters…they defeated Macias’ amendment to restore open government and allow PUBLIC access to toll feasibility studies….they shut down EVERYTHING. In fact, Smith said he would testify in favor of Macias’ amendment to keep toll studies OPEN to the PUBLIC, then he turned on him at the last minute. Smith couldn’t look Macias in the eye afterwards…what a TRAITOR! That’s what they were being told would avoid a special session.

I love how these sorry excuses for human beings sleep at night when they worry more about missing summer vacation than passing a good bill (stripping this “market valuation” language) or doing what the citizens ask. Don’t get mad at our San Antonio reps who heard you loud and clear; they asked us how to vote…we did the best we could given the circumstances. At least we could get the TTC 35 fixed. It’s the North Texas and Harris County reps that sold the rest of the state out.

If you want to take out your venom on someone, it’s the Senate. John Carona’s office assured us “no compromises” on the key provisions like the buy-back clauses. They said they were pushing to get the equivalent of HB 1892 or better. I beg to differ, it’s worse, far worse! This bill kicks the teeth out of the killer clause that would have chased off private operators for good. Instead, they’re just crippled. We could have knocked it out of the ballpark, but our representatives acted more like politicians than public servants. The Senate set the example of caving into the pressure so the House followed suit. They didn’t have the guts to take this Governor down and override his veto. They wanted summer break more than fighting FOR the citizens of Texas. That market valuation language will bury this state under oppressive tolls if we don’t beat that door down next session.

Guess Senator Carona’s concerns about high tolls only applies when they’re going to Cintra instead of his tolling authority. Both fleece the taxpayer, except under the PUBLIC toll road fleecing they justify it this way: “at least those high tolls go to build more roads.” Goodie! Are these Republicans we’re talking about here? Because this sounds like tax and spend if I’ve ever heard it.
We did get an amendment that PUT 281/1604 UNDER the moratorium (stronger than previous intent language)…but our REAL problem now is Perry’s NEW language that allows the same “market value” poison to be inflicted on us through PUBLIC tolling entities…we only stopped CDAs, not the toll train. They get you coming and going…

Market valuation just opened a new can of worms. TTC 69 is still on the table though support for it as a CDA is already starting to crack. The best medicine? VOTE the rascals out.

Perry is poison for this State and no one will go up against him even though we handed them the golden opportunity for a showdown with this Governor. Even Rep. Joe Pickett voted with KRUSEE!!!

All we truly got today was TTC 35 in the moratorium…everything else just got worse. The Governor beat them with his billy club and they said Uncle inside of 30 seconds without a whimper. Like Lee Iacocca says in his new book, Where have all the Leaders Gone?

Look, at this Ben Wear story (below)…today was all about making it acceptable to the Governor, and turf battles over the pot of money they can extract from “market-based” highways rather than about the PEOPLE of TX that have to pay for these horrific decisions for generations (with interest!)!

READ MORE about MARKET VALUATION language in SB 792