Toll Road Roller Coaster
March 23rd, 2007 at 5:22 pm
Anti-tollers have got to be feeling bruised and abused these days. After a boisterous hearing at the Lege a couple of weeks ago; a rousing demonstration at the Capitol; a massive letter-writing campaign, and round-the-clock blogging, roughly 125 members in the House and Senate signed onto a bill that would halt private toll-road development for two years.
Then, on Wednesday, John Carona, the Dallas Republican who chairs the Senate’s Transportation and Homeland Security Committee did a flip-flop, saying he’s not going to bring the measure up for a vote. Wassup with that? Did the guys who make cement get to him?
Pressed by anti-tollers, Carona issued a lame explanation, saying that the moratorium wouldn’t solve the toll road problems. True enough, but the purpose of the two-year breather was to allow legislators time to fix the problemos before the entire state was covered with toll lanes and video cameras.
Ironically, the anti-tollers may be getting a little help from Darth Vader himself — state Rep. Mike Krusee — who several years ago pushed through the massive legislation that opened the doors to private road warriors across the globe. In an interview over drinks at the Stephen F. Austin Hotel Thursday night, Krusee said he was working with Carona and other reps to rework some of the more unpalatable provisions in the contracts.
Some of the items that might get tweaked in the so-called comprehensive development agreements are the contract lengths, buy-out conditions, the non-compete clauses, and possibly a cap on the number of CDAs that TXDOT can enter into with private contractors in any given year.
“It’s impossible to say how things will shake out,” Krusee said. “Carona suggested that we author a bill that incorporates many of the concerns that people have. He would do it in the Senate and I would do it in the House. Those bills are being written in consultation with members like Lois Kolkhorst and will be probably rewritten on the floor. ”
Krusee confirmed that his colleagues in the Lege were “deathly afraid” of being voted out by the populist mobs. But Krusee, who nearly lost his seat in November to a mom, is more philosophical. “Life goes on,” he said, shrugging his shoulders and sipping the devil’s sweet nectar — a shot of J&B scotch on the rocks — purchased by the Observer with the express hope of loosening his tongue.
Krusee went on to say he was not getting pressure from anybody. No sweet talk from Pretty Ricky. No thuggish growls from the road builders. No yelps for help from the Transportation Department. “I could do a Robert Nichols tomorrow and say I’m in favor of the moratorium and reverse all the policies and I don’t believe anyone would put any pressure on me.”
But opponents of toll roads should keep in mind that just because Krusee’s willing to compromise, it doesn’t mean that he’s caught the anti-toll fever. Krusee believes deeply toll roads are the way to solve the state’s transportation problems. And he makes a much more articulate case for the pay-as-you-go highways than Ric Williamson, his pugnacious counterpart at the Texas Transportation Commission.
As for the raising the gasoline tax, Krusee said he was okay with that. But he added that he was going to make sure his colleagues knew that it was one of the most “regressive taxes” on the planet. He said most of the toll roads on the drawing board will benefit people living in the suburbs, who for the most part are affluent Republicans. “When we do a fuel tax, people in the inner city are not only subsidizing people who live in the suburbs, but they’re also subsidizing NAFTA trucks carrying goods from Monterrey to Chicago.”
It was thirsty work, trying to explain the benefits of toll roads to doubting Thomases. Krusee drained his second glass of nectar and stood up to leave.”I give this talk twice a week all over Texas. I haven’t met anybody who hasn’t been persuaded that it isn’t a fair way to proceed.”
