Toll Road Bill Rolls On
May 23rd, 2007 at 4:20 pm
We’re hearing conflicting rumors at the Legislature about SB 792, the toll-road measure that’s supposed to provide some oversight over private development deals with multinational corporations, such as Cintra Concesiones.
A source in the House told us this morning that Governor Ricky has succeeded in getting an amendment by state Rep. Lois Kolkhorst stripped from the bill. Amendment 13, as you will recall, would close a loophole that would allow the Trans-Texas Corridor to proceed.
But that doesn’t mean the hated network of super-corridors will actually be allowed to go forward. John Carona, the Dallas Republican who chairs the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee and has played a major role in drafting the toll-road legislation, said he’s confident that language in the bill will make it clear that TTC cannot proceed while the two-year moratorium is in effect.
“The negotiations are still going on,” said Carona. “I remain optimistic that we will reach an agreement in the next 24 hours.”
Carona said that he saw no support for a movement to override Ricky’s veto of HB 1892, which is very similar to the measure that’s still in play. Any over-ride effort, Carona cautioned, would almost certainly lead to a special session and no one wants that.
When all’s said and done, the bill’s so loaded with “carve-outs,” or road projects that are exempt from the two-year moratorium, that it seems like a shell. But a few good provisions remain. The non-compete clauses have been scaled back, the contract lengths curtailed to 50 years or less, and buy-back provisions have been added that will protect the state from paying gazillions for roads.
In the process, TxDot and its imperious chairman, Ric Williamson, have been badly mauled. Hopefully the department and its high-level operatives have learned some humility and will go out of their way to be more cooperative with the public and with local officials. And the bill itself cedes a lot of authority to local governments to decide what roads will be built.
That said, the Lege did nothing to solve the underlying problem, which is traffic congestion. So it might be worthwhile to think about that the next time you’re sitting in your car, alone, in traffic.
May 23rd, 2007 at 10:46 pm
Regrettably, TXDOT has not retreated to the time out corner to reflect on its heavy-handed and autocratic approach to transportation. Even as the legislators were trying, we think, to reign in the agency, TXDOT was lobbying for more authority. It pushed a bill that
allowed the department to take over the national environmental review process from the Federal Highway Administration and it presented a bill that allowed it to purchase property from willing buyers prior to the completion of the environmental review proces. Remember, the environmenal review process is a tool to help make decisions about specific routes, alternative routes,or no routes at all –known as the not-to-build alternative. Clearly, the beast has not been tamed.
You’re right the legislators did nothing about congestion, because all the focus is on roads and more roads. The only way to combat congestion is to offer people transit choices.
May 24th, 2007 at 12:34 am
This whole toll road issue is a mess. It boils down to the politicians have zero backbone. Index the damn gas tax already and stop raiding it for education. Perry is a joke, nobody except Perry, his campaign contributors, and the road building companies want the TTC. I have yet to hear ANY Texas citizen stand up for the TTC, and thousands expressing outrage over it.
It’s even spurned grassroots partnerships unthinkable before: Dems/Reps/Libs/Greens, everyone is united on this issue. Even Perry’s own Rep. party opposes the TTC in their official platform!
I’m really disappointed that anyone is driving for compromise on this issue. If you have $10 and someone steals it and then gives you back $5, that’s no compromise. Folding like a tent under the threat of a special session after passing HB1892 by such a huge margin is weak. The lege is on the side of the angels on this one.
May 24th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Remembering that “Jesters do oft prove prophets.” (from Shakespeare’s King Lear), I offer this for your reading enjoyment.
ODE TO THE GOVERNOR
Debonair, Millionaire, Governor GoodHair
seems to be totally unaware
that Texas has spoken,
“Our trust in him is broken.”
His plans for corridors and private toll roads
brought us up to Austin by the busloads!
There will be no animal tagging-
no HPV vaccines which we find abhorring.
The sale of the Texas Lottery
is nothing short of tomfoolery!
Lottery funds are for our children and education
certainly NOT for the Macquarie Corporation!
Will your pen veto SB792?
That’s what we’ve heard. Is it true?
Resorting to threats and blackmail?
Go do your worst. You won’t prevail.
Not since we fought off Spain before
have Texans stood so tall, so together, and more.
The future for you holds a dramatic event.
We SEE your breach of trust has fraudulent intent!
So, wear your crown. Go make a speech.
We will investigate the word
I M P E A C H
by Patricia A. Jones, 207 Duncan St., Hillsboro, TX 76645
May 31st, 2007 at 11:58 pm
They are trying to put tolls on roads our taxes ALREADY paid for. What part of that is hard for anyone to get? As it is we already pay double the national average for our insurance in this state to get much LESS coverage.
George Bush freeway was NOT supposed to be a toll road. We paid, and paid, and paid more, as that budget for construction went out the window, then after the people came, built homes there, built shopping centers, SLAM IN goes a toll road so they all have to pay up to $4.00 a day to get to, and from work, on a road that our taxes already paid for! Did one realtor or builder TELL those new buyers that freeway was going to be a toll later? NO.
Want to clear some congestion in the Dallas area? Take those blasted tolls off George Bush Freeway so it can actually “travel” at the SPEED of a freeway and stop tearing up ALL the roads in the same area at once.
It’s a joke when they talk about how these TOLLS that do indeed SLOW traffic are ever going to “help” with traffic congestion.
Want to pass new new measure? Mandate that these idiots cannot tear up more then one major throughway at the same time so we will not continue to endure the mess of having NO highway without lanes blocked.
We have enough in the gas tax alrady to cover paying for our roads. We need some serious accountability in this state for where the heck all the money is going. So no, those of us who are watching are not falling for that scam of agreeing to pay more in a gas tax either because the money is NOT being handled properly.
We don’t need to be talking about stopping these tolls because it should be a NON-issue for roads we already paid for.
They lOVE that they have everyone talking about “how” they are going to throw in a toll on our prepaid roads because that makes everyone FORGET that we ARE talking about roads we already paid for! If this weren’t so serious it would be as rediculous as an Abbot and Costello routine of Who’s on First?
We “should” all be talking about these criminals in office who continue to think it’s legal to double tax us for our roads, take away insurance benefits while allowing insurance companies to charge us more for LESS and stripping our rights to be free from medical injury accountability.