The Texas Observer

Mike Krusee, the chairman of the House Transportation Committee, said this afternoon that talks aimed at developing a compromise between the Governor’s Office and the Legislature over the toll-road legislation are going well.

“We’re making progress,” said Krusee, who two years ago brokered the massive toll-road bill that slipped through the Legislature without much notice. Krusee declined to provide any details on the negotiations. “We’re just trying to find common ground.”

The House and Senate have approved by a veto-proof margin HB 1892, which would put a two-year moratorium on toll roads governed by contracts called comprehensive development agreements. Several toll projects in Dallas have been exempted from the moratorium, as has all of El Paso county.

The bill, which Gov. Perry has until midnight on Thursday to veto, would do much more than just temporarily halt toll-road construction. It would also reduce the length of the contracts with private developers, enumerate buy-back provisions, rein in the non-compete clauses, and return control of road-building to local governments, such as counties and municipalities.

Perry doesn’t like the bill and has threatened to call a special session to resolve the issue. “The measure kills jobs, fractures the state’s transportation system, puts Texas at risk for losing federal money and, quite frankly, creates an environment that’s ripe for political corruption. You’re going to have county officials who are able to take donations from individuals who want to build roads rather than work through the state contractual system,” said Krista Moody, deputy press secretary.

(That comment is a little hard to take with a straight face, especially given the fact that Austin lobbyist Dan Shelley once worked for both Perry and Cintra, the Spanish firm that’s on the fast track to getting billions frm TxDot.)

Sources say that Tricky Ricky, as the folks back home in Haskell County call him, would like to avoid a potentially embarrassing show-down with the Lege by signing SB 1267, a no-frills moratorium bill introduced by Sen. Robert Nichols that has been bottled up in committee.

Nichols is not particularly enamored of that idea. “I think the governor’s got a good bill sitting on his desk.”

A couple of years back, state Rep. Mike Krusee was cruising. Together with Pretty Ricky and Ric Williamson, the imperial chair who presides over the Texas Transportation Commission, Krusee managed to push through the blueprint for the most far reaching, privately operated, toll-road network in the country. This afternoon, Krusee saw his plan — and possibly his political career — dashed as the state House of Representatives voted 139 to 1 to approve a measure which slams the brakes on TxDot’s toll-road-building binge.

Arms folded across his chest, his jaw working, Krusee listened to the floor debate, then returned to his desk to cast the only dissenting vote against House Bill 1892. Tom Craddick, the Speaker of the House, seemed not to notice as the voting board behind him lit up in a sea of green lights, with only one little red dot representing Krusee’s vote.

The bill, which has already been approved by the Senate and was sent back to the House for concurrence, forbids the Transportation Department from entering into contracts for two years with its multinational pals from Spain, Sweden, or other parts of the globe. Several projects in the Dallas-Fort Worth area — SH 121, SH 161, and Loop 9 — have been exempted from the measure. But the moratorium does put back on the shelf two much-maligned toll projects in San Antonio — U.S. 281 and a portion of SH 1604, a loop road that goes around the city.

Another important but less widely known section of the bill would give local governments, such as county commissions, far greater input on the development of future toll-road projects. In an interview with the Observer a couple of days before the vote, Krusee warned the bill could have dire financial consequences for the state, with federal agencies withholding billions for infractions. But the bill’s sponsor, Wayne Smith, said on the House floor today that he had received assurances from federal officials that that just wasn’t so.

Houston’s Garnet Coleman, who for two years has been working to rein in TxDot, was delighted with the bill’s passage. “I can tell you this is a happy day,” said Coleman, as he prepared to fire up a cigarette in an adjoining room.

“Most of the members of the Legislature believe there is something fishy about the franchising or selling of our highways. That’s the reason we’re moving forward with the moratorium.”

Coleman went on to say that the vote is a clear repudiation of Gov. Perry and TxDot. “This is an agency that’s run amok.”

Pretty Ricky, who has already signaled his unhappiness with this legislation, has ten days to veto the bill. That still gives the Lege ample time to override the veto. Coleman said there still could still be a “glitch” in the process, but he’s hopeful that’s not going to happen. “We’re going to move forward with a highway system that’s responsible to the public — not one that’s milking the public.”

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.”

The debate over toll roads is getting uglier as a bill that would impose a two-year moratorium on the pay-as-you-go highway contracts edges forward in the Texas Legislature. Peter Samuel, who lives in Maryland and publishes an industry newsletter called TOLLROADSnews, today referred to local Austin blogger, Sal Costello, as an “anti-toll hyena.” Toying with Samuel much like, well, a large cat, Costello fired back, “Peter, my freeway tolling pal, the hyena has one of the strongest jaws in the animal kingdom — able to crunch through bones like they were mere saltines.”

Samuel doesn’t seem to understand why Texans don’t want mega-corridors the width of four football fields criss-crossing the state. Seeking answers, he interviewed UT’s Lisa Loftus-Otway, among others, to find out what was up with the sheep over at the “Leege” who have been struck dumb by the “anti-toll frenzy” gripping the natives. The UT official offered lots of theories, but she appears to have overlooked the simple fact that the natives may have a little more sense than the bureaucrats at TXDOT who seem delighted with the idea of turning over the state’s infrastructure to private companies for the next century or so.

She did mention that grassroots organizations have been a factor in turning public opinion against toll roads. Actually, organizations like Corridor Watch, the San Antonio Toll Party, and hyenas like Sal Costello have probably been the major factor in the debate. This morning, Corridor Watch reported that 25 of 31 senators and 93 of 150 House members have signed on to a bill that would place a two-year moratorium on toll-road contracts. Speaker of the House Tom Craddick has referred the bill to the House Transportation Committee. That committee is chaired by Round Rock Rep. Mike Krusee, who several years ago rammed through the omnibus bill that served as a charter for the current road-building binge. A spokesman in his office said this afternoon that the committee was definitely going to debate the bill, possibly as early as March 27.

In the last hour of the legislative hearing on the Trans-Texas Corridor, dozens of residents from throughout Texas lined up at the podium to deliver 30-second soundbites against the network of superhighways planned for the state. Bottom line? They hate the Trans-Texas Corridor.

One elderly man, explaining how he would rather see an extra 10 or 20 cents tacked onto the fuel tax than pay tolls, opened his arms wide and said, “Tax me, tax me.” A second speaker said she’d rather pay the price of two iPods than fork out money for tolls. A third dropped thirty bucks on the table, saying that’s how much it would have cost her to get to Austin if toll booths had been erected along the route. (The cash, which appeared to be a pile of singles, sat there untouched for the rest of the hearing. Afterward, someone asked state Sen. John Carona, who chaired the meeting, if they could have the money. “Take it, take it. I can’t take it,” he responded)

One man alleged the TTC could serve as a pipeline for moving drugs into the United States. Another said video tolling would violate his privacy rights. A third said TXDOT’s planned seizure of private property violated the Constitution.

A woman invoked George Washington, reminding legislators that it was the country’s founding father who said, “Beware of foreign entanglements.” The ‘foreign’ was a reference to Cintra, the Madrid company that’s teamed with San Antonio’s Zachry to do some of the road projects. Another woman told the crowd that she owned land that had once been part of a Spanish land grant. “I’d love not to have to give it back to Spain.”

A lot of people in the audience had been there for eight hours listening to TXDOT and other public officials prattle on. They clearly felt they were getting the short end of the stick.

“Ric..Williamson..talks..like.. this.. because..he.. doesn’t.. want..to..let.. anybody …else… have…a …shot …at…the ..podium,” said one public advocate, doing a fair imitation of the Transportation Commission chairman’s drawl.

In the closing moments, a woman went up to the podium and said she was speaking out on behalf of her children and “all the people who are going to be dead before this project is over.”

“Well,” said state Sen. John Carona, who had managed to keep the unruly crowd in check. “Let’s hope this project is dead before them.”

Ultimately, it will be Pretty Ricky who will determine whether the bills aimed at curbing the massive road-building plans are DOA.

Ric Williamson, the chairman of the Transportation Commission, was holding his own this morning against the predominantly hostile crowd who turned out to give state legislators an earful about the Trans-Texas Corridor.

Williamson spent most of his time pacing back and forth in a small cloakroom adjacent to the Senate auditorium where the hearing was held. Accompanying him were the usual TXDOT operatives, along with Geoffrey Yarema, a Los Angeles lawyer who’s been retained by TXDOT to guide the department in its ambitious plan to pave the state with toll roads.

State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh (D- El Paso)

Yarema, a smallish, balding man, is a member of the Nossaman firm. At a hearing on Tuesday, Williamson revealed that the firm’s been paid some $30 million so far.

Nossaman’s lawyers charge in excess of $500 an hour. So, if Yarema took an early-morning flight over to Texas this morning, plans to stay for the all-day hearing, and is going back tonight, he could conceivably bill the state for $7,000 or more. Ouch. That’s enough to make your assets ache.

TXDOT spokesman Randall Dillard

Although it’s hard to believe that a meeting about concrete could be exciting, the hearing was actually a thrilling public spectacle. Williamson was subjected to catcalls, hissing and accusations that he was a liar. Through it all, he managed to retained his composure, his hands clenched tightly on the table in front of him.

One of the milder speakers, a woman from Garland, Texas, noted that it was “we stupid voters” who approved the constitional amendment that launched the Trans-Texas Corridor.

“We need a do-over,” she told state Sen. John Carona, the Dallas Republican who is presiding over the hearing.

“Many legislators would like a do-over as well,” he responded.

Highways for sale or rent

Tolls set at whatever cents

Sixteen lanes and no exits

Can’t get off for cigarettes.

After a few months behind closed doors

TXDOT’s gonna let the billions pour

They’ll be men of means by all means

Kings of the road.

****

The folks over at TXDOT have got to be feeling like they’ve been “kicked in the asphalt,” as one lawmaker gingerly put it this week.

In hearing after hearing, they’ve been savaged by legislators who’ve been savaged by their own constituents for the toll roads being planned for the state.

Ric Williamson, the grizzled chairman of Transportation Commission and an ex-legislator himself, has taken the worst flogging. Right about now, Williamson should be popping handfuls of Rush Limbaugh pills. Instead, he resembles an old lion resting on the veld, digesting a belly full of fresh springbok. He’s courteous, cordial, and still coherent.

Williamson seems have resigned himself to the notion that these next few months are going to be a wild ride. But the real test of his self control will come tomorrow when the Legislature hosts its first public hearing ever on the Trans-Texas Corridor. Presiding over the hearing will be Dallas Republican John Carona, chair of the Senate’s Transportation and Homeland Security Committee.

Williamson acted like a coy schoolgirl a couple of weeks ago when Carona asked him if he would be willing to meet with him. The “artful dodging,” as Carona put it, led to an ugly confrontation. Williamson has apparently decided that bluntness is the best policy. On Tuesday, he delivered some startling information to the House Appropriations committee

Under rapid-fire questioning from Dan Gattis, a Republican from Georgetown, Williamson revealed that TXDOT’s paid roughly $30 million dollars in legal fees to the Nossaman Guthner Knox & Elliot law firm in Los Angeles.

“They’re a unique firm,” Williamson said.

“I’m sure they are, Ric,” responded Gattis. “What’s their hourly fee?”

“In excess of $500 an hour.”

That led to a collective gasp followed by speculation about what law schools the Nossaman lawyers attended.

TXDOT officials also admittted that the department has spent about $90 million dollars for environmental studies, preliminary engineering work and public hearings related to the TTC-35 and the TTC-69 corridors.

Those numbers will undoubtedly add fuel to tomorrow’s hearing. Lawmakers say the Trans-Texas Corridor was sold as a way to get highways built quickly without any tax dollars. But the $90 million only confirms their suspicions that plenty of public money is being used to underwrite the private ventures. (Don’t they remember the old saying about no free lunches?)

Lawmakers are also concerned about the non-compete clauses in the toll-road contracts. Those clauses could force the state to compensate a developer if a free road was constructed that pulled traffic off a tolled highway.

“Is there any way we could put this horse back in the barn?” one legislator asked plaintively.

Sounding more like a mobster than a king, Williamson snapped his fingers and said, “We can take those guys out just like that.”