Between regular and special sessions--recap of TTC and TxDOT bills

Now that we are between the end of the regular session of the Legislature and the beginning of a special session that Gov. Perry may call for later this summer, this is a good time to recap what happened to the main bills related to the Corridor and the TxDOT Sunset process (HB 300).

The last day of the regular session, the House acted to keep some state agencies, including TxDOT, in business by including them in legislation related to stimulus funding. This action would have caused TxDOT reorganization to be brought up in the 2011 session. However, the evening of the last session day, the Senate did not act on the House solution, thus leaving the future of TxDOT officially up in the air. Technically, if nothing further is done, TxDOT could begin a one-year process of shutting down on September 1 and go out of existence in September 2010.

Practically speaking, no one expects this to happen. Perry has said he will call a special session, although he has not said when or what issues would be included. Some expect that keeping the agencies going will be the bare minimum that will be in the special session.

BILL TO KILL THE CORRIDOR LEFT IN COMMITTEE

HB 11 by Leibowitz (D-San Antonio) would have repealed TxDOT’s “authority for the establishment and operation of the Trans-Texas Corridor.” HB 11 received a hearing in the House Transportation Committee, but was left pending in committee. During the House debate on HB 300—the omnibus TxDOT Sunset bill—Leibowitz succeeded in adding repealing the TTC to HB 300. Unfortunately, with the death of HB 300, repealing TTC also died for the regular session.

TxDOT SUNSET BILL DIED AS TIME RAN OUT

HB 300, the TxDOT Sunset bill was voted out of the House and the Senate in two different forms. The House/Senate conference committee that was supposed to reconcile the two versions could not come up with a final bill that was readily acceptable by the membership of both houses, and HB 300 died when time ran out in the session.

Isett (R-Lubbock) authored HB 300, the TxDOT Sunset bill, and was the manager of it as it went through the House. The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reports: “Isett said that since Perry said he will call a special session, he hopes the lawmakers finish the entire legislative package left on the table when the clock ran out. . . . ‘My preference is that we give that agency legislative direction,’ Isett said. . . . I still believe that it is an agency that needs to be updated and reformed at many different levels.’”

REPLACING TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION FAILS

HB 565, by McClendon (D-San Antonio) attempted to abolish the Texas Transportation Commission and replace it with an elected state Transportation Commissioner. This bill was left pending in the House Transportation Committee.

While the House was debating TxDOT Sunset, some representatives tried again for some sort of elected Transportation Commission, and the final language called for an elected state-wide Commissioner plus 14 commission members elected from districts around the state. The Senate’s version kept the five governor-appointed commissioners, but reduced terms from six to two years and mandated commissioners leaving when their terms are up.

With the death of the TxDOT Sunset bill, efforts to change the Transportation Commission are stalled for now.

BILL TO PROHIBIT TxDOT FROM PROMOTING TOLL ROADS, INCLUDING TTC, PASSES BOTH HOUSES—SENT TO GOVERNOR

Another bill from McClendon was HB 2142, which prohibits TxDOT from spending our taxpayer money to actively promote toll roads, including the Corridor. TxDOT spent millions on their Keep Texas Moving campaign, which used advertising and lobbying to advocate the building of the Corridor and other toll roads. Terri Hall’s TURF organization sued TxDOT, saying that Keep Texas Moving was an improper use of taxpayer funds. The suit is still pending. In the meantime, McClendon’s bill puts an end to this type of campaign statutorily. It does not forbid putting out neutral informational material. HB 2142 passed both houses and has been sent to the Governor.

TxDOT Sunset dead; TxDOT lives until 2011; what about the Trans-Texas Corridor?

After the last several months of the TxDOT Sunset process and the 2009 session, it looks like both the good reforms and the bad additions have NOT made it through. Lots of time and energy expended for nothing, as far as TxDOT reforms go. TxDOT Sunset crept “in this petty pace . . . a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

TxDOT NOT SAVED BY ‘SAFETY NET’

Not only did TxDOT Sunset not pass, but also TxDOT was not even saved by the usual method of placing TxDOT survival in the “safety net” legislation.

As reported by the Statesman political blog, the House added keeping TxDOT open “to a bill authorizing state agencies to receive federal stimulus dollars. Agencies have to be open in order to get stimulus dollars . . . So the House corrected the stimulus bills to say that the departments at risk [including TxDOT] would stay open.”
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/politics/entries/2009/06/01/house_votes_to_keep_txdot_aliv.html

SUNSET REVIEW IN 2011

One interesting aspect of doing it this way is that if TxDOT had been continued by the usual “safety net” process, it would have been up for Sunset review in 2013. Now, the TxDOT Sunset Review will happen again in the 2011 session. See the explanation on the Star-Telegram political blog.
http://startelegram.typepad.com/politex/2009/06/after-some-debate-house-members-make-vote-to-bypass-special-session.html

CAN THE HOUSE REALLY DO THIS?

The Statesman political blog reports that the Senate may not agree that the House action is allowable.
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/politics/entries/2009/06/01/problem_with_the_house_res.html
“Word is there could be a problem with the House wording: It may not allow TxDOT to issue the $2 billion in bonds it needs to continue road-building projects. Big problem that would be. And a bigger one: The House adjourned sine die about 20 minutes ago. So they’ve left the Capitol for good, at least in this legislative session. No way to fix any mistake now.”

NO FILIBUSTER

Of course, since HB 300, the TxDOT Sunset Bill, died in the House, there was no need for Sen. Carona to filibuster it in the Senate. The Dallas Morning News political blog says, “A smiling Sen. John Carona said Monday he didn’t have to bring his tennis shoes to the Senate floor on Monday after his filibuster threat . . . was made moot by the House decision . . . to let the proposal die.”
http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/

SPECIAL SESSION?

The Senate has just adjourned “without approving a key measure to keep five agencies in business—including TxDOT,” according to the Statesman political blog.
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/politics/entries/2009/06/01/senate_adjourns_calls_out_hous.html
“Senate leaders said they expect Perry will call the Legislature back into session to deal with the new crisis. . . . Short of a special legislative session the agencies will begin shutting down in coming months.”

WHAT ABOUT THE TRANS-TEXAS CORRIDOR?

Unfortunately, since HB 300, the TxDOT Sunset Bill, is dead, the language that repealed the Trans-Texas Corridor is also dead. At the beginning the session, Rep. Leibowitz of San Antonio filed HB 11 that specifically repealed TxDOT’s authority to create the TTC which was left pending in committee. However, the language was added to HB 300, where it has died.

Fortunately, the Comprehensive Development Agreements/Public Private Partnerships may also have died. These CDA/PPP were the building blocks of the TTC “vision.” The TTC would have been built by private corporations like Cintra of Spain, who would have been working under comprehensive development agreements. These CDA/PPP’s were added to HB 300, thus allowing segments of the TTC to be built in this way, even if the name TTC was removed.

Without the passage of HB 300, these CDA/PPP’s are due to expire in September. So the language repealing the TTC did not pass. However, the foundational building blocks of the TTC, CDA/PPP’s, also did not pass, and this method of highway construction will expire.

All in all, at this point, we have made further progress against the TTC during this session.

TxDOT Sunset HB 300--down to the wire

According to leaders in the lege, if conferees don't reach agreement on HB 300, TxDOT Sunset, by about noon today, TxDOT will have to be continued under "safety net" legislation for the next two years, to be dealt with in the 2011 session. The latest from the Newspaper Tree doesn't sound like an agreement is immenent:

http://www.newspapertree.com/news/3881--tempers-fray-over-last-minute-play-to-keep-local-option-tax-in-txdot-sunset-bill

Sen. Carona still won't accept HB 300 in the Senate if it does not include the local transportation tax option. Both Pickett, House Transportation Chair, and Isett, author of HB 300, say the House will not go with HB 300 if it does include the local option.

We should know the outcome later today.

TxDOT Sunset HB 300--internal and external attacks

House and Senate conference committee members are now negotiating to see if the two different versions of the TxDOT Sunset bill can be reconciled. Given some issues that it seems that they will never agree on, will this HB 300 collapse from its own weight? A good explanation in the Star-Telegram:

http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/1402048.html

The House has declared that it will never accept the local option transportation tax plan desired mainly by the DFW area, and the Senate has declared that it will not accept HB 300 without this plan.

The Star-Telegram reports a possible compromise: "Senate negotiators are offering to reduce two proposed fees on motorists and delay countywide elections by two years in a proposed compromise to keep a local transportation funding plan alive . . ."

While negotiations go on behind closed doors, there will be a very public rally and press conference: "Several hundred business and community leaders from Arlington, Burleson and other area cities planned to descend on the state Capitol today to show support for the local-option transportation provision, regarded as crucial to resolving worsening traffic congestion in North Texas."

In addition to the local option tax plan, the other major point of disagreement is red-light cameras. The House has placed a phase-out of the cameras in its version, but it is not in the Senate's.

Senate Transportation & Homeland Security Chair John Carona says that "local-option provisions are not negotiable." House Transportation Chair Joe Pickett says, according to the Star-Telegram, that he is "concerned that a provision widely opposed by the House membership could endanger the entire bill."

TURF, Liberty Matters, Texans Against Tolls, Independent Texans, and others are working to kill HB 300. They argue that the current version does not contain the desirable changes developed during the Sunset process and does contain most of the undesirable provisions that could not stand on their own and have been added under the table at the last minute. It could be that their efforts, plus the inability of the House and Senate to agree, will accomplish what seemed unlikely until recently--the death of HB 300, resulting in a TxDOT Sunset re-do, to be tackled in the 2011 session.

Kill HB 300 and start over

Analysis of the current HB 300, the TxDOT Sunset Bill, by Liberty Matters, TURF, Texans Against Tolls, Independent Texans, and others leads to the conclusion that the many amendments added to the original HB 300 by the House and the Senate have destroyed the original Sunset provisions that were carefully developed by the Sunset Commission staff and legislators that made up the original HB 300. These organizations are asking citizens to call their representatives and ask them to kill HB 300, pass "safety net" legislation that will allow TxDOT to continue for the next two years, and then prepare to do a new, clean TxDOT Sunset Bill in 2011.

Here are TURF's directions for contacting your Representative.

Contact your Texas STATE representatives and tell them:"KILL HB 300, and pass a safety net bill."

Find your STATE Representative here...Call the Capitol switchboard (512) 463-4630 between 8 AM - 5 PM. Most are there late into the evening, to get your reps direct phone numbers, go here...

You can also email your STATE Representative by using this formula: Plug in the name of your STATE Representative to: firstname.lastname@house.state.tx.us

You can also email your STATE Senator by using this formula: Plug in the name of your STATE Senator to: firstname.lastname@senate.state.tx.us

Phone calls are best at this stage of the game...if you can't get through, keep calling and email.

Burka asks: What does killing the Trans-Texas Corridor mean?--ACRE answers

Paul Burka has posted and received comments about HB 300, the TxDOT Sunset Bill.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/blogs/burkablog/?p=3792

I commented that one of the things that should be kept in HB 300 is killing the Trans-Texas Corridor. Burka asked what did people mean by killing the TTC. Below is my reply to his question:

I would say that killing the Trans-Texas Corridor is what is intended by HB 11 by Rep. Leibowitz, which is the “repeal of authority for the establishment and operation of the Trans-Texas Corridor.” I don’t know if this is the language of the amendment that was added to HB 300. It is my understanding that the amendment to HB 300 would be something like HB 11. The purpose would be to take away the authority to create and operate the TTC that was given to TxDOT by HB 3588 in 2003.

As long as this authority to create an entity with the name of TTC is still in statute and still in other official documents such as the Environmental Impact Statement (which is still stuck at the Federal Highway Administration), there is the danger that the project will be resurrected.

The project itself is as described in the document “Crossroads of the Americas” which lays out the design of the TTC as a multi-modal, almost quarter-mile wide swath of routes in a network that criss-crosses Texas—ten vehicular lanes, six rail lines, pipelines, and utility zone, with all concessions within the TTC boundaries—that would sweep through the state, bypassing cities, thus depriving them of trade as well as tax base, because of all the acreage taken out of the local taxing districts.

As it unfolded, it was intended that the TTC be a public-private partnership, giving Cintra (a Spanish corporation) the right to profit from land taken from Texas landowners through eminent domain by the state and turned over to Cintra.

For years, our family and our neighbors have been fighting the TTC. Considering all our efforts added to the efforts of other grass-roots groups along the Corridor routes, there is no telling how many hours, days, years of time and energy we have had to take away from other endeavors to spend in the effort to save our land. These efforts required our time and money, while the people who have been trying to take our land away from us have been well-paid with our own tax money.

Over the years, those of us working against the TTC have had gradual and hard-won success. Not that it was totally due to anti-Corridor efforts, but one instance that I would like to point out is that it was “our Representative” Mike Krusee who authored HB 3588 to create the TTC. Now, our current Representative Diana Maldonado is a coauthor of HB 11 that would abolish the Corridor.

We have made progress, and the TTC name has been disavowed, but the TTC is not dead. So many Texans have spent so many hours fighting the Corridor—hours that could have been put to more productive use—it would be great if this burden could be lifted from the shoulders of rural Texans once and for all, either by HB 11 being voted out of committee and being passed by the Legislature or by keeping language totally repealing the authority for the TTC in HB 300 as it is passed by the Legislature.

House votes for single Transportation Commissioner--no news on killing TTC

I watched as much as I could of the live stream coverage of the House debate today of the massive TxDOT Sunset bill hoping to see if Rep. Kolkhorst's amendment to repeal the Trans-Texas Corridor made it in. I didn't see that this was brought up yet, and I haven't been able to find any coverage of it.

I did find an AP report that the House did adopt an amendment that would change the five-member Texas Transportation Commission (the current one appointed by Gov. 39%) to one Transportation Commissioner who would be elected statewide like the Agriculture Commissioner.

Another proposal being considered is the addition of 14 regional commissioners that would address the concern that the different constituents and needs of different areas of the state be represented.

The Legislature Online site shows that the House is still in session (10:20 p.m.) debating HB 300. They have just allowed amendments to the amendment against concession agreements to allow projects in progress to go forward, the best I can tell.

I would appreciate any news on killing the Corridor, if anybody has any.