05.11.07
Toll Road Compromise? Not Yet
All of the sudden Perry, Krusee and Carona want to compromise on a toll road moratorium. They seem to be the only ones. Now they know what it’s like to be on the outside looking in. Maybe compromise is just what happens at the end of session, right? Everybody wants to make nice before they leave town. Here’s the latest.
Startlegram, Compromise would slow private toll roads.
State Sen. John Carona, the Dallas Republican who is chairman of the Senate transportation committee, said lawmakers have been working most of the week to send Perry a new version of the bill that will address his concerns. And Carona made clear that any updated initiative will not compromise the Legislature’s desire to slow down the drive toward private toll roads.
“I think we’re close. I think we’re very close,” said Carona, expressing hope that they can avoid a special session. “I can’t guarantee a settlement. I can’t predict what the governor’s staff will do. I can’t predict what the governor himself will do.”
Texas Observer, Slouching Toward a Special Session.
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.
AAS, Governor, lawmakers try to work out agreeable toll road legislation.
Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, a member of the Transportation and Homeland Security Committee, said Texans should not be hurried into a world of private toll roads.
A former member of the Texas Transportation Commission, Nichols called the correspondence from the Federal Highway Administration a scare tactic for concessions the Legislature should not be willing to accept.
“If it takes a special session to get this right,” Nichols said, “I’m all for it.”
HChron, Highlights Thursday from the Texas Legislature.
“We are very close, however we’ve been close before,” said state Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock. Asked if thought the deal could be completed before the session ends on May 28, he said: “It’s 50-50.”
A lot of talk about how close they are and reasons to cut a deal, but there’s no deal yet.