01.07.09

TxDOT’s Transportation Promise

Posted in Around The State, Privatization, Road Issues, Transportation, Uncategorized at 12:16 pm by wcnews

Yesterday’s announcement by TxDOT Executive Director Amadeo Saenz that, “the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) as it was known will no longer exist”, and will now be know as Innovative Connectivity in Texas made many headlines. What didn’t was TxDOT’s Transportation Promise to the State of Texas.  It’s posted here, and is also on page 18 of the “Innovative Connectivity” brochure [.pdf] that was released yesterday.

Perhaps the most important development to emerge from TxDOT’s dialogues with Texans is TxDOT’s TTC Guiding Principles. Named for the first projects to move forward under the new laws, the guiding principles are a set of concrete promises, embodied in state law, that reflect the spirit of respect and collaboration in which TxDOT intends to develop any major corridor project.

• All state highway facilities, including the Trans-Texas Corridor, will be completely owned by the State of Texas at all times.
• All Comprehensive Development Agreements that provide the private developer with an interest in the CDA and related property will include provisions that allow TxDOT to purchase or “buy back” that interest at any time if “buying back the project” would be in the best financial interest of the state.
• The Texas Transportation Commission shall approve, in a public meeting, the initial toll rates charged for the use of a toll project on the state highway system and the methodology for increasing the amount of tolls. All rate-setting actions will come after consultation with appropriate local metropolitan planning organizations.
• Only new lanes added to an existing highway will be tolled, and there will be no reduction in the number of non-tolled lanes that exist today.
• Comprehensive Development Agreements will not include “non-compete” clauses that would prohibit improvements to existing roadways. The Department and any governmental entity can construct, reconstruct, expand, rehabilitate or maintain any roadway that is near or intersects with any roadway under the CDA.
• TxDOT will always consider the use of existing right of way that satisfies the purpose and need of the project as a possible project location when conducting environmental studies.
• To the extent practical, TxDOT shall plan and design facilities so that a landowner’s property is not severed into two or more separate tracts and the original shape of the property is preserved.

The progress we’ve made so far is only the beginning of what we can do using these tools in collaboration with each other. Stakeholders at all levels now have the authority and flexibility to customize and accelerate transportation solutions to meet Texas transportation needs, today and into the future.

The biggest problem the TTC had from the beginning was the way it was, for the most part, rammed down Texan’s throats. Especially disastrous as well was the tone deafness shown by TxDOT, the late TxDOT Chair Ric Williamson, and Gov. Rick Perry to the concerns of rural Texas landowners – farmers and ranchers – in particular. It was a public relations disaster from the beginning. But back in 2002 that’s how Republicans operated – shoot first, as questions later.

Looking over the promises many of the problems that Texans and legislators have had with the TTC are addressed. The other thing to notice is, as mentioned when the Legislative Study Committee on Private Participation in Toll Projects released it’s report, there are the same two serious blows to PPP’s/CDA’s in these promises too. The two provisions regarding a “buy back” provision and “non-compete” clauses.

One of the consensus agreements of the committee report was that conventional alternatives – raising and indexing the gas tax, and stopping federal fund diversions -  will not fully satisfy the projected funding shortfalls.  Therefore they conclude there is a need for PPP’s.  But there’s serious disagreement on the need for “buy back” provisions and “non-compete” clauses on the committee.  The elected officials want them in any agreement, while the report asserts they will diminish or eliminate the private sectors interest.

TxDOT, for now, appears to be coming to the side of Texans, the public’s interests, but that does bode well for the private sectors interest.  The TTC/Gov. Perry’s plan for new highway infrastructure in Texas was only about the private sector toll roads, which is why there was so much public outcry over this plan.  What’s TxDOT’s “new” promise leaves unanswered is whether this is just a new attemept at PR or a real promise.   Because it doesn’t seem possible that the publics interest and the private sectors interest can both be satisfied in a so-called  “public-private partnership”.

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