04.23.09

This week’s transportation action in the legislature

Posted in 81st Legislature, Commentary, HD-52, Privatization, Road Issues, The Lege, Transportation at 10:16 am by wcnews

It took 17 years to figure it out, but a statewide solution is still the best solution.

On Tuesday HB 11, a bill that would once and for all end Rick Perry’s dream of a  Trans-Texas Corridor, got a hearing in the House Transportation Committee.  ACRE Texas has this report, BILL to KILL the TTC gets hearing.

A landmark event occurred [Tuesday April 21st]. Rep. Leibowitz’s (D-San Antonio) HB 11 to totally kill the Trans-Texas Corridor was heard in the House Transportation Committee. HB 11 may not make it past this point this session, but after fighting the Corridor for years, it is very encouraging to me, and an important symbol of how far we have come, to witness this bill given a hearing and to hear every single witness testify in favor of this bill, with no one who cared or dared to publicly oppose the Corridor-killing bill.

[...]

Krusee creates Corridor, Maldonado tries to kill it

An ironic twist–we must observe that our previous HD 52 representative Mike Krusee was the author and prime mover behind HB 3588 that created the Corridor in the 2003 session. Our current Representative Diana Maldonado is a coauthor of HB 11 to destroy the Corridor.

Testimony in favor of HB 11

The hearing room was almost full, and Chairman Pickett announced that overflow capacity was available in another room. Many testified in favor of HB 11 and many more handed in testimony forms supporting HB 11. Staffers kept running out of witness forms and had to go out to get more.

Leading off the testimony was the president of the Texas Farm Bureau, Kenneth Dierschke, who, representing 425,000 member families, testified in favor of HB 11.

Representing other groups around the state were Terri Hall of TURF; Hank Gilbert of TURF and former Democratic nominee for Ag Commissioner; Beki Halpin, Fix 290; Margaret Green, Blackland Coalition; Bruce Burton, Texans Against Tolls; and citizens representing themselves and their families. Mary Anderson. Texans Against Tolls, did not speak publicly, but was all around the hearing room, supplying information and helping others get their witness forms. Citizens from all over the state testified to the committee and handed in witness forms.

About his HB 11 to kill the Corridor and HB 13 to prohibit the conversion of free lanes to tolled lanes, Rep. Leibowitz observed, “Nobody testified against them.” He said that HB 11 “takes TTC off the books. TTC is sucking the very life blood out of the heart and soul of Texas. We need to drive a stake through its heart—if it has a heart.”

HB 11 was left pending as was HB 13, a Bill [that] would kill [the] next wave of Austin toll roads.

First of all, House Bill 13 may never go anywhere. It had a hearing Tuesday before the House Transportation Committee and was left pending.

But just in case it moves, it’s worth knowing that the legislation would effectively kill what used to be called the Phase 2 toll road plan. The bill would allow a road to become a toll road only if it was open as a toll road in September 2005, or if it was shown as a toll road the first time it appeared on long-range transportation plan by a metropolitan planning organization.

While it’s unlikely that either of these bills will get through the lege, it’s interesting to note how much the transportation conversation has changed in the last several years. Especially these comments from House Transportation Committee chair Joe Pickett (D-El Paso) and committee member Vicki Truitt (R-Keller) when the SB 855, the local option bill, was debated on Tuesday, Tying a bow on the local-option transportation bill.

As expected, after nearly seven hours of testimony, House Transportation Committee Chairman Joe Pickett left the bill pending in his committee. In doing so, he said cryptically, “We do need a plan. We need a statewide plan.”

I’ll need to find out what that means. Does he intend to lay the Truitt bill on the table indefinitely in favor of one that covers more than just metro areas?

Truitt’s close was almost apologetic, and she choked up at one point in saying she wanted to help leave something that improves the quality of life for her grandkids. Toward the end, and after Pickett’s remarks, she said, “If you don’t mind, I’m going to keep working on this bill.”

Here’s more from Pickett regarding a statewide option, Chairman Pickett on local-option bill.

I asked him about his statements last night about needing a “statewide” approach to transportation funding, as opposed to HB 9′s method of local-option elections in only metro areas.

“That [local funding] would not be my preferred approach, I’d have to tell you,” he said.

But will he allow the bill to proceed out of committee if members are satisfied after amending it? In other words, would he bottle it up?

“If I really felt there are the votes, it wouldn’t be me holding it up,” he said. “But I would need to feel confident that is the case.”

So what’s the alternative to local-option funding? I remember last session, when Rep. Fred Hill of Richardson proposed a statewide gas tax increase. It got two votes — his and then-transportation chairman Mike Krusee of Austin.

“Two years is a long time ago,” Pickett said. Today, “I’m not sure members would say no to a gas tax.”

As for the timing of moving ahead with HB 9, Pickett said “a bill of this magnitude” has to be approached with care. Ahead of it in line is the sunset bill on TxDOT, and “then we’ll get back to that [HB 9].”

A statewide solution is what should have been proposed by our state leaders from the beginning.  That transportation funding in Texas has been neglected to the point that it’s causing members of the legislature to “choke up”, is just more evidence that the neglect has gone on too long.  Gov. Rick Perry has always framed the TTC, and transportation as a whole, as economic development that will be good for the entire state of Texas.  That’s why it makes sense that we have a statewide solution.  It took 17 years of neglect and foolishness but were finally right back to where we started.

Permalink