A Texas state lawmaker has
introduced legislation to sideline the planned Trans-Texas
Corridor project. Several other efforts filed in the
Legislature also would rein in Gov. Rick Perry’s $184
billion pet project.
One bill offered by
Rep. John Liebowitz, D-San
Antonio, would prohibit the Texas Department of
Transportation from buying land or issuing contracts for the
corridor project. The corridor plan calls for private
contractors to build and operate billions of dollars’ worth of
toll roads in the state.
The tab for driving along the
corridor would run nearly 50 cents a mile for large trucks and
about 15 cents for cars.
Liebowitz told local radio station WOLA
the bill – HB857 –
is necessary because the corridor would “destroy rural Texas as
we know it.”
As planned, each route of the
4,000 mile network of transportation corridors would include
separate lanes for passenger vehicles and large trucks, freight
railways, high-speed commuter railways as well as utility zones.
If the entire series of
proposed corridors were built,
Liebowitz said they would displace nearly a
million acres of land – most of it farm land.
A separate bill offered by
Liebowitz is
intended to keep state highways toll free.
The bill –
HB719 – would forbid
TxDOT from turning state highways into toll routes. It
also would prohibit allowing those roadways to be leased or sold
to private groups.
Liebowitz isn’t alone in his pursuit to curb
efforts to privatize portions of the state’s roadways.
Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, has crafted
several bills that are intended to minimize the
attractiveness for groups to pursue deals with the state to
build roads in return for keeping revenues.
One bill would bar the state
from entering into non-compete agreements for toll roads.
The measure – SB149
– would prohibit language in bond sales documents that prevent
TxDOT from building highways that would serve as an alternative
route for truckers and others who don’t want to pay tolls to
reach their destination.
With the state Transportation
Department calling for the 70-year cap removed on public-private
contracts, another bill offered by
Carona would reduce the
length of contracts, the Austin American-Statesman
reported. The bill – SB275
– would limit the duration of contracts to 30 years.
Another measure –
SB256 – would prohibit
TxDOT from accepting upfront payments from private groups to
build toll roads. The effort is in response to the
Spanish-Australian consortium Cintra-Zachry
offering $1.2 billion to build part of the corridor, the
American-Statesman reported.
In hopes of creating
alternatives to privatizing roadways, two other bills
written by Carona
would help the state generate more revenue for transportation.
The first bill –
SB165 – would allow the
tax collected at the fuel pump to increase automatically. If
approved, the state’s 20-cent-per-gallon tax on diesel and gas,
as well as the federal rate of 18 cents per gallon would be tied
to the rate of inflation. The change would allow the taxes in
the state to increase on an annual basis.
The second bill –
SB126 – is intended to
make sure all transportation-related revenue is allotted to the
Texas Mobility Fund. The fund is used by TxDOT
to build, mostly, state-run toll routes.
Since 1986 the department has
seen $9 billion rerouted for other uses, KTVT-TV in
Dallas/Fort Worth reported.
A separate bill would give
local governments an opportunity to generate additional dollars
for roads.
The measure –
SB257 – would allow an
extra penny to be added to local sales taxes for transportation
projects.
“We can’t expect toll roads to
be the solution for all our transportation needs. While they are
part of the mix, the state needs to explore other funding
options,” Carona
said in a written statement. “This bill not only does that, but
most importantly, it gives local communities a voice in how they
want to fund their transportation needs.”
One other effort offered by
Carona would
implement another barrier to privatization of the state’s
roadways.
The bill –
SB245 – would require
that any regional tollway authority or regional mobility
authority be given first crack at contracts to build any new
toll project within their jurisdictions.
The bulk of the bills
are awaiting assignment to committee.
SB149 has been forwarded to the Senate
Transportation and Homeland Security Committee.
**(This
is the committee chaired by
Senator CARONA who will hold the
March 1st Hearings inviting YOUR
INPUT!)
