Saturday, May 10, 2003

House Bill 3588 on Road to Approval

Transit plan on road to approval

KAREN BROOKS;BRYON OKADA, Staff Writers

5/10/05

Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Copyright 2003

AUSTIN--What was touted as "the biggest transportation bill in the history of the state" received preliminary approval by the House on Friday. The legislation would change the way the state pays for highways and other transportation projects.

The flagship part of the measure, House Bill 3588, establishes guidelines for the 4,000-mile, $175 billion Trans Texas Corridor Plan, Gov. Rick Perry's vision for creating a separate network of corridors that would roughly parallel existing interstate highways.

The bill, approved on a voice vote after seven hours of discussion, also establishes a Driver Responsibility Act that would use fines paid by drunken drivers and multiple traffic offenders to fund transportation projects and help overburdened trauma centers.

"In the '50s and '60s, Texas built thousands and thousands of lane miles, and it has been the basis for [economic] growth in the last 50 years," said Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock, the bill's sponsor.

"That system that we built is now overloaded and on the brink of collapse," he said. "This bill presents solutions to the crisis."

The bill, which is expected to get final approval in the House today and then go to the Senate for consideration, would pump $240 million a year into the now-empty Texas Mobility Fund and $220 million more a year into trauma-care accounts.

With the state facing a $9.9 billion funding shortfall, several House Democrats questioned why the money could not be used to help people who are needy.

"I just want people to understand that the amount of money that comes out of this bill is exactly the amount of money that could go to uninsured children," Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, said.

The legislation gives the Texas Transportation Commission and Texas Department of Transportation broad powers in financing Perry's corridor plan.

The plan is designed to allow long-haul traffic to avoid congested metropolitan areas. It has been described as the most ambitious surface-transportation proposal ever in Texas and the most sweeping in the nation since the Eisenhower-era creation of the interstate highway system.

Under the bill, the transportation commission could appropriate up to 20 percent of the state's highway reimbursements from Washington, levy tolls and other user fees, accept donations and private investments, collect money from motorists who get excessive tickets, tap the Texas Mobility Fund and issue debt secured by fees.

The Driver Responsibility Act, sponsored by Rep. Dianne White Delisi, R-Temple, would establish a point system in which drivers would be penalized $300 for racking up multiple traffic violations. Seat-belt violations and tickets for driving less than 10 percent over the speed limit would be exempt.

The act is one of two sources of revenue in the 148-page legislation. The other source is a $30 increase in fines for speeding tickets.

Krusee said the bill would "maximize private-sector investment" to build the statewide network of corridors . It would also empower regional mobility authorities and give the transportation department authority over the state's rail lines "so we can take trucks off our roads and reduce congestion," he said.

Opponents say the bill would provide too few protections for property owners because the transportation commission would be given broad powers to take land for highway purposes.

Coleman said the Driver Responsibility Act would unfairly target minorities, who often live in high-crime areas and are subject to more frequent police and traffic stops than residents of more affluent neighborhoods.

Backers of the bill, however, said it would curb traffic-related injuries and help trauma centers.

"Since these drivers are 34 percent of all the costs of these emergency rooms, when there are fewer injuries, the ERs will have fewer costs," Delisi said.

Now, traffic fines are split equally between the mobility fund and trauma care. Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, tried to send a higher percentage of traffic fines to trauma centers -- 66 percent for trauma care and 33 percent for the mobility fund -- but failed.

"We're talking about exploiting people who have encountered difficulty with the law in order to build highways," Burnam said.

Rep. Mike Wise, D-Weslaco, successfully added an amendment allowing foreign nationals to use passports, consular identification cards or national ID cards to get Texas driver's licenses. The licenses also would have the name of the country where the holder is a citizen.

Perry vetoed a similar measure last session. As Perry aides lobbied against the amendment Friday in the hall behind the House Chamber, the House soundly approved the amendment 99-38. The only member of the Tarrant County delegation to vote against it was Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington.

A provision that would increase fines for motorists who illegally pass a stopped school bus was also added to the bill. That measure had been bogged down for two months in the House Calendars Committee in what its author -- Rep. Jim Dunnam of Waco, the House Democratic Caucus chairman -- said was partisan retribution.

On Friday, Krusee let Dunnam add the school bus measure to the omnibus bill and it was approved with no objection.

Attempts to ban billboards, construct a bridge over the Rio Grande and divert traffic fines to the Children's Health Insurance Program were unsuccessful.

Until now, Texas transportation has been exclusively a pay-as-you-go system. In 2001, when legislators created the Texas Mobility Fund, it was generally understood that the fund would accept contributions that could be used as leverage for debt.

Because lawmakers appropriated no funds for the Texas Mobility Fund during the previous session, however, the fund has sat empty.

At the time, Perry and his supporters called the fund a way to bridge the gap between the soaring cost of highway projects and dwindling state highway funds. No mention of using the fund to advance the Trans Texas Corridor Plan was made when the fund was sold to voters as Proposition 15.

The corridor plan allows for reverse-financing tools similar to those used by airports to build runways and other airfield projects.

"We're literally at a fork in the road, and we can take one of two paths," Krusee said. "One path leads to increased congestion leading to economic stagnation and decay.

"The other path, that we've laid out in this bill, builds an infrastructure faster and cheaper, increases mobility, and provides economic opportunity."

Transportation bill highlights

* Establishes guidelines for the Trans Texas Corridor Plan.

* Establishes a Driver Responsibility Act, which generates state funding through a point system for traffic violations and penalizes repeat traffic offenders.

* Raises the cost of speeding tickets by $30.

* Transfers rail authority from the Texas Railroad Commission to the Texas Department of Transportation.

* Gives authority to regional mobility authorities to acquire property through eminent domain and to issue bonds.

Karen Brooks, (956) 728-1007 kbrooks@star-telegram.com

Bryon Okada, (817) 685-3853 okada@star-telegram.com


Fort Worth Star-Telegram: www.dfw.com

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House Bill 3588 is Born

Traffic bill passes one potential roadblock

May 10, 2003

Peggy Fikac, Chief, Austin Bureau
SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
Copyright 2003

Traffic fines would be increased to allow more spending on roads and trauma centers, but those who speed just a little could escape some stiffer penalties under a wide-ranging transportation bill tentatively approved Friday by the House.

House Bill 3588 by Rep. Mike Krusee would fuel Gov. Rick Perry's Trans Texas Corridor plan, which is meant to decrease traffic congestion.

It eventually would put more than $200 million annually into a fund to be used as a basis for issuing state bonds for roads.

The bill, which requires another House vote before going to the Senate for consideration, would reach further into state traffic law than just raising penalties. Among its changes, it would set out a way for immigrants to get drivers' licenses.

In addition, it would allow for creation of border region high-speed rail authorities.

Some lawmakers expressed concern that the measure would fund roads and trauma centers at a time when a $10 billion-plus revenue shortfall has prompted proposed cuts in education and health care.

"Its hypocrisy. They keep saying we don't have any money," Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, said. "We seem to be able to find financing mechanisms for roads. Why are we cutting programs all over the state when we can do this?"

Krusee, a Taylor Republican who heads the House Transportation Committee, said: "My charge was to increase mobility for Texans that are stuck in traffic, and so we passed the most comprehensive and visionary transportation bill in the history of Texas to do that."

The bill would set up a rating system in which drivers would be assigned points based on traffic infractions.

They would have to pay a surcharge of $100 or more if they had too many convictions in a three-year period.

But an amendment by Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, removed from that rating system safety-belt violations and speeding less than 10 percent faster than the posted limit.

pfikac@express-news.net

San Antonio Express-News: www.mysanantonio.com

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Thursday, May 08, 2003

House Bill 3588 is Spawned--

Higher fines eyed for rowdy motorists

House bill would add charge for too many infractions.


May 8, 2003

Peggy Fikac Chief, Austin Bureau
SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
Copyright 2003

Motorists convicted of traffic violations would pay higher penalties so the state could spend more on roads and trauma centers under a bill headed for House debate with a push from Gov. Rick Perry.

House Bill 3588 includes an additional $30 in court costs for traffic violations and a state rating system for drivers that would require them to pay additional fees of $100 or more if they rack up too many traffic infractions in a three-year period.

DWI-related offenses could result in annual surcharges of as much as $1,500 for motorists.

The bill is projected to raise more than $200 million a year for the Texas Mobility Fund, which could be leveraged to generate more than $2.5 billion worth of bonds, said its sponsor, House Transportation Committee Chairman Mike Krusee, R-Taylor.

HB 3588 is being pushed as lawmakers face a revenue shortfall topping $10 billion over the next two-year budget period.

The gap, combined with a no-new-taxes stand by leaders including Perry, has led to proposals to cut spending in areas including education, health insurance for children and home-care services.

"This could be the most positive thing that comes out of a rather bleak session," Krusee said.

"We need road expansion, and we need money for trauma. Where are you going to get the money? We can increase taxes, we can increase fees or we can say, 'You know what? If you obey the law, you don't have to pay at all,'" Krusee said.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Ron Wilson, D-Houston, said roads and trauma care are important.

But he was cool to proposed higher fines, responding sarcastically to the lawbreaker argument.

"Let's make it a $1,000 fine if you're speeding. We could fund all kinds of stuff. ... We could fund health care," he said. "Let's make it a $1,000 fine for a parking ticket, and all those bad lawbreakers can bear the brunt of funding government."

HB 3588, in the form approved last week by the Transportation Committee, is a broad measure that would advance Perry's Trans Texas Corridor plan, in which highways, rails, utility lines and pipes would be located in corridors spanning the state.

For the 2004-05 budget cycle, the bill would generate more than $715 million, with more than $450 million going to the Mobility Fund and $265.5 million for trauma care.

Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt said the governor's office is "working very closely with the legislators on making sure they understand the significance of the bill. ..."

Rep. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, said Perry in a meeting this week focused on the trauma-center funding.

Uresti said he hoped the proposal would help spread out the expense now borne by Bexar County trauma centers serving surrounding counties.

Rep. Joe Deshotel, D-Beaumont, said he didn't have a problem with the concept but raised the issue of racial profiling with Perry, expressing concern that "a disproportionate number of minorities and poor people ... end up having to pay these fines."

Besides the additional traffic fees, the bill would give regional mobility authorities power to quickly condemn land to build toll roads just as the state can, Krusee said.

Former House Speaker Pete Laney, D-Hale Center, the only Transportation Committee member to vote against the bill, expressed concern about that provision and others.

"It's pretty far-reaching," Laney said of the bill.

He said that while some provisions such as one to give the Texas Transportation Commission more power may be necessary, "I don't know whether we need to do it all at one time or not."

Among other provisions, the bill would give the commission authority over railroads.

With regard to traffic violations, the bill would add $30 in court costs to existing penalties for violations including speeding, running red lights or stop signs, parking in a handicapped spot, having an expired registration or inspection sticker or having a tail light that's out, Krusee said.

"It would be pretty hard for you to name something that it wouldn't apply to - except for (parking at) an expired meter," he said.

The bill would set up a "driver responsibility" program. It would assign points to motorists if they were convicted of failing to wear a seat belt (one point) or of committing a moving violation (two points if the violation didn't result in an accident, three if it did).

A driver who accrues six points in 36 months would be charged $100, with $25 added for each additional point.

Someone convicted of drunken driving would pay a surcharge of $1,000 each year for three years.

Anyone with three or more DWI-related convictions would be charged $1,500.

The bill would provide the first money for the Texas Mobility Fund, which was approved in 2001 by voters to allow for state bonds to build roads.

pfikac@express-news.net

San Antonio Express-News: www.mysanantonio.com

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