Friday, April 06, 2007

Sen. Ogden: 'Undoing the sin' of House Bill 3588

Capitol Briefs

4/6/07

Kimberly Reeves
Austin Chronicle
Copyright 2007

Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, passed the second of his package of bills on Tuesday intended to undo the sin of passing the toll-road bill, House Bill 3588, two sessions ago as chair of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee.

Senate Bill 718, which passed with nary a comment from Ogden's colleagues, would designate the state's highway trunk system, whenever possible, as the preferred route for the Trans-Texas Corridor.

Ogden already has passed SB 1795, which doubles the cap on bonds that TxDOT can issue to fund highway projects, up to $6 billion.

His other bills include limiting tolls on a TxDOT-owned project to simply cover the cost and maintenance of that project and ending private concession deals on toll roads.

Ogden said leasing or selling a state highway should be a last resort for the state.


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