Oh, the inanity! HB 300 goes down like the Hindenburg

Key GOP senator said Republican leaders aren't leading




5/30/09

By Peggy Fikac and Gary Scharrer
San Antonio Express-News
Copyright 2009

AUSTIN — Tempers flared on the legislative session's last weekend just as they did at its start, with a key GOP senator saying Saturday the session's central theme is “lack of leadership” by top leaders of his own party.

“If you look at this session, you've got two underlying problems: One is simply the lack of leadership in the top offices and the second is the lack of any clear, compelling agenda,” said Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Chairman John Carona, R-Dallas, his anger triggered by the evident demise of a proposal to allow urban areas to raise gasoline taxes and some fees in their areas to pay for local transportation projects.

The proposal was stripped from a compromise bill to overhaul the Texas Department of Transportation, which was among several important measures hanging as the session neared its Monday finale.

Carona said he therefore would work to kill the entire TxDOT overhaul, which faces a final legislative vote. He noted that a filibuster — talking until time runs out in the session — is an option, although he said he wasn't actually threatening one.

Lawmakers also were toiling late Saturday on measures including windstorm insurance reform, an issue that GOP Gov. Rick Perry has said is so important that he could call lawmakers back into special session if they fail to address it.

GOP Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, said lawmakers also were working to salvage an expansion of the Children's Health Insurance Program.

It was part of an effort mounted to save a slew of bills lost when Democrats stalled proceedings in the House to kill GOP-backed voter-identification legislation. Voter ID divided the Senate early this year, when Republicans angered Democrats by changing rules to push through the legislation.

In charging a lack of leadership, Carona referred to Perry's expected tough primary battle to keep his job against U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, speculation that Dewhurst may run for U.S. Senate and GOP Speaker Joe Straus's newness as House leader.

“You can determine that perhaps that's because the state's top two leaders are considering their future political ambitions. You might consider that part of it is due to the fact we have a new speaker who has his own troubles,” Carona said. “The bottom line is you can't lead 181 members without strong personalities and a set and significant agenda.”

He particularly said Perry has failed to lead on the issue, saying the governor should have supported the local-option idea since money is running short to meet transportation needs.

Perry spokesman Mark Miner said, “The senator is clearly sleep-deprived.”

Perry, who has backed other transportation avenues including toll roads, earlier in the day said of the local-option idea, “I think there are a lot of members of the Legislature that have problems with raising new taxes during a recession.”

Asked about the lack-of-leadership charge, Dewhurst said he tries to support all the senators.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, described the leadership as “fabulous.” House Transportation Committee Chairman Joe Pickett, D-El Paso, said Straus has consistently allowed the will of the House to work, and that there wasn't enough House support to pass the local-option tax even though Carona suggested there was.

“There's a lot of members in here who don't want to vote if there isn't the will to do it, because they'll get beat up on the vote one way or the other,” Picket said. “And Carona knows that. Everybody in politics knows that.”

House Republican Caucus Chairman Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, disagreed with Carona's leadership assessment.

“We certainly had an agenda but with as close as the breakdown is between Republicans and Democrats (76-74 in the House), you don't get to do everything that you want to do,” Taylor said. “It's pretty simple math.”

For him, the solution is simple: “Give us more Republicans, and we can have more of an agenda.”

A number of San Antonio business organizations supported the local-option election as way of offering voters an opportunity to relieve congestion.

“Our people are suffering physically and financially. Our air is being polluted by the traffic and, financially, people are losing time and money in their cars,” said Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, who helped push the local-option idea for Bexar County.

It often, however, takes more than one session to pass major issues, he said.

“Half of the work is writing policy solutions and the other half is building a coalition to advocate for the cause. We have made progress on both fronts,” Villarreal said.

Carona criticized Pickett and of Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, leader of the Senate negotiating team on TxDOT. Carona accused Hegar of being “unethical and deceitful” and working with House members behind senators' backs to remove the local-option tax.

Hegar said that he had worked with senators and House members, and that Carona had apologized to him. “I think that's a comment just made in haste,” Hegar said.

He said a phase-out of red-light cameras also was removed from the compromise TxDOT bill, although that's something he supports.

Overall, Carona said lawmakers should be addressing issues including water and the environment, but said, “We're talking about some of the most insignificant things, and it's an embarrassment, and candidly from a taxpayer's standpoint, it's a waste of time.”

Soon after he made his remarks, the House easily passed a “states' rights” resolution despite discomfort for some minority members.

“This is not about politics. It's about the principles of self-government,” said Rep. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, who believes that Congress should keep its nose out of Texas — especially when it makes states do something without sending the money.

The small but vocal states' rights movement grabbed headlines last month with protest tea parties across the nation. Perry made national headlines when he suggested Texas could secede if it so chose, although he later emphasized he wasn't advocating it.

© 2009 San Antonio Express-News: www.mysanantonio.com

To search TTC News Archives click HERE

To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click HERE

HB 300: Going....going.....

Local-option tax proposal backed by Dallas-area officials becomes roadblock for transportation bill

5/30/09

By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER
The Dallas Morning News
Copyright 2009

The local-option tax proposal so strongly supported by North Texas elected officials emerged Friday as the biggest obstacle in Austin as House and Senate members search for a compromise that would keep the session's largest transportation bill alive.

Dozens of pieces of transportation-related issues – from toll roads to red-light cameras to the power and duties of the Texas Department of Transportation – are caught up in the piece of legislation known as the sunset bill.

But none are proving as bedeviling as the local-option tax proposal.

Even as time is fast running out – an agreement must be reached by the end of today – some differences have been resolved. But on Friday, leaders in both chambers refused to predict success. Some on both sides threatened to see the whole bill die before they give in on the local-option tax idea.

"I will absolutely let the bill go down," said Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, chief sponsor of the local-option tax proposal. "The state of Texas and the Texas Department of Transportation [will] continue to operate just fine if there is no sunset bill. Would it be better to have a sunset bill? Well, of course it would, because there are things we'd like to do to improve the agency, and the sunset bill does those."

If the transportation bill dies, so will dozens of other provisions, including proposals that would make big changes to how the Transportation Department is managed.

Outside the Capitol on Friday, scores of local officials gathered on the south steps to turn up the heat on legislators to keep the local-option tax in the sunset bill.

Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert said the measure is essential if Dallas wants to remain an economic success story.

"It's important to make the infrastructure investments to make sure we have a strong economy in the future," Leppert said. "What could be a bright future is going to turn gloomy."

The sunset bill, however, remains in trouble because House members have failed to warm to the idea of the gas-tax proposal.

House transportation chairman Joe Pickett, D-El Paso, said he initially supported a version of the tax idea, but no longer. He said its unpopularity in the House could sink the whole bill. The sunset bill contains too many important provisions, he said, including new rules for the Transportation Department.

"There have been three polls [of House members] – none had more than 50 votes in support," Pickett said Friday of the tax proposal.

Carona and others argue that they are making headway in convincing some House members to signal their support for a final bill that includes the tax proposal. He also points to compromises the Senate has endorsed – including a change that would make 2012 the earliest date any local election to raise taxes could be held. Maximum fees voters could be asked to approve, too, have been sharply reduced.

The tax proposal would give counties authority to call elections but would require voters to agree to any new fees or taxes.

Carona said Dallas needs traffic relief, better roads and more rail lines – and blasted lawmakers and top Texas leaders for political cowardice.

"This is a time where legislators need to do what's in the best interest of the state, not the best interest of their re-election," he said.

Angela Hale, spokeswoman for House Speaker Joe Straus, said the San Antonio Republican wasn't working for or against the tax proposal. He promised, she said, to let House members each vote their conscience on big bills like this one.

"His job is to manage the flow of the House over the next 24 hours, and to get bills passed that members want passed. He is letting each one decide what is in the interests of their districts," she said.

Negotiations were to continue late into the night Friday, and could well stretch into Saturday afternoon. Carona remains hopeful.

"It's my view that those who are perhaps leaning toward a no vote at this time may well be convinced in the hours to come of the merits of the bill and of the importance of this particular issue," he said.

Staff writers Robert Garrett and Gromer Jeffers Jr. contributed reporting from Austin.


© 2009 The Dallas Morning News: www.dallasnews.com

To search TTC News Archives click HERE

To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click HERE

Transportation lobbyists still trafficking in the Texas House of Representatives

Pickett gives lobbyists an earful; Carona says TxDOT bill's fate is in Pickett's hands

May 29, 2009

Brandi Grissom
The El Paso Times
Copyright 2009

State Rep. Joe Pickett, D-El Paso, gave some transportation lobbyists what-for today after he said he found out they were collecting signatures on a petition he considered misleading.

"I swore a lot, and I apologize to my mother, but I do not apologize to them. They deserved it," said Pickett, chairman of the House Transportation Committee.

Pickett and members of the House-Senate conference committee are working against the clock to agree on a final version of the 1,500-page bill that would reform the Texas Department of Transportation.

Two major sticking points remain in the negotiations.

The Senate wants a measure that would allow local communities to vote on a smorgasbord of taxes and fees to raise money for local transportation projects. The House has said no to that.
The House wants a measure that would phase out red-light cameras. The Senate doesn't like that.

Pickett said some lobbyists were asking House members to sign a petition they said he supported to give consideration to the local tax and fee option. He said the tactic was misleading.

"I got mad," he said. "This is a big deal."

He said leaving in the local tax and fee option could result in the whole bill dying in the House. There are too many important reforms in the measure to let the whole thing fail, Pickett said.

State Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, chairman of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee, said he was "confused" over Pickett's conduct today.

He said the Senate has compromised, lowering the fees communities could charge to raise transportation dollars. They have also agreed, he said, to keep the phase-out provision for red light cameras, although future legislation could change that.

"It just defies logic that the House would not be given the opportunity to vote on this bill," Carona said.

The House and Senate members must agree on a final version of the bill soon, or it could die.
The bill must be printed and distributed by midnight Saturday and must be voted on by midnight Sunday.

Carona said if Pickett would support the compromises the Senate has agreed to, the rest of the House would follow his lead since he is the chairman of the Transportation Committee.
"It all has come down to Joe Pickett," Carona said. "Joe is a capable leader, and I need him to step forth now when it really counts."

© 2009 El Paso Times: elpasotimes.typepad.com

To search TTC News Archives click HERE

To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click HERE

Senator Tommy Williams (R-The Woodlands) slips Freeway Spy Camera provision in HB 300

Texas Senate Endorses Freeway Spy Cameras

Legislation mandating federal and state police surveillance cameras on Texas state highways nears passage.



5/29/09

TheNewspaper.com
Copyright 2009

The Texas state Senate voted Monday to give federal, state and local authorities the ability to track and identify every passing vehicle on state highways. The provision calling for "automatic license plate identification cameras" was slipped into the Senate version of the must-pass Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) reauthorization bill.

The provision was not part of the bill introduced in the state House of Representatives, whose less sympathetic members will have to accept or reject the entire 1274-page compromise hammered out by a conference committee. The House voted yesterday to instruct its conferees to insist that the House-passed ban on red light cameras remain in the final text.

The Senate's surveillance camera proposal promises taxpayer funds to the same private companies that operate photo radar and red light camera systems threatened by the House bill. License plate readers use the same basic technology as automated ticketing machines. Instead of tracking, for example, only those who exceed a certain speed threshold, the plate readers will store a video image of the front passenger compartment and rear license plate of every single passing vehicle. Optical character recognition software identifies the registered vehicle owner and allows for easy indexing of the time and location of travel for each person identified using the highway.

The Senate-passed bill gives police broad authority for the first time to use this information to prosecute any state or federal crime, as long as it is not a traffic violation "punishable by fine only." The bill also specifies that the cameras may be used to find suspects in amber alert cases, missing senior citizens and those accused of killing a police officer.

The capability to search for suspects is exactly what troubles one civil rights group. "Proponents will argue the readers are looking for bad guys -- drug smugglers and other criminals -- but the cameras cannot distinguish between your SUV and a drug smuggler's SUV," the Texas branch of the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement. "The readers are technology and as with any technology, they have a tendency to make errors. In this case, the implications are traffic stops of drivers misidentified as suspects wanted for serious crimes."

In some cases, those errors can turn deadly. On May 19, 2008 a Northumbria, UK police officer received an Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) alert about a passing Renault Megane automobile. Believing the vehicle could be driven by a dangerous criminal, the officer began following the Renault and hit speeds of 94 MPH in a residential neighborhood without using his siren. After cresting a hill, the police Volvo slammed into and killed sixteen-year-old pedestrian Hayley Adamson who did not see the police car coming. It turns out the database was wrong and the driver being chased was completely innocent. (View video of the incident up to the moment of the crash).

British authorities have been using ANPR for several years, working to centralize ANPR data to allow police to keep tabs on criminals and political opponents. A data center in North London offers real-time, nationwide tracking capability. Australian and American red light camera companies hope to offer the same centralized tracking services in the US. The license plate provision attached to the TxDOT sunset bill passed the full Senate last month without debate as Senate Bill 1426.

The language was drafted by state Senator Tommy Williams (R-The Woodlands). View the full text of the surveillance camera provision in a 90k PDF file at the source link below.
Source: House Bill 300 excerpt - Senate engrossed (Texas State Legislature, 5/28/2009)

© 2009 TheNewspaper.com: www.thenewspaper.com

To search TTC News Archives click HERE

To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click HERE

Provision buried in HB 300 would authorize local and federal agencies to install license plate readers on Texas highways

Coming to a Texas highway near you: License plate readers

5/29/09

Forrest Wilder
The Texas Observer
Copyright 2009

Deep in the Senate's version of the massive TXDoT bill is a provision that, if not stripped out in conference committee, will allow local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to install license plate reading cameras on Texas highways. The technology - already in widespread use in surveillance-crazy Britain - is very powerful, enabling the government to automatically photograph the license plates of moving vehicles and check the information against databases. If the system finds a "match," officers can be alerted.

According to law enforcement, automated license plate recognition systems are extremely efficient at finding stolen vehicles or finding abudcted children. However, the technology could also be used to collect vast amounts of information on the movement of individuals, raising civil liberties and privacy concerns. In Texas, with our proud libertarian streak, those concerns may be especially resonant.

"It's unacceptable to Texans for the government, particularly the federal government, to be tracking their movements on Texas highways and storing that information indefinitely," said Rebecca Bernhardt of the ACLU.

Abuses are already occurring in the UK. According to a BBC story from just a week ago:

John Catt found himself on the wrong side of the ANPR [Automatic Number Plate Recognition] system. He regularly attends anti-war demonstrations outside a factory in Brighton, his home town.

It was at one of these protests that Sussex police put a "marker" on his car. That meant he was added to a "hotlist".

This is a system meant for criminals but John Catt has not been convicted of anything and on a trip to London, the pensioner found himself pulled over by an anti-terror unit.

"I was threatened under the Terrorist Act. I had to answer every question they put to me, and if there were any questions I would refuse to answer, I would be arrested. I thought to myself, what kind of world are we living in?

Bernhardt says that without "meaningful limits," government authorities may be tempted to use the data for dubious purposes.

In fact, according to documents recently obtained by the Observer through the Texas Public Information Act, license plate information collected in the north Dallas suburbs may soon be entered into an intelligence database maintained by the North Central Texas Fusion System.

"Collin County is getting a license plate recognition system now," wrote Anita Miller, the wife in the husband-and-wife team that runs the fusion system from New Mexico, to Larry Barclay, of the Arlington Police Department, in a March 18 email. "The plans are for the Fusion System to be able to query that data this year."

As we highlighted in "Dr Bob's Terror Shop," the North Central Texas Fusion System is engaged in an unsettling experiment with data collection and mining.

The architect and operator of the system, Dr. Bob Johnson, the son of Plano Congressman Sam Johnson, attracted attention earlier this year for writing and disseminating a memo that singled out anti-war and Muslim organizations as terror threats and called on law enforcement to "report" the groups' activities.

The fusion system claims to have several terabyes of data stored on its system from sources as varied as social networking sites (e.g. Facebook or MySpace), jail records, arrest information, transcripts of jailhouse telephone conversations, and other data. This collected information is accessible to some 970 users, mostly law enforcement but also apparently health offciais, private security personnel, fire marshals, and others. Johnson has also deployed data-mining software to look for patterns in the information that might point to criminal or terrorist activities

"I think it is deeply troubling particularly because these fusion centers are not accountable to a specific government entity or have any meaningful privacy oversight," said the ACLU's Bernhardt.

One major caveat in all this is that a provision in the state budget blocks the Department of Public Safety from spending funds on license plate readers unless information not linked to stolen vehicles is "systematically purged." That language was strongly supported by the ACLU. However, it appears to apply solely to DPS while HB 300 authorizes local and federal agencies to install license plate readers on Texas highways, not just DPS.

Last summer the feds offered to spend $15 million installing license readers on Texas higways but TXDoT said that would be against the law. The provision in the Senate version of HB 300, the TXDoT, appears to clear the way.

© 2009 The Texas Observer: www.texasobserver.org

To search TTC News Archives click HERE

To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click HERE

Groundhog Day: Dewhurst and Texas Senators sell constituents down Rick Perry's TTC toll roads for the FOURTH consecutive legislative session

Betrayal Again

Trans-Texas Corridor Slipped into Bill in Senate



Terri Hall
Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF)
Copyright 2009

Monday night, an amendment authored by Senator Glenn Hegar was slipped into the TxDOT Sunset bill, HB 300, that authorizes all the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) contracts called CDAs (for both TTC-35 & TTC-69) to continue.

It also says no provision, restrictions, or “protections” in HB 300 apply to it, despite the repeal of the actual TTC language from the code. Senator Hegar assured Senator Dan Patrick on the floor that the TTC is dead, then slips in this floor amendment that deliberately allows it to continue!

Senator Robert Nichols, who brokered the backroom deal to make it happen, sent a press release all over the state claiming he voted to abolish the TTC, when he and others did just the opposite!

HB 300 is now over 1,000 pages long with little time left in the session to read it or know what’s in it, much less to be able to strip out all the bad provisions. HB 300 now goes to conference committee where 5 members of the House and 5 members of the Senate will hash out what stays in and what goes. The session ends Monday, June 1. Strong eminent domain reform died in the House yesterday.

HB 300 abandoned the original Sunset committee recommendations long ago, and it’s been loaded up with some horrific provisions like:

• Selling our highways to foreign toll operators (CDAs)

• Continuing the Trans Texas Corridor

• New loophole to toll existing freeways

• Raiding public employee retirement funds to invest in these risky CDA deals

• Up to a 10 cent gas tax hike (without ending gas tax diversions or any meaningful reform of TxDOT!)

• An increase in speed limits UP TO 85 MPH on the TTC & toll roads (with the intent to lower speed limits on competing free roads)

• Adding license plate cameras on state highways

Add to that, Speaker Joe Straus from San Antonio did not name either Rep. David Leibowitz or Rep. Lois Kolkhorst (who carried and fought for many of our GOOD amendments in the House version of HB 300) as one of the 5 conferees from the House who will decide which amendments stay in and which ones are stripped from the bill.

This bill simply has too much baggage for taxpayers to choke down, so we need to KILL HB 300.

The Legislature can pass what’s called a safety net bill that will push TxDOT’s Sunset to next session.

At this point, we don’t want a special session on TxDOT, because no meaningful reform of TxDOT is possible as long as Rick Perry still holds a veto pen.

© 2009 TURF: www.texasturf.org

To search TTC News Archives click HERE

To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click HERE

"This backroom deal-making not only betrays Texans...it’s also a betrayal of his fellow legislators who have voted to repeal the TTC...""

Grassroots call for lawmakers to KILL loaded TxDOT sunset bill

Trans Texas Corridor to proceed despite repeal of corridor

5/28/09

Terri Hall
Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom
Copyright 2009

(Austin, TX ) The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) sunset bill, HB 300, now over 1,500 pages long, has too much baggage for taxpayers to swallow. HB 300 ends the private toll moratorium (which hands our PUBLIC highways to PRIVATE, foreign toll operators), keeps the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) alive, opens a new loophole to toll existing freeways, allows counties a 10 cent gas tax hike, raids public employee pension funds to invest in risky private toll roads deals (Revolving Fund/Transportation Bank), reduces the number of elected officials on transportation boards, and more.

A heavy piece of “baggage” that put the grassroots over the edge was Amendment #1 by Senator Glenn Hegar that slipped the Trans Texas Corridor back into the bill after repeatedly assuring lawmakers during floor debate that the Trans Texas Corridor is “DEAD.”

TURF also obtained a memo last week from lobbyist Gary Bushell, with Alliance for I-69, revealing that he and ex-Transportation Commissioner turned Texas Senator, Robert Nichols, brokered a deal to allow the private toll contract with ACS of Spain for the Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69 to proceed as planned, despite the outcry of more than 28,000 Texans who went on the record against the project. (See the negotiated amendment to Nichol’s SB 17 that protects the private investor’s interest over the public interest here).

Bushell is the same lobbyist the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) illegally hired using taxpayer money to lobby elected officials in the path of the TTC, which is the subject of several bills before the Texas Legislature in response to a TURF lawsuit currently awaiting a ruling by the Third District Court of Appeals.

“So this backroom deal-making not only betrays Texans, including those in Hegar and Nichols’ own districts, it’s also a betrayal of his fellow legislators who have voted to repeal and repeatedly promised the public that the Trans Texas Corridor is ‘dead,’” proclaims an outraged Terri Hall, Director of Texas TURF.

Also slipped into the senate version is a bill by Senator Tommy Williams to add license plate cameras to state highways, Senator John Carona’s bill to lift the cap on payments to LOSING BIDDERS on toll contracts (used to be $1 million cap, then in 2007 dropped down to $250,000, now there would be NO limit), and a provision to allow TxDOT to increase speed limits on the Trans Texas Corridor and certain toll roads up to 85 MPH with the intent of reducing speed limits on competing free roads (to drive more traffic to high speed toll roads).

“HB 300 abandoned the original Sunset committee recommendations long ago, and it's been loaded up with too many anti-reform, anti-freedom, anti-taxpayer provisions for Texans to choke down,” states Hall.

TURF is advocating the legislature KILL HB 300 and pass what’s called a safety net bill that moves TxDOT’s sunset to next session, when they hope Texans will have a new Governor.

“No meaningful reform of this agency is possible as long as Rick Perry hold a veto pen,” Hall predicts.

Terri Hall is the Founder of Texas TURF. TURF is a non-partisan grassroots group of citizens concerned about toll road policy and the Trans Texas Corridor. TURF promotes non-toll transportation solutions. For more information, please visit their web site at: www.TexasTURF.org.

© 2009 TURF: www.texasturf.org

To search TTC News Archives click HERE

To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click HERE

"Senator Nichols and his flexible relationship with the truth...."

Senate D's, HAVE YOU LOST YOUR GODDAMN MINDS?

5/28/09

McBlogger
Copyright 2009

Last night I asked people to please contact their State Representative's and ask them to vote against HB 300, the TXDOT sunset bill. All session I've fought, successfully and unsuccessfully, to stop some of the worst transportation bills coming out, most of which seem to have originated with Senators Nichols and Carona. Now, just so you know, both are bad for transportation in this state but Nichols is really the worst of the two.

Nichols likes to lie to his constituents (just ask him about TTC69). And they're finding out about it. Sucks to be him, but who really cares? It's not like he's all that bright to begin with. He was dumb enough to get caught immediately behind 39% in that stupid, rambling speech about the 10th Amendment and State's Rights that 39% delivered just before asking the Fed's for help with swine flu. One hell of a move to appeal the KBH folks in his district, right? But I digress... Nichols and his flexible relationship with the truth.

He's told a number of you Senators that the ban on toll roads remains intact in HB 300. That's a lie. In fact, PPP's get strengthened as a result of this bill, not eliminated. Make no mistake, PPP's are a bad deal for Texas. In privatization, the state and taxpayers always end up losing out. This was, is and always will be reality.

Needless to say, some of you better spend the next few days actually reading HB 300.

Parts of it actually make it easier to convert a highway to a private toll road. And remember that horrible, jackass idea from hell, the Transportation Bank? It's still there.

Some of you also might want to reconsider your signatures on this. Frankly, considering that I and others supported 855 and we were pushing back on massive Republican opposition to 855, this just pisses me off so goddamn bad I can't really think straight right now.

None of you need friends like Senators Carona and Nichols. And you all better take a fucking moment to realize that bloggers aren't the enemy.

(MASSIVE hat tip to EOW for the pickup)

© 2009 McBlogger: www.mcblogger.com

To search TTC News Archives click HERE

To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click HERE

Gov. Rick Perry appoints another real estate developer to chair central Texas toll road authority

Ray Wilkerson to chair CTRMA

5/28/09

Austin Business Journal
Copyright 2009

Gov. Rick Perry has appointed local real estate professional Ray Wilkerson as chairman of the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority.

Wilkerson, the president and CEO of real estate investment firm Ray Wikerson Cos., will replace current CTRMA Chairman Bob Tesch who is not seeking reappointment.

The CTRMA board is comprised of seven local residents who help steer the authority's policies and direction. The goal of the authority is to improve the transportation system in Williamson and Travis counties.

© 2009 Austin Business Journal: www.bizjournals.com

To search TTC News Archives click HERE

To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click HERE

Delisi, Houghton, other Transportation Commissioners reappointed by Perry

Delisi, other transportation commissioners reappointed

5/28/09

By Ben Wear
Austin American-Statesman
Copyright 2009

A little over a year ago, when Deirdre Delisi was appointed to chair the Texas Transportation Commission, the scene of a few minutes ago on the Senate floor would have been unimaginable.

A host of nominees from Gov. Rick Perry for various state boards came up for a Senate vote. One name, Don McLeroy of the State Board of Education, was removed from that list and is now being debated.

Unmentioned, and approved unanimously, were Delisi and fellow transportation commissioners Ted Houghton, Fred Underwood and Bill Meadows. Meadows and Delisi, serving unexpired terms, will serve until Feb. 1, 2013. Houghton and Underwood get new full six-year terms and will be able to serve until Feb. 1, 2015.

That could change, however, if the Senate’s version of the TxDOT sunset bill becomes law. It would give commissioners two-year terms instead, so all four commission members would have to come before the Senate again in 2011 in that case.

Delisi, a former chief of staff for Perry, has worked to get along with senators and largely avoided the kind of inflammatory public statements that got former commission chairman Ric Williamson in so much trouble, and the department in various ways has acted in accordance with legislative wishes. Today’s vote was the payoff for that.

© 2009 Longview News-Journal: www.news-journal.com

To search TTC News Archives click HERE

To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click HERE

"Dewhurst made a deal with the governor and gave his word he'd kill the bill."

Senator says veto-override bill faces Perry-Dewhurst conspiracy



5/27/09

By CHRISTY HOPPE
The Dallas Morning News
Copyright 2009

AUSTIN – A Republican senator says Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst are conspiring to kill a constitutional amendment that would allow the Legislature to meet when necessary to override a governor's vetoes.

Sen. Jeff Wentworth, speaking with unusual candor against powerhouses in the Capitol, said Dewhurst betrayed a trust as the Senate's presiding officer to deal fairly and address bills that have the support of two-thirds of the 31-member Senate. Wentworth, R-San Antonio, said he had collected the signatures of 26 Senate supporters for the constitutional proposal, but Dewhurst told him that at the behest of the governor, he would not call up the bill for debate.

"He made a deal with the governor and gave his word he'd kill the bill," Wentworth said Tuesday. "He told me that the governor has talked to him 20 times about it."

Dewhurst press secretary Rich Parsons declined to address Wentworth's comments, saying only, "That bill has been through the same process as any other legislation that has come over from the House."

In the governor's office, press secretary Allison Castle said she hadn't heard that the governor has been involved with the issue.

"I am unaware of conversations like that between the governor and lieutenant governor, and certainly 20 conversations," she said.

The proposed constitutional amendment, which if passed by the Senate would have gone directly to voters for approval in November, provided that after a regular legislative session and the period allowed for the governor to veto bills, lawmakers would register with their chambers' clerks on whether they wished to return to Austin for a veto override session.

If a majority of lawmakers wanted to convene, the Legislature would meet for a maximum of three days to debate overriding any veto.

Because more than 80 percent of laws traditionally are passed in the last 10 days of a legislative session, the lawmakers have left town and rarely have any opportunity to vote on overturning a governor's veto.

Perry, who is Texas' longest-serving governor, has vetoed more bills than any other.

The proposed amendment sailed through the House on April 1 and has been eligible to be debated in the Senate since May 15.

Wentworth said he believes the deal "jeopardizes the understanding and the trust the Senate has had with its presiding officer for several decades. It's regrettable."

The amendment's author, Rep. Gary Elkins, R-Houston, said he was disappointed. He said the lieutenant governor, being elected statewide, has a difficult job acting as a disinterested party in this case.
.
"Dewhurst has one foot in the legislative branch and one foot in the executive branch," Elkins said. "But I've always said this is not about the governor. It's about the power of the Legislature"

© 2009 Dallas Morning News www.dallasnews.com

To search TTC News Archives click HERE

To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click HERE

"It’s painfully obvious... nothing will change until TxDOT, Perry, Carona, and Nichols have the keys to Texas transportation taken away from them."

HB 300, the TxDOT Sunset bill, needs to

5/27/09

Eye on Williamson
Copyright 2009

The Texas Legislature has done nothing to fix the transportation mess our state is in this session. In fact they’re attempt at it is so bad it would be much better if they hadn’t even tried. Here’s McBlogger’s take:

HB 300, the TXDOT sunset bill, has been so larded up with bull@$%& in the Senate that the damn thing is even worse than what we have now. In short, it’ll turn TXDOT into an uncontrollable monster thanks to Sen. Nichols (who has been lying to anyone who’ll listen that it’s killing toll roads), Sen. Carona and Sen. Ogden.

So, the House has got to kill it. Please contact your State Representative (lookup here) as soon as possible. Ask them to vote for the TXDOT safety net bill, NOT HB 300.

We have real transportation problems that need real solutions. HB 300 just creates more problems.

This from a TexasTURF email blast which pretty much says it all:

BETRAYAL AGAIN
TRANS TEXAS CORRIDOR SLIPPED INTO BILL IN SENATE!

Monday night, an amendment authored by Senator Glenn Hegar was slipped into the TxDOT Sunset bill, HB 300, that authorizes all the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) contracts called CDAs (for both TTC-35 & TTC-69) to continue. It also says no provision, restrictions, or “protections” in HB 300 apply to it, despite the repeal of the actual TTC language from the code. Senator Hegar assured Senator Dan Patrick on the floor that the TTC is dead, then slips in this floor amendment that deliberately allows it to continue!

Senator Robert Nichols, who brokered the backroom deal to make it happen, sent a press release all over the state claiming he voted to abolish the TTC, when he and others did just the opposite! HB 300 is now over 1,000 pages long with little time left in the session to read it or know what’s in it, much less to be able to strip out all the bad provisions. HB 300 now goes to conference committee where 5 members of the House and 5 members of the Senate will hash out what stays in and what goes. The session ends Monday, June 1. Strong eminent domain reform died in the House yesterday.

HB 300 abandoned the original Sunset committee recommendations long ago, and it’s been loaded up with some horrific provisions like:

-Selling our highways to foreign toll operators (CDAs)
-Continuing the Trans Texas Corridor
-New loophole to toll existing freeways
-Raiding public employee retirement funds to invest in these risky CDA deals
-Up to a 10 cent gas tax hike (without ending gas tax diversions or any meaningful reform of TxDOT!)
-An increase in speed limits UP TO 85 MPH on the TTC & toll roads (with the intent to lower speed limits on competing free roads)
-Adding license plate cameras on state highways

Add to that, Speaker Joe Straus from San Antonio did not name either Rep. David Leibowitz or Rep. Lois Kolkhorst (who carried and fought for many of our GOOD amendments in the House version of HB 300) as one of the 5 conferees from the House who will decide which amendments stay in and which ones are stripped from the bill.

This bill simply has too much baggage for taxpayers to choke down, so we need to KILL HB 300. The Legislature can pass what’s called a safety net bill that will push TxDOT’s Sunset to next session. At this point, we don’t want a special session on TxDOT, because no meaningful reform of TxDOT is possible as long as Rick Perry still holds a veto pen.

It’s become painfully obvious that nothing will change until all of TxDOT, Perry, Carona, and Nichols have the keys to Texas transportation taken away from them. Call your elected officials and tell them to vote NO on HB 300.

[UPDATE]: Senators sent a letter [.pdf] to members of the house asking them to support the local option tax. It included this paragraph about those who have been holding their feet to the fire.

This session, Senate Bill 855 has been at the forefront of discussion. Certain conservative groups and bloggers have relentlessly mischaracterized and misled members into believing facts that are simply not true. Several of the concepts from Senate Bill 855 have now been added to House Bill 300 (TxDOT Sunset) and it will be up to you to do what is right for the urban regions of the state and support this important concept.

Facts that are simply not true? How Orwellian. Here are some of those untrue facts.

© 2009 Eye On Williamson: www.eyeonwilliamson.org

To search TTC News Archives click HERE

To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click HERE

Senate: 'In TxDOT We Trust'

Senate resists TxDOT change

Approval sets up need for quick dealings with House; fight expected to be fierce.

5/26/09

By Ben Wear
Austin American-Statesman
Copyright 2009

The Texas Transportation Commission would retain its makeup and most of its powers under the Senate's mammoth version of the Texas Department of Transportation bill, which senators approved late Monday evening.

The 22-9 vote for House Bill 300 sets up negotiations with the House that must be brief because of time constraints and will probably be intense, given the significant differences between what the two chambers have in mind for TxDOT.

Two weeks ago, the House passed a version of the bill that would scuttle the commission, which oversees TxDOT and has five members appointed by the governor, and replace it with a 15-member commission: 14 commissioners elected from geographic districts across the state and the 15th to be picked in a statewide vote.

But the more substantive difference is a requirement, which originated with House Transportation Committee Chairman Joseph Pickett, that authority to decide how to spend up to 90 percent of TxDOT's construction money would be transferred to local transportation planning agencies.

Senate transportation leaders, though critical of how TxDOT leaders ran the agency through most of this decade, have taken the position that agency leaders have heard the public and legislative outcry and can be trusted with the reins of the department. House leaders say they want a housecleaning. The commission under late Chairman Ric Williamson pushed for a toll road-based approach to expanding the state's highway system.

Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, the bill's sponsor, said the Senate and House have the same objective.

"Our goal was to put TxDOT back into the same position it was before the last several sessions," Hegar said. "People in the state of Texas, all they want is roads built and roads repaired. It's that simple."

The bill, already amended 33 times when it was in a Senate committee last week, underwent relatively minor surgery Monday. That included a failed attempt by Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, to remove a section for road and rail projects that authorizes a higher driver's license renewal fee (by as much as $24), a higher vehicle registration fee (by up to $60) and elections in up to five urban areas to raise the gas tax (by up to 10 cents a gallon).

The House version has no such provision, and a Senate bill creating it passed the Senate earlier this session before dying in the House. Patrick said the provision was unconstitutional and could lead to a veto by Gov. Rick Perry.

With the session ending June 1, representatives and senators will have only a few days to produce a single version and present it to both chambers for final approval.

The bill is based on recommendations of the Sunset Advisory Commission, a legislative panel that reviews state agencies. In theory, TxDOT could "sunset" — cease to exist — if HB 300 doesn't pass and become law.

The Senate version of the

TxDOT sunset bill would also:

• Create a "legislative oversight committee," made up of more than 20 members, including House and Senate transportation committee members, to examine TxDOT operations. The House version has six members.

• Subject TxDOT to sunset review in four years rather than the usual 12. The House version agrees on this point.

• Retool the Capital Metro board, subject the agency to a sunset-like review and allow the agency to hire fare enforcement officers for its new commuter rail line — provisions in two bills carried by Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, that have been threatened by the House standstill in recent days.

• Prohibit any TxDOT employee from lobbying on state policy, although it maintains the ability of TxDOT to maintain federal lobbyists.

• Eliminate the Trans-Texas Corridor from state law, which is also in the House bill. Corridor highway projects near Interstate 35 and in East Texas would continue without the name, while the ability to build utility lines and rail lines alongside would cease.

Create a state Department of Motor Vehicles that would handle vehicle titling and registration instead of TxDOT.

Exclude a House provision that would outlaw future red-light camera contracts by cities, while allowing existing red-light cameras to continue catching offenders.

bwear@statesman.com; 445-3698

© 2009 Austin American-Statesman www.statesman.com

To search TTC News Archives click HERE

To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click HERE

Hegar: "In this bill it's dead. In the House bill it's dead. It's dead."

Texas Senate OKs transportation agency reform

5/26/09

By JIM VERTUNO
Associated Press
Copyright 2009

The Texas Senate on Monday night approved its version of a major overhaul to the state's road-building agency, including allowing voters in counties in the state's largest metro areas to raise gas taxes to pay for road projects.

The Senate bill to renew the Texas Department of Transportation also would keep the agency's five-member commission, even though the governor-appointed panel would be subjected to closer scrutiny from lawmakers.

Those two provisions are major differences between the Senate and House with the June 1 end of the session looming.

The Senate would allow 30 counties in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, El Paso and Corpus Christi metro areas to hold local elections to raise gas taxes by up to 10 cents per gallon and raise vehicle registration fees.

Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, said it will provide much-needed to money to build roads for those cities' bursting populations.

"Those areas have the greatest population and the greatest mobility needs," Carona said.

And while the Senate wants to keep the agency commission intact, the House wants to replace it with a single statewide elected commissioner and divert much of the embattled agency's power to local commissions.

The House plan would strip much of Gov. Rick Perry's power to influence one of the state's most important agencies, one that that has come under withering criticism in recent years as it plowed ahead with Perry's vision for the Trans-Texas Corridor, a superhighway system of roads, railway and utility lines crisscrossing Texas.

The Senate would keep the commission but reduce the length of terms from six years to two. That could greatly expand the Senate's influence over the agency because the Senate confirms the governor's appointments.

With the end of the session a week away, some lawmakers worried the rush on such a massive bill would create more problems.

"I hope we don't add to the chaos and confusion that is already over there," said Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock.

The 14,000-employee agency has been a target for lawmakers this session. A recent review under the state "sunset" process called for revamping the department's governing board and its dealings with lawmakers and the public.

"There was a lot of distrust," said Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, sponsor of the transportation rewrite.

Both the House and Senate versions would repeal the Trans-Texas Corridor. That won't prevent governments from pursuing toll roads, but the version planned for by Perry and some lawmakers in recent years is "dead," Hegar said.

The Trans-Texas Corridor came under fire almost since its inception. Rural landowners in particular were opposed to giving up their property for the project. Perry and other state officials had already said they were scrapping the original concept.

"In this bill it's dead. In the House bill it's dead," Hegar said. "It's dead."

Like the House bill, the Senate also voted to create new legislative oversight to review agency policy. The Senate also wants to prohibit the agency from lobbying state lawmakers.

The Senate came close to joining the House in banning the controversial use of red-light cameras. The House bill would phase them out and the Senate at first voted to add the same provision, but then changed its mind and removed the ban.

© 2009 The Associated Press www.ap.org

To search TTC News Archives click HERE

To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click HERE

"The real wildcard factor in the passage of the TxDOT Sunset bill is who gets appointed to the bill’s conference committee."

TxDOT sunset bill headed for Senate floor

5/26/05

Angy Hogue
The Lone Star Report
Copyright 2009

Policy disagreements between the Senate and House over the future of Texas’ transportation agency are becoming increasingly apparent days away from an expected Senate floor debate.

Thirty-four amendments — including what seems to be the original version of the Local Options Transportation Bill — were placed into the committee substitute of the TxDOT Sunset Bill (HB 300/SB 1019), following a unanimous vote by the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee this week.

With enough legislative will in the Senate to have passed the Local Option Transportation Bill (SB 855) just a month ago, it would stand to reason that senators may not be opposed to including its contents in the Sunset Bill. And Senate Transportation Committee members seem confident the TxDOT Sunset Bill will pass the upper chamber next week, even though many floor amendments (and a long afternoon and evening) are likely.

Add this to a tense debate in the House Transportation Committee May 20, after which TxDOT officials called for a rebuke from by the Federal Highway Administration regarding HB 300, and that made for a tense week for anyone involved in reshaping TxDOT and the Texas Transportation Commission.

Which form the Senate bill will take is anyone’s guess at this point. But the real wildcard factor in the passage of the TxDOT Sunset bill is who gets appointed to the bill’s conference committee, which will hash out the differences between the House and Senate versions. Time is also a player, with Sine Die June 1.

Pickett’s charge

A letter from the Federal Highway Administration on May 19 charged that certain aspects of TxDOT Sunset (the House version, at least — HB 300) were not in accord with federal law. This merited a response on May 21 by House Transportation Chairman Rep. Joe Pickett (D-El Paso).

Janice Weingart Brown, Texas division director of the Federal Highway Administration, said HB 300 "appears to be inconsistent with core concepts of our program."

The Highway Administration letter surfaced almost immediately after the heated committee meeting in which Texas Transportation Commissioner Deirdre Delisi and TxDOT Executive Director Amadeo Saenz were grilled by the House Transportation Committee. In that meeting, TxDOT officials claimed HB 300 would put federal funds at risk of being revoked.

HB 300 would allocate a great deal of its construction funds to the 50 MPOs throughout Texas — part of Pickett’s plan to decentralize the agency, and a bone of contention that morning. Saenz and Pickett exchanged banter for several minutes on what that plan would do to the state. Pickett called TxDOT "masters of the spin — masters of ‘the sky is falling.’"

"The manner in which proposed HB 300 is implemented could create serious conflicts with Federal law and regulation. …" Brown’s letter read, before listing six areas of concerns from Article II of HB 300.

Most of the problems Brown cited, Pickett said, were longstanding TxDOT practices simply implemented on a larger scale by HB 300, or were practices that federal statute does not specifically forbid or allow.

"… I appreciate your comments. I wish however that they had come as part of a more collaborative process, rather than at the request of a state agency that fears losing the control it wielded with a heavy hand for many years," Pickett wrote back. "We have moved to a new era of transportation planning and funding in Texas, with more being requested of our local governments. It is only appropriate that we try to allow local governments a greater role in the planning process that affects their regions. TxDOT seems dedicated to preserving the status quo and I regret that they have involved you in that mission on their behalf."

This situation is in many ways a replay of 2007, when a transportation bill (HB 1892/SB 792) received a sharp reprimand from the Federal Highway Administration — that is, until U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison stepped in, and spurred the U.S. Department of Transportation (which oversees the highway administration) to say HB 1892 was in line with federal law.

Local Option plan plays Trojan horse

Over the week, a group of senators worked on amendments to the bill that met with the pleasure of Sen. Glenn Hegar (R-Katy), the sponsor of the Senate version of TxDOT Sunset. Thirty-four amendments out of 67 were briefly discussed — making them eligible for debate on the Senate floor within the next fortnight.

Amendment 64 looked awfully familiar. As a matter of fact, it looks like the wording of Committee Chairman Sen. John Carona (R-Dallas)’s original version of SB 855, the Local Transportation Options Bill, which seeks to empower counties and large metropolitan areas to call elections to raise certain fees and motor fuel taxes to fund road construction and maintenance projects.

A copy of the amendment obtained by LSR on May 21 deals with a large variety of transportation projects — including rail lines and "mobility improvement projects," the amendment says. No word was available by press time on what exactly "mobility projects" meant, leaving observers and some members of the press corps in the dark.

The Local Option plan, for those unfamiliar, would give County Commissioners courts power to call elections on raising the motor vehicle fuels sales tax and other fees for itemized transportation projects. Carona referred to this plan as a "menu" of options for local communities.

Earlier in the session, the State Republican Executive Committee opposed SB 855, though the Texas Democratic Party has as of yet issued no statement.

"This issue is obviously a moving target, so we have to keep up the pressure," said opponent Michael Quinn Sullivan, of the conservative Texans for Fiscal Responsibility. "This Carona amendment, like the legislation before it, has no transparency and no accountability. But it does give government more ways to waste your hard-earned money."

Differences between the versions

Some other notable amendments to the committee substitute for TxDOT Sunset are as follows:

• MPOs: HB 300 called for TxDOT to figure out how to best distribute money for construction and maintenance projects to Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), but the Senate is now supporting a plan which gives the Texas Transportation Commission the power to allocate a majority of its maintenance and construction funds.

• Transportation Commission: The committee substitute draft calls for a five-member, governor-appointed TTC with two-year terms (down from the six-year terms in current law. HB 300 calls for a 14-member, elected TTC. The original SB 1019 called for a single, governor-appointed commissioner). "I led the charge for one (commissioner)," Hegar said. "But the point is accountability."

• Legislative Oversight Committee: The committee substitute draft calls for a 22-member Legislative Oversight Committee with members from the Senate and House Transportation committees and the chairs of the Senate Finance and House Appropriations committees (HB 300 called for an eight-member oversight committee, and the original SB 1019 called for a six-member committee). "I think it is important for us as legislators to lead by example, and our constituents expect it," Hegar said, "if for nothing else, that we can have communication between the two chambers."

• Red light cameras: While the House version allowed the cameras, the Senate version would allow them to continue as long as red light runners caught on camera could take a class instead of having to pay a traffic fine.

• Inspector General: The Senate did not favor a House provision to begin an office of TxDOT inspector general to oversee financing and track project dollars.

As far as similarities go, each version strikes language containing references to the Trans-Texas Corridor multi-modal toll road network, while allowing currently-underway projects (such as a portion of I-69) to continue.

Discussion on the amendments was surprisingly limited, but there were a few testimonies – particularly from anti-toll road activist Terri Hall (with whom Carona has locked horns in previous committee meetings).

"We do not want the expansion of federal lobbying … to use our taxpayer dollars and resources, to influence the passage or failure of legislation in Washington," Hall said, of a ban on TxDOT officials lobbying Congress in the bill. "That is absolutely a fraud on the taxpayers, I think."

Hall, also representing Texas TURF, opposed converting existing freeways into toll roads and supported increasing the number of elected officials on MPOs.

"We don’t agree with a private entity using debt and toll equity as a form of security on these projects," she said, addressing financial implications.

DMV creation likely

Although the local transportation options bill is being rolled into the TxDOT Sunset, another expected element passed as a bill on its own in the Senate.

The Senate on May 19 passed on final reading HB 3097, which would set up a Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) carved out of certain TxDOT responsibilities. If signed by Gov. Rick Perry, HB 3097 would transfer all duties related to Vehicle Titles and Registration, Motor Vehicle Division, Motor Carrier Division and the Automobile Burglary and Theft Prevention Authority from TxDOT to the new DMV.

The bill did not include vehicle inspection or drivers licenses responsibilities, which were expected to be taken from the Department of Public Safety in its Sunset bill. The bill calls for a DMV Sunset review date of 2015.



© 2009 The Lone Star Report: www.lonestarreport.org

To search TTC News Archives click HERE

To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click HERE