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Nichols’ toll road bill misses deadline
By LUCRETIA CARDENAS
The state Legislature’s special session is tying up loose ends today as it comes to a close just before the Fourth of July holiday.
However, not every item on Gov. Rick Perry’s agenda is making it to his desk. Extending transportation officials’ ability to use comprehensive development agreements for infrastructure projects will have to wait until the Legislature reconvenes in 2011.
Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, authored the extension measure, Senate Bill 3, but the Senate’s Finance Committee members couldn’t come to an agreement on the bill’s details. The bill would have given statutory authority to enter into toll road agreements with private entities, but it included a number of restrictions and limitations, as well as a few exceptions.
Perry requested the item be decided upon during the special session because a moratorium on CDAs, approved in 2007, placed a September 2009 sunset date on most CDAs. However, after reviewing the bill and the projects, which could be affected by the moratorium between now and 2011, Nichols, as well as other senators, including Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, believes passage of SB 3 is not required.
“If the Legislature does not reauthorize CDAs during this very short special session, I don’t think it will cause any problems for the state,” Nichols said in a statement Thursday. “My only goal in authoring Senate Bill 3 was to make sure that if the Legislature decided to allow CDAs, we would only do so in a way that returned local control of transportation projects and established important protections for Texas drivers and taxpayers.”
Williams agrees, saying “no compelling need” exists to pass the bill before the next session.
“I’m supportive of what he’s (Nichols’) is trying to do,” Williams said. “… It may have been desirable to extend the CDAs but it won’t prevent a road from being built.”
Several projects using CDAs were exempted in the 2007 moratorium and will remained exempted until 2011. Not extending the use of CDAs could theoretically delay some of these projects, such as the Grand Parkway in North Harris and South Montgomery counties, but it most likely won’t have an affect on the project, Williams said.
Despite not passing SB 3, the Legislature is pushing through the two most crucial items over to the governor. Lawmakers were expected to pass a safety net measure Thursday night to keep five state agencies — including the Texas Department of Transportation and the Texas Department of Insurance — operating and allow the TxDOT to issue $2 billion in voter approved bonds.
However, not every item on Gov. Rick Perry’s agenda is making it to his desk. Extending transportation officials’ ability to use comprehensive development agreements for infrastructure projects will have to wait until the Legislature reconvenes in 2011.
Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, authored the extension measure, Senate Bill 3, but the Senate’s Finance Committee members couldn’t come to an agreement on the bill’s details. The bill would have given statutory authority to enter into toll road agreements with private entities, but it included a number of restrictions and limitations, as well as a few exceptions.
Perry requested the item be decided upon during the special session because a moratorium on CDAs, approved in 2007, placed a September 2009 sunset date on most CDAs. However, after reviewing the bill and the projects, which could be affected by the moratorium between now and 2011, Nichols, as well as other senators, including Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, believes passage of SB 3 is not required.
“If the Legislature does not reauthorize CDAs during this very short special session, I don’t think it will cause any problems for the state,” Nichols said in a statement Thursday. “My only goal in authoring Senate Bill 3 was to make sure that if the Legislature decided to allow CDAs, we would only do so in a way that returned local control of transportation projects and established important protections for Texas drivers and taxpayers.”
Williams agrees, saying “no compelling need” exists to pass the bill before the next session.
“I’m supportive of what he’s (Nichols’) is trying to do,” Williams said. “… It may have been desirable to extend the CDAs but it won’t prevent a road from being built.”
Several projects using CDAs were exempted in the 2007 moratorium and will remained exempted until 2011. Not extending the use of CDAs could theoretically delay some of these projects, such as the Grand Parkway in North Harris and South Montgomery counties, but it most likely won’t have an affect on the project, Williams said.
Despite not passing SB 3, the Legislature is pushing through the two most crucial items over to the governor. Lawmakers were expected to pass a safety net measure Thursday night to keep five state agencies — including the Texas Department of Transportation and the Texas Department of Insurance — operating and allow the TxDOT to issue $2 billion in voter approved bonds.
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