Three Days of What?

Sen. Watson: "I was worried about having nothing to do this summer, so this has just worked out great."

So much for the finely-defined, two-issue special session.

When the Senate forced Gov. Rick Perry's hand over calling lawmakers back to deal with unfinished business, there were only supposed to be two issues on the table. One, dealing with the outstanding Sunset bills for the remaining agencies: Two, authorize the release of the first $2 billion of a $5 billion Texas Department of Transportation bond package.

What finally made it to the call, as summed up in Perry's press release and a letter from Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst to senators, the session has picked up some more weight.

The big addition is Senate Bill 3, which will extend the life-span of a select number of Comprehensive Development Agreements (basically toll road deals) for four years. This is another byproduct of the failure of the TxDoT Sunset bill: As Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, explained, "In some parts of the state, you had these CDAs that those parts of the state really want." There was a toll-road moratorium passed in 2007, with exemptions for specific pre-approved projects. The original TxDoT Sunset bill gave extensions to those exemptions, "but that ultimately died with the [bill]," said Watson.

That's not the only extension. SB 1, the transportation bill, has grown. The Proposition 12 general obligation bonds (which will also require a new rider clarification) are joined by an attempt to resurrect SB 1350. This would have founded the Texas Transportation Revolving Fund, which would "provide loans or credit enhancement, or to serve as a reserve fund for debt financing or the cost of operation and maintenance." However, considering how many bills died last session just one vote shy of final passage, it's bold for Perry to bring this back: It was never heard on the House floor, instead getting stuck in Calendars.

The Sunset conundrum will be dealt with by SB 2, which is basically HB 1959 revived. That's the plan authored by Rep. Carl Isett, R-Lubbock, to reschedule a block of agency reviews. The core involves pushing Health and Human Services back to 2013, and moving everything else around so that 2011 becomes about regulatory agencies.

However, Watson was disappointed that this is the path that is being taken. The final version of HB 1959 was a fix because five agencies didn't get their Sunset bills passed. Those Sunset bills, and the research behind them, are now going to waste. An exasperated Watson said "This is not like [Texas Department of Insurance] 16 years down the road, or TxDoT 12 years down the road. We just did it."