Special Speedbump

Everyone knows the plan for the special session: Gavel in at 10am on July 1, pass three bills, gavel out July 3. But as lawmakers gather in Austin, the details of those three bills are starting to raise some questions.

Allaying some fears was why there was an information session Tuesday afternoon for House members and their staff. Reps. Donna Howard and Valinda Bolton from the Travis County delegation were joined by around 20 other legislators, including Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, Diana Maldonado, D-Round Rock, and Jim Jackson, R-Dallas, to be walked through the bills.

There was little need to go over the Sunset bill, or the enabling legislation for the Texas Department of Transportation Prop. 12 bonds. But there was a long round of questions about the rest of the call, especially the establishment of the Texas Transportation Revolving Fund.

Bolton summed up House members' concerns. "If you know anything about it," she said, "you know more about it than we do."

It was up to Rep. Jim Pickett, D-El Paso, and TxDoT Chief Financial Officer James Bass to explain this, since most members have never seen it before. It's the terms of Senate Bill 1350 from the regular session: What it does, Pickett explained, is take $1 billion out of the $2 billion from the Prop. 12 bonds and establish a fund to make loans to municipalities for road projects.

Even at this stage, there were a lot of questions. Who could use the funds? What projects were eligible? Would it be open to public/private partnerships? Would the bond market be happy buying bonds that would go to a loan, and if so would the state be liable if the localities defaulted?

As vice-chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, said he supported the proposal because it at least puts some more tools in the local option toolbox, "even if it's just a new funding source." However, he said, "I'm trying to analyze it in the context of where we find ourselves."

"The downside," he said, "is that we're clearly taking money that the voters authorized for state transportation projects and using it to shift more of the burden back on to the voters." More importantly, he said, since this is instead of real local funding and does nothing about the massive issue of fund diversions, "It's another example of how we're doing band-aid stuff, and how the leadership – that being [Gov. Rick] Perry and [Lt. Gov. David] Dewhurst – are failing us."

Remember: That's a supporter of the bill that has those issues.

But that's not the only slowing factor this session could face. SB 3 extends the lifespan and tightens up the terms for the limited list of exemptions from the moratorium on new comprehensive development agreements for toll roads passed in 2007. Anti-toll road groups like Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom and Texans for Accountable Government never wanted the exemptions or the toll projects in the first place, and are planning some serious legislative ear-bending to permanently derail the agreements they fear are privatizing Texas roads.

Between the confusion over the fund, and lobbying over the CDAs, don't count out the possibility of being back on Monday.