Federal transportation chief backs
Perry's toll plan

A majority of lawmakers
want a 2-year moratorium on similar projects

April 3, 2007

By CLAY ROBISON, Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

AUSTIN — With U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters offering her support, Gov. Rick Perry on Tuesday lashed out against legislation that would impose a two-year moratorium on toll-road privatization.

Perry said the proposal, co-sponsored by strong majorities in the House and Senate and reflecting the public controversy over the Trans Texas Corridor, would cost Texas critical business expansion opportunities.

"Our message today is that building needed infrastructure is essential to creating jobs and attracting economic development investments in Texas. And you can't accomplish that with a two-year moratorium on needed road projects," he said.

Although the moratorium legislation is co-sponsored by 27 of the 31 senators and 111 of 150 House members, it faces an uncertain future because of strong pressure to continue building highways and waning mileage from the state gasoline tax, the traditional revenue source for highway construction.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee likely will approve the bill today but that further action will be delayed as lawmakers continue to seek a compromise.

Peters, on a stop in Austin, said other states need to adopt Perry's approach.

The governor chose a visit to a Samsung semiconductor plant in suburban Austin to make his highway pitch.

The plant is symbolic of Austin's growth and is near the route of the first Trans Texas Corridor project, a proposed series of toll roads running parallel to Interstate 35.

It has sparked considerable controversy, mainly over the state's decision to contract with a private consortium, headed by a Spanish company, Cintra, to develop a long-range plan for the corridor.

The consortium also will build and operate the first segment in Central Texas.

The state will share in profits from the toll roads. But a recent report by the state auditor's office was sharply critical of the Trans Texas Corridor, concluding that taxpayers may never know how much they could end up paying for it.

Perry said the state's 20-cents-per-gallon gasoline tax no longer generates enough revenue to pay for Texas' increasing need for new highways.

The tax, he said, does little more than pay for maintaining existing roads.

Perry also rejected proposals to let the gasoline tax gradually increase by indexing it to inflation or rising highway construction costs.

"I'm looking for doable solutions," he said, adding that it would require a huge increase in the gasoline tax to build enough highways if his public-private financing plan were to be derailed.

Austin Bureau reporter Polly Ross Hughes contributed to this report.