House puts 2-year ban on private toll road

OK'd 134-5, moratorium also has strong backing in Senate

April 11, 2007

By GARY SCHARRER, Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

AUSTIN — Reacting to public hostility, the Texas House tentatively slapped a two-year moratorium on private company toll road projects Tuesday with a loud 134-5 vote.

"This moratorium gives us a chance to take a deep breath," Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, said of her effort to temporarily stop private company toll roads.

The proposed moratorium faces a final House vote today and an uncertain future in the Senate. Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Chairman John Carona, R-Dallas, opposes a moratorium while he tries to negotiate a compromise measure. But the moratorium has support from 26 of 31 senators.

Kolkhorst's moratorium would stop private company toll roads and create a committee to study the pros and cons of those private equity finance projects. The committee must issue a report by Dec. 1, 2008.

Kolkhorst attached her moratorium measure to a transportation-related bill. Her own moratorium bill had been stranded in the House Public Transportation Committee, whose chairman, Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Taylor, opposes it.

Krusee and four other lawmakers voted against the measure.

The federal highway trust fund that has supported state road building projects will run out of money by the time the moratorium expires, he warned.

He urged his colleagues to consider ways to generate highway construction money if they don't like private company toll roads.

Texas has not increased its 20-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax since 1991. The tax revenue falls far short of meeting the state's road-building needs.

But lawmakers won't increase the gas tax, Krusee said later: "The Legislature doesn't want to raise taxes." However, Senate Finance Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, wants to double the state's road bonding authority from $3 billion to $6 billion.

The moratorium also is a reaction to a 156-page transportation bill that rushed through the Legislature four years ago in less than 20 days. Lawmakers didn't fully understand the legislation that resulted in 50-year toll road contracts with private companies, Kolkhorst said. Those contracts include expensive buy-back provisions and penalizing non-compete restrictions prohibiting new roads near the toll projects.

One of the private toll road projects covering stretches between Dallas and San Antonio alone will generate a $300 billion profit for investors, Kolkhorst said.

The moratorium would not affect the Harris County Toll Road Authority, Kolkhorst assured Houston-area lawmakers.