Editorial: Transportation

April 18, 2007

Forth Worth Star-Telegram

Anyone attempting to make sense of the multiplicity of bills in the Texas Legislature dealing with transportation issues should try nailing Jell-O to a wall. That's easier.

Even people who get paid to follow developments in the road-building realm are having trouble keeping pace with the changes.

At present, the House is ready to slap a two-year moratorium on toll roads funded by nongovernment entities. However, members also are willing to recognize that the Regional Transportation Council of the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) has done excellent planning -- based on what the Legislature voted to tell it to do -- and that projects within its jurisdiction in the Dallas-Fort Worth area should be exempt from the moratorium.

The House also is considering a bill that would permit the RTC to seek local elections to fund rail in the area with an add-on of at least a half-cent to the sales tax.

But whether either of those provisions will make it into law is unknown.

These issues are crucial to North Central Texas because the RTC has crafted a complex plan to deal with congestion that depends on receiving a large chunk of money from the tolling of Texas 121 in Collin County.

The Texas Transportation Commission tentatively approved an agreement with the Spanish company Cintra that would provide a $2.1 billion upfront payment for the Texas 121 project -- money that could be leveraged into other vital projects in the area. That deal was expected to close this summer, but legislation that would block the use of such comprehensive development agreements (CDAs) would trigger delays in other needed projects that are dependent on that upfront money.

There's also an effort to make sure that the North Texas Tollway Authority gets a shot at the Texas 121 project. Frankly, we'd prefer that the NTTA have the project rather than a private (and non-U.S) company. But whether NTTA will meet or beat the Cintra proposal remains to be seen.

The RTC is made up for 40 members including local elected or appointed officials representing counties or cities as well as representatives of transportation providers. Its members and COG staff feel bruised by all of this.

After the Legislature approved a variety of innovative financing programs in 2003 (including the use of CDAs), the RTC launched a planning and study process that incorporated these concepts.

In 2005, "the RTC held many public meetings in order to set CDA business terms, toll rates, and agreements for using surplus toll revenue and CDA concession payments," RTC Chairwoman Cynthia White, a Denton County commissioner, said in a March 16 letter to legislators.

"Finalized in 2006, these policies represent a rational process that took many months to develop and have proven to be successful," White said. "The RTC held a total of 41 public meetings on various transportation topics in 2006 and frequently answered questions on these policies."

The RTC's innovative answer for transit -- that's rail, as opposed to road -- funding was to ask for the power to seek sales tax allocations from the region

Rep. Fred Hill, R-Richardson, has a bill that would authorize that, but the conventional wisdom has been that the Legislature will be reluctant to let go of the sales tax as a source of future state revenue. Members can always argue that sales taxes are a sort of user fee and don't involve real tax increases.

Gov. Rick Perry has made transportation a centerpiece of his administration, but his proposed Trans-Texas Corridor plan has come in for heavy criticism across the state. CDAs are catching much of the shrapnel from that controversy.

In the end, House Transportation Committee Chairman Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock, is likely to present the House with an omnibus transportation bill that rolls in all of the issues. A similar bill is expected in the Senate from Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, chairman of the Senate's Transportation and Homeland Security committee. If those pass, it's on to a conference committee.

But here's the bottom line: The Legislature must do two things to make the transportation plan in North Central Texas work.

It must exempt the Texas 121 project in Collin County from any CDA moratorium.

It must give North Central Texas the option to tax itself for rail issues on a countywide or larger basis, rather than a city-by-city basis. Research strongly indicates that such taxes would pass if the voters are asked.

As White said in her letter to the Legislature, it would be "devastating" for the region to lose the ability to enter into CDAs. It would halt or delay road projects and hamper the region's efforts to meet federal air quality standards by reducing traffic congestion.

Translated into less diplomatic language: Yo, lawmakers! You set the transportation funding rules, and we followed them aggressively. We know our area and its needs. Let us fix our problems.