Senate unanimous:
No private toll roads for at least two years

04/20/2007

Gary Scharrer, Austin Bureau

AUSTIN — The Texas Senate voted unanimously Thursday for a two-year moratorium on private company toll roads — although stopping those controversial projects won't solve the state's bulging highway needs, a leading lawmaker warned.

The House already approved a similar measure in a nearly unanimous vote, reflecting considerable public angst over the possibility of transferring public assets to private companies. A moratorium on private toll roads passing in both chambers means it's "more likely to stick," said Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, author of the Senate bill and a former member of the Texas Transportation Commission.

"You have House clarity. You have Senate clarity," Nichols said. "There's an obvious will by this body to take the time to study private-equity contracts before we lock up many (road) contracts of our transportation system that cannot be corrected until our children and grandchildren are past retirement."

Gov. Rick Perry, however, opposes the moratorium, and Nichols conceded that a possible veto could kill the measure should it reach Perry's desk after the two chambers negotiate their differences.

The Senate bill, which exempts several highway projects in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, would create a citizens committee to study private-equity toll roads and issue a report before the 2009 legislative session.

"It fixes nothing," Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Chairman John Carona, R-Dallas, said before voting for the moratorium.

Carona and others have warned that the state doesn't have the money to build the $80 billion worth of highways it will need during the next 20 years.

Texas has not increased its 20-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax since 1991, and the revenue falls far short of meeting the state's road-building agenda.

Nichols also noted that lawmakers have siphoned off up to $15 billion from the highway fund over the past 20 years to pay for other state needs.

Carona is working on a comprehensive transportation bill that attempts to address the major objections in proposed 50-year contracts with private toll road companies. They include expensive buy-back provisions and costly penalties for building new roads near the toll projects.

A recent study showed private toll roads could net investors nearly $300 billion over the next 50 years for part of one project.