Carona on the Sunset report

June 4, 2008

By Ben Wear | Austin American-Statesman

State Sen. John Carona, a Dallas Republican who as chairman of the Senate’s Transportation and Homeland Security Committee never pulls his rhetorical punches, sent out a statement Tuesday evening on the “sunset” report about TxDOT. It didn’t arrive until after I had finished my story on the report for today’s paper and had gone home. But it’s worth sharing Carona’s thoughts with you:

“Each of the recommendations is worthy of consideration and I applaud the Sunset Commission in calling for meaningful change in how the Legislature addresses future transportation policy,” Carona said. “In recent weeks, the Transportation Commission has taken encouraging steps in the right direction. Had it done so sooner, such drastic measures might not be seen by some as necessary. In the end, the Legislature will not tolerate the Transportation Commission operating as the fourth branch of state government.”

If you missed the report and the Statesman’s coverage, see the blog post just before this one. The Texas Sunset Advisory Commission staff made a number of recommendations about what the Legislature should do next year to change TxDOT, including replacing the Texas Transportation Commission with a single commissioner.