On April 19, the Texas Senate followed the House in voting for a two-year moratorium on private company toll roads, the San Antonio Express-News reported. The legislation signed by Barbour allows the state and local governments to partner with private firms to build and toll roads in congested areas. After 30 years, tolls will be removed from the new roadways, the Hattiesburg American reports.

“The bill simply provides governments an option to use tolling to pay for the construction of a new transportation facility,” Mississippi Rep. Bill Miles, chairman of the House Transportation Committee told the newspaper.

The actions by the Texas Legislature were largely driven by public skepticism over the possibility of turning over public infrastructure to private interests.

“You have House clarity. You have Senate clarity,” Sen. Robert Nichols told the Express-News. “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. According to news reports, Perry is considering vetoing the bills.

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.

In 2005, the Texas Department of Transportation and the Cintra-Zachry consortium entered an agreement to build the first segment of the Trans Texas Corridor, which will parallel Interstate 35 from San Antonio to Oklahoma. The consortium agreed to pay $7.2 billion for construction of the entire six segments of the TTC—all at no cost to taxpayers.

Prior to both houses passing the moratorium measure, Perry and U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters appeared together urging the legislature to keep the state’s transportation commitments on track. An April 26 letter from Federal Highway

Administration Chief Counsel James Ray also noted that legislative changes to the state’s transportation program in place may “affect the State’s eligibility for receiving Federal-Aid highway funds.”

The moratorium legislation has not yet reached the governors’ office.

“While the administration plays a valuable role in providing technical guidance and assistance for states considering legislation which may impact federal funds, there is a fine line between analysis and advocacy in those deliberations,” Hutchinson stated in the May 1 letter to Capka.

She urged FHWA “to work with all interested parties, including members of the Legislature, the Texas Department of Transportation and Members of the Texas Congressional delegation to assure that as many options as possible are available to Texas to maximize use of their transportation dollars to match its fair share of funding.”

The letter appeared on the Texas politics website http://www.quorumreport.com.