Governor Perry Urges Legislature to Lift Toll Road Moratorium

4/22/2008

Governor Rick Perry is calling on the Texas House and Senate to open up to the idea of allowing more private companies to build highways in the Lone Star state.

"No more band-aids. No more short-term fixes. Texas needs a long-term solution and a long-term strategy is what we're going to work towards and find," Perry said, in a speech to the Texas Transportation Forum, a meeting of highway planners and builders from across the state.

"We made significant progress on the challenge of building our transportation infrastructure," Perry said. "I would argue, in fact, that we changed the ages-old paradigm of how Texas infrastructure was built."

Perry is referring to legislation passed in 2001 which allowed for the private finance of highways. Last year, the Texas legislature capped the construction of new toll roads until the issue could be studied further.

"The state cannot afford to repeat 2007. Members of the legislature must understand that 'no' is not a solution to this challenge," Perry asserted. "We do not fulfill the public trust when we waste our time arguing over millions when our needs are in billions."

In his own words, the Governor said Texas is stepping over a dollar to pick up a dime and hurting our state in the process.

"Until the long-term strategy to our transportation infrastructure needs in this state becomes very clear, I am not willing to allow this state to just go further into debt."

In the past two days of the Transportation Forum, the state's gasoline tax has come up for renewed discussion and Monday morning, Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Dallas) suggested raising the gasoline tax. Governor Perry has been adamantly opposed to that suggestion, even though the Texas gasoline tax has not been raised in nearly 20 years.