Lege may create Highway 99 CDA

More debt, 14 toll roads

Jay Blazek Crossley, May 10, 11.

SH99 - a proposed $5 billion,180-mile toll road around the Houston region - and 13 other toll projects across Texas, could be built through a comprehensive development agreement (CDA) if House amendments to the Texas Department of Transportation Sunset Bill are sustained in conference committee. In a related bill, the Texas Senate approved a 23% increase over the House version of the TXDOT budget, adding $257 million in debt payments over a two year period to the “state’s already troubled general fund,” according to the Houston Chronicle.

The amendments were added during the final day of work on the bill in the Texas House of Representatives, according to the Austin American Statesman:

Those long-term leases with private companies were part of the huge stir in 2007, when legislators banned most of them. They’ve had a change of heart, and this bill probably will go to Gov. Rick Perry with those roads still in it. What it won’t have, after both chambers rejected the idea, is a single transportation commissioner to replace the existing five-member commission appointed by the governor.

These provisions do not appear in any related form in any of the currently posted versions of the bill, including the full text of the Senate TXDOT Sunset Bill as engrossed.

Some provisions introduced in House Amendments would subject local toll authorities to Sunset Review or an outside audit, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Some provisions in House amendments created as checks on TXDOT deploying CDAs do not apply to the proposed SH99, such as one requiring the completion of all environmental review before entering into such a CDA, as noted by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

An amendment to replace the five member, governor-appointed Texas Transportation Commission with a single elected Commissioner did not pass the House, as noted by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in a separate article.

A House - Senate Conference Committee will meet to reconcile the different versions of the bill to send to Governor Rick Perry. Legislators have mixed reviews on the meaning and support for these provisions, as noted by the Texas Tribune:

Past strife caused suspicion of some amendments, too, even when representatives said they had nothing to do with the Trans-Texas Corridor. Phillips and Pickett pushed for an amendment to extend the authority of TxDOT to do design-build projects — i.e. simultaneously design and build a project without needing separate contracts — which they say saves time and money for communities. “[TxDOT has] shown that it’s worked and we’re going to extend that,” said Phillips, “but we’re going to put some fences. We’re going to put some restrictions,” to ensure projects like the Trans-Texas Corridor won’t be possible.

But at the end of the day, some representatives called it hypocritical when others used the bill to tack on provisions for specific tollway projects. Phillips said such projects would “allow [communities] locally to deal with their congestion relief.”

“It saddens me that we would not be more serious about something everyone says is so critical,” said Rep. Yvonne Davis, D-Dallas, asking representatives not to vote for Phillips’ amendment, which originally included five tollway projects, but was amended by others to include even more.

Since the Legislature isn’t going to appropriate more dollars for transportation or raise the gas tax, “we have to be mindful of limitations and allow the local folks to do it,” said Rep. Eddie Lucio III, D-San Benito, in support of Phillips’ amendment. That means allowing local communities to involve the private sector, he said.

“This is not how we want to build all of our projects in this state,” said Phillips, but he said the communities affected by his amendment showed support for the projects in public testimony.

Critics believe the TXDOT Sunset Bill as it stands to be more of the same, according to KVUE. Some question the interest of lawmakers in public opinion on the issue, as noted by the Houston Chronicle:

Lawmakers voted “to sell off half of Texas highways to a foreign company who they know will charge precipitously high toll rates — like 75-cents a mile — to drive on Texas roads,” said Terri Hall, founder and director of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom.

The bill allows the state and local communities to use a “design-build” concept for construction, involving a partnership of engineering and construction firms. “Design-build” projects expedite road construction at reduced costs, Harper Brown said.

But Hall scorned “design-build” contracts as a way to eliminate competitive bidding and to create a system inviting favoritism and other abuses.

“It’s a disgrace. They don’t care a flip about the public interest,” she said. “I am ashamed.”

House Amendments authorizing CDAs (pdfs):
#90 - SH99, IH35E, North Tarrant Express, SH183, and SH249
#95 - 290
#96 - Mopac & 183
#100 - 288
#101 - Establishing Sunset Review of Toll Authorities