Local-option bill rejected for final time

Carona: Fee is “essential”

Steve Hawley, Jun 03, 09.

The local-option transportation funding proposal, which would have given to voters in certain counties the right to approve new taxes to fund local transportation projects, was rejected for the final time on Saturday, according to the Dallas Morning News Transportation blog. The bill had gone through several different iterations before being removed from the TxDOT restructuring bill, which itself was rejected the following day.

The Transportation blog notes:

Back in Dallas, there isn’t much joy in Mudville today, at least not among the elected officials and business leaders who wanted this bill so badly.

For relief they may have to look elsewhere. Washington is already hard about the job of rewriting the way it approaches road and rail funding. With Democrats in charge, and President Obama willing to spend big, there is enormous appetite for change—not just in the amount Washington spends on transportation, but in the way it prioritizes those dollars. It’s worth watching, and for now it’s the only hope for cities like Dallas, desperate for more funds.

The local-option bill was introduced by Sen. John Carona of Dallas in an attempt to alleviate traffic congestion in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Carona argued that in the absence of additional state funding, counties should be able to raise transportation funds on their own. Dallas-Fort Worth officials estimated that a 10-cent gas tax could generate $370 million per year in the region, which would be used to construct a 200-mile commuter rail system and to fund highway improvements. Supporters said that the region needs at least $457 million per year to fully support the commuter rail system, but that the local option proposal was workable.

Carona’s original bill was geared toward North Texas, but many of the state’s urban counties requested inclusion. The Houston region was not included due to resistance from the local Senate delegation, despite pressure from Harris and Fort Bend counties and the Greater Houston Partnership. The bill passed the Senate in April, only to be replaced by a broader statewide version in the House in May.

The House bill stalled, leading Sen. Carona to add a more restrictive local-option amendment to the TxDOT legislation. However, the House removed the amendment during conference committee, prompting Sen. Carona to threaten a filibuster of the entire TxDOT bill. Carona told reporters, “I will absolutely let the [TxDOT] bill go down. A tax and fee initiative with local voter control is essential in this state at this time.”

The TxDOT bill fell through a day later, so Carona did not have to carry out the filibuster.