Transportation shake up in Texas Legislature

Sen. Carona no longer Chair

Jay Blazek Crossley, Jul 19, 10.

Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst has decided to make State Senator Tommy Williams - a Republican representing a Houston-area district that runs from the Woodlands to Beaumont - the new Chair of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee, replacing Senator John Carona - a Republican from Dallas - according to a press release from Sen. Williams (pdf) and the Houston Chronicle’s Texas Politics Blog.

Many believe that the change indicates an unwillingness by the leadership of the state Republican party to consider raising taxes to pay for transportation, including the Austin American Statesman, the Dallas Morning News’ Transportation blog, and the above-referenced Chronicle blog. Senator Carona has been an outspoken advocate of increasing funding for transportation, as noted in a November 2009 commentary in the Houston Chronicle.

Senator Corona told the Dallas Morning News that he believes not very much will happen in transportation in the next session:

“Transportation will not be a focus in next year’s session,” he said. “It is clear to me, based on 20 years of experience, there will be no serious effort for transportation funding. ...

“A large part of the work has been placed on hold,” he said. “The range of options is known [for raising new money] but I do not believe leadership is about to make those choices.”

Carona said he sees no way that Gov. Rick Perry, with his national ambitions, or Speaker Joe Straus, with a “tenuous hold” on his House leadership, will support new taxes or fees for transportation.

“Knowing where we are, that very little will be happening on transportation funding, if I wanted to play as productive role as possible next year, it will be in a chairmanship like Business and Commerce.”

The Fort Worth Star Telegram has published an editorial titled “Carona’s job switch is loss for Texas transportation,” the Dallas Morning News has published an editorial addressed to Senator Williams titled “Following Carona in Senate Transportation,” and the San Antonio Express News editorializes that “Carona told truth about state roads” and notes that “the distress over losing Carona in the post is not a knock on Williams. It’s an appreciation for Carona’s good work.”

In a related story, Austin lawyer Howard Wolf and Governor Rick Perry’s former Chief of Staff Jay Kimbrough have been tapped to restructure the Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT), according to the Fort Worth Star Telegram. The restructuring effort follows a damaging independent audit of TXDOT by Grant Thornton. TXDOT was required to go through the Sunset review process (pdf) during the 2009 Texas Legislative Session, but the Legislature and Governor Rick Perry could not agree on a final bill, and that process was deferred to the next legislative session, beginning January 2011. Senator Williams will have a central role in that process, unless further changes arise from the outcome of the November 2010 elections.

The Houston Chronicle Texas Politics blog recently updated their story reporting that “Dewhurst just said on a conference call, ‘There’s no question that we’re going to need additional funds to build the roads we need.’”

The Houston region’s Transportation Policy Council will address the huge cuts that are coming to the 2035 Regional Transportation Plan.