Texas Rep Files Bill to Slow Runaway Perry Pike

Some Texas Lawmakers are no longer asleep at the wheel.

On March 11, 2005, while Texas Governor Rick Perry signed a largely opaque multibillion dollar agreement with a Spanish public works company, one Texas lawmaker filed a bill that was perhaps too "visionary" for the Perry Administration-- one that allowed for accountability, transparency and greater public input.

Texas House Bill 3363, filed by Representative Garnet Coleman (Houston), addresses much of the public outcry about toll conversion and the Trans-Texas Corridor. A recent Corridor Watch newsletter provides an outline of the bill's provisions:

• It requires Texas Department of Transportation to report obligated funds and discretionary funds available in each district. Every elected city, county and state official would be copied on the report each year.

• It places a two-year moratorium on TxDOT imposing a toll on any portion of a state highway or roadway that did not have a toll in effect on or before the effective date of the Act.

• It places a two-year moratorium on implementation of the Trans-Texas Corridor.

• It establishes a 15-member committee to perform a comprehensive study of the Trans-Texas Corridor and the use of tolls, bonds, and other revenue sources for the financing of state highway and roadway construction and maintenance. The committee will hold meetings and public hearings and make a complete report, including findings and recommendations and drafts of any legislation considered necessary, available to the public not later than October 1, 2006.

For the full contents of the Corridor Watch newsletter, click
HERE.

Other Texas Representatives, feeling the heat from angry constituents, have filed bills which attempt to limit the scope of the corridor. These include Texas House Bill 1273 and Texas House Bill 1794. The Houston Chronicle has an article on these developments.

For more information about the Trans-Texas Corridor boondoggle, click the links under the Big Texas Pig on the right.

A complete timeline of news articles and web posts related to the Trans-Texas Corridor (1999-Present) can be viewed by clicking links located in the right side bar of this page under the heading TTC NEWS WATCH.