Band-Aids, Again
June 30, 2009
Gov. Rick Perry put his finger on an inconvenient truth, hidden in the middle of his proclamation calling lawmakers into special legislative session beginning today. The passage in question (emphasis added):
Written by Editorial, The Dallas Morning News
Gov. Rick Perry put his finger on an inconvenient truth, hidden in the middle of his proclamation calling lawmakers into special legislative session beginning today. The passage in question (emphasis added): ... WHEREAS, the general statutory authority to enter into comprehensive development agreements expires in August 2009, and, with limited means of funding transportation projects, comprehensive development agreements are a necessary tool for providing financing for future transportation infrastructure ...
On this we agree with the governor: There's not enough money in the system to keep up with Texas' transportation needs. We don't agree with Austin's borrow-and-toll approach.
Lawmakers never managed to confront that enormous problem in this year's regular session. This week they will be putting a bow on a new little box of Band-Aids to try to cover it up.
First order of business is borrowing more money for roadway construction and squaring away a new "revolving fund" to dish it out in different ways. In light of declining fuel tax collections, the maneuver has a desperation feel to it. Texas is like a homeowner who just got a pay cut and now has to refinance to make overdue home improvements.
The next order of business has to do with the governor's words "comprehensive development agreements." That refers to the politically explosive issue of building toll roads using private corporations as partners.
On this we need to be clear: The massive rebuilding of LBJ Freeway is being undertaken by an international consortium because there is not enough state money to do the job. The builder-operators, led by the Spanish firm Cintra, will be paid back through tolls placed on new lanes. North Texas is starved for road money, and lawmakers should make sure this potential source is not cut off.
But Austin also must consider the perspective of a region increasingly laced with toll roads of any kind – those privately financed as well as those built by the North Texas Tollway Authority. As long as lawmakers refuse to change their funding habits, the motorist's fate is sealed: Pay no more taxes at the pump, but pay prodigiously at toll booth after toll booth.
We had urged the governor to open the lawmaking session up to consideration of a way out of this transportation mess, at least for metro areas bollixed up by traffic congestion. The Senate passed a bill this spring to let voters in urban areas raise new taxes and fees for road and rail projects, but the House majority didn't see the wisdom and fairness of self-determination for the traffic-weary public.
Since the governor does not want to be in the same hemisphere with the word "tax," lawmakers will be steering clear of the local-option approach in this go-round. That's much to their relief, no doubt, as they hope to keep their lawmaking session brief.
Our hope is that prominent voices in the Capitol will have the guts to speak another truth before leaving town: Endless borrowing and tolling will not build the first-class transportation system that Texas deserves.
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