Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

After less than 30 hours of fast lawmaking, the Texas Legislature adjourned Thursday having resolved two of the three problems Gov. Rick Perry wanted them to fix.

Lawmakers approved and sent to Perry bills that will keep five state agencies — including the transportation, insurance and racing departments — in business for the next two years and that authorize the expenditure of $2 billion in voter-approved road-building bonds.

But despite a push in last-minute negotiations, a request by Perry to let state transportation officials continue signing contracts for privately built toll roads never came up for a vote. Still, legislative leaders said that would not thwart any projects during the next two years.

A statement by Perry after the Legislature went home shortly before 5 p.m. gave no hint that he might ask lawmakers to take another shot at addressing the toll-road issue.

Saying he was pleased that lawmakers continued the agencies' operations and approved issuance of the bonds, Perry said he plans to "continue to work with legislators and local officials to find transportation solutions for our state."

"With more than 1,000 people moving to Texas each day and a growing economy, improving transportation in our state continues to be a top priority of mine," Perry said. "I had hoped to reduce uncertainty regarding several major transportation projects across the state by extending the comprehensive development agreement authority for local and state transportation agencies."

The special session was the shortest in more than two decades — the shortest since Gov. Bill Clements brought lawmakers back for a day in June 1987 to address tort reform.

Legislative leaders said the third issue was deemed too complicated to be addressed in a short special session.

"We worked quickly and accomplished all the critical issues that were before us: keeping those agencies open and authorizing the important bonds," Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said.

"On the third issue ... the urgency simply wasn't there. ... It is something we can address, without holding up any important projects, in 2011" when the Legislature convenes next in a regular session.

House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, said House members wanted to come in and "pass the bare necessities" — things that should have been addressed during the regular session but were not, thanks to a partisan fight in the House in the final days that caused a backup of bills.

"I don't think they were looking to delve very far into substantive policy matters," Straus said.

Wednesday had been a day of quick public hearings and closed-door meetings, as lawmakers tried to expedite the passage of key bills and negotiate a compromise on the controversial toll-road measure. Thursday was mostly spent waiting for the paperwork to catch up.

Late in the morning, by a unanimous vote, the House approved House Bill 1 to allow the state to borrow $2 billion for road projects and pay it back with general state revenue rather than gasoline taxes.

"House Bill 1 is a very important bill to keep our state moving," said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, the bill's author.

Two changes were made to the final version of the bill.

One removed wording for a special "revolving" fund that would have used $1 billion of the $2 billion. Instead, that $1 billion will go to an existing state infrastructure bank to be loaned out only for publicly run transportation projects.

The second change prohibits any of the money from being used to convert a free road into a toll road. Rep. David Leibowitz, D-San Antonio, acknowledged during the debate that his amendment would not prevent the money from being used to add toll lanes to free roads.