One of the hallmark bills of this year’s session of the Texas Legislature, the Texas Department of Transportation Sunset Bill, has run into trouble just one step short of final approval as this year’s legislative session is set to end.
The bill, championed by State Sen. Glenn Hegar (R-Katy) and State Rep. Carl Islett (R-Lubbock), was on the verge of almost-certain passage by the Senate when veteran Sen. John Carona (R-Dallas) threatened to filibuster until the session ended.
HEGAR
Hegar called the threatened filibuster “an unfortunate turn of events” and said he was hurt by Carona’s last-minute effort to block passage of the bill.
Hegar said if the bill does not pass, it would mean no new highway projects for the next two years since a $2 billion highway bond program is contingent on passage of the sunset legislation.
Carona said he was threatening the filibuster because, as written, the bill deleted the use of local option taxes to fund transportation projects.
In a statement issued late Sunday, Hegar said he was proud of the bill and categorized Carona’s opposition to the legislation as “unfair.”
“I am extremely proud of the work of the conference committee on HB 300, the Texas Department of Transportation Sunset legislation, and I am very disappointed by the unfair attacks made by Sen. Carona against the committee, the process that we employed to seek a committee report that would pass both the Texas House and Senate and his extremely unfair and harsh attacks against me personally. Sen. Carona’s distortions sadden me because not only are they patently false, but because he is also attempting to reinvent history,” Hegar said.
Hegar also said he worked hard to ensure the sunset process was “open and fully transparent,” and pointed out that as late as a week ago, Carona was praising his work.
“My proudest moment in four sessions as a state legislator was during this hearing when senators Carona, Nichols, Watson and Shapleigh all took turns complementing my efforts to have a very transparent, open and deliberative process among the senate members. One senator even noted that the process was the most impressive in all of his years of the legislature,” Hegar noted.
He added that he made special efforts to reach out to Carona and his staff and kept them informed on why the local option tax would have doomed the bill in the Texas House.
“In regards to the work of the conference committee, I have attempted to include my senate colleagues and conferees in the process, most especially Sen. Carona and his staff,” Hegar explained. “Unfortunately, after many days of hard work by many individuals, it became very clear to the conference committee that the votes simply did not exist in the Texas House to pass the local option tax or to get the requisite three House signatures on that conference report.”
Hegar also said that while he respected Carona, the Dallas legislator was out of line in threatening to “hold the bill hostage” with the threat of a filibuster.
“I greatly respect and admire Sen. Carona’s work on transportation issues and for his leadership of the Senate Transportation Committee. It is certainly his prerogative to criticize the bill, vote against it or even filibuster it,” Hegar said. “It is, however, not his privilege to hold the bill hostage because a single provision that he wanted was not included and I take exception to his efforts to change the narrative of the hard work, serious deliberations and the long hours that went into producing a TxDOT sunset bill. Ultimately, a conference committee report was produced that reflected the wishes of a majority of legislators, a majority of conferees and, most importantly, a majority of Texans.”
Hegar added the state legislature needs to take action next session to prevent sunset bills from being used as “catch-all omnibus bills that don’t achieve the reform purpose of the sunset process.”
Carona was not alone in launching last-minute criticism of the TxDOT Sunset Bill. A group calling itself Texans Uniting for Reform & Freedom, or TURF, accused Hegar of slipping a last-minute amendment into the legislation that could lead to the revival of the controversial Trans-Texas Corridor.
In a statement issued Friday, TURF said Hegar’s amendment would continue the Trans-Texas Corridor contract process.
“Monday night, an amendment authored by Sen. Glenn Hegar was slipped into the TxDOT Sunset Bill, HB 300, that authorizes all the Trans Texas Corridor contracts, called CDAs, for both TTC-35 and TTC-69 to continue. It also says no provision, restrictions or ‘protections’ in HB 300 apply to it, despite the repeal of the actual TTC language from the code,” TURF said in its statement.
TURF also said Hegar slipped the language into the sunset bill even after assuring Trans-Texas Corridor opponent Sen. Dan Patrick (R-Houston) that the TTC plan was “dead.” The group also accused Sen. Robert Nichols (R-Jacksonville) of brokering a deal for the amendment and then misleading constituents about his position on the TTC.
“Sen. Hegar assured Sen. Dan Patrick on the floor that the TTC is dead, and then slips in this floor amendment that deliberately allows it to continue. Sen. Robert Nichols, who brokered the backroom deal to make it happen, sent a press release all over the state claiming he voted to abolish the TTC when he and others did just the opposite,” TURF claimed.
When contacted for comment on the TURF allegations, Hegar aide Deidra Garcia said another staffer, Pete Winckler, who is responsible for coordinating HB 300 for Hegar, would call with a response.
Winckler never called, nor did Hegar respond to the group’s claims.
