Texas lawmakers balk at public-private toll roads

Texas lawmakers balk at public-private toll roads

By Patrick Brendel Wednesday, 01 July 2009

AUSTIN — **Update: July 2, 2009**

State lawmakers decided not to tackle public-private toll roads during a special session of the Texas Legislature, sticking to the noncontroversial topics of extending the lives of five state agencies and authorizing $2 billion in bonds for transportation projects.

Legislators also did not approve a $1 billion Texas Transportation Revolving Fund, which would act like a bank to loan money to local authorities wishing to build transportation projects. No road projects will be affected by lawmakers' decision not to act, said Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. He said that lawmakers will have the opportunity to look at CDA reform and the revolving fund during the next Regular Session of the Legislature in spring 2011.

For further information about the topics of the special session called by Gov. Rick Perry, visit more.impactnews.com/4997.

**Original story July 1, 2009**

Proposals to extend the lives of five state agencies and authorize $2 billion in transportation bonds met little resistance during the first day of a special session of the Texas Legislature. Gov. Rick Perry and other state leaders have said the session should only last three days, leaving lawmakers time to return home for the Fourth of July holiday.

However, bills concerning public-private toll projects (called Comprehensive Development Agreements) did not pass committees in either chamber. House Transportation Chair state Rep. Joe Pickett, D-El Paso, said proposed reforms to CDAs were too comprehensive for lawmakers to get a grasp of and approve during the three-day window.

Meanwhile, bill author state Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, said it would be unacceptable to pass a bill that did not include reforms dealing with primacy, noncompete clauses and buyback provisions.

CDAs are contracts between public and private entities, usually stipulating that the private contractors finance, build and/or maintain the road in exchange for revenue from tolls. A pair of Austin toll roads—Toll 130 and Toll 45 SE—were built by private contractors under CDAs. Future public-private toll projects include Hwy 290 East from Hwy 183 to Toll 130.

Primacy means that local authorities control whether or not they want to enter into CDAs. Noncompete clauses disallow public authorities from building roads that would take away toll revenue from private roads. Nichols' bill shortens the maximum length of the clauses from 50 to 30 years and exempts interstate highways from those clauses. Buyback provisions apply when public entities wish to resume control of the private road in the future.

Comments

1 Comments

Steve Pustelnyk July 01, 2009 Votes: +0	The term CDA gets thrown around loosely and is very much misunderstood. There are multiple types of Comprehensive Development Agreements. The type that has garnered the most attention is the one that allows a private company to build, operate, maintain and collect tolls on a particular road for a period of time (commonly 50 years). The private company does not own the road or the land it is built on. The government does. This type of CDA is often referred to as a public-private partnership. None of the projects mentioned in this article are this type of CDA. SH 130 and 183A were design-build CDA's. That means a single private company was hired to design and build the project. As the project is designed and built the contractor is paid a previously agreed fee for their work. The road is financed by the government and remains completely under control of the government agency for toll collection and maintenance. report abuse vote down vote up

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