May 9, 2007

Governor's Warning on Transportation Bill
Stirs Speculation on Possible Budget Veto

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor

Governor Rick Perry threatened Wednesday to call state lawmakers back to Austin for a special session if they don't recall the transportation bill they sent him this week with overwhelming support and replace it with one he won't feel compelled to veto. But the Republican didn't say what he would use for leverage over lawmakers when trying to bargain with them on transportation in a special session - and that question has sparked increasing speculation on the possibility of Perry vetoing the state budget.

The governor's main beef with House Bill 1892 isn't the two-year moratorium on new toll road deals that attracted the lion's share of attention during the debate. Perry's chief concern is that the bill on his desk would actually hurt local communities to which it grants the same basic powers to build road projects that the Texas Department of Transportation has enjoyed.

According to the governor's office, the transportation measure would put some local governments at a disadvantage while threatening regional highway plans and throwing up roadblocks to bond issues for new roads as a result of right-of-way and other issues that would come about with local officials having the first option on projects. Perry contends that the bill will put federal funding for Texas projects in jeopardy while having an adverse effect on job growth and other economic benefits that he and other supporters of the Trans-Texas Corridor have envisioned. Perry voiced his objections to the transportation measure in meetings with Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick.

Speculation about a possible veto on the state spending bill that House and Senate conferees are negotiating comes into play amid the prevailing question of how Perry would prod legislators into redesigning or completely backing off the transportation bill that all but a handful supported this year. Legislators would appear to have more than enough votes to override a transportation bill veto - based on the fact that only one House member and four senators cast votes against the measure on its last trip through both chambers. Two-thirds of the members in each chamber would have to vote to bypass a veto on a bill that 97 percent of them supported before sending it to Perry. The governor will have to make a decision on whether to veto the highway bill before the regular session ends in less than three weeks.

But lawmakers don't expect to have a new two-year appropriations bill on the governor's desk soon enough to force him to make a decision on it until the third week in June. A vetoed state budget would give Perry something that affects every legislator to hold over their heads in a special session if he called one in hopes of getting the Trans-Texas Corridor back on the track of its original plans.

While Texas governor have rarely vetoed entire state budgets, Perry has been down a similar road before, having vetoed the Texas Education Agency's funding after the regular session ended two years ago as a way to have a major negotiating chip in a special session on school finance. Lawmakers were forced to approve the public school funds that Perry had vetoed in a special session that summer, but they failed to agree at that time on a plan to resolve a longrunning court challenge on education funding.

Without the budget or something else to use as leverage, lawmakers could simply refuse to pass another transportation bill in a special session that would end after 30 days. They would presumably feel even less pressure to take further action on transportation if they'd already voted to override a veto.

The transportation bill was sponsored by a pair of Republicans State Rep. Wayne Smith of Baytown and Tommy Williams of The Woodlands - with State Rep. Lois Kolkhorst of Brenham and State Senators Robert Nichols of Jacksonville playing instrumental roles in the temporary freeze on new construction development agreements, commonly known as CDA's, for toll roads. While the transportation bill had the support of State Senator John Carona, a Dallas Republican who chairs the Transportation & Homeland Security Committee, House Transportation Committee Chairman Mike Krusee of Round Rock was one of only two state representatives to vote against the measure when the House approved it in April and the lone member to oppose it when his colleagues voted to concur with Senate amendments last week.

The state budget contained in HB 1 drew opposition from only 14 House members and five state senators before going to conference committee. But the House and Senate members who are negotiating a final state spending plan are reportedly at odds on some key issues and could conceivably throw in the towel on the budget in the regular session if they think it will be back before them in a special session. Perry is the only state leader with the power to call special sessions.