Legislative Session Wrap-up

During the session, the Legislature put forth a considerable amount of effort on transportation issues. Several bills were filed to address transportation policy, and review prior legislation relating to Comprehensive Development Agreements (CDAs). In the end, many bills were added as amendments to other legislation, and many more died in the process.

Sen. Shapiro's NTTA legislation, SB 964, passed the House in the waning days of the session. SB 964 revises the NTTA governance structure to provide for two Board seats to each of the four founding counties – Collin, Dallas, Denton and Tarrant – in addition to the governor’s appointee from a county adjacent to the member counties. The bill also allows for a seat to be awarded to new counties with a NTTA roadway project with a second seat awarded with a minimum of 10-miles of roadway in operation for three years. Rep. Yvonne Davis (Dallas County) added an amendment that would 1) delegate Board seats to different geographic regions within the counties making the appointment, and 2) to the extent possible, appointments are to reflect the diversity of the population of member counties. The amendment also repealed a provision in the NTTA’s enabling statute that restricted consideration of Board appointments based upon disability, sex, religion, age, or national origin. SB 964 is awaiting signature by Governor Perry before the 20-day post-session deadline and would become effective September 1, 2007. SB 965 granted to the NTTA project development tools similar to those already mandated to the Texas Department of Transportation and Regional Mobility Authorities (RMAs) in prior legislation including design-build, construction-manager-at-risk, CDA authority and expenditure of toll revenues on non-tolled projects. These provisions were rolled into SB 792, the omnibus transportation bill, which was passed at the end of the session and sent to the Governor.

SB 792, filed by Sen. Tommy Williams early in the session as the companion bill to HB 1892, was passed in both the House and Senate during the last two weeks. HB 1892 was vetoed by the Governor, with hope for a compromise between the legislators and the Governor placed on SB 792. Both bills received considerable attention for their inclusion of Sen. Robert Nichols' CDA moratorium (originally in SB 1267). State Highway (SH) 121, SH 161 and managed lanes in north Texas are exempted from the moratorium in SB 792. The bill is now also awaiting signature by the Governor and would become effective immediately.

The NTTA was very active throughout the 80th Legislature, monitoring legislation that impacted the NTTA's ability to deliver mobility projects to the north Texans. Our partners in the region and across the State were instrumental in developing a unified position on several of the mobility challenges presented throughout the Session. We looked forward to reaching out to our regional elected officials in the interim as we continue our work to meet the transportation needs of the citizens of north Texas.