Governor calls special session to fund TxDOT

Texas lawmakers failed to approve legislation allowing the issuance of $2 billion in road-building bonds already approved by voters. Perry placed the bond item on the special session agenda and called for lawmakers to address transportation officials’ authority to make agreements with private developers for highway projects.

By KELLEY SHANNON
The Associated Press

6/26/2009

AUSTIN, Texas — Only a month after Texas lawmakers adjourned their regular session, they’ll meet again in a special session Gov. Rick Perry announced Thursday to pass legislation to keep the transportation department and other state agencies running.

Perry said the special session will begin Wednesday. It can last up to 30 days, but Perry said it could be over in less than a week.

“After speaking with legislators I am calling a special session to extend the operation of five critical agencies and help reduce gridlock by continuing to provide options for financing our state’s highways,” Perry said.

Perry predicted the session will be a brief one “to clean up one little bit of legislation that they left hanging.”

“I think they’ll be in and out in three to four days,” he said. Perry said he spoke with House Speaker Joe Straus and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, both fellow Republicans, and that they are committed to leading legislators to quickly address the issues on the agenda.

The Legislature adjourned its five-month regular session June 1 without passing a safety net measure that would allow agencies such as the transportation and insurance departments to keep operating. The departments would be shuttered by Sept. 1, 2010, without the legal authority to continue.

Lawmakers also failed to approve legislation allowing the issuance of $2 billion in road-building bonds already approved by voters. Perry placed the bond item on the special session agenda and called for lawmakers to address transportation officials’ authority to make agreements with private developers for highway projects.

Though some lawmakers asked that Perry place their pet items on the special session list, Perry said he wouldn’t expand it to other issues, including voter identification legislation that he backed and that divided Republicans and Democrats in the spring. House Democrats waged a filibuster of sorts to talk to death the Republican-pushed voter ID bill in the final days of May. Democrats continually asked questions about other bills to stall debate, killing numerous proposals.

“We’ve clearly believed that the issues that we’re going to address are the ones that have to be taken care of, and we’re talking about people’s lives and livelihoods here when you talk about the Department of Insurance, when you’re talking about TxDOT (the transportation department),” Perry told news reporters.

He said the special session agenda is “very tightly crafted, so we’ll have very little mischief.”

Perry said the regular session that began in January was successful in many ways. He cited passage of a balanced budget, passage of a tax relief measure for small businesses and billions of dollars left unspent in the state’s “Rainy Day” savings fund. He also praised lawmakers for reforming the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association and approving a proposed constitutional amendment on eminent domain.

“This was a powerful session of the Legislature,” he told the Real Estate Council of Austin.

The special session will begin the day after a June 30 fundraising deadline in the 2010 governor’s race. Money raised by that date will appear on mid-July campaign finance reports and will show whether Perry or his Republican primary challenger, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, holds a money lead.

Even though Perry can legally raise money in a special session, he doesn’t personally solicit contributions while legislators are meeting and doesn’t schedule new fundraising events, his aides said.

Asked Thursday how his fundraising is going, Perry replied, “Good, excellent.”

Hutchison’s campaign again alleged that Perry’s lack of leadership is making the special session necessary to clean up a mess.

“He had two years to plan for the last 140 days and we still need special a session? This type of vision-challenged governing will leave Texas ill-prepared for the future and is precisely why we need real leadership in the Governors office,” Hutchison spokesman Hans Klingler said in a written statement Thursday.

Perry spokesman Mark Miner then took a jab back at Hutchison, saying leadership is “not about criticizing from the sidelines in Washington.”

“With no record to stand on, poll numbers that continue to plummet and a campaign stuck in reverse, Senator Hutchison once again fails to offer anything productive,” Miner said.

Kevin Jones of The Trucker staff can be reached for comment at kevinj@thetrucker.com.

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