King, Estes back moratorium, call for study committee
By Daniel Brannigan
The Community News

The Texas Legislature is just a few steps away from putting a large “stop sign” on one of the most controversial projects in state history.
The State Senate and House are on the verge of approving a measure that would temporarily prevent the development of the controversial Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC). Identical bills – SB 1267 and HB 2772 – would impose a two-year moratorium on privately-funded toll road projects, such as the TTC, by preventing any new comprehensive development agreements or toll project sales to a private entity.
The bills also call for a study committee to examine the impact of the projects.
“We need to put the brakes on these public-private contracts used to finance new toll road projects and the Trans-Texas Corridor,” State Sen. Craig Estes (R-Wichita Falls), co-author of SB 1267, said. “There are too many unanswered questions and recent revelations of poor accountability require the legislature to step in.”
State Rep. Phil King (R-Weatherford) co-authored the House version.
The measures have received widespread backing in both chambers, with 25 of 32 state senators authoring it and 105 of 150 state representatives serving as either authors or co-authors.
Both measures are currently being discussed in their chamber’s respective transportation committee. A public hearing for the Senate bill was held this past Wednesday, March 21.
The legislative moratorium would not apply to the construction of publicly funded toll road projects.
The TTC is slated to take advantage of a public-private partnership, where the state would own the land, but a private company would pay for the corridor's development in exchange for collecting tolls on the roads for a number of years.
For more on this story, see the March 23 issue of The Community News.