Travis County Commissioners Court
February 22, 2005
Item 41
Number 41 is to consider and take appropriate action on legislative issues and proposed bills before the 79th Texas legislature. And the list may be obtained from any member of the Travis County Commissioners court.
>> there are no action items for you this week. I just passed out to you the report that bob and mar ris is a and chris have given to you this morning. There was one item that the auditor's office withdrew, so you may see it back next week, so you don't have anything from the auditor's office. The only other item that I want to make sure that everybody is aware of and to get, I guess, knowledge so that you'll know of a working order that I think needs to be pulled together. We got everybody a big packet last Friday related to that perfect storm that could occur because of the new toll roads, and this is sh 130, 45 north, the mopac extension. When those things come online next year and the year after, that violations of running through booths without the appropriate tags or payment, the way the statute reads right now, unless we can get it fixed is that these become class c misdemeanors and will wind up in our jp courts. And I know that some of us have already met with our jp's to take a look at this, and it was one of those timeout things in terms of a question of what impact could this have on our county attorney's office, the jp offices? Has anybody talked to our lovely auditor's office about funds, etcetera, what fees if anything does Travis County get to help pay for this thing? It's basically one gigantic unfunded mandate if we don't pay attention to this. On the top of your packet is a fixed bit that's been proposed by Williamson county, which shares three of those -- shares two of the roads. They've got one extra, we've got one extra in terms of the toll plaza situation. And they are suggesting to representative krusee about having these things basically getting the same authority harris county has under the transportation code. That these things become administrative adjudication, it's a civil process, hearings officers. So what I wanted to let everyone know is this is out here. You may have already heard from your jp's about this. Some more than others. Judge bembry is going to really get hit hard. And for us to work cooperatively with txdot, to work cooperatively with the state and to take a hard look at the fix that has been proposed by Williamson county that they've already filed with representative krusee to see if this indeed takes care of all of our issues or not. And if not, then to add to it. So I want -- this is really nothing to endorse today, but I wanted folks to be aware because your jp's may have called you into a meeting and it's pretty shocking information if the law is not changed of just absolutely inundating our jp courts with toll plaza violators perhaps as soon as one year from now.
>> what about the house bill 1053?
>> I'm sorry, I was talking about the toll road one. Are you referring to another one?
>> no. Basically what I'm trying to say is the one that we wanted to make sure was included in here was house bill -- no, not the toll road. As far as our legislation discussion, the one bill that has come up is the landfill.
>> before we get there, does anybody have any more questions on this one, because then we'll switch subjects?
>> is there a bill?
>> which one, tolls?
>> tolls.
>> what we've got is a packet that was delivered to you last Friday. It has the Williamson county fix. We're checking in with representative krusee about is this a specific bill for us to take a look at. It was delivered to your offices last Friday.
>> [inaudible - no mic].
>> and basically, judge, what we want to make sure is that folks know that there's an issue. We want to be authorized to visit with the appropriate people and to bring back an appropriate fix that we can take a vote on and present to the state legislature.
>> okay. So we'll have something specific to look at and act on next Tuesday.
>> hopefully next Tuesday, but I am going to be out next week, but hopefully we can get this thing figured out this week.
>> okay.
>> now, I am happy to switch subjects. Which one were you looking for, Commissioner?
>> house bill 1053 the one on solid waste. -- I think that it will be added to the list of bills that we are to look at.
>> do you know what, Commissioner? I don't see it on the tracking list, but I will make sure that they --
>> I want to make sure that it's on there, so at least we can look at it.
>> is this the one that we signed off on last week, Commissioner, in terms of --
>> no, this is the one that -- I wanted to make sure that it is in there for this upcoming week so we did have a chance to get with them and make sure the stuff is included. I think staff did get something to the appropriate persons on this. But it got left off apparently.
>> house bill 1053?
>> yeah.
>> we will make sure that we have that added to the list. I don't see it on the tracking.
>> no, it's not. That's what I'm saying.
>> we'll have it on next week.
>> i'll make sure that they are aware of that.
>> there's another one we need to take action on this week. I don't know whether a bill has been filed. A group of state leaders on transportation issues, and I think, civic, they're mostly chamber of commerce types and county judges met with some of the house and senate people here about the fuel tax tying into inflation or some trigger that would increase. So it looks like that is receiving some support, and there is -- they're trying to put together a press conference mid March. What I'm hoping to do next week is get the exact wording that we push. I was part of that group that had those meetings and we weren't sure that it would come to those meetings, but it looks like it will. The other part that I need to bring up is that on mobility it looks like about 80% of the mobility fund is used for activities and services other than mobility. You would think there would be another source of funding. If you just take the mobility, then the amount available statewide for mobility issues would be substantially higher because that fund generates half a billion dollars a year. So it's a big deal. I think we'll have something on that next week.
>> yeah, that was a little harder. One quarter of the state gasoline tax goes to pay for education. And I think we've heard one or two items about there not being enough money for education. But there's another piece of that thootion a special fund and I apologize I can't remember the exact number where more than four hundred million dollars a year now is being diverted over to the department of public safety. And one would make an argument that the department of public safety ought to be funded appropriately out of general fund like our sheriff's office is. Because they are paying for an awful lot of things there that have nothing to do with the further ens of transportation. So there may be --
>> 100 million?
>>
>> [one moment, please, for change in captioners]
>>
>> ... I mean it makes sense, makes all the sense in the world why we would ask why are you paying for mobility things. Why aren't you using this for mobility things versus d.p.s. I guess that's because d.p.s. Needs a road to go and -- I guess there's a way that you could really stretch it. But I think that that's the real problem that we have.
>> the other interesting dicey thing is next Tuesday I'm going to be heading up to washington, d.c. Again and we're part of a regional group going up to articulate amongst other things for more mobility money and transportation dollars. Thank goodness no federal official has ever asked me, so how much of your state gasoline tax goes to pay for transportation? We go up there and articulate that we want to get at least a 91-cent out of every dollar of the gas tax, federal gas tax coming back to Texas. And yet our own state does not even come close to 91 cents or 78 cents. Heck, we're not even at 60. So interesting set of standards for trying to get our federal share and yet in our own backyard we are not following that same sage advice.
>> any other legislation-related issues?
>> I will follow up on house bill 1053 and make sure that's on a tracking reported in 2 future. I apologize that wasn't done.
>> what about the shields letter, judge?
>> I'm sorry?
>> the shields letter.
>> executive session. And we need to check and make sure that part of it is probably for executive session, maybe another part not. On 41 we'll have back on next week and try to look carefully at the agenda and see if we can really reach it about 11:00. I apologize about this morning. Things kind of got out of hand. When you have public comments, you never know how many people are coming and how long they will speak.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Wednesday, February 23, 2005 7:23 AM