Session Wrap-Up:
Helpful resources:
Web Resources:TURF BILLS:
HB 2325 (Shaheen) - Remove the toll when the road is paid for, ends the practice of combining toll projects together into one financial system using ‘system financing,’ gimmick used to ‘show’ no toll road is ever paid for. Perpetual tolling violates the Texas Constitution Art. I, Sec. 26 that prohibits perpetuities.
SB 316 (Hall)/HB 2991 (Harrison) - Toll billing/collection reform, creates uniform, more transparent billing practices, caps excessive fines and fees, and de-criminalizes an unpaid toll bill.
SB 931 (Middleton)/HB 1031 (Slaton), HB 4661 (Slaton)- To prevent vehicle manufacturer or government from installing or enabling remote kill switch in Texas vehicles. HB 4661 would exempt any vehicle 100% made in Texas from federal requirements, including the kill switch.
SB 2024 (Middleton/HB 4435 (Schatzline) - Dubbed the 'Right to Drive Act,' which includes protection from vehicles with remote kill switch, right to own/drive a fossil fuel powered car, right to drive in a vehicle with human decision-making (vs being forced into autonomous vehicle), and right to repair. Right to Repair addresses a critical component of our ability to maintain freedom of movement. Auto makers now wish to sell you software, not hardware. Manufacturers are designing vehicles with planned obsolescence, like your computer or iPhone, where they just won't suport the replacements parts which forces you to buy a new car. Except now you’ve paid tens of thousands for the vehicle, and either a corporation or the government can stop you from using it. Right to repair ensures that we are able to hire independent professionals to repair our vehicles rather than being forced to pay astronomical prices to manufacturers or dealers to repair.
SB 1293 (Hall)/HB 3281 (Leo-Wilson) - To prevent local governments from shrinking the number of lanes on our roadways, commonly known as a 'road diet.' Mayors and local officials in many Texas cities have even declared their intentions to create road scarcity in order to force drivers out of their cars and into mass transit. Road space is being hijacked and handed over to dedicated bus and bike lanes, jutting curbs, and sidewalks -- outright shrinking or removing the number of lanes available to cars. This bill would protect drivers from the creation of road scarcity and intentional congestion.
Bills relating to Toll Roads/Road Taxes:
GOOD -
HB 2325 (Shaheen) - Remove the toll when the road is paid for, ends the practice of combining toll projects together into one financial system using ‘system financing,’ gimmick used to ‘show’ no toll road is ever paid for. Perpetual tolling violates the Texas Constitution Art. I, Sec. 26 that prohibits perpetuities.
SB 316 (Hall)/HB 2991 (Harrison) - Toll billing/collection reform, creates uniform, more transparent billing practices, caps excessive fines and fees, and de-criminalizes an unpaid toll bill.
HB 2170 (Guerra) - To require toll entities to immediately notify drivers if there's a problem with a driver's payment card (which is also in our reform bill above SB 316). It would also allow for text message alerts/notifications.
SB 2515 (Bettencourt) - To require all toll revenues collected in Harris County to go to fund road projects only, not beocme a slush fund for non-road projects at the expense of toll road users (as is currently the case).
SB 1708 (Middleton)/HB 4420 (Goldman)/HB 3297 (Harris, Cody) - To repeal vehicle inspections on non-commercial vehicles. Overall reduction in taxes and burdensome regulations that have proven to do little to increase actual vehicle safety.
SB 255 (Nichols)/HB 2230 (Canales) - To remove the expiration date on the transfer of the specified portion of the vehicle sales tax (and general sales tax) to the state highway fund authorized by voters in Prop 1 and Prop 7. Certain transfers didn't even start until 2020, we cannot jeopardize dedicating our existing taxes to the state highway fund in order to avoid the reliance on much more expensive and less accountable toll taxes.
SB 446 (Menendez), HB 167, HB 177 (Cortez) - Repeals grandfathered red light camera contracts to outlaw all remaining red light cameras in Texas!
HB 4796 (Romero, Jr.) - To make information on a toll project, particularly a Comprehensive Development Agreement (CDA) which are privately-operated toll projects, pubic. In other words, it can't be withheld from the public or elected officials.
HB 4797 (Romero, Jr.) - To force a privately-operated toll project or other toll project entity other than the state, to take a training course on how to treat roads in inclement weather. This is no doubt in response to the I-35W 133-car pile-up during the Yuri ice storm in 2021 where six Texans lost their lives due to the wrong treatment being used to prevent ice build-up.
HB 805 (Toth) - Allows any vehicle to enter an HOV lane in order to pass another vehicle. Amen, to giving taxpayers access to lanes their taxes paid for! The GOP platform plank #63 is against these sorts of restricted lanes, whether its an HOT (High Occupancy Toll) lane or HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) lane or other restricted lane.
HB 820 (King, Ken) / HB 960 (Jetton) - To impose a $100-$200/yr road useage/mainentance fee on electric vehicles (EVs). King bill would be $100/yr for hybrids, $200/yr all-electric EVs. Jetton bill would impose straught $100 on EVs. EVs need to pay for their road usage. They've had a free pass (at the expense of gas-powered vehicle pwners) since they've come online ,and it's high time they pay their fair share.
HB 821 (King, Ken) - To put a metering device on state Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations (including at state parks) to measure the actual amount of electricity used by each EV (it stops short of requiring them to pay for the exact amount of electricity transferred, but this is a first step in knowing how much it's costing taxpayers to charge these vehicles at public charging stations in hopes that eventually they'll charge users for the exact amount of electricty they're using, just like gas-powered vehicle owners pay for every gallon of gas they pump).
HB 2027 (Dean)/HB 2028 (Dean) - To impose a $1,200 fee on Electric Vehicles (EVs) at the point of sale, and to impose at least a $300 fee annually as an EV road recovery fee.
HB 921, HB 922 (Cain)/SB 2496 (Middleton) - To prevent the imposition of tolls on two state highways and the Fairmont Pkwy in the Houston area. The senate bill would proohibit tolls beig collected on poritions of SH 146 & SH 99.
SB 505 (Nichols) - Since Electric Vehicles don't pay state gasoline tax (the primary source of funding for our state highway system), this bill would impose a an additional fee to register new EVs in the amount of $400, and used EVs of $200 per year to help pay for their cost of using our roads.
SB 684 (Hall) - To extend the timeframe for required vehicle inspections from every year, to every 5 years. Adjusts the fees accordingly.
HB 2236 (Schaefer) - Would block TxDOT from using any taxpayer money to build or maintain Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations/infrastructure.
HB 3802 (Plesa) - To charge Electric Vehicle (EV) users at $.023 per kilowatt hour tax for charging their vehicles at commercial charging stations to deposit in the state highway fund. This would somewhat capture an equivalent to a gas tax from EVs for road usage.
NEUTRAL (Our Watch List) -
HB 1259 (Jetton) - Would require a report to every legislator of TxDOT's anticipated funding for each area of the state from its Unified Transportation Plan (UTP). But more worrisome is the seocnd half of the bill that would commission the study of public private partnerships (P3s) for water projects. P3s have not worked out well for taxpayers/ratepayers under these privatized water deals. Just ask the Canyon Lake residents whose water bills exploded when a California company took over. The biggest boondoggle with water was the P3 pipeline that stole water from rural areas (Bastrop & Burleson) and siphoned it to the San Antonio Water System (SAWS) where they proceeded to sell the excess water for a profit.
HB 1638 (Canales) - For a TxDOT-appointed commission to work with Texas Transportation Insititute at A&M to study the future highway needs until 2045. Sounds innocuous until you read the part about identifying a funding gap (always assumes there is one even after we passed historic legislation to send more money to roads through Prop 1 & Prop 7) and how to close that gap, including exploring 'innovative project design development' which is code for public private partnerships (P3s). Ask the commuters in Ft. Worth and Dallas how they like paying over $3/mile in tolls to a foreign corporation to use our public highways during peak hours if they want more P3s for road 'delivery.'
BAD -
SB 1071 (Campbell)/HB 2795 (Canales) - To extend the SH 130 contract an additional 20 years. This would amend the SH 130 Comprehensive Development Agreement (or CDA, known as public private partnership). It would extend the contract and allow the private foreign company to collect tolls for another 20 years when the road is already paid for. Read more about this egregious contract here.
SB 254 (Eckhardt) - Doubles the state gasoline tax. This would also increase the diversion of state gas taxes to public schools, since 25% of the gasoline tax goes to schools.
HB 2226 (Reynolds) - To allow a city to call an election to impose a municipal gasoline tax that goes up annually on January 1 in the amount of the consumer price index (CPI). There's no cap or sunset on this tax. It states the money would only be used in accordance with the Texas Constitutional limits on the state gasoline tax (which is roads only), however, there's nothing to keep a city from using it to shrink the number or width of lanes on highways to implement their Vision Zero or Climate Plans that are hostile to cars. There are also bills listed below that would change the constitutional protection on gas taxes for roads only to allow it to be diverted to transit, bike and pedestrian facilities. This bill would also directly defy the Governor's campaign promise to not raise road taxes.
HB 3418 (Canales) - To study on replacing the gas tax with a per mile mileage tax. The pilot program is on commercial vehicles, however, the perameters clearly intend to go after regualr commuters in cars: 'vary pricing based on the time of driving, type of public highway, proximity to transit, vehicle fuel efficiency, participation in car-sharing or pooling, or the income of the operator.' The GOP Platform in Plank #63 takes a strong position against any form of mileage tax. This pilot program and mileage tax study opens the door to a mileage tax (or toll for every mile you drive) on all vehicles.
HB 3828 (Metcalf) - To remove tolls from a toll road once paid for, EXCEPT, this bill would allow the toll project entity or TxDOT to hold a public vote to extend the toll in 5 year increments indefinitely. Bureaucrats can always find a form of tax blackmail to convince the public they need ot vote to extend a tax longer (like refuse ot fix any other roads in the area until they approve the endless toll extensions).
HB 3822 (Metcalf) - Would remove our protection in statute (thanks to Sen. Bob Hall in 2017) against tolling existing highway lanes (a double tax) and leaving frontage lanes as the only non-toll option.
HB 3812 (Jetton) - To create State Infrastructure Fund, basically a corporate welfare fund backed by taxpayers and handed out to well-connected special interests, including private companies for toll roads and to promote and support public-private partnerships (foreign-owned toll roads, like North Tarrant Express in Ft. Worth and on I-635 in Dallas).
HB 5081 (Wilson) - To allow the Dept of Public Safety (DPS) to set the price of vehicle inspection fees, bypassing the legislature. No unelected board should have the unilateral ability to set and raise fees that fund its own Department.
HB 3828 (Metcalf) - To remove tolls from a toll road once paid for, EXCEPT, this bill would allow the toll project entity or TxDOT to hold a public vote to extend the toll in 5 year increments indefinitely. Bureaucrats can always find a form of tax blackmail to convince the public they need ot vote to extend a tax longer (like refuse ot fix any other roads in the area until they approve the endless toll extensions).
HB 3822 (Metcalf) - Would remove our protection in statute (thanks to Sen. Bob Hall in 2017) against tolling existing highway lanes (a double tax) and leaving frontage lanes as the only non-toll option.
HB 3812 (Jetton) - To create State Infrastructure Fund, basically a corporate welfare fund backed by taxpayers and handed out to well-connected special interests, including private companies for toll roads and to promote and support public-private partnerships (foreign-owned toll roads, like North Tarrant Express in Ft. Worth and on I-635 in Dallas).
HB 5081 (Wilson) - To allow the Dept of Public Safety (DPS) to set the price of vehicle inspection fees, bypassing the legislature. No unelected board should have the unilateral ability to set and raise fees that fund its own Department.
HB 2245 (Plesa) - Would expand toll discounts to seniors over 65. The more carve outs and exemptions the state grants to certain classes of people, it increases the burden on everyone else. This is another classic case of government picking the winners and losers.
SB 848 (Blanco)/HB 1379 (Ortega) - To expand the permissible projects of a Regional Mobility Authority (RMA) to greenspaces and economic development projects (that don't even involve roadways or mobility). Tolls revenues could then be diverted to fund transit, bike and pedestrian facilities as well as recreational facilities those same users may never use.
HB 4976 (Morales, Eddie) - To create a Middle Rio Grande Regional Mobility Authority (RMA). FIrst, traffic congestion is not an issue in that area of the state, why would they need toll roads? If the thinking is to exploit truckers for tolls, that's not going to happen. SH 130 went bankrupt in less than 3 years because there weren't enough truckers diverting from I-35 over to SH 130 because they can't afford the massive tax burden of truck tolls (considerably higher than cars due to paying for each axle). So why create a new bureaucracy if it's not to raise taxes and utlimately expect the taxpayers to bail out their failed bureaucracy?
HJR 190/HB 5246 (Morales, Eddie) - To allow a city to bypass its county commissioners and the Texas Transportation Commission to create a Regional Mobility Authority (RMA), which is a taxing entity that primarily builds and operates toll roads and can issue revenue bonds.
HB 640 (Johnson)/SB 612 (Johnson, Parker) - To allow cities to extend a city sales & use tax for roads and to extend it every 4 or even 8-10 year periods. Our current state gas tax is constitutionally protected from being diverted to non-road purposes. Cities all over Texas have been pushing radical anti-car policies that shrink road capacity for cars and give it to bikes, buses, pedestrians, or green belts. Governor Abbott promised to fix our roads without raising taxes (therefore this bill violates his no new road tax pledge), but this bill could also be weaponized against drivers to intentionally create congestion or to impede the free flow of auto traffic. Tax dollars outside the state gas tax can be used for a variety of anti-car policies. So we worry this bill will not only increase the tax burden by extending road taxes, but also be used for other purposes than general purpose auto lanes.
HJR 77 (Walle)/SJR 37 (Miles)/HJR 204/HB 5215 (Bucy) - To expand use of general revenue currently constitutionally dedicated to the highway fund to non-road purposes like transit, bike paths, sidewalks, and even transit-oriented development.
HB 992 (Lopez)/SB 1036 (Blanco)- To increase Bexar County and El Paso County's (respectively) vehicle registration fees. In Bexar County, it's proposing another another $20 (it was already carved out for a $10 increase in 2013). Now they want more, and this is after the city of San Antonio just passed a $1.2 billion road bond (May 2022) that will raise city residents' taxes to add sidewalks and curbing, but only expand ONE road out of 62 'infrastructure' projects. Why would any driver want to give these anti-car advocates any more money to mess up their roads with?
HB 4672 (Bhojani) - To require the state to install, maintain, & provide Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations (at taxpayers' expense) at state-owned facilities.
SB 607 (Johnson) - To distribute the funds from the state's version of the cash for clunkers program. It's taxing vehicles in EPA non-attainment areas to redistribute to low income drivers, including paying for vehicle repairs and 'retiring' older vehicles. We'd like to see this program repealed or go to build and maintain highways.
SB 255 (Eckhardt) - While we are not advocates for carve outs and exceptions on tax policy, this will, in effect, increase taxes on natural gas when we're in the middle of an energy crisis.
SB 1942 (Eckhardt)/HB 4789 (Anchia) - To direct 75% of funds from a TCEQ grant program to reducing diesel school buses and purchasing EV school buses. You think our electric grid is fragile now, wait unitl all our school buses have to charge up on the grid!
HB 898 (Stucky) - This would increase the penalty/fine for passing certain vehicles on a highway from $500 to up to $1,250. Basically, this fine would be for virtually any ANY vehicle under this statute. It includes an emergency vehicle, tow trucks, TxDOT vehicles, utility vehicles, vehicles contracted by a toll company (how is a driver supposed to know that from a distance?), municipal solid waste vehicles, and anyone on the side of the road (if you fail to change lanes or reduce your speed to 20 MPH under the posted speed limit). It's getting ridiculous -- just getting the behind the wheel will be illegal if we keep imposing these laws on drivers. Fining a driver $1,250 is excessive. This isn't drunk driving. It's quite common for drivers to get in situations where they risk being slammed into by the car behind them if they suddenly jam on the brakes hard enough to reduce their speed 20 MPH on a highway in time not to pass the vehicles on the shoulder at the speed the law requires. It's a similar problem drivers encountered with red light cameras/tickets - jamming on one's brakes to try and stop prior to the intersection sometimes posed a greater risk than just continuing through the intersection (which caused accidents to soar). Ditto on changing lanes. Suddenly jerking into a lane beside you if it's not clear or safe to change lanes puts other drivers at risk (which is at higher speeds) than the ones on the side of the road.
HB 910 (Moody) - To allow veterans to use toll roads for free. It removes the language allowing for a discounted toll. While we support and respect our veterans, we shouldn't allow the government to pick winners and losers on toll tax policy. We advocate for toll-free roads across the board. Our gas taxes and other road taxes are sufficient to build and maintain our state highways without burdensome runaway toll taxation.
HB 1787 (Thompson, Ed)/SB 2504 (Alvarado) - Would allow TxDOT to use construction-manager-at-risk and other methods for choosing a contractor and/or engineer for road projects. Rather than gain efficiency within the Department to improve its project timelines without needing to unecessarly hire outside contractors using complex contracting methods (that can actually slow down project development if the process doesn't run smoothly), it continues to push for overuse of outside firms to do what it has plenty of employees to do in house. Outside contractors cost taxpayers more due to profit, built-in contingency fees, change orders, and the like.
HJR 27 (Craddick) - To create a GROW fund to dedicate a portion of the oil and gas tax to stay in West Texas to help maintain roads in the oil fields where wear and tear has caused greater than normal damage to roads. The argument in favor is they fuel our state, so everyone benefits from their oil and gas. However, when we go down the road of carving out funds for just certain areas of the state, many parts of the state have excess wear and tear due to oil & gas exploration but also heavy tractor trailers from trade, logging, and a host of other issues. Where would this end? Our State Highway Fund is designed to distribute gas taxes fairly in order to maintain the entire system.
SB 1021 (Nichols)/HB 3889 (Canales) - It would raise the amount of a contract an area TxDOT District Engineer (D.E.) could enter into without going through the Commission approval process at TxDOT headquarters in Austin to $1 million (from $300.000). This is a big jump in discretionery funds that could be misused by a D.E. to direct contracts to the well-connected and/or special interests without being detected.
HB 5184 (Romero Jr.) - To allow regional transportation authorities to dole out contracts without competitive bidding up to $250,000 (from $50,000). This would open up abuse by these boards to pick the winners and losers and enrich the well-connected at the expense of other companies who may perform the same quality of work for a better price for taxpayers. Limiting the pool of bidders ALWAYS increases the cost to taxpayers.
SB 1021 (Nichols)/HB 3889 (Canales) - It would raise the amount of a contract an area TxDOT District Engineer (D.E.) could enter into without going through the Commission approval process at TxDOT headquarters in Austin to $1 million (from $300.000). This is a big jump in discretionery funds that could be misused by a D.E. to direct contracts to the well-connected and/or special interests without being detected.
HB 5184 (Romero Jr.) - To allow regional transportation authorities to dole out contracts without competitive bidding up to $250,000 (from $50,000). This would open up abuse by these boards to pick the winners and losers and enrich the well-connected at the expense of other companies who may perform the same quality of work for a better price for taxpayers. Limiting the pool of bidders ALWAYS increases the cost to taxpayers.
Anti-Car/Big Govt Initiatives:
GOOD -
HB 1031 (Slaton)/SB 931 (Middleton) - To prevent vehicle manufacturer or government from installing or enabling remote kill switch in Texas vehicles.
SB 1293 (Hall) - To prevent local governments from shrinking the number of lanes on our roadways, commonly known as a 'road diet.' Mayors and local officials in many Texas cities have even declared their intentions to create road scarcity in order to force drivers out of their cars and into mass transit. Road space is being hijacked and handed over to dedicated bus and bike lanes, jutting curbs, and sidewalks -- outright shrinking or removing the number of lanes available to cars. This bill would protect drivers from the creation of road scarcity and intentional congestion.
HB 2977 (Harris, Caroline) - To prevent Environment, Social, Governance (ESG) from being used as criteria in TxDOT contracts.
HJR 174 (Dean) - Right to own/operate a fossil-fuel powered vehicle.
HJR 106 (Schaefer) - Constitutional amendment to protect the rights of Texas drivers to travel in a vehicle with human decision-making (not force us into autonomous vehicles to get around).
SB 261 (Springer) - To exempt assembled trailers from vehicle title requirements.
HB 842 (Patterson) - To prevent the extension of a suspension of a driver's license. Drivers need their right to drive protected from government overreach.
SB 271 (Johnson)/ HB 712 (Shaheen) - Penatlies for breaches of personal information.
HB 4705 (Cain) - Limitations on collection and storage of biometric information and the privacy of that information.
HB 4849 (Plesa) - A business must notify the public if facial recognition technology is being used in their public spaces.
HB 4854 (Martinez-Fischer) - Asserts a person's rights over their personal identifying information collected from a business (of a certain size), the portability & transfer of that data, as well as enforcement if the law is breached.
HB 5300 (Morales-Shaw) - To require companies to disclose any personal data collection and allow users to stop collection of personal data on Smart devices.
HB 4849 (Plesa) - A business must notify the public if facial recognition technology is being used in their public spaces.
HB 4854 (Martinez-Fischer) - Asserts a person's rights over their personal identifying information collected from a business (of a certain size), the portability & transfer of that data, as well as enforcement if the law is breached.
HB 5300 (Morales-Shaw) - To require companies to disclose any personal data collection and allow users to stop collection of personal data on Smart devices.
HB 645 (Toth) / HB 709 (Harris, C) - Prohibits social scoring or social credit system from being implemented whether through Environment, Social Governance (ESG) initiaitves or otherwise imposed as a litmus test by financial institutions.
SB 568 (Springer) - Allows a cyclist or motorcyle to turn right on red if signal fails to register its presence (due to its light weight). It's ridiculous that we need a bill like this to protect cyclists from tickets when excercising common sense and safety precautions (as the bill directs).
SB 242 (Middleton) - To prevent federal unconstitutional acts from effecting Texas.
HB 33 (Landgraf) - To prevent federal regulation of oil & gas unless consistent with state law already on the books. (Similar to Middleton's SB 242, however, Middleton's applie to more sectors (health, natural resources, land use, financial, border, transportation).
HB 69 (Schaefer) - To protect Texans' rights from civil asset forfetiure abuses (having your assets and property seized without even being charged or found guilty of a crime).
SB 345 (Middleton) - Ban on legislative lobbying. Prevents legislators from resigning and getting lucrative jobs lobbying their former colleagues for at least two legislative sessions after they resign.
NEUTRAL (Our Watch List)- HB 3014 (Harris, Caroline) - To exempt Electric Vehicles (EVs) from vehicle inspection requirements. While this sounds good, it shouldn't pass without exempting gas-powered cars from inspection as well. EVs have plenty of safety problems. Yet, this bill would exempt them from inspection presumably only because gas powered cars have certain emissions and an intermal combustion engine. EVs also have their own form of environmental hazards (like vehicle fires and disposal of their lithium batteries). This seems to play into the Left's playbook of demonizing gas-powered cars. We shouldn't give EVs one more freebees while making gas powered cars still have to pay for inspections. If the point is to keep unsafe cars off the road (which inspections haven't demonstrated that they actually do that), EVs should be subjected to inspection, too.
BAD -
HB 57 (Zwiener) - Would mandate the state do climate action planning and reporting. This necessitates anti-car policy that shrinks roadways, elevates biking and walking over auto travel, carbon emissions reporting and therefore possibility of a carbon cap or tax.
HB 1379 (Ortega) - To expand the authority of Regional Mobility Authorities (or RMAs) to do green spaces, aesthetic projects, parking, economic development.
HB 1521 (Ordaz) - This would make it illegal to transport your dog in the bed of your pickup truck unless its in a crate or container and fastened to the bed or sides of the pickup truck in any county over 500,000 population.
HB 4386 (Allen) - TxDOT could not extend or expand a road in an area deemed socially vulnerable unless it's for a transit project. This is anti-car and forces vulnerable communities into mass transit rather than the indpendence of a personal vehicle.
HB 4464 (Gervin-Hawkins) - Increases passing distance required to pass a bicyclist to minimum of 3 feet. If two lanes, must change lanes or face a violation. In practicality, this will necessarily cause congestion in auto lanes by forcing all cars to exit the lane closest to the cyclist in order to comply. Forcing traffic into a condensed number of lanes will jam up our roads and cause auto accients as motorists suddenly change lanes in unsafe conditions in order to avoid a traffic violation.
HB 4464 (Gervin-Hawkins) - Increases passing distance required to pass a bicyclist to minimum of 3 feet. If two lanes, must change lanes or face a violation. In practicality, this will necessarily cause congestion in auto lanes by forcing all cars to exit the lane closest to the cyclist in order to comply. Forcing traffic into a condensed number of lanes will jam up our roads and cause auto accients as motorists suddenly change lanes in unsafe conditions in order to avoid a traffic violation.
SB 1001 (Schwertner) - While this attempts to regulate companies that provide charging equipment for Electric Vehicles (EVs) and force them to maintain their equipment properly, it has a provision to exempt them from the very regulations it seeks to implement if the Texas Dept. of Licensing and Regulation determines it's too burdensome or won't benefit consumers enough. That's a hole big enough for a Mack truck to drive through! With language this broad, it's all in the eyes of the beholder and could be a backdoor way of letting EV equipment companies off the hook completely.
HB 1639 (Canales) - To give TxDOT wide authority to implement variable speed limits. This is a disaster and a way for big government, anti-car bureaucrats to artificially lower speed limits, and hence slow traffic whenever they want. The signs do not give you enough time to adjust your speed (500-1,600 feet when traveling highway speeds isn't sufficent time to adjust your speed without slamming on your brakes in many cases increasing the risk of accidents), you may not see the sign, it could turn into a defacto speed trap, and anything linked up with technology has problems, like the time I was on Loop 1604 in San Antonio and the variable speed limit sign was suddenly flashing 35 MPH on a 70 MPH highway with no road conditions to warrant it.
HB 2224 (Hernandez) - Would allow cities to change speed limits without so much as a engineering or traffic study to warrant it. This is likely part of cities' push for road diets.
HB 5156 (Morales-Shaw) - To require Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) to change bylaws and policies to accommodate 'fairness' in committee structure, funding decisions, policy-making to include underrepresented communities (already required), and force 'proportional voting' systems to provide 'equal representation' of all residents. However, an MPO's task is to allocate road and transportation funding based on congestion levels and need. Not all areas pay the same level of gas taxes or have the same level of traffic congestion. So this bill would undermine the MPO's federal statutory mission (not every project can be a priority or nothing is a priority).
SB 1311 (Eckhardt)/SB 2508 (Alvarado)/HB 2191 (Canales) - To create an Electric Vehicle Council to regulate EVs. Putting unelected bureaucrats in charge ofan industry that can directly effect something as important and fragile as our electric grid is not a good idea. It puts the power of oversight into the hands of an unelected board and further removes it from we the people. It also creates a system of publicly-funded charging stations to meet future demand. Allows for economic development and expanded consumer choices as one of their goals, which is not the role of government.
SB 2156 (Eckhardt) - Requires a human operator in order to be in autonomous driving mode. Autonomous technology has proven to be extremely dangerous and killed human operators due to inattentiveness or failure of sensors to sense surrounding evhicles and crashed right into other cars/objects. The autonomous technology is not safe yet. This bill is pre-mature.
SB 2330 (Bettencourt) - While this aims to curb taxpayer-funded lobbying by entities that can levy a tax or issue bonds, it merely requires a public vote of the entity's board and a disclosure of the lobbyists they hire. So the end result is a nothing-burger.
HB 5156 (Morales-Shaw) - To require Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) to change bylaws and policies to accommodate 'fairness' in committee structure, funding decisions, policy-making to include underrepresented communities (already required), and force 'proportional voting' systems to provide 'equal representation' of all residents. However, an MPO's task is to allocate road and transportation funding based on congestion levels and need. Not all areas pay the same level of gas taxes or have the same level of traffic congestion. So this bill would undermine the MPO's federal statutory mission (not every project can be a priority or nothing is a priority).
SB 1311 (Eckhardt)/SB 2508 (Alvarado)/HB 2191 (Canales) - To create an Electric Vehicle Council to regulate EVs. Putting unelected bureaucrats in charge ofan industry that can directly effect something as important and fragile as our electric grid is not a good idea. It puts the power of oversight into the hands of an unelected board and further removes it from we the people. It also creates a system of publicly-funded charging stations to meet future demand. Allows for economic development and expanded consumer choices as one of their goals, which is not the role of government.
SB 2156 (Eckhardt) - Requires a human operator in order to be in autonomous driving mode. Autonomous technology has proven to be extremely dangerous and killed human operators due to inattentiveness or failure of sensors to sense surrounding evhicles and crashed right into other cars/objects. The autonomous technology is not safe yet. This bill is pre-mature.
SB 2330 (Bettencourt) - While this aims to curb taxpayer-funded lobbying by entities that can levy a tax or issue bonds, it merely requires a public vote of the entity's board and a disclosure of the lobbyists they hire. So the end result is a nothing-burger.
Property Rights/Eminent Domain -
GOOD -
HJR 81 (Schofield) - This constitutional amendment would remove the economic development exception to the constitutional ban on eminent domain for private gain. See the bad bills below for why this is necessary!
HB 2357 (Harris, Cody) - Requires High Speed Rail companies to report basic financial and business plans for their project in a timely fashion. The current high speed rail project being proposed by a Japanese-owned firm, Texas Central, has been less than transparent and actually deceptive at times with the public and elected officials. This bill would go a long way to improving transparency and allowing elected officials and the public to examine the project's viability and financial health since Texas Central has reportedly been experiencing financial troubles. Texas Central's project also involves eminent domain for private gain and, and for that reason alone, should be stopped.
HB 3870 (Harris, Cody) - To ensure land taken using eminent domain for high speed rail can only be used for high speed rail, not converted to another purpose, which is an abuse of eminent domain.
SB 147 (Kolkhorst/MIddleton) - To prevent certain aliens and foreign entities from purchasing land in Texas. It's no secret companies tied to the Chinese Communist Party have been buying up Texas land, including those close to our military bases to surveil and spy on senstive sites involving national security. We cannot allow this to continue unabated. The legislature must act to protect Texans from subversive acts like this.
HB 4551 (Kacal) - High Speed Rail project must prove no damage to water quality.
HB 4760 (Jones, Jolanda) - Eminent domain reform bill to require an appraisal include replacement costs and moving expenses.
SB 2460 (Hall) - Eminent domain and rights of a public utility to develop facilities under reaosnable conditions and with permission of the city.
BAD -
HB 1492 (Ordaz)/SB 543 (Blanco) - To allow cities to give land to private developers for economic development. When a property is taken by a governmental entity for a public necessity, it typically uses eminent domain or the threat of eminent domain to obtain it. So we have long opposed any governmental entity flipping property they took by force of government for a public use over to a private, for-profit developer for a private use, economic development notwithstanding! That's eminent domain for private gain and it must be stopped.
GOOD -
HJR 81 (Schofield) - This constitutional amendment would remove the economic development exception to the constitutional ban on eminent domain for private gain. See the bad bills below for why this is necessary!
HB 2357 (Harris, Cody) - Requires High Speed Rail companies to report basic financial and business plans for their project in a timely fashion. The current high speed rail project being proposed by a Japanese-owned firm, Texas Central, has been less than transparent and actually deceptive at times with the public and elected officials. This bill would go a long way to improving transparency and allowing elected officials and the public to examine the project's viability and financial health since Texas Central has reportedly been experiencing financial troubles. Texas Central's project also involves eminent domain for private gain and, and for that reason alone, should be stopped.
HB 3870 (Harris, Cody) - To ensure land taken using eminent domain for high speed rail can only be used for high speed rail, not converted to another purpose, which is an abuse of eminent domain.
SB 147 (Kolkhorst/MIddleton) - To prevent certain aliens and foreign entities from purchasing land in Texas. It's no secret companies tied to the Chinese Communist Party have been buying up Texas land, including those close to our military bases to surveil and spy on senstive sites involving national security. We cannot allow this to continue unabated. The legislature must act to protect Texans from subversive acts like this.
HB 4551 (Kacal) - High Speed Rail project must prove no damage to water quality.
HB 4760 (Jones, Jolanda) - Eminent domain reform bill to require an appraisal include replacement costs and moving expenses.
SB 2460 (Hall) - Eminent domain and rights of a public utility to develop facilities under reaosnable conditions and with permission of the city.
BAD -
HB 1492 (Ordaz)/SB 543 (Blanco) - To allow cities to give land to private developers for economic development. When a property is taken by a governmental entity for a public necessity, it typically uses eminent domain or the threat of eminent domain to obtain it. So we have long opposed any governmental entity flipping property they took by force of government for a public use over to a private, for-profit developer for a private use, economic development notwithstanding! That's eminent domain for private gain and it must be stopped.