Austin Chamber members listened to Texas Representative Larry Gonzales (R-Round Rock) as he discussed TXDOT and the State budget in the closing days of the Texas Legislature at the Pulse on Policy Series, sponsored by AT&T.

On May 17, SB 312, also known as the Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT) Sunset Bill passed the House with a vote of 139-0. “In a very odd way I will tell you that the TXDOT Sunset Bill—which passed the house—was kind of a unifier for me,” said Representative Gonzales. “It was a long day. I was up there for a long time, had a lot of amendments. But you know what; I saw for the first time in a long time on that floor a policy discussion.”

For nearly five hours, members discussed 53 amendments including the Pickett amendment (851968) which requires projects or toll roads that received TXDOT funding to be repaid.

“While I was on the losing end of a few of those votes as chairman, I was pretty happy with what I saw quite frankly because we had a bunch of members looking at a policy decision on toll roads,” said Representative Gonzales. “A policy decision of how we do transportation. So for me, that was a pretty good little moment that we got past a lot of those hurt feelings.”

State Budget
Both the House and the Senate plan to spend nearly $218 billion in the next two years. The Texas Constitution requires lawmakers to balance the budget every year but the House and the Senate must work together to resolve the foreseen challenges that lay ahead. “The budget is fundamentally different,” said Representative Gonzales. “It’s systematically different on how we did stuff from the Senate.” The differences lie in the use of the Rainy Day fund (House wants to use $2.5 billion while the Senate does not); transportation (Senate wants to delay $2.5 billion of transportation funding into the next fiscal year); education (House wants to delay $1.9 billion to Texas schools the first day of the next fiscal year and Senate wants to strip $1.8 billion in local property taxes); and economic development growth through the Texas Enterprise Fund. The House eliminated all TEF funds; the Senate appropriates only a few million in new dollars for the successful 'deal-closer' fund.

“I have been in this building for 26 years. I was raised to work on policy. I was raised to identify our problems and fix it if a problem exists,” said Representative Gonzales. “I was taught to collaborate and cooperate and come up with something that works. This all or nothing thing is tough for someone like me who doesn’t see the world that way.”

Created by the Austin Chamber, the Pulse on Policy series is a monthly conversation designed to keep the busy professional informed of legislation that impacts the business community. The event was the second of a series of policy discussions lead by local, state, and federal policymakers.