HOUSE AUTHOR: Krusee et al. |
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EFFECTIVE: See below |
SENATE SPONSOR: Ogden |
• Article 1. Trans-Texas Corridor. House Bill 3588 amends the Transportation Code to create the Trans-Texas Corridor, a statewide network of transportation facilities that includes toll and nontoll state highways, turnpikes, freight or passenger railroads, public utility facilities, and any structure that facilitates a mode of transportation. The bill allows the Texas Department of Transportation (department) to finance the corridor using money from the state highway fund, tolls, fees, bond proceeds, the state infrastructure bank, and the federal government and allows the department to enter into an agreement with another governmental agency or private entity to construct or operate part of the corridor. Article 1 takes effect June 22, 2003.
• Article 2. Regional Mobility Authorities. House Bill 3588 authorizes the Texas Transportation Commission (commission), at the request of a county commissioners court, to create a regional mobility authority to provide for transportation projects in a region of the state. The bill allows an authority to issue revenue bonds, if approved by the attorney general, and generate revenue by imposing tolls, fees, and fares and by leasing or selling part of a transportation project. Article 2 takes effect June 22, 2003.
• Article 3. Advance Acquisition of Property.
• Article 4. Rail Facilities. House Bill 3588 authorizes the department to provide for passenger or freight rail facilities, including commuter rail and intercity rail, or to contract with a private entity to perform these acts. The bill authorizes the department to create a freight rail line for trains operating at not less than 80 miles per hour in or adjacent to the State Highway 130 corridor, if sufficient funds from bonds sold to construct the Central Texas turnpike project or from the Texas mobility fund are available. It allows the department to finance rail facilities and systems using appropriations from the state highway fund not constitutionally dedicated, bond proceeds, donations, fees, rents, loans from the state infrastructure bank, and federal grants and loans. Article 4 takes effect June 22, 2003.
• Article 5. Issuance of Bonds and Other Public Securities. House Bill 3588 authorizes the commission to issue bonds and other public securities secured by the state highway fund, not to exceed $3 billion, to fund highway improvement projects, finance other funds, and service bond debt and the cost of the issuing bonds. Proceeds of the bonds may not be used for the construction of a state highway or other facility on the Trans-Texas Corridor. This article takes effect on the date the constitutional amendment proposed by House Joint Resolution 28 takes effect.
• Article 6. Pass-Through Tolls. House Bill 3588 authorizes the department to pay pass-through tolls to a public or private entity as reimbursement for constructing or operating a toll or nontoll facility on the state highway system and to an authority or county as compensation for the costs of maintaining a state highway converted to a toll facility of the authority or county. Article 6 takes effect June 22, 2003.
• Article 7. Conversion of Nontoll State Highway. House Bill 3588 authorizes the commission, if approved by the participating county commissioners courts, to convey a nontoll state highway to each county within which the highway is located if the commission determines that the conveyance will improve mobility in the region or is the most feasible method to accomplish necessary improvements to the highway.
• Article 8. Commercial Driver's Licenses. House Bill 3588 amends and adds new provisions relating to the disqualification from driving a commercial motor vehicle of a person who holds a commercial driver's license and who violates regulations for the operation of a commercial motor vehicle or a noncommercial motor vehicle, including disqualification for life. Article 8 takes effect June 1, 2005.
• Article 9. Motor Vehicle Sales Tax. House Bill 3588 amends the Tax Code to require the county tax assessor-collector to calculate and retain an additional five percent of the motor vehicle sales, rental, and use tax, vehicle registration fees, and penalties collected by the county in the preceding calendar year and credit specified percentages to the county's general fund and road and bridge fund. Article 9 takes effect September 1, 2005.
• Article 10. Driver Responsibility. House Bill 3588 requires the Texas Department of Public Safety to assign two or three points, depending on the circumstances, to a person's license for each conviction of a moving violation and to assess a surcharge on the license of a person who has accumulated six or more points during the preceding 36-month period. It also provides for surcharges for certain intoxicated driver offenses and for driving with an invalid license, without financial responsibility, or without a valid license. Money from the surcharges is to be used for general revenue and for trauma facility and emergency medical services. The driver responsibility program expires on September 1, 2007.
• Article 11. Disposition of Department of Public Safety Fees. House Bill 3588 requires that certain fees and penalties collected by the Department of Public Safety relating to driver's licenses be deposited in the Texas mobility fund. The bill requires the first $90,500,254 of fees collected during the biennium ending August 1, 2005, to be deposited in the general revenue fund.
• Article 12. Additional Court Costs. House Bill 3588 assesses an additional $30 court cost against a person convicted of violating a rule for operating a motor vehicle on a roadway. The additional court costs collected under the driver responsibility program are to be used for general revenue and trauma facility and emergency medical services; any amount collected that is in excess of $250 million is to be deposited in the Texas mobility fund. Article 12 expires September 1, 2007.
• Article 13. Statewide Coordination of Public Transportation. House Bill 3588 requires the department to identify inefficiencies in the public transportation services, including services that could be provided more effectively by privately funded transportation resources and to eliminate inefficiencies. It requires each health and human services agency to contract with the department for transportation services for agency clients.
• Article 14. Conditional Grant Program.
• Article 15. Texas Turnpike Authority. House Bill 3588 transfers the general powers and duties of the Texas Turnpike Authority to the commission and the department and provides for comprehensive development agreements. Article 15 takes effect June 22, 2003.
• Article 16. Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. House Bill 3588 creates procedures for the notification of a claim and the assessment of an administrative penalty against a person who violates a rule for commercial motor vehicle safety standards.
• Article 17. Nonrepairable and Salvage Motor Vehicles; Salvage Vehicle Dealers. House Bill 3588 amends and adds new provisions relating to the sale, transfer, release, and titling of nonrepairable motor vehicles, salvage motor vehicles, rebuilt salvage motor vehicles, and export-only motor vehicles and the dismantling, scrapping, or destroying of such vehicles.
• Article 18. Funding of Port Security, Projects, and Studies. House Bill 3588 renames the Texas Port Transportation and Economic Development Advisory Committee as the Port Authority Advisory Committee, changes the membership and certain duties, and repeals a separate chapter designating members of a Port Authority Advisory Committee. Article 18 takes effect June 22, 2003.
• Article 19. Miscellaneous Provisions. In addition to other provisions relating to the statewide transportation plan, lost, stolen, or destroyed inspection certificates, neighborhood electric vehicles, malfunctioning traffic-control signals, and penalties for passing a school bus, House Bill 3588 limits to not more than $800 million the amount of money the department may spend each fiscal year to provide for a toll facility.
• Article 19B. Financial Responsibility Requirements. House Bill 3588 requires the department and the Texas Department of Insurance by July 1, 2004, to complete a study on the feasibility of using a database interface system to verify whether owners of motor vehicles have financial responsibility. If a system is recommended, the department may implement the system before January 1, 2005.
• Article 20. General Provisions; Effective Date. Except as otherwise noted, provisions of the bill take effect September 1, 2003.