HB 12 by State Rep. David Leibowitz (D-San Antonio): Would expand the Texas Transportation Commission to 15 members and require that those members be elected by voters.

HB 11 by David Leibowitz (D-San Antonio): repeals the authority of the Texas Department of Transportation to establish or operate the Trans-Texas Corridor.

Senators Carona and Nichols also filed some bills today that were largely sops to people who want to kills tolls and the TTC but won't really do much of anything.

Wait... that's unfair. I should point out that I'm making that statement based on previous actions. Who knows, maybe they are serious about transportation this time? If so, it's only taken them 6 years.

One of Carona's bills hands to the Comptroller the ability to reset the gas tax based on construction cost inflation. Honestly, we've been waiting for this for a while, so we're going to withhold judgment. It should pass, but I doubt there are enough people in the Lege bright enough to see that they are punting the issue to another party and taking it off their plate for good.