As the Texas Legislature finalizes its State budget in the last 30 days of the regular legislative session, the language protecting the State from subsidizing the prolonged high-speed rail proposal remains in the budget.
Both the Texas Senate and House have completed debating their respective versions of the State budget that included commitment to education, fully funding teacher retirement, increasing funding for healthcare initiatives and maintaining their responsibility for border security.
The House budget version included $246.8 Billion in total spending, which marks an $18 Billion decrease in spending from the previous budget.
The budget now heads to a conference debate between select members of the Senate and House budget-writing committees to hash out differences between the two bills passed by each chamber. The final bill delivered by that conference committee will be what members vote on to approve the State’s budget for the next two years.
In addition to a law created in 2017, the high-speed rail budget rider ensures holding the promoter of the proposed Dallas Houston high-speed rail to its word that no State funds or resources will be utilized on the monopolized Japanese high-speed rail plan proposed by Texas Central Railway.
Representative Ben Leman (R-Iola) said of the budget rider, “The action of maintaining a rider in the State budget is both responsible government and a reminder that private HSR projects must find its funding in the market, not the State budget. We, state legislators, are in the business of protecting taxpayers and Texas landowners, and that is exactly what we did with this rider.”
Representative Cody Harris (R-Palestine) offered words of precaution, saying, “If the Biden administration is actually able to get the US Congress to pass infrastructure legislation, they should think twice about spending taxpayer dollars with no State matching funds. The market has made it clear that investing in the Texas Central high-speed rail project isn’t a great idea, and Texas has been abundantly clear…we are not investing in it, either.”
With the proposed HSR mired in financial distress and legal issues, including the question of its right to eminent domain authority being clarified by the Texas Supreme Court, Senator Lois Kolkhorst (R-Brenham) said, “If the federal government wants high-speed rail in Texas, they need to know that Texas taxpayers are not going to subsidize the taking of private land.”
With other critical needs within the State, like an electrical grid overhaul, members of the Texas Legislature have shown true leadership by preserving the budget rider that protects Texas landowners and taxpayers.
Submitted by Texans Against High Speed Rail.
