Texas Transit Association

 Working towards his Eagle Scout Badge, Midland high school junior, Taylor Kirwan, made it his mission to build bike racks for EZ Rider passengers at three of the Midland-Odessa Urban Transit District’s busiest bus stops. The 17-year old adeptly made his way through red tape to get approval from the city and the transit district board, coordinated with General Manager, Edward Esparza, took bids and purchased supplies for a project he saw as a community need. Kirwan raised over $1,000 to defray the cost of his building project, and involved a troop of younger scouts as well.

      That is how the Governor Rick Perry described the 80th Session of the Texas Legislature, which officially ended on May 28th, Sine Die (the Latin term meaning “without a day specified for a future meeting”).
     In a press conference, Governor Perry criticized legislators, saying it was like watching a Spaghetti Western, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” After all was said and done, here is the “ugly” part that affects public transportation:
     It appears, that against all of  TTA’s recommendations, the legislature has passed a budget which reduced state funding for public transportation in Texas by $19.8 million for the biennium, or about $9.9 million per year. This represents a 30% decrease from 2006-2007 funding.
     TTA is communicating with TxDOT to fully understand and decipher the ramifications to transit in Texas.  Details on transit funding and other legislative issues will be discussed at the TTA membership meeting Monday, July 16, 2007, 2-5 pm, at the Holiday Inn Town Lake in Austin. All TTA members are encouraged to attend.
     About 10,524 House and Senate bills, concurrent resolutions, joint resolutions, and simple resolutions were filed, 4550 passed, or about 43%.
     Of the House bills filed,  602 passed, or about 4 bills per representative. In the Senate, 425 bills were actually passed or an average of 13.7 bills passed  by each senator.