The death of bad bills is always worth celebrating

Posted on May 31, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Good, good, good.

A handful of bills that would have stopped local governments from enacting their transportation priorities and hamstrung local transit efforts are likely dead. The measures failed to pass before key deadlines as the legislative session draws to a close.

One controversial measure, authored by state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican, would have required the Harris County Toll Road Authority to divert a significant portion of its excess revenue to the City of Houston to fund police and firefighters, and require that the rest be spent exclusively on county roads.

Several Harris County officials slammed the bill as a money grab for Houston, which faces a $330 million budget deficit next year. The legislation cleared the state Senate, but failed to come up for a vote in the House.

Another proposal by Bettencourt would have barred cities from narrowing roadways to create wider sidewalks or protected lanes for bicyclists and buses, which critics said could halt projects across the state meant to address traffic congestion and promote safety. Texas leads the nation in traffic fatalities. The bill was left pending in a Senate committee.

Lawmakers also took aim at transit systems in Dallas and Austin, filing legislation that would siphon sales tax revenue from Dallas Area Rapid Transit and challenging the funding mechanism that Austin voters approved to pay for Project Connect, a public transit and light rail expansion. Both of those bills failed to make it to the floor of either chamber for a vote.

See here and here for more on the Harris County toll road robbery bill, and here for more demises to celebrate. Hey, remember when Mayor Whitmire said that his connections in Austin would help him fix the city’s problems? Where do we think that stands now? I have no idea what positive things for the city may have been accomplished this term. To be fair, some of them might have passed more or less unnoticed via the Local and Consent calendar, and just not having any new aggressively anti-city measures pass is itself a positive. But where, if anywhere, did Whitmire and his team make a difference this session? What do they think their wins were? That’s what I want to know. Lone Star Left, which has a few more to celebrate, and the Observer, which reminds us that plenty of bad bills did make it to the finish line, have more.

UPDATE: Ooh, Reform Austin has some good ones, and the best part is it was Dan Patrick’s fault they died. Dude really could use some gummies and chill out.

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