The bill written by MAGA state senator Paul Bettencourt to help his fellow MAGA, John Whitmire, died in committee.
A set of bills that would have stymied local government road and transit plans are likely dead after missing an important legislative deadline, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Among them is Senate Bill 2722, a controversial bill written by Houston Republican Sen. Paul Bettencourt that would have transferred to the City of Houston a large chunk of excess tolls collected by Harris County — around $25 million annually, according to one official. That extra money would need to be spent first on police and firefighters with any leftovers going to county roads under Bettencourt’s proposal.
Though the bill passed out of the Senate, it never came up for a floor vote in the House.
Bettencourt also wrote another ill-fated bill that targeted bike lanes, Senate Bill 2238, that would have hamstrung local efforts to narrow streets to create wider sidewalks and protected areas for bicycles and pedestrians.
That measure was left pending in a Senate committee at press time Friday.
I hope John Whitmire had not been counting on that money to help him with his 100-million-dollar budget deficit. If he had, he better start praying that hurricanes don’t come, as money from the federal government is not going to be there to reimburse for the cleanup or other emergency needs. If Trump can screw the Republicans states don’t expect him to come like the Lone Ranger to save a Democratic City and County.
