New Bill Would Target Bullet Train Land Acquisition
Republicans leery of granting more eminent domain authority acted to fast-track to nowhere a proposed high-speed rail line between Houston and Dallas.
The Tribune's Aman Batheja reported that five Republicans on the Senate Transportation Committee passed out a bill Wednesday by state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, (Regressive-Brenham), that would deny developers of a high-speed rail line the use of the eminent domain tool. Two Houston Democrats and two Dallas-area Republicans voted against the bill.
Kolkhorst explained the impetus for the bill was skepticism the project would ever come to fruition. “I just don’t see it, and I’m not sure I want Texas to be the guinea pig on this,” she said. As such, she did not want to put landowners along a proposed route in a position to lose their property.
Republican supporters of Kolkhorst's legislation said they were uncomfortable with giving eminent domain authority to a for-profit company. The developers of the rail line have made their reliance on private funding a selling point of the venture.
Read more: http://www.texastribune.org/2015/04/09/brief/
