To the delight of some Grimes residents, County Judge Ben Lehman reported some success in Texans Against High Speed Rail’s recent trek to the state capitol, specifically citing more than 20 new bills that he and his fellow lobbyists got introduced to the state legislature.
He said the concern that brought about those bills is there’s not a regulatory authority currently authorized by a state statute to really clamp down on the project, so these bills offer sensible legislation that would hopefully get passed.
In the end, however, only six of those even made it through the Senate Transportation Committee, Judge Lehman said, and that only two of those six were actually successful; one demanding no state money be spent on high speed rail and another addressing security and safety concerns.
Hopefully, he added, Governor Abbott will sign them. But even if the governor signs both, Lehman tells Navasota News he doesn’t see the bullet train folks packing up their bags and going home just yet.
He explained their next logical step is to modify the project so that it will create an interstate project. And ff they are successful at getting the project reclassified as interstate, the judge admits that would be a real game-changer, not only possibly negating all the work so-far with the state, but possibly granting the project that most dreaded power of eminent domain.