By Eleni Himaras
reporter@ltview.com
The Texas legislature forced Governor Rick Perry to keep his promise of a short and sweet session despite the contentious issue he added to the docket.

They took a day and a half to clean up two housekeeping matters, the continuation of five government agencies and the authority to spend voter-approved bonds for road improvements, and let the controversial toll road bill die in committee.
“There was just no will or desire to deal with something that was so volatile and potentially contentious right this minute when we didn’t have to,” said District Rep. Valinda Bolton.
She was surprised to see the item even come up when Perry called the session.
“We have known, almost within a day or two of the end of the regular session, that we were going to have to come back and have a legislative solution to those two bills that didn’t get passed,” she said. “But the whole Comprehensive Development Bill, there was just no support whatsoever in the House or the Senate for taking that up.”
The bill would have allowed state transportation officials to continue contracting privately built toll roads.
Once it became clear that measure would not be taken up, Bolton said she was thrilled with the efficiency of the historically short session.
“We weren’t all just chronically exhausted for one thing. We were nothing if not efficient,” she said. “We pretty much got in there, got the work done, and didn’t drag it out. There was a real effort to keep amendments and things that would eat up a lot of time to a minimum. It was as business like as we could make it and I think that was good.”
She said the well-organized end to the special session felt like a much better way to end than the mire of the regular session.
“I thought the special went great, it was short and sweet as predicted. On a personal level it was kind of fun, all the members were back. We got a chance to see each other and get some work done, but nobody stayed around long enough for us to get tired of each other,” she laughed.