Texas proposes Texas-based funds to invest in roads

NEW YORK, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Texas-based funds could invest directly in transportation projects through a new corporation under a plan unveiled on Thursday by the state's legislative leaders and the governor.

Texas has the nation's biggest road privatization plan but the legislature, reacting to criticisms that developers were enriching themselves at the expense of taxpayers, enacted a two-year moratorium. That has crimped planned road-building projects though investment banks and developers have expressed keen interest in them.

Lt. Gov David Dewhurst, who sets the Senate's agenda, House Speaker Tom Craddick, and Gov. Rick Perry released this new financing plan in an Aug. 19 letter to Texas Transportation Commission Chairman, Deirdre Delisi.

The three Republican politicians also proposed big bond sales as solutions to the road-funding problem, starting with the sale of as much as $1.5 billion of highway bonds as soon as September. (Reporting by Joan Gralla, editing by Tom Hals)