TxDOT has sufficient funds, state officials say

February 06, 2008

By JIMMY ISAAC, Longview News-Journal

An area lawmaker says the Texas Department of Transportation has the tools to get highway projects back on track.

State Sen. Kevin Eltife, R-Tyler, is a member of the Finance Committee, which had a joint session with the Senate Transportation Committee. At issue was the repeated song sung by state highway officials that Texas roads are getting worse, maintenance costs are skyrocketing and money is running out.

The refrain has meant projects cut from the 2008 books and pushed back at least a year, local transportation leaders say. TxDOT Tyler District Engineer Mary Owen said in December that road widening projects on Loop 281 and Texas 149/322, and George Richey Road expansion are delayed for that reason.

Eltife says money is available. So do Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and other state lawmakers. They point to bonds approved by the Legislature and voters that make billions of dollars in bond money available.

"According to TxDOT, they should have been prepared to let (open bids for) $3.1 billion in projects, but when they did their planning, they plugged in $4.2 billion in projects to be let. And they claim by the time they caught it, all they could do was cut the projects back," Eltife said. "Our argument in the Senate is that, 'You have about $6 billion in tools that we've given you to complete these projects.'

"What I want us to focus on instead of arguing back and forth with TxDOT is solving the problem."

In November, TxDOT Deputy Director Steve Simmons projected a $3.6 billion funding shortfall by the year 2015 and said increased maintenance needs would force the department to cut new construction projects. That projection was just days after Texas voters passed Proposition 14, which provided up to $5 billion in bond money for TxDOT. The Legislature also provided $3 billion in bonds in 2007, and another $1.3 billion in mobility fund bonds is available, Dewhurst said Friday in a letter to new TxDOT Chairwoman Hope Andrade.

Dewhurst said he and other legislative leaders made it clear last fall in private meetings with the late Ric Williamson, then chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission, that the Legislature would do whatever it took to back that borrowing as well.

"I'm at a loss to see why they're saying (that) now when we've given them additional tools they've chosen not to take advantage of," Dewhurst said in an interview late Friday afternoon. "It appears they haven't used them. Maybe we're wrong."

Dewhurst was not at Tuesday's joint session, but 20 of the 21 senators in the finance and transportation committees attended, Eltife said. Normally, about one-half to two-thirds of committee members attend committee meetings in years when there's no full legislative session.

"Everyone is very concerned about all of the projects that have been put on hold across the state," Eltife said. "I believe TxDOT has the tools they need to solve this problem."

This past summer, Gregg County Judge Bill Stoudt was assured in a phone conversation with then-TxDOT Deputy Director Amadeo Saenz that money would be available to begin the Texas 149 widening this year. Saenz has since become TxDOT executive director, but that didn't save the local highway project that Stoudt says is needed to handle growing commute traffic between southern Gregg County and Longview.

Stoudt said the $5 billion bond package approved by voters can't be reached. Releasing those funds requires legislative action, probably in 2009, he said.

"Yeah, the voters passed it, but the way the law is written, TxDOT has to wait for the Legislature to fund it," Stoudt said. "If they can overcome that — if the governor has some type of authority to do that and release those funds, great."

There may be a way to access those funds without new legislation, Eltife said. TxDOT says the available bonding capacity is needed for future projects through 2015, but it would be best to tackle needed highway projects now and let the Legislature worry about future projects when they convene in 2009, he said.

The Austin American Statesman contributed to this story.