TxDOT on the legislative griddle Feb. 5

January 23, 2008

By Ben Wear, Austin American-Statesman

Shine your shoes and haul out a clean shirt, TxDOT. The Legislature wants to see you on Feb. 5. All day.

The Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee and the Senate Finance Committee have called what would be a very rare joint meeting at 9 a.m. Feb. 5. The meeting would be in the Finance Committee’s meeting room in the Capital Extension, E1.036.

The subject: “The Texas Department of Transportation’s 2008-09 appropriations.” Translated, that means, we want to pin you down and find if you really and truly are suddenly out of money. TxDOT shook up the Texas transportation world, and quite a few powerful legislators, over the past two months by suddenly cutting money for project engineering and right of way and announcing it will award no new road construction contracts after Feb. 1. Frankly, a lot of lawmakers think TxDOT is playing politics with its books.

After these two committees are through, probably around noon, then the Legislative Study Committee on Private Participation in Toll Projects (called the CDA committee or 792 committee informally) will meet at 1 p.m. in the same room. That committee, which includes three appointees each by Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick, was created by SB 792 and told to look at the private toll road contracts that stirred up the Legislature last year. This is that committee’s first meeting.

Meanwhile, TxDOT is under review by the Sunset Advisory Committee as well.

Better get a couple of clean shirts. And maybe some underwear as well.