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Audit challenges $86 billion transportation funding gap
Austin American-Statesman ^ | April 30, 2007 | Ben Wear

Posted on 04/30/2007 10:41:10 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Report says that more than $45 billion of the estimate is either in error or undocumented.

The State Auditor's Office this morning released a report challenging the validity of almost half of a purported $86 billion shortfall in Texas transportation funding over the next generation, and cautioning that the gap estimate "may not be reliable for making policy or funding decisions."

That $86 billion figure has been cited repeatedly by Texas Department of Transportation officials and some legislators as a major reason for the state's increasing need for new toll roads. The number is a compilation of estimates from local transportation planning agencies around the state that were produced at the behest of the Transportation Department.

The report said those estimates include mathematical errors and that another $36.9 billion needed for projects in metropolitan and urban regions was "undocumented" and that $8.6 billion of the overall total should not have been included because of mathematical errors and other flaws in the estimates.

"The accuracy of the estimated costs for metropolitan and urban regions cannot be determined because of the lack of supporting documentation," the 23-page report says.

Mike Behrens, the Transportation Department's executive director, released a statement this morning saying that even if the shortfall is smaller, the state still has a substantial and growing problem in paying for new roads.

Behrens called the audit report "further documentation of a multi-billion dollar funding gap between the transportation system our state deserves and the one we can afford with current resources. No matter what number you choose, Texas has a big problem: more people, in more cars, driving more miles on an already congested highway system.

"The State Auditor's Office has provided some good suggestions for refining the methodology to draw a clearer picture of the state's mobility needs and we are incorporating their recommendations into our future assessments."

The Austin area's contribution to that $86 billion figure is about $10 billion. Local officials associated with that estimate have said in the past that it is not an actual list of unfunded projects, but rather an estimate based on formulas of what it would take to eliminate congestion on all highways at all times, including rush hour.

The report follows another critical state auditor report, released Feb. 23, that said the Transportation Department had downplayed the potential costs of the Trans-Texas Corridor and potentially inflated expected gains for the project. The earlier audit became grist for legislators this session looking to roll back powers granted to the Transportation Department in earlier session.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: audit; austin; campaigndonations; corruption; cronyism; cuespookymusic; eminentdomain; errors; fundinggap; highspeedtrains; highwayfunding; highways; houston; inaccuracies; kathleenwhite; legislature; masstransit; matherrors; mikebehrens; moratorium; p3; ppp; privatefunding; privateinvestment; privatesector; privatization; publictransit; rickperry; roads; sao; shortfall; tceq; texas; texashouse; texassenate; tollroads; tolls; tollways; trains; transtexascorridor; ttc; tx; txdot; undocumented; veto
Taking its toll

Legislature and governor poised for a damaging clash over state highway funding.

Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

The English poet A.E. Housman lamented what he perceived as a "land of lost content, I see it plain, the land of happy highways where I went and cannot come again."

He might have been commenting on the penurious state of highway funding in Texas and the acrimony between the governor and Legislature over how to pay for needed roads.

Fearful that Texas drivers will wind up padding private investors' pockets to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, the Texas Senate last week approved a two-year moratorium on private financing of toll roads. The measure goes to the House, which can accept it or negotiate a compromise with its own transportation bill.

The legislation is a backlash against Gov. Rick Perry's plans to let foreign interests partially finance and profit from the first of his Trans-Texas corridors. The state would have to pay huge penalties to reacquire control of the right of way if it was dissatisfied with the contractor's performance, and public roads in the vicinity of privately operated turnpikes would be discouraged.

Rural residents feared the corridors would amount to grabs of private land to be turned over to favored investors so they could make huge profits.

Kathleen White, chairman of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, said the Senate legislation would interfere with Houston's attainment of federal ozone standards, perhaps subjecting the region to the loss of federal highway funds.

Former Texas Department of Transportation Chairman Johnny Johnson of Houston told the Chronicle editorial board that the bill would hold up the building of vital infrastructure. Other sections of the bill would hand federal funds to local toll road authorities, leaving the state no way to vouch for their use and threatening the system of federal-state highway funding.

Johnson also pointed out that the bill would expose highway funding to the direct influence of contractors' campaign donations to county officials.

Perry, who hints he might veto the bill, has himself to blame for much of the backlash. If the bill would allow highway routing and contracts to be determined by campaign donations, Perry's Trans-Texas corridor plan is tinged with cronyism and infected with campaign donations.

Given the legitimate questions about the terms of contracts with private companies to build and operate the corridors, a two-year moratorium on private toll road financing would not be the end of the world. However, the Legislature should not pass legislation that would interfere with the state's ability to direct and audit federal highway funds. That would do more harm than directing Texans' tolls to foreign investors, not to mention threatening the attainment of clean air standards.

If the Legislature and governor really want to curb pollution while providing Texans with better transportation, they would pay more attention to mass transit and high-speed trains that would advance both goals.

1 posted on 04/30/2007 10:41:14 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Maybe I should tell my credit card company that I have a “funding gap” and see how that flies with them?............


2 posted on 04/30/2007 10:44:18 AM PDT by Red Badger (My gerund got caught in my diphthong, and now I have a dangling participle...............)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
"...they would pay more attention to mass transit and high-speed trains that would advance both goals."

Boy, the Comicle really loves its trains don't it...
3 posted on 04/30/2007 10:46:09 AM PDT by Texas_Jarhead
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To: TxDOT; 1066AD; 185JHP; Abcdefg; Adrastus; Alamo-Girl; antivenom; AprilfromTexas; B4Ranch; B-Chan; ..

Trans-Texas Corridor PING!


4 posted on 04/30/2007 10:47:45 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (G*d bless and heal Virginia Tech!)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

“the state still has a substantial and growing problem in paying for new roads.”

We wouldn’t have a problem if we sealed the borders!


5 posted on 04/30/2007 11:02:45 AM PDT by Froufrou
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

“the state still has a substantial and growing problem in paying for new roads.”

We wouldn’t have a problem if we sealed the borders!


6 posted on 04/30/2007 11:02:46 AM PDT by Froufrou
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

BTTT


7 posted on 04/30/2007 11:03:47 AM PDT by E.G.C.
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To: Froufrou

Also it would help if the legislature did not divert more then $10 billion over the last ten years of gas tax money earmark originally for roads to their own pet projects.


8 posted on 04/30/2007 11:29:51 AM PDT by Hydroshock (Duncan Hunter For President, checkout gohunter08.com.)
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To: Froufrou

“We wouldn’t have a problem if we sealed the borders!”

Yes, all of them! LOL! Quit letting poeple who have screwed up their own states move here to screw ours up.


9 posted on 04/30/2007 11:48:15 AM PDT by wolfcreek (DON'T MESS WITH A NATION IN NEED OF MEDICATION !)
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To: E.G.C.

bump.


10 posted on 04/30/2007 11:57:40 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (G*d bless and heal Virginia Tech!)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Could it be the 2 billion dollars that your heros in Austin stole from the Texas budget two years ago?

Could it be the fact that TXDOT builds roads backwards so a prodject cannot be cancelled for lack of funding?

Could it be that TXDOT spreads out constrution prodjects to ensure the 4 highway building companies have enough work to pay off there fixed costs?

11 posted on 04/30/2007 12:31:02 PM PDT by hadaclueonce (IS)
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To: Hydroshock; wolfcreek

I still haven’t figured out why the schools aren’t covered by the lottery!

Anyone? Bueller?


12 posted on 04/30/2007 12:33:26 PM PDT by Froufrou
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To: Froufrou

Because the state legislature pee’ed that money away too.


13 posted on 04/30/2007 12:34:55 PM PDT by Hydroshock (Duncan Hunter For President, checkout gohunter08.com.)
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To: Texas_Jarhead
Boy, the Comicle really loves its trains don't it...

Yes they do. I have never ridden on the train but I feel like I have paid for many others to ride.

Is if fun? Is it like a carnival ride. Would it be worth going downtown with my grandchildren and giving them a ride?

Is is save? The Comicle quit reporting all the train wrecks, you know.

14 posted on 04/30/2007 12:35:18 PM PDT by BaylorDad (We need to treat Islamic terrorism today like our grandparents treated communism yesterday.)
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To: Hydroshock

I guess they lose sight of what we can and cannot do when IT’S NOT THEIR MONEY!


15 posted on 04/30/2007 12:47:17 PM PDT by Froufrou
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To: Froufrou

Yep.


16 posted on 04/30/2007 12:47:58 PM PDT by Hydroshock (Duncan Hunter For President, checkout gohunter08.com.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
This is all about the *up front* money foreign investors are willing to pay the state for our submission. The Gov and Txdot have to make it look like We’re broke so they can get their piece of the pie.
17 posted on 04/30/2007 12:59:07 PM PDT by wolfcreek (DON'T MESS WITH A NATION IN NEED OF MEDICATION !)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

“Perry, who hints he might veto the bill, has himself to blame for much of the backlash. If the bill would allow highway routing and contracts to be determined by campaign donations, Perry’s Trans-Texas corridor plan is tinged with cronyism and infected with campaign donations.”

si. cronyism.


18 posted on 04/30/2007 1:22:27 PM PDT by ken21 (it takes a village to brainwash your child + to steal your property! /s)
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