TxDOT Tells Lawmakers Funding Crisis Around the Corner
After funding billions of dollars in roadwork through debt over the last decade, the Texas Department of Transportation is two years away from a severe drop in funding unless lawmakers find more cash, agency officials said at a budget hearing Monday.
TxDOT Chairman Phil Wilson told the Senate Finance Committee that the agency is at a crucial turning point as large state bond programs are set to hit their limit by 2015.
“The fact is, we’re running out of capacity to issue the debt — we’re maxed out — and that’s where most of our money comes from,” Texas ...
Comments (4)
Brian Ortego via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Since, only about 1/4 of the 20 cent per gallon actually goes to TDOT now, why not start with correcting the misappropriation of dedicated revenue funding, before crying wolf...
http://www.texastribune.org/2010/12/21/texas-mulls-alternatives-gas-tax/
hans5162@ix.netcom.com hans
It's not a funding crisis. It's an opportunity to shrink government. Tax cuts for everyone, according to Governor Dumbass, who presided over the unprecedented expansion of this debt. You can either raise the revenue you need to meet state needs, or you can govern from crisis to crisis. You can make the investments you need to make to keep up with growth and maintenance, or you can do what Republicans have done for the past 10 years and pretend like you can forever charge things on your credit card. Republicans have pretended for the past 10 years that you can forever cut taxes and there is no impact. All that fat they've said was in state government is things like highways and schools. It's water projects and bridges. It's time to grow up and face the consequences of the decisions they've made. You have to raise revenue if you want to remain competitive and invest in the infrastructure needed by a modern economy. That includes water, transportation and education, both K-12 and universities.
gypsy314 ne
We have to many union pension plan workers. To many hands in the cookie jar to be blunt. Lay off about half and do away with pension plans and Texas will have plenty of funds. Texas is now being infested with liberals from bankrupt states. Other wise the liberals have bankrupt there old state and now started here if Texans allow a firm hold on liberal government seats. The only way to keep Texas strong is run liberals from Texas and deport illegal aliens on the welfare and school system.
Jim Vance
Right on cue, neofascist troll gypsy314ne checks in from the nether regions of his backside orifice with a rant against 'libruls' and unions, neither of which have much of anything to do with the reality of motor fuels taxation or road maintenance and construction costs in a right-to-work state.
Clearly, the sky is falling and TxDOT is out beating the bushes of the Lege early and often to pump up the cash flow by whatever means possible so they can keep the new-alignment road construction "build it and they will come" development-inducement party for the primary benefit of deeply-embedded political and industry insiders that has evolved over the past century chugging nicely along for another couple of years.