TxDOT Claims It Is Going Broke

It’s always amusing to hear things like this from TxDOT:

State transportation officials announced today that rising costs, dwindling federal funds, and lawmakers’ opposition to private-sector investment in toll projects have combined to force it to sharply scale back construction plans.

“The people of Texas need to understand that within a very short period of time, there will be no money for mobility projects,” said Texas Transportation Commission member Ned Holmes of Houston.

The affected projects will be those designed to build new roads, or add lanes to existing roads. Projects already under contract and those designed to maintain or rehabilitate existing roads won’t be affected.

The reductions will begin later this fiscal year, and by 2010 the state will essentially have no money for new roads, said Commission Chairman Ric Williamson.

I really, really, really do not understand how TxDOT officials think they can get off pawning this lie off on the people of Texas. Seriously, the whole “if we don’t use toll roads, we don’t have the money to build new roads” was debunked by testimony before a state committee last year, with one solution being an indexing of the gas tax to inflation.

Doesn’t TxDOT have at least one competent research economist on staff? And why is TxDOT so stuck on toll roads, anyway, when the people of Texas and the Legislature have made it clear that we don’t want toll roads. I’m sorry, but the last time I checked, the Texas Legislature actually played a pretty big role in setting transportation policy in this state (which is how we got into this mess in the first place). Why is TxDOT using garbage like this? Are they trying some kind of blackmail technique to get lawmakers in their corner by saying there will be no money for projects in legislators’ districts absent toll roads?

Maybe TxDOT is so stuck on toll roads because they can farm them out and have other companies build and manage them, meaning less work for the agency in the long run. Whatever the reason is, it’s clear that Texas can meet its transportation needs without a large quantity of toll roads.

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