State Rakes In Federal Dollars, And So Does TxDOT

Remember the whole “TxDOT is going broke!” saga that played out a couple of days ago?

That’s an especially interesting theme to consider in light of a newly released report that not only shows that Texas is raking in federal dollars, but that TxDOT ranked among the top state agencies in America in terms of federal money received–behind only a California state agency and states who received unusually high payouts as a result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita:

The Texas Transportation Department has lately warned of a budget crunch. Yet the highway-building agency raked in more federal funds than all but three other state agencies around the nation in the first three quarters of the 2006 fiscal year: $2.9 billion

[...]Texas’ state agencies including the Transportation Department ranked among the top nationally in gathering federal dollars.

In the first three quarters of the 2006 fiscal year when the transportation agency received $2.9 billion, only three other agencies — the Louisiana Division of Administration, the Mississippi Development Authority and the California Department of Social Services — received more. The period included the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Texas transportation officials, however, recently warned of funding shortfalls that they said could hurt the agency’s ability to pay for future projects.

Chris Lippincott, a spokesman, said the federal funding for 2006 spiked in part because Texas was reimbursed by the federal government for some large projects, including Houston’s Katy Freeway.

Lippincott noted that in the 2005 fiscal year the agency ranked seventh in federal funding.

Still think TxDOT is in danger of insolvency?

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