TXDOT Gets Called On The Carpet Over Shortfall Claims

It is indeed nice to see the Texas Department of Transportation getting the legislative knock-down the agency so richly deserves–and has had coming for much of this decade–from the Texas Senate:

Lawmakers on Tuesday accused state transportation officials of falsely blaming the Legislature for their own poor financial planning and creating an exaggerated public impression of budgetary woes to promote private toll roads.

“The impression out there is that, really, this is a ploy to put pressure on us to go back to the toll road plan,” said Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, who said the Texas Department of Transportation is scheming to promote its own agenda.

Yep. Just like all those radio ads I’ve been hearing on the radio are designed not to promote TxDOT projects but to get people pissed off at the legislature when they go against the TxDOT mantra of “Keep Texas Moving.”

Though I’m no fan of Steve Ogden, I do like what he had to say about TxDOT’s craziness:

“This is screwed up,” said Sen. Steve Ogden, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. “I understand how to do a cash flow statement. I understand how to do an income statement. This isn’t one of them. This is really bad.”

Oh, only in Texas.

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