Transportation: Rick Perry, asleep at the wheel

"TxDOT isn't broke. It's flat broke." - Transportation Commission Chair Deidre Delisi, on
what one person told her when she started at TxDOT 4/26/2010

The Texas 2030 Committee has determined that $315 billion will be needed to finance
Texas' transportation infrastructure and mobility from 2009-2030. Even by the most
optimistic estimates, available revenue will cover only half of this amount - placing an
additional $8 billion per year burden on taxpayers.

"Every dollar that the government takes in taxes is a dollar that a person could have been
using to feed their family, invest in their future, or build their business." - Governor Rick
Perry, 7/30/09, Speech to TMTA Convention

Mismanagement at the top: TxDOT's $1 billion error

“There was a trust and confidence problem at the agency” – Deidre Delisi, 4/26/10

• According to the State Auditor's Office, in October 2007, TxDOT officials realized
they had counted $1.1 billion in bond revenues twice.
(http://www.sao.state.tx.us/reports/main/08-045.pdf)

o $581 million of Proposition 14 bond proceeds and $488 million of bond

proceeds from the Texas Mobility Fund - money that was already marked to
pay for past projects - was double counted, resulting in what Chris
Lippincott, Director of Media Relations at TxDOT, deemed a $1,069,000,000
"accounting error."

• The Department of Transportation's Financial Forcecasting and Fund Allocation

report, released in August 2008, concluded that the $1.1 billion error was caused by
"ineffective internal communication, a complex reporting structure, and
misunderstanding of reported data.”

Absence of transparency and accountability

“When a government can make financial decisions in the darkness, hidden from the
inquiring eyes of its citizens, great harm can take root as well.” – Governor Rick Perry,
3/23/09

• The State Auditor’s report determined that TxDOT "failed to immediately

communicate the error and the main causes ... to oversight entities, including the
full Texas Transportation Commission, legislative committees, state and local
government transportation officials, and the public."

o According to the report, this lack of a formal public briefing limited the TTC’s
ability to understand the circumstances that led to the error and to ensure
best practices were in place to prevent similar errors in the future.

• Despite the gross mistakes made in the management of taxpayer dollars and the
ineffectual communication of the budgetary crisis to appropriate oversight entities,
no one within TxDOT has been held publicly accountable.
Texas off the playing field, not competing

"If Texas had its act together, they would've gotten some high-speed rail money." –
Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood

• Of the $8 billion of Recovery Act financing to "develop America's first nationwide

program of high-speed intercity passenger rail service," Texas was awarded only $4
million - one half of one-tenth of one-percent - for high-speed rail projects.

o According to TxDOT, Texas applied for $1.8 billion of funding.

o This ranked Texas second-to-last among the states that received funding for
high-speed rail.

• National and state representatives have criticized Texas for not presenting a unified
vision for high-speed rail - a reason Texas received only .05% of the total funds
allocated for high-speed rail.

o Karen Amacker, a TxDOT spokesperson, stated, "If we learned

anything from this whole exercise, Texas really needs to get with the
program." (http://www.texastribune.org/stories/2010/feb/02/rails/)

• High-speed rail is not a new idea in Texas. In October of 2002 the Texas High Speed
Rail & Transportation Corporation (THSRTC) was incorporated to collaborate with
governments of all levels to bring a high-speed rail infrastructure to Texas.

o More recently, in November of 2008, the Corridor Advisory Committee for I-

35 stressed the importance of high-speed rail in improving mobility along the
interstate: "Inaction may result in a loss of economic development
opportunities and an increased threat to the safety of the traveling
public."