Texas nears its Debt Limit for Transportation Projects

Tom Warne Report, 13 July 2012

Fort Worth Star-Telegram – July 10, 2012

Drivers in Texas may look around at the billions of dollars in roadwork in progress right now and not realize that in a few short years, the state will reach its debt limit for transportation projects, officials said Monday. This means that by the end of 2014, it may not have funding to maintain existing roadways.

“People don’t believe there’s a crisis, because there are plenty of orange barrels,” state Rep. Joe Picket, D-El Paso said during a live broadcast of a House subcommittee hearing on transportation funding. “So how long before the crisis? How long before that borrowed money dissipates and we don’t have any more money to build?”

The Texas Department of Transportation has been authorized by elected officials to borrow $17.3 billion in bonds for transportation work, and $31.1 billion will be needed to repay that debt, according to James Bass, TxDOT’s chief financial officer. Bass said that the state will likely enter into an “era of uncertainty” about highway funding in 2015.

Lawmakers are looking into several options to increase highway maintenance funding during the next session which begins in January.

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