DOT’s 2010 budget has less money for new projects

Perry — Thirty percent of the state’s main road budget will go for payments on previous road project commitments if the 2010 budget proposed by the Transportation Board on Thursday is approved by the state Legislature.

The state will owe $436 million in that fiscal year for work already undertaken, if the budget is approved. Some of the debt payment is flexible. The Department of Transportation’s main road budget is targeted at $1.5 billion.

A separate $200 million would go to small local road projects.

Much of the road budget traditionally goes to repaving, repairs and maintenance. The debt carried in the 2010 fiscal year may mean less money for new construction of highway lanes, safer interchanges and bridges that need to be replaced, DOT officials suggested.

The 2010 proposed budget is a cold slap of reality to a state that in recent years has grown accustomed to plenty of projects.

On a more immediate note, the board Thursday voted to put $89 million in contracts out to bid this month.

By a split vote, the board also asked the staff to put together $100 million in projects to bid out next month, in spite of DOT Commissioner Gena Evans’ warning that “sustaining $100 million a month is going to be impossible this year.”

Board member David Doss supported the measure and took issue with the notion that DOT had a deficit. He disagreed with accounting methods mandated by the state auditor that declared DOT in deficit. Doss added that DOT’s slowdown had cost 10,000 jobs in the road building and engineering industry.

“They tell me for some folks they are 40- and 50-year businesses, predominantly family owned, that even doing what we did this month and next month, it’s probably too late for them,” Doss said.

Board Vice Chairman Larry Walker said he supported the contractors, too, but the budget was what it was.

“I don’t think this is the right way for us to do business,” he said, criticizing $100 million a month as an “arbitrary figure.”

Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle agreed that the board should bid out $100 million a month. His spokeswoman, Jaillene Hunter, noted Thursday that Cagle suggested the department could cut back on overhead and staff to make it happen.

Much of DOT’s debt was for Gov. Sonny Perdue’s Fast Forward program, which was to speed 18 years’ worth of projects into six years, partly by borrowing.

The $15.5 billion program, which Perdue announced in 2004, authorized borrowing up to $3 billion to be repaid with future federal funds, in addition to other tools that let DOT bank on future federal money.

On Wednesday, Evans told the board, “There’s not enough money to pay for the projects in Fast Forward. And so we’ve got to figure out some way which ones will go forward and which ones won’t.”

The DOT will create a list of projects to be culled and make an announcement within months.