A Billion Little Pieces

Back in October, we reported that TxDOT was claiming it was out of money. I said then that I thought it might have a little something to do with a PR ploy in favor of Proposition 12's passage. Turns out I was wrong, and it was simply an accounting error. A billion dollar accounting error.

I am suspicious of TxDOT almost as a rule, and I think that anyone who has witnessed the behavior of the agency over the last few years would have ample reason to retain that suspicion. Likewise, state lawmakers seem to be getting tired of all the transportational malarkey:

But lawmakers, always skeptical, were often openly hostile during a lengthy Senate committee hearing that amounted to a thorough wood-shedding of TxDOT. They let department officials know that they remain suspicious about the legitimacy of the fiscal crisis.

Texas Transportation Commission members, said state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, "have an agenda. And that's to privatize the second-largest (highway) system in the world. And you are hell-bent-for-leather to do that."

And that is it, in a nutshell. An embarrassment for TxDOT's leadership, certainly. The embarrassment will spread to the Lege if they don't exercise in some vigorous oversight.