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ajc.com > Metro

State DOT may face $1 billion shortfall for projects





By ARIEL HART

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 04/09/08

The state Department of Transportation may be $1 billion short in paying for

projects it has promised in the near future, DOT officials said Wednesday.

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Gov. Sonny Perdue has authorized calling in an outside company for a forensic

audit of DOT finances.

The implications of the shortfall are bad enough for projects already earmarked

for funding, but the picture is even grimmer for the thousands of projects on

department books for future funding.

DOT Commissioner Gena Abraham stressed that the findings are from a preliminary

audit. She said auditors do not yet have a solid handle on the spending.

Perdue announced the forensic audit, to begin in May, in a press conference

with Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle and Speaker Glenn Richardson marking the

end of the legislative session. He used the news to defend his opposition to a

transportation funding bill that failed by three votes.

"The more information that I frankly hear from Commissioner Abraham, the more

convinced I am right now that money may have exacerbated the problem right

now," Perdue said. "I think frankly we've saved ourselves."

DOT's budget is about $2 billion a year. The department has had long term

funding problems. In 2006, DOT board Chairman Mike Evans and DOT leaders said

the department had postponed 510 projects because it faced a $7.7 billion

shortfall over six years.

Abraham, DOT's new commissioner whom Perdue recommended for the position, held

a press conference with Evans shortly afterward Perdue's announcement.

The two officials said the department committed $4.2 billion to projects using

a federal funding mechanism that the board had no idea had been used so

extensively. The problems have existed for years.

Evans said he knew and approved that DOT was using the mechanism, which allows

projects that need federal funding to begin with state funds; the federal

funding is applied later when it becomes available. The mechanism allows

agencies to get ahead of inflation by starting projects without waiting for the

federal funds to arrive.

But Evans said he didn't know it had been used so much, nor could he say how

much it should have been used.

The board's previous chairman, David Doss, who also presided over the board

while it used the mechanism, said the $4.2 billion was probably "a little more

aggressive than we should have been," but he didn't believe the figure should

be a shock to the board.

"We had numerous meetings where we talked about advance construction, inflation

was going out the roof, asphalt concrete and metal prices were going out the

roof," and the board had made its first priority to push projects out the door

faster.

"It's going to take some time to catch back up," Doss said.

But considering DOT's long term shortages, he added, "I don't think [the new

information is] nearly the financial crisis they've made it out to be."

Although Perdue called the audit "forensic," Evans refused to speculate on

whether anything unlawful was involved.

DOT has greatly increased its project spending under Perdue, aided partly by

federal borrowing, but its efforts to do more projects faster to address

Atlanta's congestion have been undermined by skyrocketing construction costs.

Abraham has spent her first four months in office cleaning up DOT's books, and

in bringing smaller funding pots into line she has already confronted unhappy

local officials and legislators who see their projects put on hold.

That effort is peanuts compared to the larger program, which could well present

Abraham with a project massacre.

The issues stem from DOT's history of budgeting projects like an airline that

overbooks plane seats. DOT overbooked its project budgets, assuming delays by

local jurisdictions would give them time to catch up.

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