McReynolds talks TxDOT at First Friday luncheon
By Jerry Gaulding Editor, Free Press

Senior executives of the Texas Department of Transportation can expect some heavy grilling from state legislators when the state Legislature convenes next January, state Rep. Jim McReynolds said Friday.

Speaking to the monthly First Friday luncheon of The Chamber, Lufkin-Angelina County, McReynolds said many legislators, especially those from rural East Texas, are unhappy with TxDOT leaders over the Trans- Texas Corridor project and how it has incorporated plans for an Interstate 69 through the region.

McReynolds said he attended all four of the TxDOT hearings on the TTC held in his district, which included one in Diboll, and "never heard anyone speak for" the project. He will attempt to find out just how Tx- DOT plans to move forward in the face of such opposition.

East Texans supports the I-69 project as conceived, which is to build it over existing throughways, including U.S. 59. The TTC is projected as an entirely new toll-supported roadway, paralleling existing roads but requiring a quarter-mile or more of right of way. When McReynolds expressed his opposition to the latter plans, he drew applause.

On top of the TTC controversy, TxDOT cannot account for $1.5 billion it should have, a matter that is now being examined by auditors, he said. Finally, last fall voters approved giving the agency $5 billion in

bonding authority, and the agency has sought to issue no bonds yet. TxDOT executives can expect to be questioned on all those issues, he said.

McReynols stressed that Tx- DOT employees at the district level are some of the finest people he's known, willing to go out of their way to address the concerns of individuals. Any hard feelings that exist toward the agency leaders in Austin should not be transferred to local agency staffers, he said.

The 12-year state representative said the Legislature will begin the next term with a minimum $4.5 billion cushion and should be able to craft and budget for the next two years without a great deal of trauma.

"Going into the session, our backs will not be against the wall," he said. The current twoyear budget is $152.5 billion, larger than the GDP of France, McReynolds said, and 55 percent of that is spent on education, he noted.

As a member last session of the Appropriations and Corrections committees, McReynolds said he is serving on interim committees of both panels. In Corrections, members continue to seek ways to reduce the numbers of Texans behind bars, now 155,000, putting the state prison system at 98.9 percent capacity, he said. Lawmakers also are looking at the relationships between mental illness and criminal activity, and treatment of prison inmates for substance abuse.