AMARILLO, TEXAS -- On Thursday, Pronews 7 told you about some of the dangers associated with driving on the Canyon E-way, between the Georgia and downtown interchanges, where a disproportional number of wrecks seem to occur.
There were plans to change these on and off ramps to meet the needs of today's drivers, but the original plan was turned down by the city. Now, TxDOT says even if they wanted to do something, they have no budget for it.
"Are the ramps ideal? No. Can anything be done about them? Not at this time."
The state faces a more than $20 billion shortfall, so odds are new projects are going to be few and far between. State Senator Kel Seliger said taxes would have to go up to provide the needed funding, but that's not likely to happen.
"Difficult to tell, unless we raise taxes and this is a sentiment from Texans and not raising taxes."
Seliger believes TxDOT will receive more than $8 billion next year, but they need to be more fiscally sound with that money and future projects.
"One of the things they did, is a study with dozens of points that TxDOT needs to change and they need to adopt all those things including these areas on fiscal efficiency and need to determine their priorities."
Another problem that TxDOT has, according to Seliger is that politics tend to dictate which projects get funding. He feels the department may also need to adopt some proposed fiscal guidelines.
"I think one of the problems TxDOT has are some of their decisions are politically motivated. Where are all the people? And where is the legislative strength to get TxDOT more money and things like that? The first priority should be safety."
The state senator said he's going to re-introduce a bill that would allow the head of TxDOT to not be an engineer. That would allow for someone with more financial experience to take over the department.
"If the TxDOT Commission wants to appoint an engineer...go ahead. But don't be limited to do that because if I were a commissioner, I would hire a specialist in organizational and fiscal managment. Because there are challenges on the part of TxDOT in the future."
TxDOT has an ever-growing list of topics to go over with lawmakers when they meet again in about two months, according to Seliger.
The Panhandle lawmaker also wants big city representatives to realize that we often have to drive further here in the Panhandle for the same services and our highway needs are different.
To read Thursday's story click here.
