During the May 29 Texas Transportation Commission meeting, commissioners were given a presentation reviewing the FY 2016-2017 LAR. Exceptional item requests in the LAR will include: any remaining State Highway Fund (SHF) dollars that are appropriated elsewhere, Unfunded Mobility and Preservation Projects ($5b), Safety/Maintenance/Energy ($1b), Truck Discount Program on SH130 / SH45 SE ($20m), Veteran Discount Program ($1.2m), and the Economic Stabilization (“Rainy Day”) Fund.
Exceptional requests are requests the agency will make on top of the baseline request. It was pointed out that the request for all the remaining SHF dollars comes from recent stories that the SHF should solely fund transportation; therefore, in response the agency created an exceptional item that pulls back the amounts appropriated to other agencies for their operations from the SHF. Exceptions will be the amounts appropriated to the Comptroller’s Office and to the Employee’s Retirement System which directly supports benefits of TxDOT employees.
The exception item regarding the rainy day fund is in regards to the proposition on the November ballot. The agency will need to ask for those funds, if voters approve, in the out years. The original estimate was $875 million and the current estimate is $1.4 billion for initial deposit in the first year.
