DOTD finds $140 million in TIMED

• By MARSHA SHULER
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: May 15, 2009 - Page: 1A

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As state transportation officials warned that work could stop on a Mississippi River bridge at St. Francisville because of a lack of funds, the agency was sitting on $140 million it didn’t know it had.

State Transportation and Development Secretary William Ankner disclosed the agency’s failure to properly keep track of funds in a recent letter to members of the state Bond Commission.

The money involved is a 4-cent gasoline tax that flows into a special fund that finances 16 projects, including the St. Francisville bridge. The program is called TIMED for Transportation Infrastructure Model for Economic Development.

The state Bond Commission last week signed off on a borrowing arrangement that would generate cash for bridges under construction at St. Francisville and near New Orleans because DOTD officials said money would run out this month.

At the time, House Appropriations Committee chairman Jim Fannin, D-Jonesboro, questioned a $140 million discrepancy between DOTD and state treasury calculations of cash available for TIMED.

Fannin’s comments prompted DOTD to research the issue and the agency confirmed the discrepancy, Ankner said Thursday.

“We will address how to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Ankner said.

“Was it (the new borrowing) as urgent because of the $140 million as we testified — I testified? No. We would have had about two more months which would have been nice” before the new borrowing had to happen, Ankner said.

Ankner said the new-found money will also reduce the amount of future borrowing for TIMED projects and postpone that borrowing until late 2010.

On Thursday, Fannin said DOTD must be able to provide accurate financial information.

“The bottom line is somebody has to be in charge and know this information,” Fannin said.

Fannin said it would have been nice to know about the $140 million “and that we didn’t have to operate under such a tight timeframe.”

Ankner said the record-keeping problem started three years ago when the person in charge left. He said he wants DOTD to move to a more electronic based data system to eliminate future problems.