Strickland: Review project funding

The governor says the budget will require belt-tightening.
By MARC KOVAC
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
COLUMBUS -- Gov. Ted Strickland has asked the new Ohio Department of Transportation director for a thorough review of Transportation Review Advisory Council funding of local road projects.
He also wants an outline of recommendations for fiscal improvement.
The governor discussed the issue Thursday during a luncheon as part of the three-day Ohio Newspaper Association convention in Columbus.
Strickland is scheduled to give his State of the State address March 14 and present his biennial budget to the 127th General Assembly the next day. While not disclosing the details, he has made it known that spending levels estimated by agencies under the previous administration exceed projected revenues by 1 billion to 1.5 billion.
The new budget, he has said, will require belt-tightening, thanks to tax cuts initiated by the Legislature and flat overall economic growth.
"It all adds up to fewer resources to harness for creating change in Ohio," he said, according to a text of his comments provided afterward. "Now we simply can't sustain spending based on revenues we don't have."
Transportation projects
Strickland said he is particularly concerned about TRAC, which was created by state lawmakers in 1997 to oversee funding of major transportation projects (online at www.dot.state.oh.us/trac).
The governor said TRAC has made commitments to community road projects without adequate finances to cover the costs.
"There appears to be a long-term, growing deficit between revenues and projects the TRAC has approved," he said. "Simply put, over the next seven years, the gap between the estimated costs of TRAC's priority projects and ODOT's estimated funds grows to a deficit of about 1.2 billion. Even if Ohio would borrow at record levels during this period, all the projects that TRAC committed to could not be funded."
The governor said he will direct incoming ODOT Director James Beasley to study TRAC criteria, priorities and project time lines and "begin to manage our new projects in a more responsible and dependable partnership with our local communities."