Lucios seek to recoup funding for RMA projects

SAN BENITO — Cameron County is being cheated by the sudden evaporation of state highway funding, Commissioner David Garza said Thursday during a town hall meeting presented by a father-son team of legislators.

State Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. and state Rep. Eddie Lucio III held the session at the San Benito Municipal Building to brief constituents on the $152.5 billion, 2008-2009 state budget and hear comments and complaints about other issues.

Texas Department of Transportation officials urged Cameron County to develop a Regional Mobility Authority, Garza said. Thousands of dollars in tax money were spent for that purpose to ensure the county could access state funds, Garza said.

“We held our first meeting (of the authority) on Feb. 25, 2005,” Garza said. “The vision we had was the creation of 70,000 to 100,000 new jobs.”

Cameron County has fulfilled every requirement the state made to secure highway funding through the RMA, Garza said. All required consultants were hired and all studies and other preparations the state asked for were complied with, he said.

“We have been informed as of about a month ago that TxDOT funding is not there,” Garza said. “Somehow that funding has disappeared. They don’t know, they can’t figure out where it went, how it was spent … It’s not there for our projects.”

Now, the lack of long-promised highway funding will not only affect major projects such as the second South Padre Island causeway and the Brownsville East and West Loops, but also smaller vital projects such as rebuilding of the pothole-plagued Gen. Brant Road to the Laguna Atascosa Wildlife Refuge, Garza told the Lucios.

Environmental clearance was only recently secured from federal officials for the Gen. Brant Road project and now funding has vanished, Garza said.

Sen. Lucio said he also was shocked by the news that Cameron County’s vital projects may be delayed for years in receiving state funding.

“Not once during the budget process did we hear about the shortfall,” Sen. Lucio said of the TxDOT budget.

TxDOT officials and state Comptroller Susan Combs should have alerted Rio Grande Valley lawmakers of problems, Lucio said.

Sen. Lucio lamented the recent death of TxDOT Commissioner Ric Williamson who he said had been a friend of the Valley.

“My intent is to have one of us from the Valley take over that seat,” Lucio said. “We are growing faster than any other area in the state or country.”

Sen. Lucio said he is also disturbed about funding cuts.

“The only reason I supported (an optional fee increase for license plates) is because there is a tremendous need for funds to improve the road system,” the state senator said. Although he strongly believes 80 percent of the extra funding should be used within cities and towns, counties also have a great need for more highway funding, he said.

The extra funding from the optional license plate fee is supposed to help counties “leverage” state and federal funds that he believed were available, Sen. Lucio said.

Cameron County chose to implement a $5 additional fee, while Hidalgo County officials voted for the maximum $10 increase.

During the town hall meeting, Rep. Eddie Lucio III touted some of the additions to the new state budget that he said will help the Valley: $10 million to renovate South Texas Hospital; $5 million for the Regional Academic Health Center at Harlingen and Edinburg; $600,000 for brackish groundwater desalination projects in Cameron County; $600,000 for Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville; $300,000 in local matching funds to develop a sand source for beach renourishment in Cameron County; $1.31 million for the University of Texas-Pan American; and $1.3 million for the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College.

Sen. Lucio said $43 million in bonds for the Colonia Road Access Program has greatly benefited Cameron County.

Garza is chairman of a committee overseeing the program, the senator said.