DOTD finds $140 million in TIMED
by MARSHA SHULER - Advocate (excerpt)

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.

COMMENTARY BY C.B. FORGOTSTON: When someone has so much money that they lose $140 Million without realizing it, THEY HAVE TOO MUCH MONEY.

For months I have asked various public officials, including individual leges, for a list of all the unencumbered STATE money sitting around in various and sundry funds. None have produced a complete list.

Today, we learn that the LA Department of Transportation and Development ("DOTD") just found $140 Million of OUR money. Despite all this money sloshing around DOTD was about to borrow more.

How do we know $140 Million is all that DOTD has "misplaced"? Until the state officials become better stewards of OUR money, they shouldn't ask for more. Our public officials should not ask me for another dime until they can show me what they are doing with every penny of the money they have already extracted from my wallet. I'm sick of paying for the incompetence of our state officials.