Virginia Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw slammed Gov. Bob McDonnell’s audit of the Virginia Department of Transportation on Monday, saying the governor laid out plans to spend $1.45 billion on transportation projects that he doesn’t really have. Speaking at an West End Business Association luncheon in Alexandria, Saslaw told the audience that Gov. McDonnell “gave you his interpretation of the audit,” and that only $200 million of the $1.45 billion McDonnel said could be spent on road projects was actually available.
The independent audit found nearly $900 million in unspent transportation funds in the Virginia Department of Transportation’s budget over the past two fiscal years, and determined that the state could leverage federal funds to provide $1.45 billion for projects in the state’s six-year transportation plan.
The money McDonnell said could be spent on roads was actually money that VDOT had set aside to help pay for different projects. A state law that McDonnell once supported as a member of the state House of Delegates required VDOT to collect that money so it could fully fund projects.
In reality, Saslaw said, there is only $200 million in new funding for road projects — enough to build about three overpasses near Tysons Corner.
“In order for him to access that money, he’s going to have to change the law that he voted for,” Saslaw said. “It’s not money sloshing around. What VDOT was doing was following the law that he voted for.”
Saslaw, who leads the Democratically controlled state Senate, indicated that the General Assembly wasn’t likely to approve a change in the law to allow McDonnell to spend the $1.45 billion as he wants.
“I can tell you I’m not voting for them to change the law,” Saslaw said.
The McDonnell administration, however, said Saslaw was mistaken. The law Saslaw referred to, which requires a project be paid in full within 12 months of completion, only applies to construction projects funded through the Transportation Trust Fund, said Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton.
It does not apply to maintenance projects, which are funded by the Highway Maintenance and Operation Fund, that made up the vast majority of the money found in the audit, he said. A part of the funding problem was that the law was being misapplied to include those maintenance projects, according to Connaughton.
“The audit was really focused on the process to move funds to projects,” said Connaughton. “And as we suspected, the process was and continues to be so broken that money was getting stuck in the pipeline.”
As for the governor’s inability to use the funds revealed by the audit, “that’s just not true,” Connaughton said. The department will have $1 billion worth of transportation work under contract by Dec. 31, he said.
“There’s no statutory reasons for any of the issues that were found,” he said.
