ATLANTA - Georgia's transportation chief warned lawmakers charged with drafting Georgia's 21.4 billion dollar budget of a funding shortfall in a popular program that doles out state dollars to local transportation projects.
DOT Commissioner Gena Abraham told lawmakers today that her department has committed to spend some 120.7 million dollars for the state aid program, but the proposed budget dedicates 48 million to the project.
Abraham said that if more funding isn't guaranteed, her employees would have to go through lists county by county to determine which projects are the most essential.
In another development, Abraham said that the department is developing its own blueprint for how Georgia's roads, rails and other routes should evolve. It comes days after lawmakers passed the state's first statewide water management plan.
Abraham was named in November as Georgia commissioner of transportation, making her the first woman ever to hold the state's top transportation post.
She oversees 5,800 employees statewide and a more than two billion dollar annual budget, inheriting a department that is wrestling with how to meet the transportation needs of metro Atlanta's gridlocked roads.
On the Net:
http://www.dot.state.ga.us/
Saturday
September 21st, 2024
3:30PM
