11TH-HOUR U.S. DOT OBJECTIONS TO MPO MERGER SINK DEAL

By Juan Montoya

Newly-acquired correspondence between the U.S. Federal Highway Administration's Dept. of Transportation and the Texas Department of Transportation indicate the federal government's objection to several sections of the resolution to merge the three valley Metropolitan Organizations may have sunk the deal.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Cameron County Commissioners Court tabled the item on their agenda without comment. The city commission cancelled their meeting where the resolution was to be considered late Tuesday afternoon.

Those objections  by the federal government are contained in a letter from the U.S. FHA-DoT to the Texas Department of Transportation dated March 21, 2019, just five days ago.

Before that, the Lower Valley MPOs were assured by TxDoT engineers and planners that they would get a proportionate amount of funds as they did before and that the southern members would get veto power over the merged MPO.

Brownsville, the Harlingen/San Benito, and Hidalgo County MPOs have drafted the resolution assuring the members that any increased funding will be disbursed proportionately based on the past 10-year TxDoT formula.

However, Michael T. Leary,  the director of the FHA, U.S. DoT's Planning and Program Development, wrote the TxDot district engineer Pedro Alvarez on March 21, 2019, that several sections of the agreement were contrary to CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) that do not allow sub-allocation of funds to individual jurisdictions.

In particular, Leary said the CFR does not allow for these parts of the MPO merger agreement.(Click on sections to enlarge.):

"...procedures or agreements that provide for sub-allocation of funds to individual jurisdictions or
modes is not allowed. The intent of the regulations is to de transportation plan (or TIP) that prioritizes projects for the area. an MPO TIP based on sub-allocations as noted above would not comply with the regulation and not be approved under as part of the Statewide  Transportation Plan..."

Leary wrote that another  portion of the MPO merger agreement that does not comply for the same reason was this part:

Past assurances by TxDoT that the sub-allocations of funds would be up to the merged MPO and that individual members would have the power to veto specific projects also goes counter to the CFR, Leary said, specifically citing these:

"This resolution is dead on arrival," said a  city administrator with close knowledge of the MPO merger negotiations.

"This letter from the federal government to TxDoT specifically invalidates those portions of the agreement that were included to assure smaller entities in the merged MPO they would get a proportionate share of the pie and get veto power over projects."