Use It or Lose It. RGVMPO is warned it cannot keep carrying over its money, year after year.

WESLACO, Texas – Its own members acknowledge that the Rio Grande Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization is the worst in the state for having projects shovel ready.

This year the group is carrying over $102 million that could have been spent on transportation projects. The Texas Department of Transportation has warned that unless things improve, RGVMPO could lose funding in the future. 

The issue, centering on what is called Category 7 Metropolitan Mobility and Rehabilitation funding, was discussed at a special meeting of the RGVMPO policy board on July 21.

“It’s concerning that there’s such a large amount that is being carried over. And the concern of potentially losing any funding is, I think, a big concern for the entire board,” said Harlingen Mayor Norma Sepulveda.

Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino agreed. He has been an RGVMPO board member since its inception. 

“This is the problem we run into every year,” Trevino said, when referencing Category 7 funds being carried over. He said if one county has projects that are shovel ready and another county does not, so be it. The county that is ready should be awarded the funds, he argued. 

“It’s not about picking a Cameron or an Hidalgo County project. We’ve got to stop that. The reality is we need staff and the TAC (Technical Advisory Committee) to be able to tell us these are the most project shovel ready projects we’ve got. If all of them are in Cameron, good. If all of them are in Hidalgo, great. If half and half, great,” Trevino said.

“It’s incumbent upon us, as policy board members of the RGVMPO to take decisions that follow the guidelines, and, more importantly, the recommendations that every project submitted, both at the state and at the federal level, are shovel ready. And if your project that you consider priority No. 1 is not shovel ready, then, whatever entity it is, needs to make sure that you get it shovel ready, to make the decision easier for us to say, all of these are, in fact, shovel ready.”

A slide from an RGVMPO power point presentation made at a special meeting of the group’s policy board on July 21, 2025.

Trevino pointed to a slide in a power point presentation which showed the RGVMPO programming the spending of all the money that has been carried over the next few years. The slide showed that $13.48 million was programmed for Fiscal Year 2025. But in FY 2026 the amount would jump up to $58.74 million. In FY 2027 it would be $82.82 million. And in FY 2028 programmed monies would be $133.06 million.

“We’re not going to come up with $58 million (in shovel ready projects,” Trevino said. “We’re not going to come up with $82 million. We’re not going to come up with $133 million.”

Pedro “Pete” Alvarez, the Pharr District Engineer for TxDOT, said he agreed with Trevino. 

“Judge, I cannot agree with you more that it’s about projects that are shovel ready, regardless of which county they’re in. Because, at the end of the day, this division of 75%, 25%, 66%, whatever, that needs to go away. The mentality needs to be, what are the highest priority projects for our region that are shovel ready. They need to get the funding. That’s the bottom line, because otherwise we’ll carry over another 102 million before too long,” Alvarez said.

Alvarez said that from a TxDOT perspective, “if we are not fiscally constraint and if we don’t approve a TIP (Transportation Improvement Program), not only would we not be able to let Category 7 projects; we won’t be able to let Category 2, Category 4, or Category 12. We will be parked. We will not be able to let any projects, that means receiving bids and going to construction. And that is something that’s going to cause additional delays that we cannot afford as a region.”

A slide from an RGVMPO power point presentation made at a special meeting of the group’s policy board on July 21, 2025.

Michael Medina, the RGVMPO’s executive director, spent a lot of time explaining the policy recommendations of the Technical Advisory Committee. He acknowledged that the only package that was fiscally constrained was Scenario C. Scenario C did not include any money for transit projects. It also did not include a request for funding from Hidalgo County Regional Mobility Authority. 

Tom Logan, director of Valley Metro, asked what the view of the Federal Highway Administration would be if no transit projects were included. Robert Lozano, chairman of the Hidalgo County RMA, said his group does not normally apply for Category 7 projects. He said the RMA only did so because the MPO was in danger of losing its allocation. 

In addition to the $102 million, the MPO staff had identified another $14.5 million that could have been added to the budget. Mission Mayor Norie Gonzalez Garza initially proposed a motion that the $14.5 be included in the budget, with some of it to be used on the western part of the Hidalgo County Loop project. But Gonzalez Garza later withdrew her motion. The board unanimously voted for Scenario C.

Editor’s Note: Here, below, is the RGVMPO’s official video from the special meeting. The long discussion on Category 7 funding starts 17:33 minutes in.

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