Federal funding uncertainty affects transportation planning, study finds
Source: Smart Cities Dive By Charles Pekow
States and regions have strategies to mitigate the negative effects, with the impact depending on their access to funding alternatives, transportation asset quality and federal highway network size.
Uncertainty among government leaders about the distribution of federal funding “has not had a major impact” on long-range transportation planning around the country, but the impact it does have is largely negative, according to a report issued last week by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program. States, metropolitan planning organizations and regional governments rely on federal money, but they don’t know from year to year when the money will arrive, how much they’ll get or what rules they’ll have to live by. The uncertainty “generates an array of deleterious outcomes,” the report says.
The issue has plagued officials for at least two decades, NCHRP reports. Officials tend to assume the funding status quo will remain “despite the declining purchasing power of the federal motor fuel
tax.” The uncertainty has increased the workload of officials and the availability of contractors, the report says.
States vary in the use of their own funds to make up for shortfalls or delays in federal aid. Some state and local governments have increased their own sources of revenue for transportation, such as by raising their own taxes, tolls, vehicle registration fees, use of general revenue funds or borrowing. The report points out that “the availability of non-federal transportation revenue, asset condition, and the size of the state roadway network have a fundamental influence over the extent to which states and regions are sensitive to federal funding uncertainty.” States with more access to nonfederal dollars for transportation infrastructure, transportation assets in better condition, and a less extensive public highway network were less sensitive to the uncertainty.