As we've noted numerous times, the Highway Trust Fund will become insolvent around the end of the fiscal year - Sept. 30, just when MAP-21, the transportation authorization bill, expires. We were wrong. The new HTF "ticker" explains the bad news.
Adam Snider named his piece on the coming insolvency of the Highway Trust Fund [HTF], "HIGHWAY TO HELL" (scroll down to locate among the other Feb. 19 morning transportation news) and writes that it means Congress may "have to act around two months before MAP-21 expires at the end of September." Snider points to the DOT's new "Highway Trust Fund Ticker" that contains a graph showing when the fund will have a shortfall. "In its latest update [Jan. 31], the agency still estimates a highway account shortfall in early August," he writes, which the graph shows as well.
The HTF's other account, the Mass Transit Account, isn't faring much better. It is projected to have a positive balance at the end of the fiscal year "of approximately $440 million". Highway advocates, in fact, had hoped to eliminate the transit account and shift the funds to road building, as AASHTO Journal indicated on February 10, 2012.
Note: "The HTF consists of two separate accounts—highway and mass transit. The highway account receives an allocation equivalent to 15.44 cents of the gasoline tax and the mass transit account receives the revenue generated by 2.86 cents of the tax." [pg. 3, of Congressional Research Services "Surface Transportation Funding and Programs Under MAP-21" (PDF)]
These projections have serious implications with the financial markets, as Reuters indicates in "Federal funding confusion leads Moody's to cut highway bonds" on Feb. 18.
Uncertainty about the future of federal transportation funding has cast a shadow over many U.S. states' highway and transit agencies, and Moody's Investors Service on Tuesday downgraded the ratings of 16 municipal bond issues tied to U.S. road money.
It would seem that the bond markets might also be looking at the HTF ticker and are concerned about the ability of Congress to take action before the fund becomes insolvent. The downgraded municipal bonds are those "that rely solely on federal monies and lack cash-funded debt reserves or other structural protections against possible interruption to the flow of federal money," according to Reuters.
FULL STORY: HIGHWAY TO HELL (FOR THE TRUST FUND)
Paying for the Senate Highway Bill Would Require Additional $102 Billion
Under the new bill, the Highway Trust Fund would need more funding to get through the next five years.
A Transportation Redline that Obama is Required to Keep
If Congress can't agree how to fund the Highway Trust Fund shortfall, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx warned state DOTs that he will be unable to reimburse them for funds already spent. The redline is the $4 billion mark projected to come July.
Trump's State of the Union: More on Infrastructure in Democrats' Response
The president spoke briefly about infrastructure in his third State of the Union address last Tuesday, urging Congress to pass the bipartisan America’s Transportation Infrastructure Act of 2019. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer had a lot more to say.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
Chicago’s Ghost Rails
Just beneath the surface of the modern city lie the remnants of its expansive early 20th-century streetcar system.
Amtrak Cutting Jobs, Funding to High-Speed Rail
The agency plans to cut 10 percent of its workforce and has confirmed it will not fund new high-speed rail projects.
Ohio Forces Data Centers to Prepay for Power
Utilities are calling on states to hold data center operators responsible for new energy demands to prevent leaving consumers on the hook for their bills.
MARTA CEO Steps Down Amid Citizenship Concerns
MARTA’s board announced Thursday that its chief, who is from Canada, is resigning due to questions about his immigration status.
Silicon Valley ‘Bike Superhighway’ Awarded $14M State Grant
A Caltrans grant brings the 10-mile Central Bikeway project connecting Santa Clara and East San Jose closer to fruition.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Caltrans
City of Fort Worth
Mpact (founded as Rail~Volution)
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
City of Portland
City of Laramie