02/17/2007: "State/Federal Transportation Funding Resources"
Compiled by Executive Secretary Dana Gabbard, updated 1-15-07.
Kymberleigh Richards' Transit Insider website has an overview of state transportation funding processes using materials prepared by Odyssey and the California Transit Association:
http://www.transit-insider.org/legislative/primer01.htm
The Legislative Analyst's Office has released reports on Revenue Volatility in California and Implementation of
Proposition 1B
The Accomplishments and Activities volume of the Annual Report to the Legislature by the California Transportation Commission outlines the current status of the state transportation system: http://www.catc.ca.gov/reports/2006Reports/CTC2006AnnualReportVol2.pdf
The American Public Transit Association at its 2006 annual meeting had a panel calling for a new funding system to support diverse elements of the transportation network, including mass transit:
http://www.masstransitmag.com/article/article.jsp?siteSection=7&id=1724
The Prop 42 Coalition seeks to restore state funding for transportation projects: http://www.fundprop42.com
The state legislature has prepared a concise guide to the state budget process (in Acrobat format).
The California Budget Project regulary issues reports on state budget issues: "http://www.cbp.org/publications/pub_statebudget.html" including an informative primer entitled "How Is Transportation Funded in California?"
The New California Network seeks to reform California's budget process:
http://www.newcalnet.org/
The State of California prepares a Five Year Infrastructure Plan on an irregular basis:
http://digitalarchive.oclc.org/request?id%3Doclcnum%3A71341222
The Congressional Research Service has prepared a report on "The Federal Excise Tax on Gasoline and the Highway Trust Fund: A Short History":
http://www.cnie.org/NLE/CRSreports/06May/RL30304.pdf
The Congressional Budget Office in August 2007 released a report on "Trends in Public Spending on
Transportation and Water Infrastructure, 1956 to 2004": http://cbo.gov/ftpdocs/85xx/doc8517/08-08-Infrastructure.pdf
At the May 17, 2007 meeting of the Southern California Association of Governments Plans and Programs Technical Advisory Committee a presentation was made on air quality conformity, a process that has significant impacts on federal funding of transportation projects: http://www.scag.ca.gov/rtptac/pps/tac051707_AirQualityConformity.ppt
The Congressional Budget Office has issued a report on the status of the Federal Transportation Trust Funds, 2007: http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/79xx/doc7909/03-27-Highway_Testimony.pdf
The National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Commission was created by Congress to examine not only the condition and future needs of the nation's surface transportation system, but also short and long-term alternatives to replace or supplement the fuel tax as the principal revenue source to support the Highway Trust Fund over the next 30 years; on Jan. 15, 2008 it issued its Final Report with recommendations.
The Orange County Transportation Authority has placed on its website a funding guide. MTA has on its website (in Acrobat format) an in-depth funding sources guide.
Caltrans has prepared a Transportation Funding Opportunities Guidebook: State and Federal Funds Available for Local Agency Projects:
http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/LocalPrograms/lam/lagb/tfog.pdf
The State Controller issues guidelines for cities and counties use of gas tax revenues:
http://digitalarchive.oclc.org/request?id%3Doclcnum%3A76064115
The American Public Transit Association (the transit industry trade association) has prepared a guide to the transit portion of SAFETEA-LU:
http://www.apta.com/government_affairs/safetea_lu/brochure.cfm
The Transportation Research Board in the article "Earmarking in U.S. Department of Transportation Research Programs: What is the Rationale? What are the Risks?" (July-August 2005 TR News) outlines concerns about the growing trend of earmarks in federal appropriation and reauthorization legislation for transportation:
http://www.its.berkeley.edu/itsreview/winter2005/EarmarkingTRN239.pdf
The process by which FY 2008 appropriations to the U.S. Department of Transportation and Related Agencies were set is described in this summary of a Congressional Research Service Report with the full report available for download (in Acrobat format).
The Public Policy Institute of California and the California Institute for Federal Policy Research have initiated a series of reports on California's current and historical funding under the major federal grants and on the formula factors used to determine California's share of funding under various specific grants. Topics have included federal highway programs and federal transit assistance funding: http://www.calinst.org/formulas.htm
MTA CEO Roger Snoble testified at the May 10, 2007 House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Highways and Transit Hearing on Implementation of New Starts and Small Starts Program and on the need to reform the New Starts Process: http://republicans.transportation.house.gov/Media/File/Testimony/Highways/5-10-07-Snoble.pdf
The MTA Library has prepared a factsheet outlining the Formula Allocation Procedure by which federal, state and local operating funds are divided among transit agencies in Los Angeles County: http://www.mta.net/about_us/library/Formula%20Allocation%20Procedure.pdf
The UCLA School of Public Affairs' Ralph and Goldy Lewis Center for Regional Policy
Studies issued in April 1997 as Working Papers #21 a report by Lewison Lee Lem on California's Highway Funding Apportionment Formula: Geographic Redistribution Among Counties:
http://lewis.sppsr.ucla.edu/publications/workingpapers/21lemfin.pdf
The Center for California Studies at California State University, Sacramento, issued in November 2003 as #53 of reports done as part of its Faculty Research Fellows Program a report by Adrian R. Fleissig, Ph.D., and William Gayk, Ph.D., California State University, Fullerton on Distribution of State Transportation Funding:
http://www.csus.edu/calst/government_affairs/reports/transportation_report.pdf
The Keston Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy at USC has prepared several interesting reports on California transportation funding issues and options:
http://www.usc.edu/schools/sppd/keston/research/index.html
The State Treasurer's Office has prepared an Analyses of GARVEE Bonding Capacity 2007:
http://www.treasurer.ca.gov/bonds/garvee.pdf
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission of the Bay Area has on its website excellent resources on planning and funding processes - the Citizens' Guide to the MTC and Moving Costs.
Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transit Administration have prepared A Citizen's Guide to Transportation Decisionmaking which discusses federal requirements for the transportation decisionmaking process. Also the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership has prepared a TEA-21 User's Guide explaining the various provisions of the current omnibus federal transportation legislation that provides the framework for funding and policy implementation.
The Surface Transportation Policy Partnership has prepared a guidebook, "A Guide to Transportation Opportunities in Your Community" that describes key elements of federal law that can enable more effective transportation planning and greater use of the flexibility of federal dollars to expand travel options. This Guide can be found at http://www.transact.org/PDFs/margins2006/STPP_guidebook_margins.pdf
The Legislative Analyst's Office has prepared an updated version of their report on California Travels: Financing Our Transportation.
The Public Policy Institute of California has prepared an Occasional Paper on Understanding Infrastructure Financing for California:
http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/op/OP_605SAOP.pdf
Financing Intermodal Transportation is a report from Reconnecting America prepared by transportation finance expert William J. Ankner, Ph.D.:
http://www.cnt.org/publications/financing-intermodal-transportation.pdf
The Future Highway and Public Transportation Finance study was commissioned by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce through the National Chamber Foundation. The objective is to identify funding mechanisms to meet national highway and transit investment needs.
Phase I focuses on short-term funding for the period 2005 through 2015:
http://www.uschamber.com/NR/rdonlyres/e2bu5ecxnmcn6s6wjggmywiumxrhbdllcqei5dk27ucsuzuep4lqqgfmz5l4titee6b646ai727ycrmazajv6dqefce/TransExecSummaryWeb.pdf
Phase II addresses long-term funding mechanisms, including alternatives to the current fuel tax-based system:
http://www.uschamber.com/NR/rdonlyres/ehezkyo2b7sm5xv33grprwecajd44h3xuwzliwbdyy64725l5q3gfmdc7ycypwsvbbhxdagf5swmoj7gz3b4r3xkqsb/ExecSummary.pd
Transportation Research Board Special Report 285: The Fuel Tax and Alternatives for Transportation Funding examines the viability of existing revenue sources, the merits of present transportation finance arrangements, and potential directions for reform of transportation finance:
http://trb.org/publications/sr/sr285.pdf
National Cooperative Highway Research Program Web-Only Document 102: Future Financing Options
to Meet Highway and Transit Needs assesses the viability of a range of conventional and innovative options for financing investments and operations of highway and transit systems:
http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/nchrp/nchrp_w102.pdf
Show Me the Money: A Decision-Maker's Funding Compendium for Transportation Systems Management and Operations provides an overview of existing transportation and non-transportation federal funding sources available to government organizations:
http://narc.org/uploads/File/Transportation/Library/Trans_Funding_PTI_FHWA_2006.pdf
Cato Institute Policy Analysis no.559 is A Desire Named Streetcar: How Federal Subsidies Encourage Wasteful Local Transit Systems by Randal O'Toole:
http://cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=5345
Author Randal O'Toole interviewed on National Public Radio:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5176280
Here is a response by the Center for Transportation Excellence:
http://www.cfte.org/critics/otoole_streetcar_response.asp
The Victoria Transport Policy Institute has updated its publication "Evaluating Rail Transit Criticism" to address O'Toole's latest criticisms: http://www.vtpi.org/railcrit.pdf
The California Infrastructure Bank provides innovative financing for infrastructure:
http://www.ibank.ca.gov/state/ibank/ibank_homepage.jsp
Cities and counties can create Infrastructure Financing Districts (IFDs) divert property tax increment revenues for 30 years to pay for regional scale public works (not maintenance, repairs, operating costs, or services):
http://www.senate.ca.gov/ftp/SEN/COMMITTEE/STANDING/LOC_GOV/_home/IFDINFORMATION.HTM
The Statewide Community Infrastructure Program ("SCIP") is a development impact fee-financed program, which utilizes 1913/15 Act bonds. Through SCIP roads, water sewer, storm drainage, parks, etc. can be funded by tax-exempt bonds:
https://cscda.cacommunities.org/apps/scip/
Caltrans has an Innovative Finance program and program for GARVEE bonding.
The Senate Local Government Committee has issued a publication on Revenues and Responsibilities: An Inventory of Local Tax Powers
Compiled by Executive Secretary Dana Gabbard. E-mailed suggestions/corrections are welcome.