Federal Funding Uncertainty in State, Local, and Regional Departments of Transportation: Impacts, Responses, and Adaptations (2022) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Pages 39-52
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 39... ...
39 C H A P T E R 4 This chapter describes the strategies used by state DOTs and regional planning agencies to mitigate the impacts of federal funding uncertainty, grouping them both by the agencies' functional areas and by the primary or joint nature of the strategy, i.e., whether it would be used primarily to address federal funding uncertainty or other issues. 4.1 Mitigation Strategies by Functional Area Each strategy is assigned to a functional area (see Figure 4-1)
|
From page 40... ...
40 Federal Funding Uncertainty in State, Local, and Regional Departments of Transportation: Impacts, Responses, and Adaptations Figure 4-1. Mitigation strategies by functional area.
|
From page 41... ...
Mitigation Strategies 41 3. Planning/programming additional projects 4.
|
From page 42... ...
42 Federal Funding Uncertainty in State, Local, and Regional Departments of Transportation: Impacts, Responses, and Adaptations law to be scally constrained, i.e., to include only those projects for which funding is reasonably expected to be available. • Relationship to federal funding uncertainty: A conservative approach to projecting future funding allows agencies to program projects with a reasonable expectation that federal funding will be su cient to cover the costs of programmed projects.
|
From page 43... ...
Mitigation Strategies 43 Planning/Programming Additional Projects e strategy of planning and programming additional projects involves maintaining readyto-go projects beyond those expected to be funded within a particular year. is strategy can be accomplished in several ways.
|
From page 44... ...
44 Federal Funding Uncertainty in State, Local, and Regional Departments of Transportation: Impacts, Responses, and Adaptations already under construction may have to be deferred. Outright cancellations due to funding uncertainty are extremely rare; projects for which funding does not materialize would typically be deferred, sometimes indefinitely.
|
From page 45... ...
Mitigation Strategies 45 Publicly Identifying at-Risk Projects is strategy involves communicating to external stakeholders that future funding is not guaranteed and identifying those projects that would have to be deferred if federal funding falls short. Although many agencies explain to local and state o cials and even to the public that federal funding is subject to change -- o en in the context of developing the STIP or TIP -- it is less common to identify the projects that will be rst to be delayed if funds fall short.
|
From page 46... ...
46 Federal Funding Uncertainty in State, Local, and Regional Departments of Transportation: Impacts, Responses, and Adaptations the frequency of use reported by case study agencies, with the more frequently reported strategies listed rst: 1. Fund transfers 2.
|
From page 47... ...
Mitigation Strategies 47 • Relationship to federal funding uncertainty: Having additional nonfederal revenues for transportation provides greater exibility for state and local governments to pay for projects, reduces their reliance on federal funding, and makes it more tenable for them to withstand federal funding delays or shortfalls. New revenues may also provide more stable and reliable funding sources that can help o set the uncertainty of federal funds.
|
From page 48... ...
48 Federal Funding Uncertainty in State, Local, and Regional Departments of Transportation: Impacts, Responses, and Adaptations Project Phasing/Scope Adjustments is strategy involves dividing large projects into smaller segments or reducing the scope of projects. Several state DOTs, including MoDOT, reported that they divide large projects into smaller segments to align them with current funding and avoid relying on uncertain future funding to complete projects.
|
From page 49... ...
Mitigation Strategies 49 Concentrating Federal Funds on Fewer Projects Some transportation agencies choose to use federal funds on only a subset of the projects eligible for those funds. These agencies concentrate their federal funds on fewer, often larger, projects rather than spreading them across multiple projects.
|
From page 50... ...
50 Federal Funding Uncertainty in State, Local, and Regional Departments of Transportation: Impacts, Responses, and Adaptations • Drawbacks: is strategy creates an uneven workload for procurement and project management sta , with signi cant e ort required early in the year. • Frequency: Two of the case study agencies (MoDOT and NCPRPDC)
|
From page 51... ...
Mitigation Strategies 51 when federal funding is limited or uncertain. This strategy allows agencies to respond to longterm uncertainty regarding future amounts of federal funding.
|
From page 52... ...
52 Federal Funding Uncertainty in State, Local, and Regional Departments of Transportation: Impacts, Responses, and Adaptations Agencies' ability to issue debt may be limited by state law or policy, credit ratings, or reimbursement capacity. • Relationship to federal funding uncertainty: Debt can be helpful in covering cash ow needs for current projects if federal funding is delayed, to the extent that it is available at the time and in the amounts needed, allowing agencies to better respond to short-term delays in appropriations or obligations.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.