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States can expect slowdown of federal highway reimbursement
05/29/2009
While states are building transportation projects and basking in the economic stimulus windfall, there may be some negative financial news looming on the horizon. According to a recent edition of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Journal, states can expect to see a slowdown of federal highway reimbursements starting in late July or early August. The reason: an impending shortfall to the Highway Trust Fund.
AASHTO officials say that payments into the trust fund are about 90 percent of what they were this time last year, while payments from the fund are running at 105 percent.
The organization predicts that the Highway Trust Fund can support only an $8.7 billion federal-aid highway program for fiscal 2010. This fiscal year, the highway program was $41 billon.
If this seems like a case of déjà-vu, it is. Last September, faced with impending Highway Trust Fund insolvency, Congress appropriated more than $8 billion from the General Fund to the trust fund. Should this latest prediction prove true, appropriators would have to dip a little deeper, with AASHTO officials warning a $14 to $15 billion transfer from the General Fund would be needed to ward off the fund's declining cash balance.
