Highway, Transportation Funds Would Be Slashed by 10 Percent

[marmar]

from CQ, via MassTransitMag:



Highway, Transportation Funds Would Be Slashed by 10 Percent
By Colby Itkowitz and Kathryn A. Wolfe, CQ Staff



President Bush proposed cutting highway funding by more than 4 percent, and his Transportation Department request would allow money to be moved from a mass-transit account to help maintain the Highway Trust Fund.

The department's proposed $57.1 billion budget for fiscal 2009 represents a 10 percent cut from fiscal 2008. Of that total, $39.4 billion would go to highways, about $1.8 billion less than Congress appropriated in fiscal 2008.

Revenue from the gasoline taxes that finance highway projects has not kept pace with inflation or growing transportation demands, leading to declining cash balances in the trust fund. The Bush administration estimates that the fund will need to borrow about $3.2 billion from mass transit accounts in fiscal 2009.

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials said it opposed the proposal, calling it a " 'rob Peter to pay Paul' strategy."

With reduced highway funds for fiscal 2009, the Transportation Department would fall short of the funding levels promised in the 2005 highway authorization law (PL 109-59). However, Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters said the department will still spend the total authorized amount over the life of the law, if not the exact annual allocations.

Amtrak would see a 40 percent cut, from $1.33 billion in fiscal 2008 to $800 million in fiscal 2009. Capital grants for the rail service would be sliced by $325 million. Operating subsidy grants, which received $475 million in 2008, would be eliminated. Instead, Amtrak would have to request the money through the Efficiency Incentive Grants account and would not receive it unless certain benchmarks were reached. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.masstransitmag.com/web/online/Top-Transit-News/Highway--Transportation-Funds-Would-Be-Slashed-by-10-Percent/3$5328