Federal Funding
With traffic congestion worsening and road and bridge deterioration continuing, the U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that the current backlog of unfunded but needed road, highway and bridge repairs and improvements is $495 billion.
In 2009, Congress will be required to reauthorize the current long-term federal surface transportation program -- the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act - A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU). This legislation will have a significant impact on the future condition and traffic congestion levels of the nation’s key roads, bridges and highways.
The apportionment of Federal Highway Funds under SAFETEA-LU:
- State-by-State Distribution of Highway Funding
- New Hampshire’s apportionment of Federal Highway Funds
- By 2009, it is estimated that the Federal Highway Trust Fund won’t have enough money to meet obligations of SAFETEA-LU.
- The Federal Highway Trust Fund was established by the Federal-Aid Highway and the Highway Revenue Acts of 1956 to provide revenue needed to help build and improve the Interstate System and roads and bridges that are eligible for federal aid.
- The Federal Highway Trust Fund is funded by a federal gasoline tax of 18.4 cents per gallon and a federal diesel tax of 24.4 cents per gallon.
- The Highway Trust Fund consists of a highway account, which receives 15.44 cents per gallon of the gasoline tax; a mass transit account, which receives 2.86 cents per gallon; and a Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund, which receives 0.1 cent per gallon. The Highway Trust Fund is designed to finance road and bridge and mass transit improvements on a pay-as-you-go basis. Its expenditures, by law, cannot exceed its income.
- The Office of Management and Budget projects that the balance in the Highway Trust Fund will be at negative $200 million some time in fiscal year 2009.
- Since 1956, $3.1 billion has been disbursed from the Highway Trust Fund for road and bridge projects in New Hampshire.
