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State may lose $40M in transportation funding |
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Tuesday, 06 October 2009 |
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma transportation officials expect to lose as much as $40 million in federal transportation dollars over the next month because Congress has not provided as much money for road and bridge work as it authorized, Transportation Secretary Gary Ridley said Monday.
Consequently, the number of transportation projects that contractors were scheduled to bid on will be scaled back from $53 million to about $7 million — an 85 percent reduction.
The projects will be funded with state or federal economic stimulus money the state already has, Ridley told the Oklahoma Transportation Com-mission.
"We have to pare that back substantially," Ridley said.
About 20 road and bridge projects are expected to be dropped from November's project list and contracts for the work probably will not be awarded until next spring, Ridley said.
The decisions came after Congress last month approved a stopgap spending measure for 30 days of funding on the final day of the federal fiscal year Sept. 30.
Oklahoma could lose up to $135 million in federal transportation dollars in the next 12 to 18 months unless Congress acts, Ridley said.
Federal lawmakers took the action as they wrestle with declining transportation revenue from federal fuel taxes, Ridley said.
"The highway trust fund is gradually going broke," he said. "How do we fund transportation in the future? Congress has a lot of work to do."
The fund, which gets money from the federal gas tax, has been hit hard by a reduction in the amount of gas purchased by American motorists. Congress had to pump $8 billion into the fund last fall to keep it solvent.
A proposal to raise the gas tax, which has been unchanged since 1993 despite steep rises in construction costs, has run into opposition.
The tax now stands at 18.4 cents a gallon, or 24.3 cents for diesel, and is not enough to provide the revenue needed to pay for infrastructure projects.
"It is a looming problem," Ridley said. "We're living day-to-day, week-to-week with our projects. We're dealing with a lot of unknowns."
Ridley said Oklahoma's transportation department has obligated more than $412 million of the $464.6 million in economic stimulus money it received from the federal government earlier this year.
A total of 23 projects funded by $31.8 million in federal stimulus money have already been completed, he said.
An additional $26 million in stimulus money has been set aside for two dozen projects in cities and towns across the state to comply with street and sidewalk access requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Ridley said transportation officials expect to hear from federal officials early next year on the state's application for federal high-speed rail funds, also part of the stimulus program.
On Thursday, the state applied for about $2 billion in federal funds for rail improvements between Tulsa, Oklahoma City and the Texas state line along the nationally designated South Central High Speed Rail Corridor.
A total of $8 billion has been set aside for high-speed rail projects nationwide.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 07 October 2009 )
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