The House, Senate and Governor finally completed their negotiations on the transportation budget for the coming year. The last sticking point, language directed at limiting spending on the DRIC bridge project, was agreed to and the conference report was adopted by the House early this afternoon. The Senate is expected to follow suit before they adjourn today. Once they Senate votes, the budget will go to the Governor for her signature. A copy of the conference report and the related analyses of the budget bill can be found at the following link… http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(hftfqzm0rao0ai455h0vr4mh))/mileg.aspx?page=getObject&objectName=2010-HB-5889.
As a recap, when the Governor announced the MDOT budget earlier this year, the state was $84 million short of being able to match all available federal transportation funding...potentially putting $475 million of Michigan road funds at risk. The deal being approved today provides for that missing state match through a number of fund shifts and one-time funding mechanisms, items like MDOT issuing a one-year note to obtain $40 million, $11 million from the expanded use of “toll credits”, $12 million by continuing the current year cut to the Transportation Economic Development Fund, $2.1 million by declining the state negotiated pay raise for non-union MDOT employees, $6 million through internal department reductions and efficiencies, and $11.3 million of savings by deferring capital outlay facility projects (Welcome Centers, salt sheds, etc).
While this preserves all available federal transportation funding for this year, early estimates are that we will be right back in the soup when the FY12 budget is announced in February of 2011…likely $140 million short of our matching requirement for next year.
Please let me know if you have any questions about the budget deal.
Chris Hackbarth handles transportation issues for the Michigan Municipal League. Chris can be reached at 517-908-0303, or by email at chackbarth@mml.org.
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