Congressional Earmarks and NCDOT TIP FY07-13
Staff Resource: Bill Finger, 704-336-3900 - wfinger@ci.charlotte.nc.us
Due to time constraints at the Council Dinner Briefing on January 9, 2006, staff was unable to present information regarding Congressional Earmarks and the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) Transportation Improvement Program for FY07-13.
Members of Congress often earmark specific projects to receive special funding when new funding legislation is approved. Congress included a long list of earmarks in the recently approved 5-year Safe Accountable Flexible Efficient Transportation Equity Act - a Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU). Many of these earmarks provided additional (new) transportation funding to our State and our region; however, one category of earmarks, High Priority Projects (HPP), did not. As shown in Table 1(attached), our Mecklenburg-Union Metropolitan Planning Organization (MUMPO) area received 21 earmarks. Twelve of these were in the HPP category.
As shown in the attached chart of current NCDOT capital funding, the HPP earmarks result in no new money to North Carolina. What would have been additional "Minimum Guarantee" funding (to get our federal revenues up to the minimum of 90.5% of the federal motor fuel tax revenues from North Carolina) became HPP funding. When NCDOT gets these HPP earmarks, they must reallocate funding from other projects in its 7-year NC Transportation Improvement Program (NCTIP) through the Equity Formula to cover the cost of these Congressional mandates. The City is careful not to request HPP earmarks, but not everyone is as careful, often because they do not understand the impact.
Of the 12 HPP earmarks, 6 are new projects to the NCTIP. When projects already funded in the NCTIP receive earmarks, NCDOT simply changes the source of funding and there is no impact on other projects in the NCTIP. However, when new projects must be added to the NCTIP with HPP earmarks, existing projects in the NCTIP must be postponed or removed. Table 2 (attached) presents the list of MUMPO HPP earmarks that will impact the NCTIP. Each project has a funding amount in the bill; however, this amount is reduced (across the board) by an Obligation Limit which is based on actual projected revenues. The total net impact of these earmarks on the NCTIP in our area will be about $19.5 million.
We are contacting the parties which requested these earmarks to make sure each understands the problem. We are also working with our lobbyists to develop a way to improve communication to and from Congressional staff on these HPP earmarks in the future.
NCDOT will be publishing a Draft NCTIP this spring that will deal not only with the earmarks, but also with significant cost increases in existing projects and cash flow problems. Both City Council and the MUMPO will have opportunities for input and comment on this document. NCDOT plans to publish a Final NCTIP in August.
