Infra Insight Blog

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has endorsed USDOT’s policy of allocating Highway Trust Fund (HTF) apportionments based on total lane miles in each state – including miles of highway built, operated or maintained through public private partnerships (PPPs).

Each state’s share of the nation’s highway system (quantified as lane miles) has factored in federal aid allocations since 1976, though initially this measure excluded tolled facilities. In 1998, Congress greatly expanded the use of the lane mile funding formula with TEA-21, and eliminated the exclusion of toll roads from the allocation formula.

On guidance from GAO, Congress has used lane miles as a proxy for need, rather than relying on direct measures of need.  Under a direct need model, a state that let its roads crumble might be able to demonstrate a greater need, and garner more federal aid, than a state that responsibly invested in maintenance.

GAO’s report, prepared for Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, describes the high level approach Congress has taken, which bases funding decisions on states' highway system needs taken as a whole, not on direct state highway system construction or operating costs. Under this approach, states can pursue critical transportation projects through PPPs without fear of diminishing their share of HTF dollars.

GAO’s ruling recognizes the political and fiscal realities facing state transportation agencies. Denying inclusion of these PPP projects in the HTF allocation calculus would put states that have demonstrated their need for more funds and taken positive steps toward self-help by reaching out to private partners at a disadvantage. 

The report follows on the heels of two new bills introduced by Senator Bingaman, one of which, if adopted, will place a heavier burden on states seeking to deliver transportation projects through PPPs.  The Transportation Equity for All Americans Act (S. 884) would reduce the funding such states receive through their Highway Trust Fund allocation by changing the grant allocation formulas for several programs to exclude privately operated facilities from the state network. The bills are currently before the Senate Committees on Environment and Public Works and Finance.