1 / 18

Federal Transit Financing The STIP and Flexible Funding in Virginia

Federal Transit Financing The STIP and Flexible Funding in Virginia. Virginia Transit Association Annual Meeting May 21, 2008. Topics. 1. New STIP Memorandum of Agreement 2. Flexible funds for transit in Virginia. STIP Memorandum of Agreement. Agreement between VDOT, DRPT, FHWA and FTA

jolene
Download Presentation

Federal Transit Financing The STIP and Flexible Funding in Virginia

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Federal Transit FinancingThe STIP and Flexible Funding in Virginia Virginia Transit Association Annual Meeting May 21, 2008

  2. Topics 1. New STIP Memorandum of Agreement 2. Flexible funds for transit in Virginia

  3. STIP Memorandum of Agreement • Agreement between VDOT, DRPT, FHWA and FTA • Introduces grouping of projects in the STIP • Helps organize STIP, more reader-friendly for public • Allows many projects in the STIP to be processed more efficiently, as STIP adjustments (aka Administrative Modifications) rather than STIP amendments • Two sides of the STIP in processing actions taken on the STIP: FHWA and FTA. The procedures governing the STIP are vastly different between FHWA and FTA projects

  4. STIP Memorandum of AgreementProjects eligible for grouping FOR FTA ONLY: Projects that are eligible for a Categorical Exclusion (CE) and are in accordance with projects eligible under the “exempt” project classification in EPA’s transportation conformity regulation may be grouped for STIP programming purposes in the categories: • Transit System Preservation Operating assistance, office, shop, and operating equipment for existing facilities. Includes preventive maintenance and non-fixed route ADA service • Transit Rail ROW Improvements Construction or renovation of power, signal, and communications systems, rehab of track structures, track, trackbed in existing rights-of-way, and railroad/highway crossing projects

  5. STIP Memorandum of AgreementProjects eligible for grouping (adjustments) • Transit Vehicles Purchase/lease of new buses and rail cars to replace existing vehicles or for minor expansions of the fleet; rehabilitation of transit vehicles; and the purchase of support vehicles. Also includes the purchase of operating equipment for vehicles (radios, fareboxes, etc.) • Transit Amenities Construction of small passenger shelters and information kiosks; plantings, landscaping, fencing, lighting improvements, signage, etc. • Transit Ridesharing Continuation of ride-sharing and van-pooling promotion activities at current levels

  6. STIP Memorandum of AgreementProjects eligible for grouping (adjustments) • Transit Access Bicycle and pedestrian facilities • Transit Engineering Engineering to assess social, economic, and environmental effects of proposed action or alternatives to that action These groups allow projects to be added to the STIP as adjustments, as the individual project is added to the larger project grouping. This allows MPOs to add projects without a board vote, and for projects to be added without individual FTA approval. Although projects may be grouped, FTA would still like to see projects with full project information listed out individually in an appendix-type manner to the STIP.

  7. STIP Memorandum of AgreementProjects not eligible for grouping/adjustments Certain types of projects that are eligible under the “exempt” category may not be grouped, and must be listed individually, thus requiring an amendment for any additions/deletions Many of these projects would fall under a Category (d) – documented CE NEPA study. These projects include: • Reconstruction or renovation of transit buildings and structures For example, rail or bus buildings, storage and maintenance facilities, stations, terminals, and ancillary structures • Construction of new bus or rail storage/maintenance facilities • Advance land acquisitions

  8. Regardless if a project can be grouped or not, a sliding scale applies to all STIP amendments/adjustments A STIP amendment is required for any project added/deleted to/from the STIP that exceeds $1 million in rural areas and small MPOs (areas under 200,000), and $2 million in Transportation Management Areas (Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Northern Virginia). If added/deleted projects fall under the $1 million/$2 million threshold, they may be grouped by category and processed as STIP adjustments STIP Memorandum of AgreementThe sliding scale (different than FHWA/VDOT)

  9. Federal transportation funds mostly come in two types: Discretionary Formula Discretionary funds can be distributed “at the discretion” of Federal agencies, and originate from the General Fund of the U.S. Treasury FTA programs funded by the General Fund include New Starts and 5309 Bus program Formula Funds are mostly funded by the Federal gas tax, roughly 18 cents per gallon This tax goes to the Highway Trust Fund, which then distributes funds to States and local agencies by mathematical formula based on population, lane miles, VMT, air quality, etc. Federal Transportation Funding – The Big Picture

  10. Formula Funds • The Highway Trust Fund is divided into two accounts: 1) Mass Transit account 2) Highway account • For the 18 cent gas tax, roughly 16% goes towards the Mass Transit account for FTA, and 84% for the Highway account • The Mass Transit account funds FTA formula programs such as: 5307 Urbanized Area, 5311 Non-urbanized area, JARC, New Freedoms, 5310, etc. Then there is Highway account of the HTF….

  11. Flexible Funds Proportion of Highway funds flexed to transit, from 1992 to 2006 Source: U.S. General Accountability Office Of the Highway account of the HTF, there is a portion of the funds that can be “flexed” over to transit projects. Flexible funding is for both highway or transit projects

  12. Flexible Funds Proportion of flex funds flexed to transit, from 1992 to 2006, by State National Average:13% Virginia: 10 to 25% Virginia State law requires 7% of Flexible STP, and 13% of Equity Bonus funds to be transferred to transit Source: U.S. General Accountability Office

  13. Flexible Funds Proportion of Total FTA funding from Flexible funds, from 1992 to 2006, by State Virginia: Over 20% Source: U.S. General Accountability Office

  14. Flexible Funds – CMAQ and STP • Flexible funds are divided into two main categories: • CMAQ (Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality) • STP (Surface Transportation Program) CMAQ funds: apportioned to states based on the size of the population residing in counties that do not meet, or have in the past not met, federal air quality standards. Usage of CMAQ funds are then decided at the regional level, through MPOs CMAQ can be used for pedestrian/bike facilities; transit (new system or service expansion); alternative fuel projects; travel demand management, etc.

  15. Flexible Funds - STP STP funds: Apportioned to states based on number of lane miles, VMT, population, etc. STP funds can be used for construction, rehab, capital costs of transit projects, pedestrian/bike facilities, buses, etc Several types of STP funds (Virginia names): • Project selection at State level: • Flexible STP (formerly known as “Statewide STP”): Regular apportionment to states through STP program for distribution throughout the state • Equity Bonus (formerly known as “Minimum Guarantee”): Estimates are made at the national level of the amount of taxes paid by drivers as reported by State gas tax agencies. Highway users in some States pay more in taxes than they receive back in FHWA apportionments. In an effort to compensate for this, Equity Bonus is used to distribute additional funds to States that contribute significantly to the HTF (in other States, not just for STP) • Project selection at the Regional level: • Regional STP (RSTP): Apportioned to Urbanized Areas over 200,000 people, by percentage of population (Hampton Roads Area, Northern Virginia, Richmond/Petersburg). Projects are selected by MPOs.

  16. Flexible Funds – STP funding distribution “Flexible STP” “RSTP” “Flexible STP” “Flexible STP” Source: FHWA, “Financing Federal-Aid Highways”

  17. So why does the process take so long? Source: U.S. General Accountability Office

  18. Contact Info Tony Cho Community Planner 1760 Market St., Suite 500 Philadelphia, PA 19103 215-656-7250 tony.cho@dot.gov www.fta.dot.gov U.S. General Accountability Office, “Highway and Transit Investments: Flexible Funding Supports State and Local Transportation Priorities and Multimodal Planning,” July 2007 http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07772.pdf FHWA, “Financing Federal-Aid Highways,” http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/reports/fifahiwy/index.htm

More Related