Posts Tagged "state funding"
What’s the best role for state government in [insert your top transportation issue]?
Stuck between shifting national politics on one hand, and cities scrambling to keep up with dramatic changes to urban transportation on the other, are the states. How is the state’s role evolving when it comes to transportation?
The TIGER program is no more….in name
The TIGER grant program is now being called BUILD. While the criteria are essentially the same, there’s one big caveat. Under BUILD, USDOT will now require applicants to provide evidence that they have secured and committed new, non-federal revenue for projects requesting funding. And there’s a whole list of reasons why that’s a problem.
Oregon’s legislature just approved a transportation package that goes big for transit
The Oregon Legislature just passed a transportation package that makes historic investments in transit while also advancing congestion pricing and putting funding toward safe routes to school infrastructure, electric vehicle purchase incentives and fixing roads and bridges.
South Carolina legislature overrides governor’s veto to increase state gas tax
Last week the South Carolina legislature voted to override a veto from the governor to successfully raise the state’s gas tax and other fees to increase funding for state highway projects. South Carolina is the 29th state to raise new transportation revenues since 2012.
How many states will try to do something different in 2016?
With Congress finally wrapping up their five-year transportation bill in late 2015, the spotlight will burn even brighter on states in 2016. With 40 state legislatures now in session and six more set to begin in the coming weeks, how many states will raise new funding? How many states will attempt to improve how they spend their transportation dollars? How many will take unfortunate steps backwards?
12 transportation policies states should consider in 2016 to stay economically competitive
To remain economically competitive, states must invest in infrastructure, but state legislatures have a critical choice ahead of them: continue pumping scarce dollars into a complex and opaque system based on outdated policies out of sync with today’s needs, or follow the lead of the states highlighted in Transportation for America’s new report, Twelve Innovations in Transportation Policy States Should Consider in 2016.
Virginia launches program to remove politics from transportation investment decisions
This week Virginia DOT released a list of recommended projects across the state, the result of a new process to objectively screen and score transportation projects based on their anticipated benefits.
12 states successfully raised new transportation funding in 2015 — what can other states learn?
The second issue of Transportation for America’s “Capital Ideas” series, released today, takes a closer look at the states that passed new transportation funding and policy legislation in 2015, distilling it all into some notable trends, lessons learned, challenges, and recommendations for other states planning similar action in 2016.
While Congress punts on sustainable funding, local communities approve a slew of new transportation taxes on election day
In a striking contrast to the actions of Congress when it comes to transportation funding, a handful of local jurisdictions went to the ballot this week and approved new taxes for transportation investments.
Utah makes a bipartisan move to increase state and local transportation funding to help meet the demands of high population growth
Earlier this spring Utah became the third state in 2015 to pass a comprehensive transportation funding bill, raising the state’s gas tax and tying it to inflation. Unlike most other states acting this year, Utah raised revenues to invest in a variety of modes and also provided individual counties with the ability to go to the ballot to seek a voter-approved sales tax to fund additional local transportation priorities.
Compromise in Washington State clears the way for a transportation funding package
Washington State Governor Jay Inslee and state legislative leaders indicated today that they have reached agreement on a $15 billion transportation package that also provides $15 billion in local funding authority for Sound Transit, the regional transit agency for the Puget Sound (Seattle) region. The deal looked almost dead last week, but a last-ditch compromise could give Seattle-area residents a little more control over their transportation future.
As many states close out their legislative sessions, the latest intel on state transportation funding
As we near the midpoint of the year and some state legislatures wrap up their sessions or approach recess, it’s a good time to take a look at where a few states stand on their efforts to raise new transportation funding.
Will Congress reward the ambitious places that are seizing their future with both hands?
The three mid-sized regions participating in this week’s Transportation Innovation Academy in Indianapolis are a refreshing reminder that local communities – particularly a growing wave of mid-size cities — are seizing their future with both hands and planning to tax themselves to help make ambitious transportation plans a reality. Yet even the most ambitious cities can’t do it alone, and if Congress fails to find a way to put the nation’s transportation fund on stable footing, it will jeopardize even the most homegrown, can-do plans to stay economically competitive.
Michigan ballot measure to raise transportation & education funds goes down by a large margin
A Michigan bill that would have raised new money and overhauled how the state pays for transportation was defeated by huge margin Tuesday with 80 percent of voters rejecting the complicated proposal.
Iowa was the first to successfully raise new state transportation funding in 2015 – and they did it with bipartisan support
Iowa in February became the first state in 2015 to pass a transportation-funding bill when legislators moved to raise the state’s gasoline and diesel taxes by 10 cents per gallon.
And then there were seven: April update on state transportation funding legislation
A total of seven states have now successfully passed legislation in 2015 to raise new money to invest in transportation, avoid budget shortfalls from declining revenue sources and keep up with growing needs — mostly by voting to raise their state fuel taxes.
‘Speak up for transportation’: Analyses show the devastating impact of federal cuts
Congress has seen various proposals floated to scale back federal investment in transportation, from cutting out transit funding to ending the federal gasoline tax and shifting full responsibility to the states. We decided to take a look at what that latter move would mean for taxpayers, who would have to make up the difference in each state or accept multi-million dollar decreases in funding and deteriorating conditions on an annual basis.
States continue to take action to solve transportation funding crises
This year started with a transportation bang for many states across the country. In the last few weeks, four states in particular have made major strides in funding transportation and infrastructure projects as gas prices continue to remain low.
Update on 17 states moving to raise money for transportation
From Washington to South Carolina, 17 state legislatures (and counting) are debating plans to raise new revenue for transportation after a decade in which their primary funding sources shrank and federal support became increasingly uncertain. See the current state of play in our freshly updated national roundup.
Voters overwhelmingly re-elect candidates who raise transportation revenue, analysis of general election results shows
Continuing a trend observed in the primaries, an updated T4America analysis of November’s election data shows that, since 2012 in ten states that passed legislation to raise new transportation revenue, 90 percent of the supportive legislators retained their seats — knowledge that should be instructive for the legislators in 17 states now considering similar plans to raise state transportation revenue in 2015.
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