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lie tederai Highway trust Fund sent Virginia about $1.01 billion in fiscal 2006 and $1.35 billion last year to cover construction of new road, rail and other transportation projects such as bicycle trails and pedestrian bridges. In its sixyear financial plan, the Virginia Department of Transportation conservatively projected federal contributions in 2010 and beyond: in the $1 billion to $1.05 billion range.
What the actual number will be in 2010, however, is anyone’s guess. The highway trust fund has nearly spent down its cash cushion, and gasoline tax receipts have fallen below expectations this year. There is reason' to believe that gasoline consumption will not revert to its old trend line. Without corrective action by Congress, federal dispensations could fall farther and farther behind projections in the years ahead.
That's the story I got from my trip to the U.S. Department of Transportation last week to meet with Tyler D. Duvall, the assistant secretary for transportation policy, and Quintin C. Kendall, DOTs deputy assistant secretary for management and budget. Along with Bacon's Rebellion intern Lyle SollaYates, we chatted about transportation policy over lunch in the DOT executive dining room. The Bush administration is pushing some very promising market-oriented approaches to transportation, but the big news to emerge from our conversation was the coming budget crunch.
Duvall and Kendall see a short-term problem and a long-term problem. The shortterm problem reflects the way Congress has chosen to spend the federal gas tax revenues that flow into the federal highway trust fund. Traditionally, the DOT kept a healthy cash balance in the fund - $13 billion as recently as 2004. But in the current six-year authorization bill, Congress decided to spend down the cash balance.
The good news was, the states get more money during the six years covered by the
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