Road Funding in the U.S.
This is the 1995 data from the US DOT concerning total HUR (highway/road user revenues) and total road administration expenditures.
Important notes: When US DOT says "highways", they mean "all public roads", in other words, all classes; Interstate, arterial, primary, collector, secondary, urban street. For simplicity, I omitted 3 detail columns and about 10 detail lines. Numbers are in billions of dollars.
Here's the table:
|
U.S. Department of Transportation , Highway Statistics 1995 |
||||
|
Highway User Revenue by Collecting Agency |
Federal |
State |
Local |
TOTALS |
|
Used for Highway Purposes |
19.875 |
39.315 |
1.962 |
61.152 |
|
Used for Public Transportation |
2.598 |
2.469 |
0.567 |
5.634 |
|
Used for Non-Transportation Purposes |
7.749 |
6.290 |
0.212 |
14.251 |
|
Used for Collection Expenses |
- |
2.969 |
- |
2.969 |
|
Used for Territories |
0.138 |
- |
- |
0.138 |
|
TOTALS |
30.360 |
51.043 |
2.741 |
84.144 |
|
Expenditures by Collecting Agencies |
Federal |
State |
Local |
TOTALS |
|
FHWA Funds |
18.753 |
- |
- |
18.753 |
|
FHWA Funds Transfer to State/DC/Local |
(18.753) |
- |
- |
(18.753) |
|
Capital Outlay (Construction) |
0.432 |
32.500 |
10.165 |
43.097 |
|
Maintenance and Traffic Services |
0.071 |
10.405 |
13.979 |
24.455 |
|
Administration and Research |
0.718 |
4.812 |
2.802 |
8.332 |
|
Highway Law Enforcement and Safety |
- |
4.412 |
3.565 |
7.977 |
|
Interest on Debt |
- |
2.255 |
1.727 |
3.982 |
|
Bond Retirements |
- |
2.597 |
2.064 |
4.661 |
|
TOTALS |
1.221 |
56.981 |
34.302 |
92.504 |
This table accounts for 1995 actuals for ALL public road direct revenues and all direct expenditures (construction, maintenance, administration) at ALL levels of government.
On the table, it can be seen that not all HUR is spent on roads, and not all road expenditure comes from HUR. The totals presented represent total HURs and total road expenditures. In the federal-aid funding, 34.1% of the HTF (Highway Trust Fund) went to non-road uses (public transit, deficit reduction).
The expenditure figure for Highway Law Enforcement and Safety was included. This represents public road police and court costs and emergency services. I personally don't consider this to be a road agency cost, but US DOT included it in the table.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation figures, the total federal-state-local 1995 HUR was $84.1 billion, versus $92.5 billion 1995 total road expenditures. (total HUR is 90.9% of total expenditures).
This figure of about 90% coverage, on the balance, of total road expenditures by total road user taxes, in a given year, is typical.
All the shortfall comes in the area of local roads. That makes sense, because most local roads benefit far more than just motorists (cars and trucks). Many of them benefit abutting homeowners, businesses, industries, farmers, pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit busses. So it's only fair that a good chunk of their administration comes from local non-road tax dollars. In my opinion, all of the local road "shortfall" is correctly assigned to non-motoring revenue sources.
-----------------------------
Here's 1999 figures --
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/1999hfbt.pdf
Bulletin - HIGHWAY FUNDING 1996 - 1999
United States Department of Transportation -
Federal Highway Administration
Excerpts:
"Total disbursements for highways are expected to exceed $110.2 billion in 1999, an increase of 12.4 percent over 1996, which is the latest year that final numbers are available".
"In 1999, total highway-user revenues of $101.3 billion (motor fuel, motor vehicle taxes and fees, and tolls) are anticipated. This would fund about 92 percent of all highway disbursements".
Note: "Highways" in FHWA terminology means "any public road" (Interstate, arterial, primary, secondary, local, city street). The FHWA data covers road construction, maintenance and administration, for ALL levels of government (local, state, federal), and ALL types of public roads.
How was the Interstate Highway System funded? How is the federal-aid highway program in general funded?
The Interstate Highway System was funded with 90% federal funds from the Highway Trust Fund (stocked with motorist fuel and excise taxes) and 10% state DOT funds. It was built on a pay-as-you basis from already collected revenues, and no debt financing was used. However, about 2,300 miles of state-built revenue-bond-financed tollroads were built separately from the Interstate Highway System, and later incorporated into the System, and no federal funds were used on these. Today the entire Interstate System is almost 45,000 miles long.
For a look at U.S. Federal-aid highway revenues and expenditures 1957-1995 (the Interstate highway system construction era), I provide this:
From: Highway Statistics Summary to 1995, U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration. Each table has year by year totals, of all FHWA revenues and all FHWA expenditures. I provide these interval summaries, in $$ billions:
Net revenues to the Federal Highway Trust Fund, 1957-1995 - Table FE-201
|
Highway Federal Aid Program Summaries |
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|
Revenues |
Expenditures |
|||
|
Interval |
Interval Totals |
Running Totals |
Interval Totals |
Running Totals |
|
1957 - 1964 |
20.70 |
20.70 |
22.68 |
22.68 |
|
1965 - 1972 |
37.98 |
58.68 |
36.22 |
58.90 |
|
1973 - 1980 |
57.61 |
116.29 |
52.75 |
111.65 |
|
1981 - 1988 |
96.07 |
212.36 |
92.42 |
204.07 |
|
1989 - 1995 |
130.63 |
342.99 |
113.55 |
317.62 |
Notes: All revenues to the Highway Trust Fund came from road user federal taxes and fees. The yearly Interstate System expenditures were always well within the total yearly revenue figure. I used totals for ALL federal-aid road expenditures, because that is the important criteria. As you can see, in the first 8 years of the Interstate program, total federal-aid road expenditures exceeded total road user federal revenues by 9.6%. By 1972, the running totals of each were about equal. In 1980, the running total of revenues was 4.2% greater than the running total of expenditures. Expenditures have lagged behind revenues ever since. In the later years, a portion of federal highway/road user revenue has been diverted to deficit reduction, and these revenues (at least another $60 billion) are not included in these net revenue figures above. That became 2.5 cents per gallon in 1990, 6.8 in 1993, and 4.3 in 1995. The deficit reduction levy will phase out as TEA-21 goes into effect in 1999.
The total federal-aid portion of the cost for the Interstate System was $119 billion in actual physical dollars. Interstate highway projects were financed with 90% federal funds and 10% state DOT funds. The 1995 constant dollar figure used in the economic research report
The Best Investment A Nation Ever Made was $329 billion for all funds, but of course, those "dollars" were artificially inflated for the purpose of economic research.Considering the above data, plus the revenues diverted to deficit reduction, FHWA over the last 40 years, on the balance, has been a considerable donor to mass transit* and other federal budgets.
*1 cent per gallon starting in 1983, 2 cents per gallon starting in 1990
By Scott M. Kozel,
Roads to the Future, PENNWAYS(Updated 12-10-2000)