TEA-21 Reauthorization
What is TEA-21?
The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) was passed by Congress in 1998 to provide funding for the years 1998 to 2003 for transportation programs. TEA-21 provided Georgia approximately $6.1 billion in federal funding from 1998 to 2003 for highways, highway safety, transit and other surface transportation programs.TEA-21 replaced the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA), which was the previous major authorizing legislation for surface transportation.
TEA-21 GA Federal Funding Highways and Transit Chart
TEA-21 Projects
Please select a county from the menu below to view a list of Georgia's TEA-21 projects. All of the projects on this list were let between 6-9-1998 and 2-8-2002.
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When Does TEA-21 Expire?
The current TEA-21 legislation will expire at the end of the 2003 Federal fiscal year in September of 2003. Reauthorization of this bill will be needed to continue transportation programs from the previous authorizing legislation and to further address unmet transportation needs by the states. Several reauthorization bills will be introduced throughout 2003 after the new Congress convenes.
Why is TEA-21 Critical to Georgia?
A large portion of funding for state transportation projects comes from Federal transportation authorizing legislation such as TEA-21. By the third year of TEA-21 funding (FY2000), Georgia had a $51 billion backlog of needed transportation projects. The Statewide Transportation Plan (SWTP) forecasts Vehicle Miles of Travel to increase by nearly 60% between 1998 and 2025, putting an even greater demand on the roadway system. Transit ridership is forecast to more than double during the same time period. TEA-21 provided approximately $6.1 billion to Georgia over the life of TEA-21 while Georgia state motor fuel tax collections were estimated at $3.7 billion during that time frame, leaving most of the backlog untouched. During those years, additional projects have been incorporated into state transportation plans at a rate faster than funding allows projects to be completed. Therefore, the backlog will continue to grow even larger over the years. This need is projected based on maintaining the current system operating characteristics. To relieve existing congestion and expand transit as growth occurs significantly more resources will be needed.
Every five years, Georgia works closely with state and local officials to develop a comprehensive long range Statewide Transportation Plan. The latest plan covers the years 2001 to 2025. Under current spending and economic assumptions, the Plan projects total federal and state transportation revenues of approximately $36 billion over the life of the plan. Based on the backlog of $51 billion of needed transportation projects, the plan forecasts a revenue shortfall of $15 billion during those years.
Clearly, without additional funding, the quality of Georgia’s transportation program will be compromised severely.
What Are the Issues Surrounding Reauthorization of TEA-21?
The key issues regarding TEA-21 reauthorization include improving Georgia’s rate of return from federal motor fuel tax collections while maintaining guaranteed funding, protective firewalls, Revenue Aligned Budget Authority, and Transportation Enhancements.
Rate of Return
The Highway Trust Fund (HTF) is built around the proposition that users pay for the transportation system. This is done through the collection of a federal per gallon motor fuel tax. The more you use the system, the more you pay. For the majority of federal transportation funding distribution, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) uses legislated formulas to determine the distribution of federal-aid highway funds to each state. Some states, which are commonly called Donor States, receive less than the amount they were credited with contributing; while other states, commonly called Donee States, receive more than their credited contribution of motor fuel taxes. Historically, Georgia has been one of the major Donor states, with only one other state receiving a smaller percentage of its federal motor fuel contributions during the life of TEA-21.
Georgia is subsidizing transportation projects in the donee states while the backlog of needed transportation projects continues to grow. While we recognize the need for federal support of a national highway network in large land area/low population states such as in the Midwest and West, other states with large populations also continue to be supported beyond what they contribute to the HTF. In the meantime, a growth state like Georgia continues to experience growing congestion and a decline in the quality of its system due to a lack of sufficient resources while funds generated in Georgia are dispersed to other states.
During the life of TEA-21, Georgia has received approximately 86% of every Highway Account dollar sent to Washington. In the Mass Transit Account Georgia fares even worse. Georgia has received Mass Transit funding at 67% of the rate in which it paid into the Mass Transit account during the life of TEA-21. Because of this, Georgia has some of the oldest bus fleets in the nation currently operating in our smaller urbanized areas. This in turn drives up operating costs and drives down ridership due to unreliable service. We support efforts to insure more equity in the distribution of funds from the Highway account and to insure that sufficient Mass Transit account funds are distributed to all of the states to insure that basic transit needs are met.
Map of Donor/Donee States
Guaranteed Minimums, Firewalls and RABA
Like other state transportation agencies, the Georgia Department of Transportation would like to see certain TEA-21 funding practices retained in the multi-year transportation authorizing act Congress will pass in 2003. Primary among these practices are guaranteed funding, protective firewalls, and a modified version of Revenue Aligned Budget Authority (RABA).
Guaranteed funding provides a funding floor that annual budgeting decisions cannot breach. Of the $218 billion authorized in TEA-21, $198 billion is guaranteed over the life of the act. Guaranteed funding is important to maintaining an orderly progression of transportation projects from concept to construction.
Federal budget “firewalls” prevent programs from being reduced in order to increase spending for other discretionary programs. TEA-21 created a firewall between highway spending, transit spending and other domestic discretionary spending. Therefore, any reduction in highway or transit spending can only be applied to reducing the deficit, not to increasing funding for another federal program.
In the past, Highway Trust Fund (HTF) account balances tended to grow because actual receipts to the fund exceeded spending authority provided in surface transportation legislation. Revenue Aligned Budget Authority (RABA) provides for annual adjustments of authorized transportation funding and associated firewalls resulting from corrections to previous estimates of motor fuel tax collections. Because TEA-21 is a multiple year funding act, if estimates of federal motor fuel collections made at the time of passage of the act turn out to be less than true collections in a given year, then states will get an additional amount of funding. However, if federal motor fuel collections are less than the prior estimates, states will suffer a reduction in funding. Increases in available funding can readily be absorbed in transportation programs due to the overwhelming demand for additional transportation projects. Because reductions in funding however are highly disruptive to the orderly flow of projects that take many years to move from concept to construction, the Georgia Department of Transportation supports the concept of Revenue Aligned Budget Authority (RABA) but would like to see the mechanism modified to avoid reductions to the guaranteed amounts within surface transportation legislation. This can be accommodated through a modification of the RABA mechanism and use of the existing HTF balances.
Transportation Enhancement Program
Georgia’s Transportation Enhancement Program, one of the most successful in the nation, includes projects such as walking and biking trails; streetscaping; historical preservation of transportation facilities and preservation of scenic sites and byways. Under this program, up to 80% of a project’s total cost is provided by designated federal funds, with the local sponsor funding the remainder. For Federal FY 2000-2001, Georgia had 78 cities, 16 counties and numerous other sponsors who received Transportation Enhancement funding totaling approximately $54 million. For Federal FY 2002-2003, Georgia had 94 cities, 20 counties and numerous other sponsors who shared $50 million in funding.
Contact Information
Georgia Department of Transportation
Transportation Planning, Data and Intermodal Development Division
David Studstill, Director
No.2 Capitol Square, S.W. Room #127
Atlanta, Georgia 30334
(404) 656-0610 Phone
(404) 656-0584 Fax
Updated September 24, 2003. 17:15
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