TOWARDS GREATER FAIRNESS FOR MSA's: COUNTING NON-RESIDENT USERS
WHEREAS, the funding of numerous federal infrastructure programs are apportioned on a
formulae based upon the population of the metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in which a local
government is located; and
WHEREAS, the rationale for employing an MSA's population, rather than the impacted local
governments' population, is to better apportion funding to the number of consumers in a given
area that use or benefit from the government's infrastructure investment, and
WHEREAS, a second rationale for such a formula distribution is that while MSA residents do not
live in the MSA's central city, they do contribute to the user fee revenue collected in the central
city through payment of gas taxes and other dedicated user fees; and
WHEREAS, this formula has been structured to address MSAs that straddle state borders, but not
MSAs that straddle international borders; and
WHEREAS, such an oversight results in local governments along the borders of Mexico and
Canada being unintentionally harmed under such formulae distribution,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the United States Conference of Mayors calls
upon the Federal government to examine the practice of excluding individuals from the MSA
count, simply because they are not U.S. residents, even though they use and support through user
fee taxes such as the gas tax, amongst others.
©2003 U.S. Conference of Mayors 
