By Ron Thaniel
April 28, 2003

As the nation's mayors wait for the Administration's TEA-21 reauthorization proposal, a draft version reviewed by The U.S. Conference of Mayors proposes highway and transit funding substantially lower than recommended by the Conference, local and state national associations, transportation interest groups and congressional transportation leaders.

A First Look at Funding Levels

The Administration's surface transportation bill would authorize about $242 billion over the next six years for highways, transit, rail and safety programs. That includes $196.4 billion for highways and $45.7 billion for transit.

This represents an increase of almost 27 percent over the obligations authorized in TEA-21, which were $154.6 billion for highways and $36.3 billion for transit but is below the sums in the congressional budget resolution. The congressional budget resolution calls for $231.6 billion for highways and $49.2 billion for transit.

The major highway programs, including Interstate Maintenance, National Highway Systems, Bridge Replacement, Surface Transportation, and Infrastructure Performance and Maintenance programs, would receive a total of $118 billion up from $106 billion in TEA-21.

The Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Program would be funded at $1.686 billion including $726 million for research and deployment and $810 million for a Performance Incentive Program and $150 million for a Commercial Vehicle Information Systems and Networks. The Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Program (CMAQ) would get $8.8 billion. With three other important environmental programs for mayors, the Recreation Trails, National Scenic Byways and Transportation, Community and System Preservation programs — receiving an additional $705 million with a total for environmental programs of $9.45 billion. TEA-21 included $8.66 billion for environmental programs.

To the objections of The U.S. Conference of Mayors and American Public Transportation Association (APTA), the transit program funding would remain flat over the six-year period of the reauthorization. Transit would increase from $7.22 billion in FY 2004 to $8.07 billion in FY 2009, for a total of $45.7 billion slightly up from $41 billion in TEA-21. Of this amount, $9.7 billion would be available for major capital investment program grants, previously known as "New Starts". The Administration proposes opening this program to non-fixed guide way from the current fixed guide way with a slight increase of $1.5 billion over the six years of the reauthorization.

Even more surprising with the flat program is that Americans used public transit a record 9.5 billion times in 2001 and transit ridership has grown 23% since 1995. This represents the highest level in more than 40 years.

For more information on the U.S. Conference of Mayors TEA-21 reauthorization priorities, please visit our website at usmayors.org.