Brattleboro Reformer - U.S. House Restores Vt. Highway Funding

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Brattleboro Reformer - U.S. House Restores Vt. Highway Funding

It sounds like a big deal, but don't go getting all excited over the news that the federal government has given Vermont more than $47 million for highway projects.

The House of Representatives passed the Highway Trust Fund Restoration Act and forwarded it to the president for his signature. The act is meant to restore more than $8 billion in federal funding for states and keep the trust fund from going bankrupt.

"We were at risk of losing $47 million," said John Zicconi, spokesman for Vermont's Agency of Transportation.

That's more than 10 percent of the agency's annual budget, he said. "It would have been a huge hit for Vermont if this didn't happen."

The $47 million is nothing more than the state had already banked on receiving from the federal government, said Zicconi, and will go to fund projects over the next two years.

"It doesn't give us any more money than we were anticipating."

The federal government authorizes certain projects to 80 percent funding from the trust fund, said Zicconi. The purpose of the act passed by the House was to make sure that matching fund is available to the states.

"Our roads and bridges in Vermont and across the country are falling into disrepair," said Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt. "It is simply unacceptable to continue to neglect the upkeep and safety of our transportation system. The federal government needs to be a partner in supporting states in meeting our pressing infrastructure needs."

In 1998, in response to concerns that the Highway Account's $16.5 billion balance was too large, Congress transferred more than $8 billion from the Highway Trust Fund to the General Fund, stated Welch spokesman Andrew Savage, in a release announcing the passage of the act.

In the face of major Highway Trust Fund shortfalls in 2009 and beyond, H.R. 6532 restores $8.017 billion in highway-user taxes to the Highway Trust Fund that were originally transferred in 1998, he wrote.

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