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JBC moves $71.4M from multimodal options fund to general fund amid budget balancing; committee trims long-term transfer schedule
Summary
Facing budget pressure, the Joint Budget Committee on March 17 transferred $71.4 million of uncontracted awards from the Multimodal Options Fund back to the general fund and adjusted long-term transfer schedules to the state highway fund to help balance the FY 2025-26 budget.
The Joint Budget Committee on March 17 approved a series of budget-balancing changes affecting the Multimodal Options Fund (MMOF) and the Department of Transportation.
Michelle Curry, JBC staff, reported that roughly $75 million in MMOF awards had been made to local entities but not yet contracted; many awards were to local or regional transportation projects that had not started. Because the money remained uncontracted, the committee agreed it could be reclaimed to support current-year general fund needs. After discussion about potential impacts on local projects and verification that no shovels were in the ground, the committee voted to transfer $71.4 million from the MMOF to the general fund. The committee asked staff to include the transfer in the departmentslong-bill transfer package.
Curry also recommended rolling forward ARPA-refinanced general fund amounts only for funds already encumbered, with any amounts unspent after Dec. 31, 2026, reverting automatically to the general fund. That roll-forward and expiration schedule was approved by the committee.
The committee also revised the SB21-260 transfer schedule to the State Highway Fund as presented in the Department of Transportation's budget request (reducing transfers in FY 25-26 to $36 million and to $50.5 million in FY 26-27, and redistributing the deferred amounts to later years), and eliminated a separate $7 million annual general-fund transfer for the Revitalizing Main Streets grant program. The committee left a $10.5 million MMOF transfer in place and retained funding for state-administered transit programs that the department said were not covered by local awards.
Curry and other staff stressed the political and economic difficulty of reclaiming awarded but uncontracted funds, and several members said the move was a painful but necessary budget action. "If this was a major transit project it would be different," said one member, but committee members concluded the projects in the award pipeline were largely low-dollar and could wait for future MMOF cycles.
The transfer action is expected to substantially reduce the committees near-term general-fund shortfall and will be reflected in the updated general-fund overview the committee will use when finishing the FY 2025-26 budget package.
