Legislature, DOT set flexible-transportation fund rules; DOT outlines distribution, timeline and three added projects

The Legislative Budget Section heard a presentation from the North Dakota Department of Transportation on how the legislature’s changes to transportation funding will be implemented, including the flexible transportation fund, set‑aside distributions and project selection process.

The budget changes approved by the 69th Legislative Assembly direct several new streams of money into transportation: $287,100,000 from SIF to DOT, a legacy‑earnings share (about $175,200,000 to DOT after bond payments), and a flexible transportation fund that includes a 25% set‑aside of motor vehicle excise taxes for non‑oil producing counties and townships. DOT staff told the committee the 2325 biennium flexible fund totaled about $222,500,000 and that the set‑aside produced roughly $43,000,000 in requests; DOT awarded 44 projects from that set‑aside and recently added three more projects to reach the 25% statutory threshold.

Ron Henke, director of the Department of Transportation, described how the 25% set‑aside was split and scored. He said DOT used a committee of local and state partners — including county, city, township and economic development representatives — to score applications. Townships received a guaranteed 10% of the set‑aside,…