House leaders outline $541.3 million SIF transportation plan, propose flex fund, airport allocations and gas tax change
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Summary
House leaders told a House Appropriations committee they planned to roll $541.3 million of SIF money into consolidated transportation buckets, put $370 million into a flexible transportation fund and reserve $171.3 million for the highway fund, while leadership's forthcoming amendment would also add $95 million for airport projects contingent on federal grants.
House Appropriations - Government Operations Division members spent the committee's session on a broad transportation funding outline that leaders said would move $541.3 million of State Infrastructure Fund (SIF) money into consolidated buckets for highways, flexible transportation grants and specific projects, and would preserve a vehicle for major airport grants.
Speaker Weiss told the committee the leadership amendment being drafted would add airports into the Department of Transportation (DOT) budget with a proposed $95 million for airport projects, broken down as $40 million for Fargo, $30 million for Dickinson and $25 million for Grand Forks, and that those airport allocations would be contingent on the recipients having obtained their federal grants. "The amendment that will be given to you will have 95,000,000 for Airports, 40000000 for Fargo, 30000000 for Dickinson, and 25,000,000 for Grand Forks," Speaker Weiss said. He noted Fargo had already received its federal grant.
Speaker Weiss and other members described the broader SIF rollup this way: the fiscal vehicle would hold $541.3 million total, made up of a $171.3 million federal-match bucket already in 2012 and a newly proposed $370 million deposit into a flexible transportation fund. The flexible fund, as described to the committee, would include a mix of grant and formula distributions: roughly $159.1 million for political subdivision grants, a city distribution earmark (about $34 million, similar to prior Prairie Dog distributions), $49.9 million for statewide discretionary projects (described to committee as a $50 million DOT discretionary slice), and a $50 million bridge allocation for counties.
The chair and Speaker Weiss said leadership favored grant funding to better target larger local projects instead of issuing small formula checks. Committee members discussed qualifying criteria; townships, counties and cities would be eligible for grants under the flex fund. Committee members discussed mill-rate and savings thresholds for townships (discussed comparisons of 18 mills in the Senate and 24 mills in the House proposals) and said those eligibility specifics would be decided in conference.
Members also discussed consolidation of the Prairie Dog program into the SIF/flex structure and noted some previously separate buckets would be eliminated or combined. Speaker Weiss said the flex fund would allow cities the same flexibility Prairie Dog once allowed, including use of funding for non-transportation infrastructure where statute permits.
On overall highway financing, the leadership plan described $171.3 million of SIF federal-match funding already in statute plus an estimated $146 million from legacy earnings (percent-of-market-value distributions) going to the highway fund. The committee discussed a proposed 5-cent increase in the gas tax (a nickel) and a change in the distribution formula. Under the proposed distribution adjustments, DOT's share would decrease slightly from about 61.3% to 60% of the distribution pool, cities and counties would receive an increased share (together moving to about 35%), townships would move from about 2.7% to 3.4%, and transit would move from roughly 1.5% to 1.6%.
Committee members requested flow charts and draft amendment language to review. Staff (Brady, Adam and others) were asked to put the proposal in writing and circulate an amendment, flowchart and long-sheet entries so the committee could consider final statutory language at the next meeting. Speaker Weiss said the amendment text and supporting materials would be provided for review the following morning at the committee's scheduled meeting.
No formal roll call votes on the transportation funding framework were taken in the session covered by this transcript; committee members asked staff to draft the amendment and to coordinate placement (and conferee handling) to keep the bill as clean as possible while preserving the vehicle for airports and other targeted allocations.
