The House Transportation Committee on Feb. 21 directed committee counsel Damien Leonard to draft a letter to House Appropriations that lays out the committee’s top priorities for the fiscal review due Feb. 26.

Committee members said their primary priority is preserving the JTOC transfer as part of the governor’s recommended budget and documenting a structural shortfall in transportation funding. Members also discussed including support for a mileage-based user fee (MBUF) effort and seeking short-term general-fund support to keep a federal pilot on track.

The chair opened the meeting by noting a Feb. 26 deadline from House Appropriations and said, “Damien will be the one to draft it for us,” asking members for priorities to include in the letter. Members described a worsening financial picture for the transportation program and asked that the letter foreground that gap so appropriations understands the consequences for roads and transit if funds are redirected.

Committee discussion cited projected multi-year shortfalls presented to the Senate Transportation Committee; speakers described a roughly $30 million–$45 million gap for 2027 under the scenarios the staff chart will show next week and additional multi-year shortfalls beyond 2027. Several members said maintaining funds that remain in the transportation system should be their first priority.

Members debated whether the committee should ask appropriations to provide roughly $3.7 million in one-time general fund dollars to keep an MBUF-related process moving and to capture associated federal matching opportunities. One member said committee estimates suggested MBUF could generate about $5 million in the first year as a rough estimate, which would make the short-term general-fund outlay recoverable. The committee asked staff and the Joint Fiscal Office (Logan) to confirm revenue and cost estimates before finalizing language.

Committee members also instructed staff to assemble briefings for the next meeting: Agency of Transportation financial staff (including the CFO) and Joint Fiscal Office presentations on the state transportation revenue and the flow of sales-and-use tax and purchase-and-use taxes to the education fund and other accounts. Members said those briefings will inform the appropriations letter and additional T-bill language to be considered in the coming weeks.

A separate, smaller request surfaced in the meeting: one member asked whether a $15,000 grant for an economic-development workshop for new American restaurant owners (to learn how to buy vehicles) should be added to the letter. The chair and other members said that request would be better handled through open appropriation channels and not placed in the committee’s transportation appropriations letter.

The committee agreed to return to finalize the letter at its next scheduled meeting; the chair said staff will circulate a draft beforehand so members can propose edits.

Votes or formal motions were not taken during this discussion; the primary recorded outcomes were directions to staff to draft and circulate the letter, to request revenue briefings next week, and to confirm the MBUF funding numbers with the Joint Fiscal Office.