Federal reimbursements to the Oklahoma Department of Transportation and their counterparts in other states will be reduced beginning August 1 unless the Federal Highway Trust Fund receives an infusion of cash, ODOT Executive Director Mike Patterson told the Transportation Commission during its meeting Monday.
The department was informed July 1 that the U.S. Department of Transportation would begin taking a number of steps to address what U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Fox called the insolvency of the fund.
“We have attempted to provide states with the most equitable, straightforward approach possible for managing this crisis,” wrote Fox. “To that end, we will distribute incoming funds in proportion to each State’s Federal formula apportionment in this fiscal year.”
The insolvency of the special U.S. Department of Transportation fund to support state road and bridges projects is the result of less income to the fund. The fund was designed to be self-sustaining but the value has decreased because of the weakened economy where people are driving less, more fuel-efficient vehicles, and a federal gas tax that has not risen in two decades.
The U.S. Congress is, at the moment, at a stalemate on how to solve the problem.
