Federal highway plan would provide breathing room for Iowa

An Iowa transportation official said if a temporary highway funding bill passed by the U.S. House on Tuesday becomes law, it should keep road and transit programs on course until at least next spring.

Transportation planners in Iowa and around the nation have been sweating the lack of a funding plan for federal fiscal year 2015, which begins on Oct. 1. It could have been devastating to Iowa's plans to upgrade deteriorating roads and bridges, as well as expand the road system for economic development.

'Certainly, it was a big step having the House pass this bill today,” said Stuart Anderson, a director with the Iowa Department of Transportation. 'This should be a solution to the partial reimbursement situation we were facing.”

The U.S. House passed a $10.8 billion funding extension to carry the Highway Trust Fund, which pays for highway and transit transportation programs, through May 2015. The Associated Press reports the money comes from pension tax changes, customs fees and money from a fund to repair leaking underground fuel storage tanks.

A similar bill awaits the Senate, but the Republican-led House was seen as the bigger hurdle.

The trust fund, which was formed in 1956 to pay for the highway system, was heading for insolvency by the end of August. The federal transportation department formed a cash management plan that would reduce and delay reimbursements for federal transportation projects beginning on Aug. 1.

For Iowa, it could have meant a $15 million or more shortfall every two weeks, but the Iowa DOT had said it could absorb the gap with little notice. The bigger threat has been what officials called a 'fiscal cliff” that would come if Congress didn't pass a transportation funding authorization for federal fiscal year 2015, which begins on Oct. 1. About $450 million of Iowa's transportation budget comes from federal sources.

'It's good that critical projects that are currently underway in Iowa can continue, but that doesn't lessen the need to work on a long-term solution to funding our transportation infrastructure,” U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Waterloo, said in a statement.

For several years, the trust fund has been kept going by a series of short-term appropriations. The lack of a long-term plan inhibits long term planning, some say. President Barack Obama is pushing a $302 billion four-year transportation plan, but it's not yet clear how much support it has.

For now, Iowa officials can breathe little easier.

Anderson said while they hope for a long-term federal transportation plan, the temporary bill buys them nearly a year. It should negate the partial reimbursements and should sustain most of the 2015 construction season.

But questions remain, he said.

It's not yet clear what will become of a series of projects that were already pushed back as a precaution, or if there will be any impact to Iowa's 2015 plan. They hope to have more answers in the coming days.

'It's a good sign. It gives us confidence,” Anderson said. 'And, once we see what the final bill looks like, we will have a better idea what it means for the next construction season.”