Contacts:
Matt Jeanneret 202-289-4434 mjeanneret@artba.org	Dr. William Buechner 202-289-4434 bbuechner@artba.org	Print this page

Washington, D.C. [February 22, 2001] - State transportation departments spent a record $1.7 billion of their federal road and bridge allocations to support mass transit programs during 2000, according to an analysis of federal surface transportation funding done by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA). This pushed total federal support for mass transit to a record $7.5 billion during the year, ARTBA says.

Federal law gives states flexibility to use some of their federal road funds for mass transit programs. ARTBA notes that state earmarking of federal road funding for transit use has jumped 245 percent since 1998.

California used this flexibility to transfer $930 million of its federal road funds to transit last year. Other states making significant transfers were: Washington ($103 million), New York ($87 million), Georgia ($55 million), Florida ($47 million), Pennsylvania ($42 million) and Illinois ($38 million).

Sixty-one percent of the transferred federal road funds were used to buy buses and rail cars, subsidize transit and carpool programs, conduct transit studies or develop urban transportation plans, the ARTBA study found. Thirty-nine percent—$633 million—were used to finance transit-related construction work.

Aside from state use of federal highway funds, the federal mass transit program itself provided a record $5.8 billion in federal funds to the states last year.

The analysis, conducted by Dr. Bill Buechner, ARTBA vice president of economics and research, can be accessed by clicking here.

Celebrating its 100^th anniversary in 2002, ARTBA is the only national organization that exclusively represents the collective interests of all sectors of the U.S. transportation construction industry before the White House, Congress, federal agencies, media and the public. The U.S. transportation construction industry that ARTBA represents generates more than $175 billion in domestic economic activity annually and provides employment for more than 2.2 million Americans.