Feds to limit road, transit payments to states

If the Highway Trust Fund becomes insolvent this summer, it could delay or temporarily shelve dozens of federally funded projects in Washington, according to the state Department of Transportation. Among those is a planned paving project on Interstate 5 between Northeast 39th and 99th streets in Clark County.

There are 43 Washington highway projects totaling $29 million that could be impacted by the federal shortfall. The I-5 paving in Clark County accounts for about $950,000 of that. The state typically receives reimbursements for projects that are federally funded, and the crisis could throw schedules into turmoil during the height of the construction season.

The area’s largest highway projects, such as the $133 million Salmon Creek Interchange Project at I-5 and Interstate 205, are paid for by state gas taxes and thus not connected to the federal Highway Trust Fund.

A WSDOT spokesman said last month the agency is “cautiously optimistic” that Congress will act in time to keep the fund from running out of money.

— Eric Florip

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Transportation said Tuesday that it would start limiting payments to states for road and transit projects next month in an attempt to conserve the federal Highway Trust Fund’s rapidly diminishing cash balance.

Usually, the department reimburses states for transportation projects upon request. But beginning Aug. 1, the states will have to live paycheck to paycheck, receiving funds only once every two weeks as money is collected through federal gasoline taxes.

The move may put pressure on Congress to approve at least a short-term fix before its August break begins. The DOT estimates that the highway fund will hit zero in late August, potentially idling several hundred thousand workers as midterm elections loom in the fall.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx wrote his state counterparts Tuesday that they would see, on average, a 28 percent reduction in funds.

Since the Interstate Highway System was created in 1956, a per-gallon tax on motor fuels has supported federal spending on transportation. The tax has been stuck at 18.4 cents for gasoline and 24.4 cents for diesel since 1993, and it has lost its buying power to inflation.

Since 2008, federal transportation spending has exceeded the balance of the trust fund, and Congress has avoided the gas tax debate by transferring more than $50 billion from the federal treasury to keep it afloat. While some lawmakers say they don’t want to resort to that approach again, they may have no other options if they can’t reach an agreement.

Republicans want the general-fund transfers to be offset with spending reductions elsewhere, but Congress is running out of offsets. A proposal that Republicans in the House of Representatives circulated last month to pay for a patch in the highway fund by cutting back Saturday mail delivery went nowhere.

Groups that represent business, construction, labor and trucking have been pushing to increase the federal gasoline tax. Last month, Sens. Christopher Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, and Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican, offered a bill that would raise the tax by 12 cents a gallon.

But President Barack Obama has never endorsed a gas tax increase, and conservative House Republicans are all but assured to oppose one.

Obama favors closing corporate tax loopholes to shore up the highway fund, but his plan hasn’t attracted much support on Capitol Hill.