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Columbus
Dispatch...
ODOT
urges
regional agencies to spend carryover funds for projects
Regional
planning agencies carrying millions of dollars on their books from year
to year
are being told by the Ohio Department of Transportation to start
spending.
Ohio has
too many aging and congested highways to hold back money that’s
supposed to go
toward fixing them, state transportation Director Jerry Wray said.
According
to his department’s calculations, 17 regional planning agencies in Ohio
left
$169.8 million in federal transportation dollars unspent during the
state’s
last fiscal year. Over each of the past four years, ODOT estimates
agencies
have kept an average of $155.5 million on hand.
“We’re
asking all our partners to step up,” Wray said. “We’re encouraging them
to be
more productive.”
The state
plans to force agencies such as the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning
Commission to
spend more of their yearly allocations from Washington.
But leaders
of the agencies, called metropolitan planning organizations, say they
sometimes
stockpile funds to pay for future projects or are left with unspent
cash
because of lower-than-expected bids and unforeseen delays.
Eight of
21, however, have spent less money on average than they’ve collected
from
Washington over the past four years.
MORPC,
which includes Columbus and 43 other local governments in 12 central
Ohio
counties, ended fiscal 2011 with $8.4 million in reserve, one of the
lowest
totals in the state. The money comes from federal gasoline taxes,
passes
through the state and is directed toward local roadwork, mass transit
and
efforts to reduce traffic congestion.
MORPC has
ended the past four years with an average of almost $8 million in
unspent
funds. MORPC Principal Engineer Nathaniel Vogt said the unspent funds
don’t
accumulate, but rather represent an ongoing balance.
Across
Ohio, the agencies have spent less than 14 percent of the federal
transportation money in their accounts over the past four years. They
used less
than 8 percent — $14.4 million of $184.3 million available — in fiscal
2011.
The rule
that the Ohio Department of Transportation is proposing would require
agencies
to spend 75 percent of their federal allocations by 2016 or risk losing
the
money to the state. That would have put nearly $124 million more into
Ohio
highways, roads, bike trails and mass transit last year.
Don Spang,
executive director of the Dayton-based Miami Valley Regional Planning
Commission and president of the Ohio Association of Regional Councils,
said
although agencies helped write the proposed rule, the change would take
away
some flexibility.
As ODOT
grapples with declining budgets and rising costs, Wray wants the
planning
agencies to contribute more toward work in their regions. Earlier this
month,
MORPC agreed to pitch in $8.2 million toward a state-highway upgrade
that will
carry traffic from Rt. 23 to Rickenbacker Airport in Pickaway County.
The local
money moved the project to a 2013 start date. It had been a second-tier
priority with no start date.
Although he
has bragged in recent weeks about saving money at ODOT, Wray also has
said the
agency will spend any savings to speed up highway projects across Ohio
that now
face delays of as long as 13 years.
A former
Licking County engineer, Wray said he entered office in 1980 with
$500,000
unspent in a budget of about $3.6 million.
“One year
we ended with $15,000,” said Wray, who left Licking County in 1991 to
become
ODOT director under Gov. George V. Voinovich. He returned in 2011 under
Gov.
John Kasich.
“I consider
that my most successful year.”
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and other articles at the Columbus Dispatch
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