Eighty-six bills in 37 states are currently being tracked in the Transportation Investment Advocacy Center’s ‘State Transportation Funding Monthly Report’, with more anticipated as the year progresses.

Since the last report:

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) signed into law on March 23 a set of bills that will commit $1.2 billion to state and local transportation infrastructure.

The Alabama legislature overwhelmingly approved a bill on April 13 to create the Alabama Transportation Safety Fund in order to receive and distribute revenue designated to improving the state’s roads and bridges. The first $32 million in transportation revenue is divided between Alabama’s 67 counties, with $500,000 directly allocated to road and bridge construction in each county. The bill’s funding companion, HB 394, is currently being considered within the House.

Legislation to create a pilot road usage charge (RUC) program in Illinois has been postponed by the legislature indefinitely.

A Missouri measure to increase the state motor fuel tax by 5.9 cents-per-gallon was approved by the state Senate and sent to the House on April 7 for consideration. The House Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety Committee reviewed the bill on April 26.

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) signed into law a bill to create a state transportation infrastructure bank. Initial funding includes $50 million from the state’s rainy day fund and a 2 cents-per-gallon gas tax increase, which was signed into law in 2015. The bill also authorizes design-build project delivery to accelerate complex projects.

Maine lawmakers passed a measure on April 15 for the November 2016 ballot that will ask voters to approve $100 million in bonds to improve highways, bridges and multimodal facilities.

The South Carolina House on April 12 rejected a proposal from the Senate to transfer $400 million annually from general fund revenues to the state highway fund. The House sent their amended proposal back to the Senate after striking the funding component but kept the reform measures. The bill has been sent to a conference committee to negotiate a compromise. In response, the Senate proposed legislation on April 13 to redirect $80 million from fees collected by the state Department of Motor Vehicles and codify the transfer of all vehicle sales tax revenues ($130M). The fees would raise roughly $200 million annually and be sent to the state highway fund and then transferred to the State Infrastructure Bank to be bonded on a 1:10 ratio – totaling $2.2 billion in one-time funding. The $200 million recurring fees would be obligated to bond debt service for 15-years. The bill would also require SCDOT to implement a project prioritization plan on a needs-based methodology, and the SIB would only act as the funding mechanism. The prioritized project plan would be funded through SIB bonding and also redirected SCDOT funding to generate roughly $3.5 billion in one-time funding over ten years.

Additionally, lawmakers in New Jersey and Delaware are discussing plans to introduce motor fuel tax increases in their state legislatures in the coming weeks.

Read the report.