Lower revenues have hit Washington’s largely gas-tax funded transportation budget, but they’ve been offset somewhat by lower construction bids and favorable capital markets, according to a report Tuesday from the chair of the state House Transportation Committee, Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island.
The state adopted a two-year $7.5 billion transportation budget last year. In their session this year, few modifications are planned other than a substantial infusion of federal stimulus funding, Clibborn’s report said.
Over the biennium 2009-11, revenue for the state transportation budget are expected to come in about $121 million below projections.
The flip side of the recession is more aggressive bidding from contractors, and bids came in an average of 24% below engineers’ cost estimates for the first six months of the budget period, saving the state about $57 million, the report said.
The state is also projecting $195 million in long-term savings because of receiving favorable interest rates from bond sales, partly facilitated by the Build America Bond program.
The state sold $500 million of BABs for its transportation program in October, receiving, after the federal subsidy, an effective true interest cost of 3.52%, Treasurer James McIntosh reported.
Clibborn’s budget proposal is about $1 billion bigger than last year’s, mostly because of new federal funding.
The largest share of that stimulus funding comes from $590 million in projects to improve passenger trains service between Seattle and Portland.
“Washington’s success in winning competitive federal funding is a testament to our state’s long-term economic potential,” Clibborn said in a news release.
The committee sent the transportation bill to the floor Wednesday.
