A coalition of 11 national associations, representing local elected and appointed officials, including NACo, recently announced the groups’ policy recommendations for the reauthorization of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21).
Local Officials for Transportation (LOT) was created to give local officials a common voice on transportation issues, and in particular the reauthorization of TEA-21.
“This is the first time that a coalition of local elected and appointed officials have formally come together to develop a common position on the reauthorization of a highway and transit bill,” said Glen Whitely, commissioner, Tarrant County, Texas and chair of NACo’s Transportation Steering Committee.
According to Whitely, the coalition’s strongest belief is that the money allocated through the reauthorization of TEA-21 should go directly to local governments.
“It is the county commissioners, mayors, city council members who are held responsible and who get the phone calls from citizens,” Whitely said. “The LOT coalition believes that if we get the phone calls, we need to get more federal dollars.”
The coalition, which believes local officials are in the best position to decide how to spend $40 billion a year that the federal government allots for transportation programs, presented its recommendations at a recent press conference and will be providing them to each member of Congress.
Rural Road Safety
Citing statistics that a person is 2.5 times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash on a rural road than on an urban highway, LOT stressed that not enough funds are being spent on the safety of rural roads. LOT recommended the creation of a rural road safety program that would be funded at $1 billion annually. The recommendation suggested that two-lane rural roads owned by local governments and states would be eligible and funds would be spent for safety improvements such as improved markings and signage, widening shoulders and lighting.
The Bridge Program
With many of the 300,000 bridges owned by local governments rated “deficient” by the federal government, LOT recommended increased investment in the federal bridge program with greater targeting of funds to the bridges owned by local governments.
Urban Congestion
LOT recommended that TEA-21 include new approaches to help localities combat increasing urban congestions. The coalition suggested that the approaches include everything from mass transit to roads.
Streamline Project Delivery
Because the maze of federal regulations and number of agencies involved in a transit project often means years before a project is built and approved, LOT recommended changes to TEA-21 that will streamline the delivery process and get more funding directly into the hands of local officials.
Air Quality
LOT recommends increasing funding for the Congestion Mitigation Air Quality (CMAQ) program to assist the large number of new non-attainment areas.
Planning and Programming
The coalition had several recommendations, including:
• promoting greater cooperation between states, Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) and local governments in fiscal review, planning, priorities and project selection
• suballocate Surface Transportation Program (STP) funds to all MPOs
• suballocate all CMAQ funds to all MPOs and local governments in air quality non-attainment and maintenance areas
• increase Metropolitan Planning Funds to support the growing number of urbanized areas and added planning responsibilities, and
• ensure rural local elected officials have a clearly defined and prominent role in the transportation planning process by providing for cooperation with state officials.
Transit Program
The coalition recommends substantially increasing the funding for public transportation to continue to develop and maintain a balanced system that provides a variety of options. LOT also stated that Congress should retain the current level of federal commitment to transit by maintaining existing federal-local matching requirements.
Research and Technology Programs
LOT recommended an increase in funding for all existing research and technology programs that directly benefit local government.
TEA-21 expires on Sept. 20. Action to either pass the reauthorization or extend it is expected around that time.
Members of LOT include NACo, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National League of Cities, the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations, the National Association of Regional Councils, American Public Works Association, the National Association of Development Organizations, International City/County Management Association, the National Association of County Engineers, the National Association of City Transportation Officials, and Public Technology, Incorporated.
(For more information, contact Bob Fogel, NACo senior legislative director, at (202) 942-4217 or bfogel@naco.org.)
