Transportation Enhancements Spending Report FY 1992 - FY 2010
Analysis of the States’ Use of Federal Funding [With tables summarized just for Maryland.]
[B' Spokes: Note this table is for the life of the program so small changes in the percentage is a lot of money. To date the State has focused on the Programed amount (setting aside projects and their funds and as you can see Maryland is at 99%.) And we have focused on the Obligated amount of available funds. (Projects getting done and consuming funds and as you can see Maryland is not that good at 81%. (The State has promised to address this issue but no specifics yet.)]
Table 1: State TE Program Benchmarks for FY 1992 through FY 2010 (in thousands of $)
| State | Apportioned | Rescinded* | Available* | Programmed* | Obligated | Reimbursed ‡ | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY 92-10 | FY 92-10 | Rate | FY 92-10 | Rate | FY 92-10 | Rate | FY 92-10 | Apport? | Avail? | FY 92-10 | Rate | |
| Maryland | $186,901 | -$15,018 | -8% | $169,253 | 91% | $185,417 | 99% | $137,757 | 74% | 81% | $119,564 | 87% |
| Total to States | $12,466,774 | -$2,625,423 | -21% | $9,883,474 | 79% | $9,868,813 | 79% | $8,745,625 | 70% | 88% | $7,582,956 | 87% |
[B' Spokes: The big question here is what happened in 2008, the second year O'Malley was in office? Did John Porcari just get distracted by his future appointment as Deputy Secretary of the United States Department of Transportation? Reauthorization issues of the Transpiration Enhancement fund did not happen till late 2009. It's very puzzling why Maryland took a nose dive in 2008 and then stayed below average.]
Table 2: Yearly Obligation Rates by Fiscal Year 2006–2010*
| State |
5-Year Average Annual Apportionment | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 |
5-Year Cumulative Obligation/ Apportioned |
Unobligated Balance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maryland | $12,304,109 | 72% | 137% | 5% | 68% | 51% | 67% | $31,495,736 |
| Total | $831,571,148 | 65% | 71% | 64% | 74% | 64% | 68% | $1,181,417,434 |
[B' Spokes: This table is interesting as it shows not only our obscenely high match rate but also our obscenely high project cost. Lets look at total average project cost (The Table shows just the Federal portion): Maryland - $700K/40%=$1750K; Average - $380/71%=$535K. So the average Transportation Enhancement project for Maryland is three times higher then elsewhere (on average.) The explanation is fairly straight forward: Most states use this fund to build on-road bicycle accommodations (anything from shoulders to bike lanes) but Maryland forbids it. Most states can fund accommodations for bicycles as part of another projects (it's a lot cheaper that way) but Maryland forbids it. Seriously, in this economy why are we are placing obstacles in the way of cheep accommodations for bicyclists?]
Table 4: Cumulative Programmed Federal Awards and Matching Funds, FY 1992 through FY 2010 (in thousands of dollars)
| State | Project Count | Federal Awards | Avg. Federal Award | Matching Funds | Match Rate* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maryland | 265 | $185,417 | $700 | $272,606 | 60% |
| TOTAL | 25,999 | $9,868,813 | $380 | $4,006,636 | 29% |
Analysis of the States’ Use of Federal Funding [Full report.]
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