Executive Director's Report - July/August 1999

New Procedures for Use of Federal Transportation Funds
The State of Alabama annually receives hundreds of millions of dollars from the United States Government through the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century. These funds are appropriated to the State Department of Transportation (SDOT) and are used to fund numerous highway, road and bridge projects. The SDOT currently allocates $33.5 million of these federal funds annually to counties to be used on eligible county road and bridge projects. The funds are divided equally among counties; therefore, each county receives $500 thousand.

County commissioners and engineers have for years contended that counties should receive far more of the federal funds than the SDOT has allowed. They cite many reasons but prominent among them are the deteriorating conditions of county roads and bridges due to years of focusing funding on state highways and bridges, and the ever increasing importance of rural roads and bridges to the state's economy. SDOT officials do not necessarily disagree with some of these contentions, but have been quick to point out that historically many counties do not use all the federal funds made available to them. They point to records that reveal that in most years many counties did not come forward with project plans sufficient to utilize the entire allocation and, therefore, a portion of their federal funds reverted back to the state to be used on state projects or in some instances on county projects in other counties.

The ACCA Board of Directors has discussed this matter on numerous occasions. While the Board members agree that counties should receive a larger portion of federal funds coming to the state, they are particularly concerned about the failure of some counties to utilize all the funds allocated to them. The Board is also concerned about those instances when federal funds not used by individual counties are used by SDOT on state projects. In an effort to encourage all counties to use all the federal funds allocated to them each year and to ensure that all the funds allocated by SDOT to counties (now $33.5 million annually) are used only on county projects, the Board recommended that the director of the SDOT adopt written guidelines or procedures on the use of such funds. The Board actually developed a set of guidelines and recommended them to the director. The current director of SDOT, Mr. Mack Roberts, approved and issued Procedures for Distribution of Federal Aid Funds to Counties in April of 1999.

The procedures adopted by Mr. Roberts were not exactly like those recommended by the Board but they adequately address the issues. The procedures are printed below.

One paragraph in the new procedures provides that the ACCA office is to be informed of counties that forfeited any of the federal funds allocated to them. The ACCA Board of Directors has instructed the staff to publish the names of any such counties and the amounts forfeited. Listed below are the names of the counties that did not spend or obligate a portion of the federal funds available to them by the date or dates provided for in the procedures along with the amounts forfeited. This information was provided by the SDOT.
Greene County $ 204,626
Jefferson County $ 182,053
Perry County $ 245,483

PROCEDURES FOR DISTRIBUTION OF FEDERAL AID FUNDS TO COUNTIES
Federal funds for each Alabama county will be allocated by the Alabama Department of Transportation on October 1 of each year. Each county will have until May 1 of the following fiscal year (a total of 19 months) to deliver completed plan assemblies to the Bureau of County Transportation to utilize at least 90 percent of the funds allocated. Any county not meeting the May 1 deadline will forfeit that allocation, but will continue to be eligible for the allocation of federal funding made on October 1 of each year.

Allocation and expenditure of federal funding will follow the annual schedule set out below:
October 1 - Federal funds are allocated in each county.
November 1 - Department of Transportation notifies each county engineer and county commission chairman of the total federal funds available for the county, with the time frame for spending each portion.
May 1 - A county forfeits its funding for the previous fiscal year unless it has delivered a completed plan assembly to the Bureau of County Transportation to expend at least 90 percent of its allocation of these funds or received written approval from the Transportation Director based on legitimate reasons for not having completed plans. This forfeited federal funding is returned to a reallocation pool to be used at the Director's discretion on other county projects.
June 1 - Department of Transportation notifies the Association of County Commissions of Alabama the balance of funding remaining in the account for each county and the list of the counties which forfeit their funding on the May 1 deadline.

A county may "carry over" its federal funds under the following guidelines:
Provide a completed plan assembly, along with a letter requesting a "carry over" of federal funds by May 1 to the Bureau of County Transportation for a project that will require a level of federal funding that exceeds the balance available in the county's account. Once a completed plan assembly is received, the request to carry over the year's allocation will be forwarded to the Director of the Department of Transportation for written approval. This approval may be for a project that requires funding from the allocations in two or more years. Counties will not be allowed to carry over funds without a completed plan assembly or without written approval by the Transportation Director based on legitimate reasons for not having completed plans.

A completed plan assembly is defined as a complete set of plans ready for review and forwarding to the Office Engineer for letting to contract along with all supporting documentation required by the "Procedural Guidelines for County Projects" as published by the Bureau of County Transportation.

The members of the Association's Board of Directors feel it is incumbent on every county commission to use every means to utilize all the federal funds allocated to them. These new procedures should help make that goal a reality. The procedures will also make sure that the total amount allocated for county use is ultimately expended on county projects. Appreciation should be expressed by all to Transportation Director Mack Roberts.