The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its latest projections for the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) accounts. CBO continues to project that revenues credited to the highway and transit accounts of the HTF will be insufficient to meet all of the fund’s obligations in fiscal 2015.
At the start of the fiscal year, the highway account had an $11 billion balance. Over the course of the fiscal year, revenues and interest are projected to total $34 billion in the account, while outlays are projected to total $46 billion, resulting in a shortfall. The transit account, which started the year with a $3 billion balance, revenues are projected to total $5 billion and outlays are projected to be $8 billion for fiscal 2015 which just hits the mark.
Department of Transportation (DOT) must keep $4 billion in the highway account and $1 billion in the transit account to make required payments. Due to the nature of the shortfall and lack of extra cash, it is expected that DOT will need to begin delaying some payments to states to prevent either account balance from dipping below the required threshold.
Based on current revenue and spending trends, the CBO projects that the HTF faces a cumulative shortfall of roughly $169 billion over the next ten years. So states must be concerned about not receiving timely payment for the next decade unless something changes or they begin to stop relying on the federal government for their transportation funding needs.
