While the state Department of Transportation lost its short-term battle to get a $60 million highway bond through the Legislature this week, the department faces budget shortfalls in the long term and the ongoing problem of being asked to give more to the state’s general fund than it takes.
In the last 20 years or so, the state’s highway fund has contributed $129.5 million to state coffers, but has received only $85.6 million from the general fund – for a net loss of close to $44 million.
The most recent exchange that benefited the highway fund was $15 million from the state in surplus revenues to help fill a hole in the transportation budget this year.
The more creative transfers from the highway fund to the general fund include $5 million earned by the sale of the Payne Road Bridge in Scarborough. The highway department actually sold the bridge to the Maine Turnpike Authority for $5 million, and then transferred that payment to the general fund to help balance the state budget in fiscal year 2005.
The Department of Transportation also purchased its own building from the state in that same fiscal year for $6.4 million.
While the give-and-take has been going on for years, highway proponents are worried about the department’s long-term fiscal picture.
According to a report done by the state Office of Fiscal and Program Review, the shortage or so called structural gap in the Highway Fund for the next biennium in 2008-2009 could be between $80 and $90 million.
Rep. Sawin Millett, R-Waterford, a member of the Appropriations Committee and former administrator with the state, got an amendment attached to this year’s supplemental highway budget that will bring about $5 million in state funds over to the highway side in the next two-year budget.
His proposal requires the highway fund to pay 60 percent of the cost for the State Police and the state general fund to pay 40 percent. While the 60-40 split had been an unwritten agreement for some years, the percentage on the highway side has been creeping up.
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