Regional planners find uses for money

$3 million directed at road projects

— Metroplan, central Arkansas’ metropolitan planning organization, no longer risks losing $3 million in federal money because it is unable to obligate the money for specific transportation projects before the federal fiscal year ends Sept. 30.

In May, the agency stood to lose as much as $15.6 million, but that was whittled down to $3 million. At the time, the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department said it was unsure it could perform the typical budget maneuvers that it did in the past to preserve the ability of Metroplan to spend the money it was unable to obligate in one year to spend it in subsequent years.

But since then state highway officials have notified Metroplan they can cover Metroplan’s estimated unobligated balance of just less than $3.2 million.

The federal government requires that states obligate all federal highway funds it receives in a fiscal year or risk losing any unobligated funds.

“While several jurisdictions had proposed projects that could be obligated quickly if there was a chance of losing obligation authority, it appears that will not now be necessary,” Metroplan staff said in a memorandum to the agency’s board of directors.

What state highway officials typically do is commit unused Metroplan money to their highway projects at the end of the fiscal year, then credit that money back to Metroplan at the beginning of the new fiscal year in October. But the state was unsure it could do so this year because it had so much federal stimulus money to obligate that it was in danger of running out of projects that would be ready to go.

While Metroplan should obligate all of its money every year so it can have zero balances in its accounts, agency officials say they are hamstrung by a couple of factors. One is that smaller communities sharing in the federal money on a per-capita basis must wait for their accounts to build up over several years before they have enough money to cover the cost of projects. Second is that other projects in the region are bigger in scope than in the past and take longer to go to the construction phase.

This year, state highway officials faced their own squeeze. The extra federal stimulus money they received totaled about $350 million, leaving the agency on track to award $700 million in construction contracts this year. In 2009, when some of the stimulus money also was spent, the department awarded $450 million in contracts. Those totals compared with $335 million in 2007 and $325 million in 2008. As a result, the department was running out of projects close enough to construction to which it could obligate federal money.

The biggest project Metroplan was able to obligate was the Military Road improvement project between Congo Road and Interstate 30 in Benton.

Meanwhile, most of the member governments of Metroplan will be paying more in dues next year. Jim McKenzie, the agency’s executive director, told the board Wednesday that he was putting the members on notice early, given the recession that saw revenue fall for many cities.

The dues are based on population the members had in 2000, the last time the U.S. Census was taken. The new dues will be based on the 2010 U.S. Census. The rate, 85 cents per person, will remain unchanged, but because most cities and counties saw population increases, they will wind up paying more.

Metroplan collects dues from four counties and 14 cities in the region. The agency budgeted $471,489. Through June 30, it had received $351,816.

Little Rock, with by far the largest population in the region, pays the most in dues. It now pays $155,663, based on its 2000 population of 183,133. Metroplan estimates its 2010 population will be 192,334. The 5 percent increase will result in a 5 percent increase in dues, to $163,484.

North Little Rock will only have a slight increase in its dues if its 2010 population estimate holds - an increase of less than 1 percent, to 60,853. As a result it will pay $51,725 in dues next year, an increase of $357.

Other jurisdictions where population soared will see increases.

Conway is projected to pay $51,749 next year, about $15,057 more than what it pays now because its population rose 41 percent, to 60,881, according to Metroplan estimates.

Austin’s population jumped 214 percent in the past 10 years, to 1,905. As a result, its dues will increase from $514 to $1,619.

Cammack Village is one of the few that will pay less if its projected 1.3 percent population loss holds up. Its projected dues will be $697 instead of $706 to account for its population of 820 in 2010, 11 less than in 2000.

Metroplan will use its population estimates to set dues later this year but will adjust them once the official Census population figures become available in April, McKenzie said.

Arkansas, Pages 9 on 07/29/2010

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