Most stimulus money for roads goes to big cities
Rural areas, like Malheur County, also secure some taxpayer cash
By Larry Meyer
Argus Observer
Tuesday, March 31, 2009 10:32 AM PDT
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| Vale officials would like to receive stimulus money to improve Glenn Street, from A Street to the Malheur River Bridge (above). |
ONTARIO — Just over half of the roadway funding in the federal stimulus package will be delivered to three metro areas in Oregon under what is called the Surface Transportation Program (STP) formula.
While rural areas like Malheur County will not be left out in the cold in terms of transportation stimulus cash, it is clear big cities are the winners in the stimulus package funding race.
Malheur County normally receives about $331,520 through the Surface Transportation Program, but with the stimulus package this year it secured $783,412.
Ontario was also awarded about $1.7 million by the Oregon Transportation Commission during the second allocation of federal stimulus funds directed to the states for highway projects.
What rural areas did not collect went to big cities in Oregon. Federal officials routed a total of $100 million to Oregon to be shared by cities and counties and metropolitan planning organizations. The Portland metro area, for example, netted a large chunk of the transportation money — $38 million — while the Salem-Keizer area and Eugene-Springfield area also received large infusions of federal cash. Between the three entities, more than $50 million was distributed.
Malheur County officials said they are planning to use their federal funds to complete an overlay project on portions of Foothill Drive and Railroad Avenue. Ontario plans to rebuild North Oregon Street.
With regular STP funds, the state and counties exchange dollars, with the state getting 6 cents on every dollar it exchanges with the counties.
“Our advantage is that we lose the federal strings,” Jim Kimberling, Malheur County engineer, said. However, “the state is not going exchange the stimulus dollars. The state does have funds.”
But the plan will still allow the counties to exchange the dollars in their normal STP allocation, he said.
Under federal regulations a road has be a major collector corridor to be eligible for the funds.
“It narrows down the number of roads we can even consider,” Kimberling said.
Kimberling said, according to the STP formula, 25 percent of the Surface Transportation Program is divided equally among the 36 Oregon counties, 60 percent is divided according to rural population and 15 percent by rural county road miles.
“This works out to just under 3 percent for Malheur County,” he said.
That is still better than the county’s share of the state gas tax of just less than 1 percent.
Also, the $311,520 the county is receiving is the net amount after the exchange with the state.
Of the $100 million for cities and counties, $5 million was to be set aside for cities with less than 5,000 people, which could mean something to Vale residents.
Vale officials had submitted a proposal for funding on an improvement project on Glenn Street in Vale, Brent Barton, city manager said.
With the new rules and the amount set aside for the smaller cities, he is planning to send in another application, he said.
“All we are waiting for is the application,” Barton said. The maximum amount for the city could receive is $100,000.
