HOUSE BILL NO. 2281 Offered January 10, 2007 Prefiled January 9, 2007 A BILL to amend and reenact §§ 33.1-23.1, 33.1-23.2, 33.1-23.4, 33.1-23.5:1, and 33.1-41.1 of the Code of Virginia, relating to allocation of maintenance funds among the state primary, secondary, and urban highway systems; payments to counties, cities, and towns for highway maintenance. ----------
Patrons-- Watts, Albo, Bulova, Callahan, Caputo, Hull, Marsden, Plum, Rust, Scott, J.M. and Sickles; Senators: Cuccinelli, Devolites Davis, Howell and Puller
---------- Committee Referral Pending ----------

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1.  That §§ 33.1-23.1, 33.1-23.2, 33.1-23.4, 33.1-23.5:1, and 33.1-41.1 of the Code of Virginia are amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 33.1-23.1. Allocation of maintenance and construction funds among highway systems.

A. The Commonwealth Transportation Board shall allocate each year from all funds made available for highway purposes such amount as it deems reasonable and necessary for the maintenance of roads within the interstate system of highways, the primary system of state highways, the secondary system of state highways and for city and town street maintenance payments made pursuant to § 33.1-41.1 and payments made to counties which have withdrawn or elect to withdraw from the secondary system of state highways pursuant to § 33.1-23.5:1.

BA. After funds are set aside for administrative and general expenses and pursuant to other provisions in this title which provide for the disposition of funds prior to allocation for highway purposes, and after allocation is made pursuant to subsection A of this section, the Commonwealth Transportation Board may allocate each year up to 10% of the funds remaining for highway purposes for the undertaking and financing of rail projects that, in the Board's determination, will result in mitigation of highway congestion. After the forgoing allocations have been made, the Board shall allocate the remaining funds available for highway purposes, exclusive of federal funds for the interstate system, among the several highway systems for maintenance and construction first pursuant to §§ 33.1-23.1:1 and 33.1-23.1:2 and then as follows:

1. Forty percent of the remaining funds exclusive of federal-aid matching funds for the interstate system shall be allocated to the primary system of state highways, including the arterial network, and in addition, an amount shall be allocated to the primary system as interstate matching funds as provided in subsection B of § 33.1-23.2.

2. Thirty percent of the remaining funds exclusive of federal-aid matching funds for the interstate system shall be allocated to urban highways for state aid pursuant to § 33.1-44.

3. Thirty percent of the remaining funds exclusive of federal-aid matching funds for the interstate system shall be allocated to the secondary system of state highways.

CB. Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section, the General Assembly may, through the general appropriations act, permit the Governor to increase the amounts to be allocated to highway maintenance, highway construction, either or both.

§ 33.1-23.2. Allocation of maintenance and construction funds for primary system and interstate match.

A. The Commonwealth Transportation Board shall allocate such funds as are available under subdivision 1 of subsection A of § 33.1-23.1 B 1 to the primary system of state highways, including the arterial network, for maintenance and construction and shall apportion such funds among the nine construction districts so that each construction district shall be allocated a share of such funds equal to the proportion that such construction district bears to the Commonwealth as a whole in terms of: vehicle-miles traveled on the primary system, primary road lane mileage and a primary road need factor which adjusts the weights in the allocation formula for the construction district with the largest under-allocation relative to primary needs, with vehicle-miles traveled weighted seventy percent, primary road lane mileage weighted twenty-five percent, and the primary road need factor weighted five percent.

B. Out of each district's total allocation of primary funds pursuant to paragraph subdivision 1 of subsection B A of § 33.1-23.1, the Board shall allocate all needed interstate federal-aid matching funds, up to a maximum of twenty-five percent of the district's primary allocation. Any additional interstate federal-aid matching funds needed in a district shall be allocated by the Board from the Interstate Federal-Aid Matching Fund established in § 33.1-23.1:2.

C. Notwithstanding subsection A of this section, the Board may provide for exceptionally heavy expenditures for repairs or replacements made necessary by highway damage resulting from accidents, severe weather conditions, acts of God or vandalism.

D. Such funds allocated to the primary system shall, as far as possible, be allotted prior to the commencement of the fiscal year and public announcement made of such allotment but the Board shall not approve such allotment until after a public hearing at which political subdivisions of the Commonwealth and interested citizens may be heard.

In any case where any allotment of funds is made under this subsection to any county, all or a part of which subsequently is incorporated as or into a city or town, such allocation shall not be impaired thereby and the funds so allocated shall be expended as if such county or any part thereof had never become an incorporated city, but that portion of such city shall not be eligible to receive funds as a city during the same year it receives the funds allocated as a county or as any part of a county.

§ 33.1-23.4. Allocation of maintenance and construction funds within secondary system.

A. Such funds as are allocated to the secondary system of state highways pursuant to paragraph subdivision 3 of subsection B A of § 33.1-23.1 shall be apportioned among the several counties in the secondary system by the Commonwealth Transportation Board for maintenance and construction so that each such county shall be allocated a share of such funds equal to the proportion that such county bears to the Commonwealth as a whole in terms of area and population with population being weighted 80 percent, and area being weighted 20 percent. For the purpose of this section, "area" means the total land area of a county reduced by the area of any military reservations and state or national parks or forests within its boundaries and such other similar areas and facilities of five square miles in area or more, as may be determined by the Commonwealth Transportation Board.

For the purposes of this section, the term "population" shall mean either population according to the latest United States census or the latest population estimate of the Center for Public Service of the University of Virginia, whichever is more recent.

If so requested in a resolution adopted by the local governing body, funds allocated to any county under this section may be used to support primary highway system construction projects within the county.

Before allocating funds under the foregoing provisions of this section, the Board may provide for exceptionally heavy expenditures for repairs or replacements made necessary by highway damage resulting from accidents, severe weather conditions, acts of God or vandalism.

B. Notwithstanding other provisions of this section, not more than one-third of the annual secondary system highway funds apportioned to a county under this section may be used to reimburse the county for (i) debt service for bonds or (ii) eligible project costs incurred on approved projects included in the county's Secondary Six-Year Plan and the county's capital improvement program. Such funds may also be used by the county for debt service for bonds issued for, or eligible project costs incurred or to be incurred on, approved projects included, at the time such bonds are issued or such costs are incurred or are to be incurred, in the Six-Year Improvement Program of the Commonwealth Transportation Board and the county's capital improvement program. Any such funds so apportioned to and received by such county, or any portion thereof, may be deposited in a special fund that shall be established separate and apart from any other funds, general or special.

When a county presents a resolution requesting that a portion of its annual secondary construction allocation be set aside for reimbursement for, or payment of, debt service under this section for a specific eligible project, the Commonwealth Transportation Board shall, subject to appropriation and allocation, set aside no more than one-third of the anticipated annual allocation of secondary system construction funding to the county for such purpose, provided such funds have not been previously committed for projects contained in the county's Secondary Six-Year Plan.

The setting aside and use of funds under this section for reimbursement for, or payment of, debt service shall be subject to such terms and conditions as may be prescribed by the Commonwealth Transportation Commissioner.

The provisions of this section shall not constitute a debt or obligation of the Commonwealth Transportation Board or the Commonwealth of Virginia.

§ 33.1-23.5:1. Funds for counties which have withdrawn or elect to withdraw from the secondary system of state highways.

Notwithstanding the provisions of § 33.1-23.5, pursuant to subsection A of § 33.1-23.1, the Commonwealth Transportation Board shall make the following payments to counties which have withdrawn or elect to withdraw from the secondary system of state highways under the provisions of § 11 of Chapter 415 of the Acts of Assembly of 1932, and which have not elected to return: to any county having withdrawn prior to June 30, 1985, and having an area greater than 100 square miles, an amount equal to $3,616 per lane-mile for fiscal year 1986, and to any county having an area less than 100 square miles, an amount equal to $7,201 per lane-mile for fiscal year 1986; to any county that elects to withdraw after June 30, 1985, the Commonwealth Transportation Board shall establish a rate per lane-mile for the first year using (i) an amount for maintenance based on maintenance standards and unit costs used by the Department of Transportation to prepare its secondary system maintenance budget for the year in which the county withdraws, and (ii) an amount for administration equal to five percent of the maintenance figure determined in (i) above. The payment rates shall be adjusted annually by the Board in accordance with procedures established for adjusting payments to cities and towns as limited to the per-lane-mile payment calculated as 30 percent of statewide maintenance under § 33.1-41.1, and lane mileage shall be adjusted annually to include (i) streets and highways accepted for maintenance in the county system by the local governing body, or (ii) streets and highways constructed according to standards set forth in the county subdivision ordinance or county thoroughfare plan, and being not less than the standards set by the Department of Transportation. Such counties shall, in addition, each receive for construction from funds allocated pursuant to subdivision B 3 of subsection A of § 33.1-23.1 an annual amount calculated in the same manner as payments for construction in the state secondary highway system are calculated.

Payment of the funds shall be made in four equal sums, one in each quarter of the fiscal year, and shall be reduced, in the case of each such county, by the amount of federal-aid construction funds credited to each such county.

The chief administrative officer of such counties receiving such funds shall make annual reports of expenditures to the Board, in such form as the Board shall prescribe, accounting for all expenditures, including delineation between construction and maintenance expenditures and reporting on their performance as specified in subdivision B 3 of § 33.1-23.02. Such reports shall be included in the scope of the annual audit of each county conducted by independent certified public accountants.

§ 33.1-41.1. Payments to cities and certain towns for maintenance of certain highways.

The Commonwealth Transportation Commissioner, subject to the approval of the Commonwealth Transportation Board, shall make payments for maintenance, construction, or reconstruction of highways, as hereinafter provided, to all cities and towns eligible for allocation of construction funds for urban highways under § 33.1-23.3. Such payments, however, shall only be made if those highways functionally classified as principal and minor arterial roads are maintained to a standard satisfactory to the Department of Transportation. Whenever any city or town qualifies under this section for allocation of funds, such qualification shall continue to apply to such city or town regardless of any subsequent change in population and shall cease to apply only when so specifically provided by an act of the General Assembly. All allocations made prior to July 1, 2001, to cities and towns meeting the criteria of the foregoing provisions of this section are hereby confirmed.

No payments shall be made by the Commissioner to any such city or town unless the portion of the highway for which such payment is made either (a) has (i) an unrestricted right-of-way at least 50 feet wide and (ii) a hard-surface width of at least 30 feet; or (b) has (i) an unrestricted right-of-way at least 80 feet wide, (ii) a hard-surface width of at least 24 feet, and (iii) approved engineering plans for the ultimate construction of an additional hard-surface width of at least 24 feet within the same right-of-way; or (c) (i) is a cul-de-sac, (ii) has an unrestricted right-of-way at least 40 feet wide, and (iii) has a turnaround that meets applicable standards set by the Department of Transportation; or (d) either (i) has been paved and has constituted part of the primary or secondary system of state highways prior to annexation or incorporation or (ii) has constituted part of the secondary system of state highways prior to annexation or incorporation and is paved to a minimum width of 16 feet subsequent to such annexation or incorporation and with the further exception of streets or portions thereof which have previously been maintained under the provisions of § 33.1-79 or § 33.1-82; or (e) was eligible for and receiving such payments under the laws of the Commonwealth in effect on June 30, 1985; or (f) is a street established prior to July 1, 1950, which has an unrestricted right-of-way width of not less than 30 feet and a hard-surface width of not less than 16 feet; or (g) is a street functionally classified as a local street and constructed on or after January 1, 1996, which at the time of approval by the city or town met the criteria for pavement width and right-of-way of the then-current edition of the subdivision street requirements manual for secondary roads of the Department of Transportation (24 VAC 30-90-10 et seq.); (h) is a street previously eligible to receive street payments that is located in a city having a population of at least 200,000 but no more than 250,000 and is closed to public travel, pursuant to legislation enacted by the governing body of the city in which it is located, for public safety reasons, within the boundaries of a publicly funded housing development owned and operated by the local housing authority; or (i) is a local street, otherwise eligible, containing one or more physical protuberances placed within the right-of-way for the purpose of controlling the speed of traffic.

However, the Commissioner may waive the requirements as to hard-surface pavement or right-of-way width for highways where the width modification is at the request of the local governing body and is to protect the quality of the affected local government's drinking water supply or, for highways constructed on or after July 1, 1994, to accommodate some other special circumstance where such action would not compromise the health, safety, or welfare of the public. The modification is subject to such conditions as the Commissioner may prescribe.

For the purpose of calculating allocations and making payments under this section, the Department shall divide affected highways into two categories, which shall be distinct from but based on functional classifications established by the Federal Highway Administration: (i) principal and minor arterial roads and (ii) collector roads and local streets. Payments to affected localities shall be based on the number of moving-lane-miles of highways or portions thereof available to peak-hour traffic in each category of highways in that locality. For the fiscal year 1986, payment to each city and town shall be an amount equal to $7,787 per moving-lane-mile for principal and minor arterials and $4,572 per moving-lane-mile for collector roads and local streets.

The Department of Transportation shall establish a statewide maintenance index of the unit costs for labor, equipment, and materials used on roads and bridges in the fiscal year 1986, and use changes in that index to calculate and put into effect annual changes in the base per-lane-mile rate payable under this section; however, the total of all payments to cities and towns shall not exceed 30 percent of total expenditures for the Commonwealth as a whole.

The fund allocated by the Board shall be paid in equal sums in each quarter of the fiscal year, and no payment shall be made without the approval of the Board.

The chief administrative officer of the city or town receiving this fund shall make annual categorical reports of expenditures to the Board, in such form as the Board shall prescribe, accounting for all expenditures, certifying that none of the money received has been expended for other than maintenance, construction or reconstruction of the streets, and reporting on their performance as specified in subdivision B 3 of § 33.1-23.02. Such reports shall be included in the scope of the annual audit of each municipality conducted by independent certified public accountants.