Budgeting and Appropriations | Biennial enactment of two 12-month budgets; fiscal year begins July 1. Biennial budget requests are reviewed and approved by the Legislature, but projects are approved by the Transportation Commission, not the Legislature. |
Bonding or Pay-as-You-Go | The state uses pay-as-you-go financing. |
State-Level Funding Provided for DOT Budgets | FY 2011 (approved): $256.5 million* |
Allocation of Federal Transportation Funds to the DOT | Federal transportation funds are legislatively appropriated at the program or category level as part of the biennial budget process. |
Allocation of State Transportation Funds to the DOT | As with federal funds, state transportation funds are legislatively appropriated at the program or category level in the biennial budget process. |
Traditional State Funding and Finance for Highways | Fuel taxes; motor vehicle/rental car sales taxes; vehicle registration/license/title fees; truck weight fees; interest income. |
State Funding and Finance for Other Modes | Transit: Primarily local government funding; also some state fuel taxes and registration/license/ title fees. Aviation: Aviation fuel tax; allocation of gasoline and diesel taxes. Bridges: Included with highways. |
Innovative Transportation Funding and Finance | GARVEE bonds; design-build (authorized in statute); impact fees. |
Dedicated/Restricted State Funds and Revenues | The state constitution requires highway user fee revenues (including weight fees and fuel taxes) to be used as authorized by the Legislature-after deduction of statutory refunds and adjustments- solely for specific road and bridge funding purposes, including enforcement of highway safety, driver education, tourist promotion and administrative collective costs. Such revenues may be appropriated for other purposes by a three-fifths vote of the members of each house of the Legislature (Mont. Const. art. VIII, §6). State statute allocates a small portion of the gasoline dealers' license tax to other purposes, including aeronautics (Mont. Code Ann. §60-3-201). |
DOT Authorized to Retain Surplus Funds | Yes. Funds derived from highway user fees are constitutionally protected from diversion from the highway fund. MDT is authorized to retain excess funds with no stated limit. |
Legislative Approval Required to Move Funds Between Projects | No legislative approval is required. |
Transportation Funding Allocations through Local Aid | Transportation funds are allocated to local entities through a statutory distribution of gasoline and diesel taxes (Mont. Code Ann. §15-70-101). The funds provided for counties are distributed by a statutory formula based on rural road mileage, rural population and land area; the amount for incorporated cities and towns is distributed by a formula based on population and street and alley mileage; consolidated city-county governments receive a single payment based on a combined calculation. All funds are subject to low-bid requirements. These funds must be used for construction or maintenance of streets or roads. |