Conditions and Performance Chapter Listing

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Introduction

Summary

Highway and Bridge Finance

Transit Finance

Public Funding

Public funding for mass transit in 1997 totaled $17.5 billion, representing a 2.4 percent increase in funding levels over 1995. From 1961 to 1997, public funding for transit increased at an average annual rate of 9.4 percent (4.8 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars); see Exhibit 6-17.

Exhibit 6-17. Public Transit Funding: Current and Constant (1997) Dollars, 1961-1997

As Exhibit 6-18 shows, however, this growth has not been constant over time, and has recently been lower than in the prior three decades (though it is higher than the 1980s when adjusted for inflation). As Exhibits 6-19 and 6-20 show, most of this increase in public spending over time has come at the State and local level, while Federal funding has remained relatively flat.

Exhibit 6-18

Average Annual Growth Rate in Public Funding for Transit

Exhibit 6-19. Public Funding for Transit by Government Jurisdiction, 1961-1997

Exhibit 6-20. Public Funding for Transit by Government Jurisdiction Selected Years 1956-1997

Of the $17.5 billion in public funding in 1997, $4.7 billion, or 27 percent, came from the Federal government. This represented a slight increase from recent years, though it remains well below the peak of 43 percent reached in the early 1980s (Exhibit 6-21).

Exhibit 6-21. Federal Share of Public Funding for Transit, 1961-1997