The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials recently unveiled its 38th Survey of State Funding for Public Transportation, which provides a snapshot of state-by-state public transportation investments as well as how state departments of transportation utilize funding and tax mechanisms to support both transit operations and capital projects.

[Above photo by the Missouri DOT.]

Compiled by AASHTO’s Council on Public Transportation, the survey is based on fiscal year 2018 data from 50 state departments of transportation and the District of Columbia.

[On a related note, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao recently crafted a special ‘thank you’ message for America’s public transit workers for working through the COVID-19 crisis.]

Some key findings from its report include:

• In FY 2018, states provided $19.2 billion in transit funding while federal funds totaled $12.9 billion.
• States collectively provided $6.3 billion more funding for public transit than the federal government with six states – California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania – accounting for 78 percent of that increased investment.
• Eighteen states and the District of Columbia increased their public transit funding in FY 2018 by a total of $669 million over FY 2017 levels, whereas 17 states registered a decline in transit funding and 15 states reported no change in transit funding levels. That includes four states – Alabama, Hawaii, Nevada, and Utah – that do not fund public transit.
• Federal funds accounted for more than 50 percent of the total transit funding in 37 states, while state funding exceeded federal funding in only 14 states.