AASHTO Journal, 23 March 2012
The Highway Trust Fund is expected to remain solvent through well into Fiscal Year 2013, according to the March baseline forecast released by the Congressional Budget Office this week.
The CBO report takes a 10-year look at how much revenue would be needed for the Trust Fund to support current FY 2012 spending levels. However, at current spending levels, the CBO expects that the Trust Fund’s Highway Account would end FY 2013 with a more than $4.6 billion deficit while the Transit Account would remain solvent into FY 2014.
Last month (see February 3 AASHTO Journal story), the CBO released its semi-annual forecast that found “The two accounts will be unable to meet obligations in a timely manner sometime during 2013 (for the Highway Account) and 2014 (for the Transit Account),” according to the report. “From 2008 to 2010, the Highway Trust Fund received transfers from the General Fund of the Treasury totaling almost $35 billion to keep the trust fund from being exhausted.”