Thursday, April 16, 2009

Feds suspend all reimbursements for state DOT

Sounds like a major deal: the Federal Highway Administration has suspended all reimbursements to the state DOT amid a dispute over how the state is submitted bills for reimbursements.

At issue is the well known and problematic SHARE computer system and how it produces reimbursement reports. To make a long story short, those reports don't give the feds what they need to repay the state.

A letter to DOT Secretary Gary Giron said regulations require states to have financial management systems that allow federal officials to adequately trace whether funds are spent in compliance with federal law.

While there a still a million questions about the SHARE system and it's abilities, another question revolves around what the state would do without all that federal funding? That's a big question, given that about 40 percent of the state DOT's budget comes from the feds, and that the state has an 80 - 20 split on construction projects, with the 80 percent coming from Washington.

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