South Dakota Transportation Secretary Darin Bergquist says the Federal Omnibus Budget that passed Congress Thursday is good for South Dakota. Bergquist spoke before the Senate Transportation Committee today (Friday). But he says the Federal Highway Trust Fund may be out of money by September.
The Secretary told senators, “We talked Wednesday about the fact there is a provision in 921, for a 12-plus billion dollar transfer from the general fund to the federal highway trust fund. But there are now some indications that that may not be enough. Potentially, the big deal is that this is not the first time we’ve been down that road with the federal highway trust fund.”
Bergquist says the 2008 Federal Highway Trust Fund was in danger of insolvency as well. He says that fund cannot legally run on deficit spending, and it may come to the point when the federal government tells the D-O-T it can’t pay its share of funds for highway work.