Federal Transportation Financial Report Released by DOT

Contact DOT 86-97 BTS Product Line 202-366-DATA Michael Rossetti Technical 617-494-2020

Wednesday, June 18, 1997 -- U.S. Secretary of Transportation Rodney E. Slater today released a new report, Transportation Receipts and Outlays in the Federal Budget: Fiscal Years 1977-94, from the Department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).

"This report provides a valuable picture of how the federal government collects and invests America's transportation dollars," said Slater. "It identifies trends that have emerged over the past 18 years, and tracks shifts in the five major transportation trust funds that have occurred over time."

Compiled from the Budget of the United States, highlights from the report include:

• Receipts totaled more than $25 billion in 1994. These receipts are collected through special taxes, user fees and trust funds. Users covered about two-thirds of the cost of federal transportation programs; the remaining third came from general funds or trust fund balances from previous years.
• Transportation outlays constituted only 2.67 percent of total federal outlays in 1994: $39 billion versus $1.5 trillion. This proportion ranged from a high of 4.08 percent in 1977 to a low of 2.43 percent in 1990.
• Highway and aviation taxes accounted for nearly 90 percent of all federal transportation receipts collected from 1977 to 1994; highway and aviation accounted for 70 percent of all federal transportation outlays during the same period.

BTS Director Dr. T. R. Lakshmanan said, "This publication is an excellent overview of national transportation finances. We look forward to releasing detailed data on state and local transportation finances in the very near future."

The report is available in both printed and electronic forms. To order printed copies, call (202) 366-DATA, fax (202) 366-3640, e-mail orders@bts.gov, or write to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, U.S. Department of Transportation, Room 3430, 400 Seventh St., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20590. An electronic version of the report is available on the Bureau's Internet site at http://www.bts.gov.