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Transportation Planning Capacity Building Program

— Peer Exchange Report —

Financial Planning at the MPO Level

Summary

This report summarizes key themes from a peer exchange on Financial Planning at the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) Level in New York, New York on June 30-July 1, 2011. The purpose of the exchange was to discuss effective practices in financial planning at the MPO level. The event was sponsored by the Transportation Planning Capacity Building (TPCB) Program, which aims to advance the state of the practice in multimodal transportation planning nationwide. The TPCB Program is jointly funded by the FHWA and FTA.  

NYMTC worked with the FHWA New York Division Office, the New York City Metropolitan Office and the FTA Region 2 Office to frame the discussion on financial planning and include peers from other MPOs around the country with similar challenges and opportunities. The goals of the financial planning roundtable were to:

• Provide planning staff from various MPOs an opportunity to interact with one another and learn from one another's work, as well as to engage both FHWA and FTA on how to simplify and allow for more transparency, innovation, and efficiency in the metropolitan planning process.
• Share best practices for collaboration among MPOs, implementing agencies, elected officials, local stakeholders, and the general public.
• Highlight notable practices and methodologies for the performance of revenue forecasting and project cost estimation.
• Identify how each agency approaches the planning process for major projects, including any incorporation of innovative financing techniques and the potential for equity investment from the private sector.