Economics of Transportation in Today’s Environment
APA Florida Public Policy Workshop
Whit Blanton, FAICP
February 27, 2025
Discussion outline
• State Legislative Context
• Outcomes from the 2024 Session
• Federal Context – Executive Orders and Agency Directives
• State Initiatives in 2025
• Transportation Planning Next Steps
Economic Trends
2024 Legislative Context
Policy Actions
Outcomes for Planning
Policy Actions
• Record investments in transportation spending – $15.5 billion
• Moving Florida Forward – $370 million for congestion relief
• CS/HB 1301 – Dept. of Transportation
• Restricts funding for public transportation
• Limits advertising on public transportation vehicles
• Restricts lane repurposing for transit and adds requirements
• Changes FDOT mission and funding considerations
• Eliminates “balance” and “travel choices”
• Adds “most efficient and effective multimodalality and mobility”
• Reallocates unused New Starts transit capital funds to the Strategic Intermodal System
Lane Repurposing Guidebook
• Reflects changes in Florida Statutes
• Consider long-term congestion and safety impacts
• Tiered traffic analysis and property notifications
• Consistency with state, regional, local plans
• Application for a public transit project must be approved by a two-thirds vote of the transit authority board
• Ridership analysis for BRT projects
• 3,000 riders/day existing conditions
• 6,000 riders/day with new service opening year
• Projects not on the SHS must meet all statutory requirements for traffic analysis and public notice
Federal Context
Transitioning and ending
Congressionally-approved federal programs
Executive Orders
Agency Orders and Memos
Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act (2022)
Invests $350 billion in highway programs over 5 years – through FY26
Creates more opportunities for local governments and other entities
Funding
Apportioned to states by formula Competitive discretionary grants
Nearly 30 competitive grant programs Pilots Planning Implementation
Competitive Grant Funding Matrix
Nearly 40% increase in formula funding for transportation
Effectiveness hampered by cost increases due to inflation
IIJA Issues and Outcomes
Competitive grants take considerable resources Administer Application (often multiple times) Lengthy award process
Emphasis on carbon reduction, safety, equity and traditionally underserved populations
2024 Election Outcomes
• Single party control and a sense of urgency
• Cut federal spending
• Reduce taxes
• Series of Executive Orders in first days
• Political appointments to carry out agenda
• DOGE mission to cut federal spending and wasteful programs
• Culling the federal work force
Executive & Agency Orders
Tariffs Immigration Energy DEI Government Efficiency
Unleashing
American Energy
https://www.whitehouse.gov/ presidentialactions/2025/01/unleashingamerican-energy/
Eliminate the “electric vehicle (EV) mandate” and promote true consumer choice
No federal funding may be employed in a manner contrary to the principles
Interim Final Rule issued to remove federal regulations for National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
•Faster permitting timelines and enhanced coordination
•Changes take effect immediately (agencies must adjust their processes now)
Immediately pause disbursement of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
• 90-day agency reporting period
• Funding allocations reviewed for consistency
USDOT Secretary Sean Duffy
“I want to build more with less money, and I want us to build in a shorter period of time. It’s taking too long to build projects and time is what we’ve seen in the last four years prices have gone up in one study it was 70% and it’s gotten really expensive so we have to build more quickly. And so to that end, when I became the Secretary I rescinded the greenhouse gas emissions requirement and the national performance management measures. So, that’s gone.”
https://youtu.be/TLyIzRglG1g
USDOT Orders
Priorities outlined in agency memos include:
• Economic Growth: Focusing on projects that boost economic returns and are based in cost-benefit analysis.
• Policy Rollbacks: Rescinding initiatives related to climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts.
• Funding Prioritization: Allocating resources to communities with higher marriage and birth rates and ensuring compliance with federal immigration policies
Secretarial Memo: Implementation of EOs
"Implementation of Executive Orders Addressing Energy, Climate Change, Diversity, and Gender," directs USDOT to review and rescind policies, programs, and funding related to:
• Climate and EJ: Initiatives addressing greenhouse gas emissions and climate resilience
• DEI: Programs aimed at advancing racial equity and gender identity policies
• Justice40 Initiative: Programs focused on delivering benefits to disadvantaged communities
Revocations
Three major USDOT orders that guided climate adaptation, environmental justice, and equity considerations have been revoked
DOT Order 1000.17 (Department of Transportation Equity Council): This order established the Department of Transportation Equity Council to advise the Secretary on incorporating equity considerations into transportation policies.
DOT Order 4360 (Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Policy for DOT Operational Assets): This order required USDOT to integrate climate adaptation and resilience strategies into its policies and programs.
DOT Order 5610.2C (U.S. Department of Transportation Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations): This order provided guidance on how USDOT should consider environmental justice in transportation projects and programs.
USDOT Order: Economic Analysis and Funding Prioritization
• Establishes economic efficiency and costbenefit analysis as the foundation for all USDOT decisions (including grants, loans, and policy decisions)
• Expands the scope of economic analysis, potentially applying stricter financial scrutiny to projects previously exempt from these reviews
• Removal of the Social Cost of Carbon metric
• Community and Family Impact: USDOT is instructed to consider how policies affect American families and communities to ensure projects do not impose undue burdens
New Funding Priorities
• USDOT is emphasizing projects with strong economic returns, such as those using user-pay models and supporting job growth
• Emphasis on projects with clear economic returns, such as revenue-generating infrastructure and user-pay models (e.g., toll roads)
• Strict enforcement of Buy America provisions in grant awards
• Increased local financial commitment requirements for federally funded projects
• Funding should be directed toward areas demonstrating "family stability and population growth" as a long-term investment in economic development
• Funding considerations will include an assessment of the local fertility rate, marriage rate, and "traditional family stability metrics"
How might workforce reductions affect transportation?
• Federal Funding Processing Delays and Challenges to federal funding programs
• Slow the approval and disbursement of funds for MPO-led projects
• Formula funding administrative delays
• Delays in Environmental Review Processes
• Transportation projects requiring federal environmental clearance
• NEPA-related approvals for transportation projects, potentially affecting project delivery timelines
• Reduced Technical Assistance and Federal Coordination
• Delays in responses to inquiries, grant applications, and compliance/policy clarifications
• Ability to implement discretionary grant programs, technical assistance programming, research, and other key initiatives
• Data Disruptions
Transportation Planning Now
SB 462 (DiCeglie)
• Requires counties to submit annual transportation project data to FDOT, including revenues, expenditures, project classifications, and unexpended funds
• Allocates 6 cents per kWh from public electric vehicle charging stations to the State Transportation Trust Fund
• Requires studies for capacity improvements on limitedaccess highways to evaluate elevated roadways above existing lanes
• Sets an 18-month deadline for completing project development and environmental studies on new roads and highway expansions
• Revises requirements for utility relocation, allowing FDOT to reimburse up to 100 percent of the costs in a Rural Area of Opportunity on the SHS
HB 567 (McFarland)
• No additional MPOs except in urbanized areas not contiguous to other urbanized areas
• For LRTPs and TIPs, changes the required strategy “promote energy conservation” to “conserve natural resources,” and adds “reduce traffic and congestion.”
• Requires LRTP to support advanced air mobility, autonomous and electric vehicles, electric bicycles and motorized scooters.
• The MPOAC is abolished and authorizes FDOT to provide training
• Allows MPOs to execute a written agreement with FDOT for cooperative planning and requires MPOs, in collaboration with FDOT, to identify and prioritize a complete list of multimodal transportation projects consistent with the needs of the metropolitan planning area
• Requires FDOT to establish, in collaboration with each MPO, quality performance metrics such as safety, infrastructure condition, congestion relief, and mobility, with annual reporting and FDOT evaluation
• Requires FDOT to prioritize projects that close gaps in the SIS
• Requires FDOT to review the boundaries of its districts and whether any should be redrawn due to population growth and increased urban density, by October 31, 2025
SB 110 – Rural Renaissance Initiative
• Florida Arterial Road Modernization program – amends existing arterial rural highway projects statutes to incorporate funding for roads used primarily as farm-to-market connections between rural agricultural areas and market distribution centers
• Expands Rural Infrastructure Fund – facilitates planning, preparing, and financing of infrastructure projects in rural communities to encourage job creation and capital
• Increases Rural Revolving Loan program funding investments
• Improves Coordination for federal broadband programs
• Expands Small County Road Assistance Program
DOGE in Florida
• Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a Florida version of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to eliminate “waste, fraud and abuse” on the state level
• Task Force with 1 year term
• Use of AI tools to audit state and local agencies
• Deep dive of university operations and spending, including debt and financial management practices
• Examine course catalogs
• Eliminate redundant boards and commissions
• Audit the spending habits of local entities to “shine the light on waste and bloat”
MPO Consolidation
• Florida has 27 MPOs
• HB 425 in 2023 required the Tampa Bay area MPOs to submit feasibility report
• MOU adopted
• Consensus on board composition
• RFP for management & legal guidance
• FAQs and 1-pager summary
• Legislative interest in other mergers
Implications for Transportation Initiatives
• Reassess grant applications – emphasize broad economic growth and cost savings rather than climate or social equity benefits
• Strengthen cost-benefit analysis and financial performance metrics in funding applications
• Prepare for additional reporting requirements related to economic and traffic congestion performance metrics
• Tailor funding proposals to highlight economic growth, job creation, and infrastructure investment benefits
• Prepare for policy adjustments: climate-focused and DEI-related projects may lose federal backing, requiring alternative funding or revised justifications
• Project justifications may consider focusing on economic efficiency, cost savings, and return on investment rather than climate or equity considerations.
• Engage with local partners: address the new emphasis areas on family and community impacts in transportation decision-making
USDOT Order: Ensuring Reliance Upon Sound
Economic Analysis in Department of Transportation Policies, Programs, and Activities
• New policies and funding criteria emphasize cost-benefit analysis and economic efficiency, while removing climate and DEI-based evaluation factors