Transportation funding strategies are not static. They need to adapt to changing needs, priorities, and opportunities in the transportation sector. How do you update your transportation funding strategies to ensure they are effective, efficient, and equitable? Here are some tips to help you.
Before you can update your transportation funding strategies, you need to understand your current situation. This includes reviewing your existing sources and uses of funds, your performance and outcomes, your gaps and challenges, and your stakeholders and partners. You also need to analyze your legal, institutional, and political environment, and how it affects your funding options and constraints.
Next, you need to define your goals and objectives for your transportation system and services. What are you trying to achieve and how will you measure your success? Your goals and objectives should be aligned with your vision, mission, and values, as well as with your local, regional, and national plans and policies. They should also reflect the needs and preferences of your users and beneficiaries.
Once you have a clear picture of your current situation and your desired outcomes, you can explore your funding alternatives. These are the different ways you can generate, allocate, and leverage funds for your transportation projects and programs. Some examples of funding alternatives are taxes, fees, tolls, grants, loans, bonds, public-private partnerships, value capture, and user charges. Each funding alternative has its own advantages and disadvantages, and you need to evaluate them based on various criteria, such as revenue potential, equity, efficiency, feasibility, and acceptability.
After you have explored your funding alternatives, you can develop your funding plan. This is a document that outlines how you will fund your transportation system and services over a certain period of time. Your funding plan should include the following elements: a summary of your goals and objectives, a description of your funding alternatives, a projection of your revenues and expenditures, a prioritization of your projects and programs, a risk assessment and mitigation strategy, and a monitoring and evaluation framework .
Your funding plan is not complete without communicating and engaging with your stakeholders. These are the people and groups who have an interest or influence in your transportation system and services, such as users, customers, providers, operators, regulators, policymakers, advocates, and investors. You need to inform them about your funding plan, solicit their feedback and input, address their concerns and expectations, and build their support and trust.
Finally, you need to update and revise your funding plan regularly. This is because your transportation funding strategies are not set in stone. They need to respond to changing conditions, such as new opportunities, challenges, innovations, and trends. You also need to monitor and evaluate your funding plan, to see if it is achieving your goals and objectives, and to identify areas for improvement and adjustment.