Financial Planning For The Metropolitan Planning Organization

In the early spring of 1998, the Capital Area MPO in Raleigh, North Carolina was mandated by its policy board (Transportation Advisory Committee) to prepare a long-range transportation plan that would satisfy federal requirements and prevent conformity lapses for plan horizon and air quality. The staff and Technical Coordinating Committee determined that since there was insufficient time to develop a broad range of options for the LRTP, that current trends should be evaluated. This would prepare the MPO for the next generation of the LRTP by providing a framework for future updates, consolidating the components of the existing plan, and establishing a baseline “trend” condition to compare alternatives. The strongest component of the Current Trends Plan was to be the Financial Plan. The consulting firm of KPMG was retained as a subconsultant to Parsons Brinckerhoff to prepare an alternative revenue source analysis. This report was designed to test a number (over 20) of revenue generating mechanisms for the Capital Area. Each alternative source of funding could be compared with others in four areas: financial, political, legal, and administrative. While this report was being prepared, the Capital Area MPO staff created the baseline trends of its traditional sources of revenue: federal/state, local, and private monies. The sum of these fund sources would provide a ceiling of expected revenue to come into the Capital Area throughout the life of the transportation plan (year 2025). If the expected transportation capital, operating and maintenance needs of the Capital Area exceeded this amount in any of the three horizon years (2005, 2015, and 2025), then additional funding sources would have to be pursued as identified in the alternative revenue source analysis. This work describes the methods involved in developing the Financial Plan and Alternative Revenue Source Analysis Report. Estimation techniques, project cost estimation, inflation adjustments, and other operations were handled in Microsoft Excel in an open and consistent architecture. The importance of maintaining financial histories of the MPO is emphasized, as are the opportunities that creating a robust Financial Plan affords an MPO. Several concepts to help illustrate key points to elected officials are demonstrated.

• Digital Copy:
  • Purchase a digital copy of this publication for $25 USD
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Lane, J Scott
• Conference:
  • Seventh National Conference on Transportation Planning for Small and Medium-Sized Communities
  • Location: Little Rock Arkansas, United States
  • Date: 2000-9-28 to 2000-9-30
• Publication Date: 2000

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: CD-ROM
• Pagination: 14p
• Monograph Title: Seventh National Conference on Transportation Planning for Small and Medium-Sized Communities, September 28-30, 2000, Little Rock, Arkansas

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Air quality; Conformity; Cost estimating; Federal government; Financing; Inflation; Local government; Long range planning; Metropolitan planning organizations; Private enterprise; Revenues; State government; Statistical trends; Transportation planning
• Uncontrolled Terms: Financial planning; Financial sources
• Geographic Terms: Raleigh (North Carolina)
• Subject Areas: Finance; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I10: Economics and Administration; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01042422
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Mar 1 2007 8:38AM