On June 04, 2013, the Division of Budgets issued an updated statewide “Toll Credit Use Policy”.
This update included two additional changes which are indicated below in the last two bullets:

  • Toll credits will continue to be made available statewide to the Regional Transportation Planning Agencies (RTPAs) for federal match to all eligible federal-aid highway funding programs.
  • Toll credits can be used on all federal-aid highway funding programs EXCEPT for the ER Program.
  • Local agencies may now use other federal funding to replace the required local match for both On-System Local Highway Bridge Program (HBP) projects and Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) projects. With this option toll credits can be applied to each federal funding component in the project to increase the federal reimbursement rate to 100%. The limit of toll credit use for On-System Local Highway Bridge Program (HBP) projects and Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) projects is because all available funds have been fully programmed and there are more needs than funding capacity.
  • Two websites have been added to the policy to assist local agencies that wish to use toll credits for the federal Planning and Federal Transit Administration (FTA) funds.

While not the purpose of this Office Bulletin, here’s my chance to emphasize a key concept about toll credits that is often misunderstood:

Toll credits are NOT a source of funding for your project. They do NOT provide any additional federal funding for your project.

Toll credits substitute the need for matching funds on your federal-aid projects. Through the use of toll credits, it allows you to meet the non-federal match requirement for the federal funds on your project.