_________ Bill No. _______

Introduced By _______________________________________________________________________________

A Bill for an Act entitled: "An Act revising the apportionment of state funds to the primary highway system; providing that each financial district must receive no less than 15 percent or more than one-fourth of the total funds available for the primary highway system in any biennium; and amending section

60-3-205, MCA."

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Montana:

Section 1.  Section 60-3-205, MCA, is amended to read:

"60-3-205.   Apportionment of state funds to primary highway system. (1) Prior to Before the beginning of each biennium, the commission, referring to highway sufficiency ratings developed by the department, shall designate a level of sufficiency considered adequate and a lesser level of sufficiency considered critical, both to be used to compute the apportionment of federal-aid highway funds for the primary highway system during the succeeding biennium.

(2)  The department shall then compute the ratio:

(a)  between the mileage rated below adequate sufficiency in each financial district and the total mileage rated below adequate sufficiency of the primary highway system in the state; and

(b)  between the mileage rated at or below critical sufficiency in each financial district and the total mileage rated at or below critical sufficiency of the primary highway system in the state.

(3)  The department, subject to the limitation provided in subsection (4), shall then distribute three-fourths of the available federal-aid highway funds for the primary highway system among the financial districts according to the ratios computed in subsection (2)(a) and one-fourth of the available federal-aid highway funds for the primary highway system among the financial districts according to the ratios computed in subsection (2)(b).

(4)  A financial district may not receive less than 15% or more than one-third one-fourth of the total funds available for the primary highway system in any biennium. If a financial district would receive more than one-third one-fourth of the total funds available under the formula in subsection (3), its apportionment is limited to the one-third one-fourth maximum and any excess funds that it would have received must be redistributed among the other districts according to the formula.

(5)  To the extent necessary to permit the orderly programming and construction of projects, obligations in any financial district may exceed the amount apportioned to that district by up to 25%. The amount of excess obligations must be deducted from future apportionments to that district."

-END-