General Fund Transfers For State Infrastructure

Under current law, once a trigger based on economic growth occurs, the state treasurer is required to transfer a percentage of the total general fund revenues to the capital construction fund and the highway users tax fund (HUTF), which is further allocated to the state highway fund. The required transfers will be made for each state fiscal year in a 5-year period, but the amount of the transfers for a state fiscal year may be reduced or eliminated if the state has to refund excess state revenues under the taxpayer's bill of rights. In general, if the refund is greater than 1.5% but less than 3% of the total general fund revenues, then the required transfers are halved, and if it is greater than 3%, then the required transfers are eliminated altogether.

For each state fiscal year that the required transfers are reduced or eliminated, section 1 of the bill adds on another year of transfers to the capital construction fund and the highway users tax fund. Therefore, there will be 5 fiscal years with the full statutory transfers to the funds, regardless of the number of fiscal years that it takes to do so.

Section 2 specifies that the moneys in the state highway fund allocated from any of the statutorily required transfers to the HUTF may be used for general highway operations and maintenance.

(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)