[atxsnail]

Originally Posted by Novacek

Right, unless the federal government gets out of the transit game entirely, I'm pretty confident Austin will get some amount of match. And there's been no indication that the feds are going to do that, under whichever administration or regardless of which party controls congress. In fact, a Biden administration may increase transit funding (though I'm not counting on that either way yet).

(And I still think it would have been better to pass the 2014 portion, and lock in a 50% match on part of the system from the Obama admin, but that ship has sailed)

As long as there's some federal money, I like Austin's chances.

1) We're the largest city in the country with no mass transit system. That's not to say we're "owed" anything, but it means there's some really good low-hanging fruit as far as bang-for-the-buck and productivity of federal investments. We float to the top on most of the objective measures the FTA uses to rank proposals.

2) As mentioned, having the guaranteed local money also helps the ranking. Also that it sticks around for operating expenses, rather than just being a bond for construction. That ensures the Feds that their contribution doesn't end up as a stranded asset.

Whether it will be 45%, who knows. But Capmetro seems pretty confident, since they were previously using a 40% federal number and actually bumped it up.

Ours also seems to have been the premier transit effort of this election cycle. Having the biggest, shiniest plan can't be a bad thing when it comes to ranking. (Under a new admin looking to make a statement, that is.)