01/13/2021

ACEC Ohio Transportation Committee Update, 1/13/21

ODOT Budget Request:

The Ohio Department of Transportation budget request to the Office of Budget and Management was released last week, it's a $6.5 Billion budget request for FY 2022-2023 emphasizing safety and preservation.  This budget was released before the stimulus bill passed the end of December in Congress giving ODOT additional backstop dollars. The budget will be introduced in early February and the Ohio General Assembly must pass the the bill by March 31, 2021 to be effective July 1st.  Click Here for ODOT Budget Request

Stimulus Dollars:

Stimulus dollars to Ohio will be approximately $335 million based on the AASHTO estimates, in speaking with ODOT some of these dollars will be allocated to the larger MPO's.  ODOT anticipates receiving somewhere between $200-280 million from this stimulus package. At this point, ODOT expects the dollars will be put back into the projects delayed on the major-new TRAC list. Click here for AASHTO estimates

PPP Loans and Overhead Credit:

ACEC National continues to work on the unintended consequences of a credit to the overhead rate to those engineering companies taking a PPP Loan and asking for forgiveness. This is unique situation and ACEC has raised the concern with both FHWA and the Congressional Small Business Committee.  See article: Message from Beth -- December 16, 2020  FHWA guidance is expected in the next few weeks, and a Congressional fix is still being pursued with a call to action coming soon from ACEC.

Partnering Conference 2021:

The planning committee is working on a virtual session in early March as a continuation of the 2019 session on LOI's, please hold the morning of March 2, 2021 and more details will be forthcoming.