State FY 2015 Capital Spending Up 3%

States’ fiscal year 2015 expenditures on capital projects, including construction, rose 3%, to an estimated $98.2 billion, the National Association of State Budget Officers has reported. Capital spending increased in sectors such as transportation and higher education but declined in environmental and housing programs.

NASBO’s latest annual roundup of state capital expenditures, released on Nov. 19, shows that Florida led, with $12.8 billion. Texas ranked second, with $8.5 billion, followed by New York at $7.5 billion, California at $6.1 billion and Illinois at $4.8 billion.

Federal funding was the largest revenue source for states’ overall 2015 capital spending, accounting for 37.6% of the total. Bonds ranked second, at 29.5%.

Spending on transportation, the largest sector, moved up 2.5%, to an estimated $61.3 billion, in 2015, with federal funds accounting for 40%. Higher education climbed 7.8%, to about $12 billion. Environmental-project spending dipped an estimated 4.9%, to $4.5 billion, and housing expenditures fell 10.5%, to $856 million.

Tom Ichniowski has been writing about the federal government as ENR’s Washington Bureau Chief since the George H.W. Bush administration, and he has covered at least five major highway bills. A recognized expert on government policy on infrastructure and regulation, Tom is also a Baltimore native and Orioles fan who grew up rooting for Brooks and Frank Robinson. He is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia’s graduate school of journalism, where he once used “unrelentless” in a headline.

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