Memorandum
Date August 29, 2019
To Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization
From Annette Demchur and Scott Peterson, Interim Co-Executive Directors
Re Proposed Revisions to Certain 3C Budgets (FFY 2019)
At this point in federal fiscal year 2019, just after the third quarter, certain spending patterns have become clear, and MPO staff requests your concurrence on a slate of budget adjustments designed to accommodate those patterns. Table 1 shows these adjustments, along with explanatory comments. These adjustments pertain to selected 3C-funded line items, and as shown in the table, the net result of the adjustments would be zero. These adjustments would simply transfer funds from one set of line items to another to reflect actual spending to date, as well as that forecast to occur between now and the end of the federal fiscal year.
In any given year, expenditures by project line item do not conform to expectations in all cases. There are two major reasons for this. The first concerns staffing. When someone resigns from CTPS, there is almost always a gap between when that person departs and when a new person is hired in her/his place. This staffing gap results in lower expenditures on certain projects than had been planned when the UPWP budget was being developed. These gaps are unavoidable, given the time it takes to recruit new professional-level staff and get them up to speed.
The second reason why expenditures dont always unfold as planned has to do with the simple fact that, in addition to staffing levels, many other things can and do change after the UPWP is developed. Budget estimates for each project line item are made in the spring of the year, a full half-year before work even commences. Then, once work is in progress, various things arise that can affect how much staff time is allocated to one project versus another.
For perspective, this years proposed adjustments are much less in total dollar amount as those of a year ago and involve fewer line items.
Table 1 below describes the proposed adjustments.
Table 1: Proposed Adjustments to FFY 2019 Budgets for 3C-funded CTPS Projects |
||||||
Project |
Current |
Proposed |
Proposed |
|||
# |
Project |
Budget |
Change |
Budget |
|
Comment |
8119 |
Long-Range Transportation Plan |
$362,290 |
$52,000 |
$414,290 |
Cost for added model runs (updated
projections) and changes in staff assigned. |
|
8219 |
Transportation Improvement Program |
$244,190 |
$30,000 |
$274,190 |
Extra expenses to complete the interactive
database with new software. |
|
9219 |
MPO Graphics |
$85,250 |
$10,000 |
$95,250 |
Unanticipated costs to update maps and to
create new format for TIP document. |
|
5519 |
Geographic Info System/Database Management |
$157,570 |
($30,000) |
$127,570 |
Shift of person hours to accommodate high
priority work. |
|
8819 |
Performance-based Planning and Programming |
$155,300 |
($52,000) |
$103,300 |
Staff resources were shifted to accommodate
LRTP schedule. |
|
7119 |
Regional Model Enhancement |
$795,760 |
($10,000) |
$785,760 |
Lapse in filling vacant positions. |
|
|
Total |
$1,800,360 |
$0 |
$1,800,360 |
|
Blank |
Blank |
||||||
Total 3C funding redistributed among projects |
$92,000 |
Blank |