Highway Block Grant Funds
How Grant Aid Amounts Are Calculated and Records Updated
Highway Block Grant Aid has two "Apportionments." Apportionment A is 12% of the State’s highway revenues. In 2003 it was $10.56 per resident and approximately $1,182.75 per mile of Class IV and V highway. The smaller portion, Apportionment B, is a set amount of $400,000. It is intended to assist municipalities with high roadway mileage but very low property value relative to other municipalities. Not all municipalities receive Apportionment B funding. This article focuses on Apportionment A.
Calculation of Grant Aid Amounts
The NHDOT distributes Apportionment A quarterly to municipalities based on relative population and miles of town maintained roads.
Population. The NH Office of State Planning (OSP) estimates the population of each municipality annually. The NHDOT distributes one-half of Apportionment A to each municipality based on its proportion of the total state population.
Road Mileage. A municipality’s share of the other half of Apportionment A is based on its proportion of the total Class IV and Class V road miles in the state.
Class IV highways are state highway routes within the "compact sections" of 27 cities and towns. The NHDOT Commissioner designates the specific highway sections by procedures described in RSA 229:5, IV. Class V highways are all other roads, paved or unpaved, that the town or city has the duty to maintain year around.
By definition, municipalities do not maintain Class VI roads. Therefore, they do not receive Block Grant Aid for Class VI roads. When a municipality accepts maintenance responsibility for a new or Class VI road, it must notify the NHDOT to receive Grant Aid for it.
Updating Mileage Records and Population
Each March the NHDOT Bureau of Municipal Highways sends an "Information Report" to each municipal office. In Section 2 it requests information about highway reclassifications or discontinuance, or any other action regarding highways or bridges. The municipality must provide three information items:
Road Name
Classification
Length
They should also provide, if known, the Road Inventory Number (RIN). The NHDOT database ties roadway information to the RIN because since road names often change.
If the total mileage appears in error, municipal officials can also request the four items for each road. To correct any inaccuracy, municipal officials must provide a map and all four items for each needed correction. For certain mileage changes, the NHDOT will survey municipal roads to verify road lengths.
Each April the OSP informs municipal offices of the data it will use to calculate population estimates. Municipalities have 30 days to comment on this data. (Agencies use OSP population estimates for other state-municipality fund transfers unrelated to roads.)
Obviously, the state population and mileage records are important to the amount of Block Grant Aid received by each New Hampshire municipality. The typical municipality has a small staff to review this information. Yet, inaccurate records could result in a municipality receiving less than its appropriate Block Grant Aid.
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