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Oregon Department of Transportation officials watched anxiously last week as two federal proposals were made to potentially shore up the nation’s transportation funding system – at least for the short term.

President Obama’s four-year, $302 billion transportation bill would fill the gap between diminishing gas tax revenues and current funding. Most of the money would come from corporate tax reform.

Another proposal by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., would dedicate $126.5 billion to fund highway and infrastructure investment over eight years. Most of the money would come from personal tax reform.

MAP-21, long-term transportation funding legislation authorized Oct. 1, 2012 for two years, is set to expire Sept. 30. But the highway trust fund could run out of cash as early as July, forcing some projects around the country to shut down during the busy summer construction season.

At least both sides are talking, said Travis Brouwer, federal affairs adviser for ODOT. He was in Washington, D.C., last week to lobby the state’s congressional delegation for long-term, sustainable funding.

“We’re hoping Congress will see this looming cliff and take appropriate action to provide funding for these projects that will allow us to continue building projects that are important to the community,” he said. “ODOT currently has cash in hand to float the government an IOU and pay contractors and not shut down projects. Some states are not in that position.”

With gas tax revenues declining nationally, lawmakers have plugged the federal highway trust fund with $55 billion from the general fund since 2008, Brouwer said. To maintain funding at current levels, about $15 billion per year would need to be added, he said.

If that federal funding – or an alternative – were not secured, ODOT could have roughly 30 percent less for the 2015 fiscal year (beginning Oct. 1) than the 2014 fiscal year. ODOT’s anticipated hit would be between $125 million and $150 million.

Under that scenario, state highway projects would be limited to pavement and bridge system preservation efforts, Brouwer said.

The president’s plan would shore up the immediate funding problem, he said, but make planning for larger projects difficult.

“It’s a one-time funding plan,” he said of the president’s plan. “It is not long-term, sustainable funding. It wouldn’t really solve the problem. But it would fill in the gap over four years.”