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 don’t 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 year’s 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