29th Annual Highway Report: Administrative Disbursements

Administrative disbursements typically include general and main-office expenditures in support of state-administered highways. They do not include project-related costs but occasionally include “parked” funds, which are funds from bond sales or asset sales awaiting later expenditure. Therefore, they can vary widely from year to year. Administrative disbursements comprise about 7.6% of total disbursements, billion in 2022, the last time this assessment was completed.

In 2019, we measured administrative disbursements per lane-mile. For 2018, we measured administrative disbursements per centerline- mile, lane-mile, and vehicle- miles traveled (VMT) per lane- mile. This year, we measured administrative disbursements per lane-mile adjusted for urbanization, the same process that we used the past two years year. For this process, we take the administrative disbursement per lane-mile and divide it by the expected administrative 2023 Rank Expected Disbursement Adjusted Ratio disbursement per lane-mile to get a ratio. The average 2023 lane-mile disbursement is the last time this assessment was completed. This change is in line with an increasing spending trend over the last decade. Since 2015, total administrative disbursements have increased by about 52.5%, outpacing the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which has increased by about 28%.

In 2023, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Missouri reported the lowest administrative expenditure ratios, after adjusting for urbanization. Vermont, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Delaware reported the highest expenditure ratios. Compared to 2022, the states whose ratio worsened by the largest percentages were New Jersey, Arkansas, Maryland, North Carolina, and Ohio (114%, 76%, 68%, 67%, and 47% respectively).

The states that improved the most were Washington (43%), Pennsylvania (36%), Massachusetts (34%), North Dakota (25%), and Utah (19%). The disbursements per state- controlled lane-mile can vary widely from year to year reflecting funding actions and project schedules.

The Difference Between Maintenance and Administrative Disbursements

Some disbursement data can be counted in one of several categories. One example is benefits (vacation, health care, etc.) of state department of transportation maintenance workers. Certain states, such as Vermont, count the benefits as a maintenance disbursement since the employees are conducting routine highway maintenance. Other states, such as Delaware, count the benefits as an administrative disbursement since benefits are an administrative expense. Not surprisingly, Vermont ranks in the bottom 10 in Maintenance Disbursements, and Delaware has a bottom 10 ranking in Administrative Disbursements. As a result, it is important to look at both the individual disbursement categories and disbursements as a whole, as states have some leeway in their classification of certain expenditures.