NDOT board member says Nevada being cheated of federal funding

Tom Skancke, a Southern Nevada member of the Nevada Department of Transportation board, says the state is being cheated by the way federal Highway Fund money is allocated.

“If you look at population growth in the last 15 years, we are being penalized,” he told other members of the board chaired by Gov. Brian Sandoval.

Skancke said while many East Coast and Midwest states are seeing population declines, the West is growing. But, Skancke said, the feds are using the 2000 census data to allocate highway funding that pays for most road construction and maintenance nationwide.

Altogether, there is more than $930 million in highway funds in the 2016-2017 Nevada budget, most of it going to NDOT.

He said Southern Nevada, where he lives, has probably grown 30 percent in the past 15 years.

“Congress should be debating this on 2014 population numbers, not 2000 population numbers,” he said.

Skancke made the statements after NDOT staff told the board Nevada will get $5 million to $10 million more next year than it did this year.

“People say we’re going good betting an extra $5 million,” he said. “I’d rather see us get another $50 million.”

He called on Sandoval to bring the issue before the Western Governor’s Association saying, “it’s a western governor’s issue.”

Sandoval said Skancke had a good point and that he would do so when the association holds its December meeting in Las Vegas.