BELLEFONTE — Representatives of the Centre County Planning and Community Development Office presented their mid-year report on the Fee for Local Use program during this week’s Board of Commissioners meeting, outlining how the county is investing locally collected vehicle registration fees into municipal road and bridge projects.

The Fee for Local Use (FFLU) program, authorized under Pennsylvania’s Act 89 of 2013, allows counties to impose a $5 fee on vehicle and trailer registrations. Since Centre County adopted the fee in May 2017, it has collected more than a million dollars in revenue, all of which is reinvested in local transportation infrastructure.

“The revenue collected from this fee is dedicated exclusively to transportation projects including the construction, maintenance and repair of county and municipal roads and bridges,” said Centre County Transportation Planner Richa Rimal.

Rimal explained how FFLU grant funds fit into the county’s broader transportation funding strategy, traced the program’s impact since investment began in 2018 and previewed the next steps in planning future projects.

FFLU grant funds, along with revenue from the Liquid Fuels Tax Act of 1931 — a tax on primarily gasoline and diesel used to fund transportation infrastructure — and the “At Risk Bridge” Act of 2012, which provides support for structurally deficient local bridges using impact fees from natural gas drilling, are all funneled into the county’s transportation project fund.

“Together, these funding sources allow us to support and sustain critical road and bridge projects across the county,” Rimal said.

Between 2018 and 2025, funding requests for transportation projects exceeded funding by almost $6.2 million if only Liquid Fuels Tax funds were to be used. Across that same time frame, FFLU funding has contributed almost $1.5 million to help close that funding gap.

Because Centre County does not own any roads or bridges, all funds are directed to municipally owned infrastructure.

Since the program’s inception, 24 projects have been completed using FFLU grant funding, with nine others currently in progress.

“To date, a total of $1,011,536.24 in Fee for Local Use grant funding has been used,” Rimal said.

The active projects represent an additional $500,000 in funding to be spent on transportation infrastructure.

“The distribution indicates that the funding has been spread across various parts of Centre County rather than being concentrated in a single area,” Rimal said. “This demonstrates a countywide approach to addressing transportation needs and supporting infrastructure improvement in multiple municipalities.”

Board of Commissioners Chair Mark Higgins noted that nearly every township has benefited from FFLU grant investments.

“We’re really spreading that money around,” he said.

Projects are selected on a range of criteria, including the project’s urgency, overall condition and its potential impact on public safety. Additional considerations include whether the county has previously contributed funding to the area and whether the municipality or another partner is providing matching support.

“Projects addressing critical deficiencies or areas lacking basic transportation access receive higher priority,” Rimal said.

In June, the county received $272,275 in FFLU funds, bringing its total unallocated fund balance to $862,667.57.

Municipalities will be able to submit applications for transportation infrastructure projects beginning in August. According to planners, those proposals will inform how the county allocates its remaining uncommitted funds.

“These funds have been able to help us fund bridges that, otherwise — if they weren’t repaired — would have been really detrimental to the people who live in those areas,” said Commissioner Amber Concepcion. “Often these projects are bigger than a municipality can take on in any one big bite all by themselves, so filling in the funding gap is really crucial to getting some of these projects done.”

Commissioner Higgins emphasized that these investments are helping sustain these communities.

“This Fee for Local Use is building two bridges — in Howard and Bellefonte Borough — where it is the only way in and out of those neighborhoods,” Higgins said. “There are at least a couple other bridges where if those bridges hadn’t been repaired it would have been a multi-mile detour for the residents of those neighborhoods.”