---
kind: "section"
citation: "49 C.F.R. § 611.305"
title: "49"
number: "611.305"
heading: "Small Starts local financial commitment criteria."
url: "https://uscodex.org/cfr/49/611.305"
---

# §611.305. Small Starts local financial commitment criteria.


In order to approve a grant under [49 U.S.C. 5309](/usc/49/5309.md) for a Small Starts project, FTA must find that the proposed project is supported by an acceptable degree of local financial commitment, as required by [49 U.S.C. 5309(h)(3)(c)](/usc/49/5309.md?p=h-3-c). The local financial commitment to a proposed project will be evaluated according to the following measures:

- (a) The proposed share of the project's capital costs to be funded from sources other than Small Starts funds, including both the non-Small Starts match required by Federal law and any additional state, local, or other Federal capital funding (known as “overmatch”);
- (b) The current capital and operating financial condition of the project sponsor;
- (c) The commitment of capital and operating funds for the project and the entire transit system including consideration of private contributions; and
- (d) The accuracy and reliability of the capital and operating costs and revenue estimates and the financial capacity of the project sponsor.
- (e) From time to time FTA may publish through policy guidance standards based on characteristics of projects and/or the corridors to be served. If a proposed project can meet the established standards, FTA may assign an automatic rating on one or more of the local financial commitment criteria outlined in this section.
- (f) FTA may amend the measures for these local financial commitment criteria. Any such amendment will be included in policy guidance and subject to a public comment process.
- (g) As a candidate project proceeds through project development, a greater level of local financial commitment will be expected.
- (h) For each proposed project, ratings for [paragraphs (a) through (d)](#a..d) of this section will be reported in terms of descriptive indicators, as follows: “high,” “medium-high,” “medium,” “medium-low,” or “low.” For [paragraph (a)](#a) of this section, the percentage of Small Starts funding sought from [49 U.S.C. 5309](/usc/49/5309.md) will be rated and used to develop the summary local financial commitment rating, but only if it improves the rating and not if it worsens the rating.
- (i) The ratings for each measure described in this section will be combined into a summary local financial commitment rating of “high,” “medium-high,” “medium,” “medium-low,” or “low.” The process by which the summary local financial commitment rating will be developed, including the assigned weights to each of the measures, will be described in policy guidance.

## Notes

### Authority

Authority: 49 U.S.C. 5309(g)(6) and 5334(a)(11); 49 CFR 1.91.

### Source

Source: 78 FR 2031, Jan. 9, 2013, as amended at 90 FR 28231, July 1, 2025, unless otherwise noted.