County, state get smaller chunk of liquid fuels money in 2026
Municipalities in Butler County will receive a combined $8,073,208 in liquid fuels payments this year. The amounts were announced Tuesday, March 3.
This marks a slight decrease from the $8,183,915 Butler County municipalities received from the process last year. Liquid fuels funds can be spent only on roadway maintenance and construction.
The county’s allotment is a fraction of the statewide liquid fuels allocation of $460,768,953 — itself a decrease from last year’s amount of $468,011,954, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
Each year, the state redistributes funds it collects from its Liquid Fuels Tax, better known as the “gas tax,” to municipalities. The amount each municipality receives is determined by a formula based on its population and the amount of eligible roadway. To be considered eligible for reimbursement, roads must be safely drivable at 15 mph and meet other standards, such as a minimum drivable surface of 16 feet.
Municipalities are allowed to spend up to 20% of their allotment on major equipment purchases.
Mark Gordon, the county’s chief of economic development and planning, said the general decrease in the county’s amount this year is due to a smaller amount of gas tax revenue generated by the state, which is due to an increase in the amount of electric vehicles.
“The population of vehicles has been changing, because year over year, there’s more and more electric vehicles that don’t take gasoline,” Gordon said. “As a result, the amount of gas tax and the amount of gallons of gasoline consumed tend to go down year over year. It's only slightly, but nonetheless, it goes down a little bit.”
According to an October 2025 news release from the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors, PennDOT sent a notice to municipalities last fall telling them to expect a lower liquid fuels payment in 2026.
“We were notified in the fall that it was going to go down,” said Kelly Maurer, Cranberry Township’s director of public works. “I got a notice about it in my email.”
As usual, Cranberry Township — having the largest population and the most miles of roads of any municipality in Butler County — received the biggest take of liquid fuels funding, with $992,154, based on 129.23 miles of eligible roads and a population of 33,096. This is a slight decrease from its award of $1,004,515 last year, even though the township’s eligible miles of roads increased from 128.14 and the population figure was unchanged.
Cranberry Township plans to spend all of its liquid fuels allotment on paving projects.
“One hundred percent of our liquid fuels goes to paving every year,” Maurer said. “We are going to be paving (the neighborhoods of) Sun Valley, Cranberry Square, Old Freedom Road and Valley Brook.”
Coming in second place was Butler Township, which received $591,914, based on a population of 17,230 and 91.29 miles of eligible road. Again, this marked a decrease from the $601,390 the township received last year.
The smallest amount went to West Sunbury, which received only $5,139.95 based on a population of 182 and only 0.61 mile of eligible road.
