Issue Position: Transportation

Issue Position

Transportation funding is arguably the most competitive line item in our State's budget. Lifestyles and transportation needs are extremely diverse across the state. The clash between rural and urban priorities is most evident in transportation priorities. Leaders in our urban counties are promising less spending on roads and more on mass transit and rural leaders want more spending on roads and bridges.

Jeff has been fighting hard as a Commissioner for the past seven years to fund two key projects; the dualization of Route 404 and the replacement of Dover Bridge. Key road and bridge projects exist throughout the district. Others will be supporting expensive projects like the Purple and Red Lines and "walkable communities". Jeff will fight for issues that are important to rural residents. He will work hard for road and bridge projects in Cecil, Kent, Queen Anne's and Caroline Counties.

Jeff will challenge the leadership in the urban districts. Nearly 60% of Maryland Department of Transportation operating budget monies go to urban transit expenditures while 13% to highways. It is important to understand who pays the expenses. Public transit systems are enterprise operations. Their budget consists of revenue generated by users and taxpayer subsidies. The farebox recovery rates of a public transportation system is the share of operating expenses that are paid for by the passengers. During the current fiscal year, the Baltimore area public bus and METRO passengers will pay 27% of the total operating costs and Light Rail users will only pay 17% of the total operating cost. The cost per passenger trip is also much higher for light rail. For busses the cost per trip is $4.25, for Metro the cost per trip is $3.85 and for light rail the cost jumps to $5.15. The fare for light rail is $1.60.

Maryland statute requires passengers to pay at least 35% of the public transportation operating costs. The farebox recovery rate has not improved in recent years because the cost of operation has outpaced revenues. MTA has not increased fares for public transportation since 2003 while bridge tolls for the Bay Bridge have increased by 50% and Hatem Bridge have increased by 33%. It is important to note that the toll for the Inter-County Connector remained unchanged. During the legislative sessions in 2011 and 2012 the Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act each year would have required the MTA to increase fares. The legislation did not pass. If fares were increased this year from $1.60 to $1.80 it would have added $10.3 million in revenue.

Legislators and MTA have been planning for the construction of the Red and Purple lines and the Corridor Cities Transitway (CCT). The cost of the three projects will total $5.3 billion. (for perspective there are approximately $60 million planned highway/bridge construction projects in our district). To operate the additional light rail lines the state will need the taxpayers to pony up more than $125 million per year.

It appears that there are a host of other problems with the light rail projects but legislatures and our Governor still insist that the projects move forward indicating that light rail is the of transportation that is least polluting and most energy efficient. It seems that they their support will not change no matter how high the cost and little the return might be. We are hearing that we will be better off if we switch from cars to rail travel.

For the rest of us it appears to be another strategy of moving toward more social engineering. We are seeing our government punish vehicle commuters by charging higher tolls, gas taxes, and titling fees that generate more money that is desperately needed to maintain and expand our road and bridge infrastructure. We are also seeing people who use public transportation being rewarded by an expansion of services at a price that has not increased since 2003.

(1) Analysis of the FY 2014 Maryland Executive Budget. Department of Legislative Services. Office of Policy Analysis, Annapolis, Md. February 2013. Retrieved from
http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/pubs/budgetfiscal/2014fy-budget-docs-operating-j00-maryland-department-of-transportation-overview.pdf

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