State Transportation Secretary John Porcari announced Wednesday $1.1 billion in cuts to highway and transit projects during the next six years, but motorists and riders will see little immediate effect on their commutes.
Long-term delays for major highway improvements include the building of the high-occupancy and toll lanes on Interstate 95 in Baltimore County.
Maintenance is priority
“The first dollar goes to system preservation,” such as highway and bridge repaving, he told reporters at a news conference in Annapolis.
Porcari said the “fix it first” priority resulted from a $115 million annual drop in transportation revenues.
At $9.4 billion through fiscal 2014, “it is still a larger capital program than Gov. O’Malley inherited,” Porcari said.
Reduced gasoline use due to high prices and lower vehicle sales in a slowing economy caused the cuts, even before the federal government announced reduced reimbursements from its Highway Trust Fund.
Projects moving ahead
All major projects in the works, such as the InterCounty Connector in Montgomery and planning for new lines for the Baltimore and Washington D.C. Metro systems, will be funded, but completion dates will be put off.
The purchase of new cars and locomotives for the MARC commuter train system also will continue, but station improvements will be delayed.
Intersection improvements related to job transfers near Aberdeen Proving Ground in Harford, Fort Meade in Anne Arundel and Bethesda National Naval Medical Center resulting from the Base Realignment and Closure process also will be made as planned, but larger road improvements will be put off.
“We hope to get a lot of them back on track” once the economy improves, Gov. Martin O’Malley said at a Board of Public Works meeting.
Don Fry, president of the Greater Baltimore Committee who has lobbied for greater transportation funding, said the cuts are a “step back.”
“We have a significant transportation infrastructure crisis facing us,” he said.
“It’s going to start affecting lifestyle and quality of life.”
More cuts to come
The transportation cuts were just the latest bad news this week from state government, which faces cuts in other areas of the budget because of lower sales and income tax receipts.
“This is primarily due to the national downturn in the economy,” O’Malley said.
“There will be cuts. It will be painful. It will be painful in the short term, and it will probably be more painful over the next couple of years.”
He said it will be “infinitely more painful” if slots aren’t approved.
“No one has a crystal ball that tells us when we’re going to come out of this and get back on the upswing,” the governor said.
“But when we do, we’re going to come out of it more quickly and actually more strongly that other states in the union.”
Staff Writer Jaime Malarkey contributed to this story.
