The O’Malley administration’s decision to make deep cuts in Montgomery County’s two major transit projects while leaving Baltimore City’s Red Line largely unscathed has incensed some county officials.
Montgomery officials are concerned that Gov. Martin O’Malley’s cuts to local plans will cost the area federal transit dollars.
Last week, Maryland Transportation Secretary John Porcari slashed $1.1 billion from state transportation projects, citing lower-than-expected tax revenues.
Those cuts included reductions to the state’s three big transit projects; the proposed Purple Line connecting Bethesda and New Carrollton; Montgomery’s Corridor Cities Transitway linking Shady Grove and Clarksburg; and Baltimore City’s Red Line between Johns Hopkins and suburban Baltimore County.
Porcari’s cuts eliminated 47 percent of the $91 million in state aid for the Corridor Cities Transitway and 19 percent of the Purple Line’s $130.8 million in state funds, but only 7 percent of the $239 million in state money for Baltimore City’s Red Line.
Some Montgomery County Council members worry that the discrepancy in funding would encourage federal officials to view the Baltimore City system as the state’s preferred project.
Heightening those fears is the state’s commitment to land acquisition and construction for the Baltimore Red Line but not the two Montgomery County projects.
“So this could entirely undercut our ability to receive federal funding?” Council Transportation Committee Chairwoman Nancy Floreen asked during a Monday meeting about the cuts.
When county aides told her it could, she said Montgomery’s message to O’Malley should be that the situation was “intolerable.”
Staff members from Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett’s office are working with council staff to draft a letter to O’Malley, former mayor of Baltimore, asking for an explanation for the preferential treatment for the Baltimore project.
Henry Kay, deputy administrator of the Maryland Transit Administration, said all projects are on track and will be sent to the federal government in the spring for approval to enter the preliminary engineering phase.
According to Kay, the state set aside $117 million in land acquisition and construction funding for the Red Line because Baltimore City legislators were promised the funds during former Gov. Robert Ehrlich’s administration, and “cutting it would send a bad message about the future of the project.”
