Booming development and dwindling federal support soon will force state lawmakers to raise gas taxes or vehicle registration and titles fees to fund transportation projects, transit experts said.
The gap between improvements and the money to fund them continues to widen, said regional transportation officials on a panel at the Maryland Chamber of Commerce annual policy conference Tuesday at Ocean City.
The shortfall is most recently estimated at $17 billion, they said.
“Unless we come up with some money, we’re not going to qualify for federal dollars,” said Gene Counihan, government relations officer at the Maryland-Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. “There’s no money on the table.”
Experts said the situation will worsen under the pending military base realignment. As many as 50,000 defense-sector personnel will be transferred to the area in five years — considered lightning speed in terms of transportation improvements, they said.
State transportation officials have relied on federal aid to cover 90 percent of local projects, but now are lucky to get half, panelists said, so lawmakers must boost traditional transit revenue sources such as gas, corporate and vehicle sales taxes.
But legislators unwilling to propose tax and fee increases have opted to create task forces and study solutions, panelists said.
Earlier this year, Montgomery County Sen. Rona Kramer, R-District 14, said she proposed reserving a quarter of each penny generated by the state’s 5 percent sales tax specifically for transit projects.
But during an election year, Kramer said, she settled for a task force to study the concept.
“But I was surprised with the level of interest,” she said. “I believe something will come out of it. We’ve gotten the ball rolling.”
Eliminating frivolous projects and streamlining the construction process also would cut costs, said Donald Fry, president of the Greater Baltimore Committee.
“There’s no magic elixir,” he said.
