Gov.-elect Martin O?Malley on Tuesday named John Porcari, former transportation secretary under Gov. Parris Glendening, to again head up one of the state?s largest departments.
Asked why he had agreed to take over the mammoth agency again, Porcari said, “Apparently, I didn?t learn the last time.”
The transportation secretary oversees the agencies that deal with highways, bridges, tunnels, mass transit, commuter rail, airports and the port of Baltimore. In four years under Glendening, Porcari initiated the $1.8 billion expansion of Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport and helped secure $2.4 billion in congressional funding for the Woodrow Wilson Bridge to Virginia. Previously, he served as the vice president for administrative affairs at the University of Maryland College Park, as well as the chief administrative and finance officer for the campus. Prior to working for the government, Porcari was the vice president of Loiederman Associates, wherehe provided environmental consulting services for businesses in the Washington area.
O?Malley said Porcari will implement “a statewide vision for transportation consistent with smart growth and sustainable growth.” But whether it?s roads or mass transit, where O?Malley has promised to put more emphasis, the needs are outpacing state resources, he said.
“No one piece of that network is going to meet the challenges we face today,” O?Malley said. Under Gov. Robert Ehrlich, vehicle registration fees were nearly doubled, but he strongly resisted raising the gasoline tax, the principal source of transportation revenues. Porcari said members of the transition team were working with the department to look at funding. “It is clear we need to ramp up activities,” he said. Legislators who have dealt with transportation issues and Porcari over the years praised O?Malley?s choice.
“He?s very talented, he?s very smart,” said Del. Mary-Dulany James, D-Harford-Cecil, vice chair of the transportation appropriations subcommittee. “He knows transportation as well as anyone in the state of Maryland.”
“John?s a class act” and will improve relations with the legislature, said Sen. James “Ed” DeGrange, D-Anne Arundel, chair of the transportation budget committee.
“They do have a lot of challenges” in the department, DeGrange said. “There are a lot of transportation needs throughout the state.”
Getting more funding for road projects and mass transit is a major issue, he said.
