Glendening Plans Fund for Transit

By Lyndsey Layton and Daniel LeDuc
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, December 7, 2000

Gov. Parris N. Glendening will propose today that Maryland spend $750 million for better bus and subway service from Shady Grove to Ocean City over the next six years as part of a mission to double mass transit ridership.

He would do it by creating a special source of state funds permanently earmarked for public transportation - something transit officials throughout the region have urged for years. Glendening's plan does not require higher taxes, but tolls could rise to provide more money, sources said.

Neither Virginia nor the District has set aside specific revenue sources for transit, and as the first politician in the region to take that step, Glendening is issuing a challenge of sorts to his neighbors.

A large chunk of the $750 million would go to Metro to help pay for 50 new rail cars and 300 new Metrobuses and to stop water from leaking into subway tunnels. But the governor also wants to expand bus service in Montgomery and Prince George's counties, beef up transit in the Baltimore region and add bus service as far east as Ocean City.

Glendening intends to set aside revenue for transit from previously untapped sources, including the corporate income tax, rental car fees and tolls at bridges and tunnels operated by the Maryland Transportation Authority, sources said. The money would become a permanent transit fund.

News of the governor's announcement was unexpected. Metro has not yet asked for the money, and transit officials were scrambling yesterday for details of the plan.

"With traffic congestion what it is and the economy going the way it's going, we're going to have to step up and meet these needs," said one source close to the governor. "We need new trains. We need buses. We need to fix the Red Line because it's leaking. Rather than wait, he wanted to be aggressive."

Virginia and the District, the two other jurisdictions that pay Metro's costs, have yet to agree to fund their share of Metro's additional costs. Under a complicated formula, the three jurisdictions split the cost of capital projects, with help from the federal government.

Glendening's abrupt move today puts pressure on the other two players, some said.

"If he's really putting money on the table and saying Maryland is paying their piece of what we have to do, it is a challenge to Virginia and the District," said Chris Zimmerman, who represents Arlington on the Metro board of directors. "Will state government unharness the resources we have to make the investments we need?"

But Virginia Transportation Secretary Shirley Y. Ybarra was blase about Glendening's announcement. "I don't think it's going to matter much to Virginia," she said. Counties, not the state government, set Metro spending in Virginia.

Metro board Chairman Gladys W. Mack, who represents the District, said the city "always pays its fair share. I don't look at this as pressure."

Metro General Manager Richard A. White told Metro board members last month that the transit agency must spend about $350 million more than expected in the next six years to pay for some big-ticket items - $120 million for 50 new rail cars, $111 million for 300 buses to add to Metro's 1,314-bus fleet, $50 million for a new bus garage and about $80 million to stop water leaks in the Red Line tunnels between the Dupont Circle and Medical Center stations.

Glendening also is expected to announce that the state will beef up bus service in Montgomery and Prince George's counties, adding buses to Ride On and The Bus and initiating east-west bus routes to better connect the two counties and ease road congestion.

And the governor plans additional transit service in the Baltimore region and some expanded bus service as far east as Ocean City, sources said.

Glendening has said he wants to double transit ridership in Maryland by 2020 to 1 million daily trips. Currently, the state's buses and trains carry about 570,000 passenger trips a day.

One source compared Glendening's announcement to his funding proposal for the Wilson Bridge replacement. In that case, Maryland put up its share and called on Virginia to do the same.

Funding transportation needs has been a major concern for Maryland officials. Glendening has refused to raise the state's gas
tax, which is the main source of transportation funding, but needs continue to escalate.

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