Transportation a Big Issue as Lawmakers Get Set to Meet

Talk of raising new revenue for transportation upgrades around Maryland is heating up, as state legislators prepare to meet in Annapolis.

Lawmakers are expected to meet this month in a special session on congressional redistricting, but some business and community leaders have pushed for the General Assembly to also take up the issue of infrastructure improvements.

Officials have been pushing for an influx of at least $800 million in new money to replenish the state's Transportation Trust Fund.

Here in the Odenton area, business and community leaders have pushed for increased funding for transportation, in order to accommodate the influx of new workers and residents due to the expansion at Fort Meade.

The Blue Ribbon Commission on State Transportation funding has agreed on a series of recommendations, and will submit a full report to the legislature by Nov. 1, if not sooner.

Meanwhile, officials from the Maryland Department of Transportation will hold a public hearing Monday afternoon in Annapolis to present information on its six-year transportation plan for Anne Arundel County, and to go over the county’s priorities.

The Maryland Gazette reported last week that the blue ribbon commission will recommend the state close loopholes allowing money for transportation improvements to be spent on other projects. It is working to finalize recommendations how to raise new money, including toll increases, and an increase in the gas tax. 

The , which is headquartered in Odenton, has called for the state to raise more revenue to fund transportation upgrades, while also pushing for a constitutional amendment to protect money in the Transportation Trust Fund.

The blue ribbon commission generally agreed that if new money for transportation is raised, it must be protected.

“It’s going to be very difficult, I think, to get people to agree to certain things if there’s no assurance that the Transportation Trust Fund is going to be treated as a trust fund,” commission chairman Gus Bauman told the Gazette. “If that’s the decision that’s made, people have to have some sense of assurance that that’s what it will be used for.”

Meanwhile, local governments have balked at suggestions that local governments will be asked to shoulder more of the burden for transportation upgrades. Anne Arundel County is one of several jurisdictions in Maryland that could have difficulty raising new funds because of limits on the amount that property taxes can be raised.

State lawmakers took up the issue of transportation upgrades during the last legislative session, but did not pass any bills. A proposal to increase the gas tax by 10 cents received a lukewarm response.

The Baltimore Sun reported that the chances for a gas tax increase will dwindle as the 2012 election grows closer.

In a blog entry on Huffington Post last week, John B. Townsend, the manager of public and governmental relations for AAA Mid-Atlantic, suggested an increase in the gas tax may be needed.

“We need continuous improvement in our transportation system, and we need to improve and increase its mobility, safety and sustainability,” he said. “But that can only be done by an infusion of funding.”