O’Malley pushes business leaders to help find ‘consensus’ on transportation funding 

Posted: 8:42 pm Wed, May 4, 2011
By Nicholas Sohr
Daily Record Business Writer

In a somber speech devoid of applause lines, Gov. Martin O’Malley sought support from business leaders Wednesday evening in finding the money to address the state’s growing transportation needs.

O’Malley, in a speech to the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, did not commit to any specific measures to increase revenue for the state’s Transportation Trust Fund. Instead, he spoke broadly of the “big challenge that we, together, have ahead of us when it comes to forging and putting together that precious consensus necessary to address our state’s transportation needs.”

Transportation funding has emerged as a top issue as lawmakers and state officials look toward a special redistricting session in the fall and the regular session to follow in 2012. The Blue Ribbon Commission on Transportation Funding, which O’Malley met with last week, estimates the state needs $800 million more to keep pace with the state’s needs.

O’Malley said the recession swallowed $2 billion of the state’s six-year, $10.6 billion transportation plan.

“In Maryland, we’re doing better than other states, but better is not good enough,” the governor said.

“Other nations, like China, are investing about 10 percent of their gross domestic product every year, on infrastructure,” O’Malley said. “India invests 5 percent of its GDP on infrastructure. Nationally, the United States of America, two [percent].”

O’Malley urged business leaders to engage in the debate over how to increase transportation spending in the state, and to support efforts to do so in the State House. The chamber and the Greater Baltimore Committee, two of the most prominent business organizations in the state, have long supported an increase to the state’s gasoline levy to help boost spending on roads and rail.

By putting that spending off, O’Malley said, “we pay in lost productivity. We pay by sitting in traffic on some sections of 495 that are more parking lot than highway. We pay in an underemployed workforce.”

He alluded to the increased burden on state residents that will come with finding more transportation dollars.

“I’d also like to tell you that if we’d just think more creatively and engage in more public/private partnerships that we will be able to build a $90 million bridge for $10 million… but it’s not true,” O’Malley said, adding later: “These things cost money.”

The governor also defended his increased focus on mass transit projects, saying the Baltimore and Washington regions are underserved.

“That’s why we’re promoting the Purple Line. That’s why we’re promoting the Red Line,” O’Malley said, referring to the planned rail projects in the state’s pipeline.

The transportation funding commission has laid a menu of revenue boosting options for state officials.

Raising the gas tax from 23.5 cents per gallon to 33.5 cents and indexing it to inflation would bring in an additional $385 million, the commission estimated. Applying the 6 percent sales tax to gasoline and diesel sales would yield $580 million.

Other options include raising driver license fees by $10 to yield $15 million, bumping transit fares by 25 percent, for $30 million, and raising emissions inspection fees by $10, to bring in $15 million.