ANNAPOLIS — D.C. Metro transit officials are asking Maryland lawmakers to help stave off their latest budget crisis.
But senior legislators say the state’s own budget calamity means they aren’t in a position to do so.
“Everything’s stretched,” Senate President Bill Ferguson said Friday. “There’s a lot of tough conversations. I feel like I spend every day saying, ‘I’m sorry. I don’t think this is the year where we’re gonna be able to get that done.’”
Likewise, House Minority Leader Jason Buckel said the state should reconsider the value of shoring up struggling transit agencies.
“It’s sort of a fallacy to suggest that, because we have these things historically, we now have to argue that they’re effective, that they’re efficient, and just subsidize them until the end of time without any lookback,” said Buckel, a Republican representing Allegany County.
This pushback comes as the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority, or WMATA, looks to Maryland for a funding source to help maintain its fleet, stations and tracks in years to come. Within the next three fiscal years, the fixed amount that Maryland pays into the agency’s capital budget will only be enough to cover debt payments.
But with Maryland lawmakers focused on digging out of the state’s $3 billion deficit, committing to expand the state’s annual contribution to WMATA by millions of dollars is a tough sell. Uncertainty about the federal government’s share of the agency’s capital budget only makes the situation more precarious.
Lawmakers in both chambers of the General Assembly are currently considering a proposal to increase Maryland’s contribution to match inflation. The same proposal would commit to growing that contribution to keep up with future inflation.
WMATA General Manager Randy Clarke argues his system has made too much progress to give up now. The agency’s rail and bus service have led the country in ridership growth for the past two years, he told lawmakers earlier this month. Fare evasion at rail stations has fallen dramatically, he said, and the chronic delays and fires that once plagued the system are largely a thing of the past.
Leaving the system to fall back into disrepair would be disastrous for the regional economy, said House Environment and Transportation Committee Chair Marc Korman, a Democrat representing Montgomery County and the leading advocate for stabilizing WMATA’s budget in his chamber.
“If the investment pie doesn’t grow,” Korman told CNS, “we’re going to end up back where we were 10 years ago with Metro, where we have track fires every day. That will not be good for the 30% of jobs and 21% of [business] establishments that are within a half mile of Metro in Montgomery County.”
Even Maryland lawmakers who appreciate the system’s value may be exhausted by its perennial financial troubles, said Matthew Girardi, the political and communications director for ATU Local 689, the union representing WMATA’s operators.
Still, those lawmakers should provide the agency a more sustainable funding source, he argued, “so that we’re not in these cyclical crises where Metro is on the brink of fiscal catastrophe, and we have to go and do a song and dance before every single state legislature and twist ourselves into pretzels to ensure that a basic public service is being funded as such.”
Korman’s proposal would make the Maryland contribution contingent upon DC and Virginia making the same commitments to WMATA. And with Virginia’s legislative session coming to an end, no comparable proposals are on the table in Richmond.
But there’s also wariness in Annapolis. Key lawmakers like Ferguson suggest the General Assembly may delay action on the issue.
“This is a tough year, and I don’t see a very clear path towards sustainable funding for a lot of things,” the Baltimore City Democrat said during a Friday morning briefing with reporters.
The prospect of a spending hike also irks some Republican lawmakers, who frequently argue the state should re-prioritize spending on roads and bridges.
“Are we going to be doing this in perpetuity, where we’re going to be leaning on other modes of transportation?” asked Del. Jefferson Ghrist, a Republican representing Caroline, Cecil, Kent and Queen Anne’s Counties.
The transit agency is worried about that very question. President Donald Trump’s cuts to Maryland’s federal workforce could negatively affect ridership and fare collections. In the new administration, it’s also possible federal contributions to the agency’s capital budget may not materialize.