{"id":7583,"date":"2017-01-30T07:00:20","date_gmt":"2017-01-30T12:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=7583"},"modified":"2017-01-29T18:57:38","modified_gmt":"2017-01-29T23:57:38","slug":"hogans-transportation-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=7583","title":{"rendered":"Hogan\u2019s Transportation Scam"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco.<\/em><\/p>\n

A looming crisis threatens to devastate Maryland\u2019s transportation program.\u00a0 As much as one-third of the state\u2019s transportation project spending could be at risk.\u00a0 Key projects will be delayed, perhaps some indefinitely.\u00a0 Is this because of the transportation transparency law that Governor Larry Hogan wants repealed<\/a>?<\/p>\n

No, not at all.\u00a0 The real problem is something much more mundane, something Hogan does not want to talk about: a gaping budget hole.<\/p>\n

The Transportation Trust Fund<\/a> (TTF) is a segregated fund used to finance Maryland\u2019s transportation programs.\u00a0 Its largest sources of revenue are motor fuel taxes, titling taxes, registration fees and other Motor Vehicle Administration fees.\u00a0 It also receives a substantial amount of federal funding.\u00a0 Its proceeds are used to finance the Maryland Department of Transportation\u2019s (MDOT) operating expenses as well as MDOT\u2019s debt service and six-year capital program.\u00a0 This means that funding for transportation capital projects is subject to variations in TTF revenue as well as changes in MDOT\u2019s operating costs and debt service.<\/p>\n

Page 43 of the Fiscal Briefing<\/a> reviewed by the General Assembly last week shows a substantial deterioration in the TTF over the last year.\u00a0 The briefing states:<\/p>\n

The six-year State capital program in the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) fiscal 2017 through 2022 Transportation Trust Fund (TTF) forecast is $1.5 billion lower than in the prior year\u2019s six-year program. Lower estimated revenue attainment, primarily motor vehicle fuel tax revenue, accounts for about half the decrease with higher projections for debt service and departmental operating expense spending accounting for the other half of the reduction in the capital program.<\/em><\/p>\n

The briefing continues:<\/p>\n

MDOT did not use the five-year average annual increase in operating expenses to calculate out-year operating expenses as directed in the 2016 Joint Chairmen\u2019s Report. As a result, MDOT\u2019s forecast likely understates operating expenses by $585 million over the forecast period, or just under 5%, and overstates the amount available for the capital program by $1.7 billion.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Translation: $1.5 billion in forecasted transportation spending, or 15% of the state\u2019s six-year total, has disappeared in one year.\u00a0 And the administration\u2019s underestimating of MDOT\u2019s operating expenses could cause the capital program to drop another $1.7 billion.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s right, folks: one-third of all funding for state transportation projects could be evaporating.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s be fair.\u00a0 Governor Hogan does not control revenues for transportation, which are chiefly determined by the state of the economy.\u00a0 Their substantial drop suggests that the economy is not doing as well as Hogan says it is<\/a>.\u00a0 The economy could get even worse if Republicans in Washington repeal the Affordable Care Act \u2013 something that would cost Maryland tens of thousands of jobs<\/a> \u2013 and push through substantial cuts to federal agencies.\u00a0 The Governor is also only in partial control of MDOT\u2019s operating expenses, which include substantial amounts of materials and supplies purchased from private vendors.\u00a0 Those expenses are squeezing money for transportation along with the revenue shortfalls.<\/p>\n

But one thing the Governor does control is his own behavior.\u00a0 A reasonable Governor acting in good faith would go to the General Assembly and say, \u201cLook folks.\u00a0 We have a problem here.\u00a0 Let\u2019s get together and figure out how to deal with it.\u201d\u00a0 That would be in line with the Governor\u2019s regular calls<\/a> for bipartisan<\/a> cooperation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Instead, the Governor has launched a Holy War<\/a> against the General Assembly\u2019s transportation transparency law, which merely requires him to justify the projects he chooses to fund.\u00a0 He falsely claims that the law would require him to cancel projects when it does no such thing<\/a> and even announced funding for one project a week after he said it would be killed<\/a>.\u00a0 Instead of working with members of the General Assembly to remedy a real budget problem that threatens transportation projects, he assaults them on Facebook<\/a> about a fake problem that he has made up.<\/p>\n

One of several Facebook posts the Governor is using to target state legislators.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a scam, folks.\u00a0 This Governor does not want to deal with an impending transportation crisis that is happening on his watch.\u00a0 Instead, he is trying everything in his power to shift blame to Democrats in the state legislature.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t fall for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Adam Pagnucco. A looming crisis threatens to devastate Maryland\u2019s transportation program.\u00a0 As much as one-third of the state\u2019s transportation project spending could be at risk.\u00a0 Key projects will be delayed, perhaps some indefinitely.\u00a0 Is this because of the transportation transparency law that Governor Larry Hogan wants repealed? No, not at all.\u00a0 The real problem … Continue reading Hogan\u2019s Transportation Scam<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[151,1197,38],"tags":[1545,968,1164],"class_list":["post-7583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adam-pagnucco","category-larry-hogan","category-transportation","tag-adam-pagnucco","tag-larry-hogan","tag-maryland-department-of-transportation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-1Yj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7583"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7586,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7583\/revisions\/7586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}