Politicians Can't Keep Hands Off Trust Fund

Dedicated transportation source must be protected

In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Barack Obama vowed to "put more Americans to work repairing crumbling roads and bridges." He highlighted the need for major infrastructure improvements and advancements in the United States, including high-speed rail. After the speech, Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.) touted a new federal transportation bill and urged fellow lawmakers to study Maryland's "comprehensive transportation plan."

The 2009 Maryland Transportation Plan, a 20-year vision covering all means of transportation, included among its goals and objectives: Secure transportation assets for the movement of people and goods; maximize operational performance and efficiency of existing systems; provide balanced, seamless, and accessible multimodal transportation options for people and goods, and facilitate linkages within and beyond Maryland to support a healthy economy.
 
Given even those basic goals, it's small wonder that a good many people — lawmakers, commuters, business interests, visionaries — are upset that the state's Transportation Trust Fund has, once again, become the funding piñata of choice, as evidenced by Gov. Martin O'Malley's latest budget proposal.
 
O'Malley's spending plan, which was released Jan. 21, calls for redirecting $100 million from the already-depleted fund to help close the state's budget deficit of well over $1 billion. If that wasn't bad enough, in the past three years, more than $2 billion has been appropriated from the trust fund for other budgetary purposes.
 
Now, a group called the State Transportation Alliance to Restore the Trust, or Start, has formed to advocate for a strong fund. Its 32 members include AARP, AAA, the Greater Washington Board of Trade, the Greater Baltimore Committee and the Maryland Chamber of Commerce. The first order of business, the alliance says, is replenishing the fund.

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