Virginia Shows Maryland How Transportation Funding Can Be Done

WHY CAN VIRGINIA, a state evenly divided between the parties, enact a landmark transportation funding deal while Maryland, a one-party state, remains paralyzed? In a word: leadership.

Two years ago, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) appointed a commission to find a fix for a transportation funding system heading toward insolvency. The commission recommended taxes and fees that would yield $870 million in annual revenue — an amount regarded as a bare minimum to maintain existing infrastructure and to build new roads and rail projects.

Its report was presented to Mr. O’Malley and lawmakers in Annapolis — and that was basically that. While the governor offered a transportation proposal last year, he dropped it in the face of resistance from legislators allergic to gasoline-tax increases. 
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