Nothing unites the crowded field of Democrats running to displace Republican Larry Hogan as Marylandās next governor like decrying the incumbentās decision to kill the Baltimore regionās planned Red Line, the 14-mile, $2.9 billion east-west light rail line in 2015. They hate that Governor Hogan denied the jobs, the investment and the improved connections between some of the areaās least-accessible neighborhoods with jobs from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to the west and Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center to the east. Weāre with them on that. But what to do about it? Thatās where things get a little dicier.
Oh, the Democrats all insist theyād invest far more in transit than Mr. Hogan does, which they no doubt would. Some like Ben Jealous, Krish Vignarajah and Sen. Rich Madaleno even insist theyād revive the actual Red Line ā without explaining how theyād pay for it. Check out the answers given on The Baltimore Sunās voter guide ā https://elections2018.news.baltimoresun.com/governor/ ā the gap between intentions and explanation of how to get it done is substantial. Rest assured, not one of the candidates is promising to raise Marylandās gas tax, which is how the Red Line got as far as it did in the first place.
So in the interests of Baltimoreās transit future, and because weāve grown a little impatient with all this vague chatter, we would respectfully present what the men and women running for governor should be saying about the state of Baltimore transit:
- The Red Line is dead and itās not coming back. Lazarus had a much better shot at resurrection than the Red Line, which, however briefly, was riding a perfect tsunami of circumstances that nearly got it built ā from a highly supportive governor to funding at the state, local and federal level and its political pairing with a Purple Line serving the D.C. area. Sure, we could get a highly supportive governor again, but the Trump administration isnāt going to produce its $900 million share, nor is the General Assembly going to raise the gas tax and index it to inflation as it did in 2013. Itās been there, done that.
- Recognize thereās not a ton of transportation dollars sitting around to plunder. That $1 billion or so in state funds the Red Line needed is now invested in other projects, many of them highway, many of them worthy. Yes, rural areas got some questionable funding after the Red Lineās death that smacks of political favoritism, but the next governor wonāt have that much cash to work with even if he or she goes on a cancellation binge.
- Think buses. Thatās right, buses. They arenāt sexy. They arenāt popular. But buses remain the core of the Baltimore regionās public transportation system, such as it is. The best shot at improving Baltimore over the next four years is to commit to greater investment in buses ā buying more of them, improving service, making them safer (with more police on board), having more on standby to cover breakdowns, etc. Why is bus service bad now? Mostly because we starve it with measures like the arbitrary farebox recovery rate mandate that was thankfully repealed last year but left behind a brutal legacy of overcrowded routes and substandard service.
- Blow up the Maryland Transit Administration. A state agency shouldnāt be running Baltimoreās transit system, a regional transit board should ā like every successful system in the country. Keep the funding, of course, but get rid of the state agency. Better for a Baltimore Transit Authority (there, weāve already named it) to work without legislators or governors telling it where to put bus stops. This can get a little wonkish, but itās vital in the long-term. Governor Hoganās half-baked, half-funded and half-failed BaltimoreLink program demonstrates what happens when the administration has so little skin in the game.
- Reorganize the Transportation Trust Fund so that Baltimore area taxpayers have control over future transit funding. This goes hand-in-hand with blowing up the MTA. What weāre seeing elsewhere over and over again is that when transit is working right, people want more of it and theyāre willing to pay for it. Two years ago, Los Angeles voters faced āMeasure Mā to decide whether to permanently raise the sales tax to pay for transit. It passed with 70 percent support. Seventy percent! Raising the gas tax in Maryland again (remember, it used to be a once-every-five-years thing) is a non-starter, in part, because as Mr. Hogan demonstrated with the Red Line, voters canāt be sure theyāll get what they paid for.