Wednesday, June 01, 2016

After approving historic tax hike, County Council now wants new Metro tax

"It's not just, 'no,'
it's 'hell no.'"

Will the massively-inconvenient Metro "safety project" scheduled to begin this weekend actually produce results? That is hardly clear. What is clear, is that the inconvenience is in part designed for a goal beyond safety - softening up you, the taxpayer, for a major tax increase.

We've already dealt with one "urgent" Metro crusade to fix long-delayed mechanical and safety issues throughout the system, leaving many weekend riders standing for hours in stations or taking shuttle buses instead. The results of that were zero, squat, zilch, as the current safety crisis proves.

But the big talk we've been hearing about the need for extreme measures like shutting down whole lines for months just happens to be coming from some of the biggest proponents of new taxes to fund Metro, including D.C. Councilman Jack Evans and Montgomery County Councilmember Roger Berliner.

Funding increased Metro capacity - expanding to 8-car trains, in particular, and increasing capacity on the Red Line north of Grosvenor - was something many transportation advocates have supported. The idea of simply pouring a whole lot of additional money into the bastion of incompetency known as WMATA, however, is a completely different prospect. It is very similar, coincidentally, to the Montgomery County Council's irresponsible decision to massively raise taxes on residents, and bust the bank by going $90 million over the required funding level for Montgomery County Public Schools - without a dramatically-different strategy to tackle the achievement gap than the failed one being utilized now by MCPS. Money down a toilet, in other words.

It's no surprise, then, that some of the loudest voices calling for a massive new tax for Metro are on the Council.

“We hope to have a plan ready to present by the end of September,” Councilmember Roger Berliner told The Washington Post. “Between now and then, we’re going to work with our jurisdictions to see if we can come up with unanimity with respect to a mechanism — a sales tax, a gas tax." 

Are you kidding me?

WMATA has shown zero results, and zero evidence to prove it is changing its ways. The agency is probably in need of a federal takeover, but even the feds don't want to touch this mess.

You'll also note that, once again, no proposal under consideration involves taxing developers, just the residents.

While many local leaders and media types are almost giddy about the pain you are going to feel using public transit starting this weekend, I have a more sobering prediction.

This really, really bad PR campaign designed to make you believe we really need to pour more money into the coffers of an entity ranking somewhere between Barwood Cab and the County liquor monopoly in terms of public popularity, is actually going to deal already-declining Metro a mortal blow. A grand strategy to get more cash is actually going to end up costing WMATA cash.

Because, starting this weekend, folks are going to be getting into their cars, not out of them. They're going to be buying cheap used cars. To a lesser extent, they're going to be biking or using Zipcar or Uber (don't tell the County Council). 

And many, many months from now, they're going to consider the calls for new taxes for a Metro slush fund. And they're going to consider the latest fare increases being proposed for the same service that ain't worth it at half the price.

And you know what they're going to say?

Their reaction will be exactly what Del. David Albo of Fairfax County's was: 

“It’s not just no, it’s ‘hell no,’ ” 

26 comments:

Poppy said...

Responsible Bethesdians keep their domestics OFF the metro by leasing electric cars for them. It amazes me that some people care so little for the safety of their help that they would put them on that infernal subway.

Anonymous said...

As always, criticize, criticize, criticize, but offer zero constructive solutions.

Anonymous said...

"Del. David Albo of Fairfax County"

Who dat?

Rugby said...

We need a skeptical press in MoCo!

Anonymous said...

We need more bloggers who are not totally insane.

Robert Dyer said...

5:46: That's why I'm here. Otherwise you'd be stuck with Greater Greater Washington publishing stuff like "how we will convert the expensive homes of 20816 into boarding houses" (actual article by actual former staff member of Councilman George Leventhal).

Consider that an upvote for sanity, folks.

Anonymous said...

Any plan offered by Berliner and the council will be a loser for the average taxpayer. Once the Metro is completely shut down from a major fire or what not we're screwed, the same old poorly maintained roads will be gridlocked beyond belief.

Also brace yourself Leventhal you kook, June 20th is the first day of summer. The weather will be getting much hotter and more humid. No reason to start pointing out the window of your air conditioned office erratically screaming, "Look, it's global warming"

Anonymous said...

"Also brace yourself Leventhal you kook, June 20th is the first day of summer. The weather will be getting much hotter and more humid. No reason to start pointing out the window of your air conditioned office erratically screaming, 'Look, it's global warming'"

You sound just a little bit insane.

Anonymous said...

We have to fix Metro. It's the 2nd busiest transit system in the US, and everyone will agree it's in a shambles. It's due to deferred maintenance and incompentence from the board and management all the way down.

The thing is, it's going to take money to fix 30-40 years of deferred maintenance. There's no alternative but to spend it. The new Metro GM seems better than the past GMs and focused on safety. There has been some clean-up of the Metro's board of directors, but there is room for improvement.

Where is the money going to come from? That's the tough question. One would be a developer or property tax on all new (and existing?) developments within X miles radius of a metro station. Any other ideas? Gas tax, though I don't like them in general (and it's regressive to boot), may be the only tenable solution IF it goes directly to WMATA. I'm leery of a sales tax increase -- too easy for the Council to use that money on their pet projects instead of on transportation.

Elm said...

Ever notice how the anonymous negative man here has to respond to any positive comment about Dyer (or his reporting) with a personal insult?

Anonymous negative man is a really insecure man with bad impulses!

Anonymous said...

"bad impulses"

You sound like an Aspie when you talk like that.

Elm said...

6:25am gets the ass hat award for this morning.

Anonymous said...

Does Uber offer a short bus service? Dyer and "Elm" will need this during Metro's shutdowns.

Anonymous said...

"Poppy" has been rumored to be the wife of Major Frank Burns, what a shill.

Andrew said...

One wonder why we have not taken advantage of the insanely low interest rates the last 10 years to borrow like crazy and fix these problems.

Anonymous said...

7:01 You know of any government body that has "taken advantage"? If you do let WAMATA, Flint, MI and a host of other cities know.

Anonymous said...

All Berliner is trying to do is spruce up your train car home Dyer

Anonymous said...

7:22AM So worried about Dyer's personal life. You l-u-r-v-e him. You want to be him.

Andrew said...

@7:01, No not really because we decided austerity was the way to fix the recession.

Anonymous said...

@ 6:51 AM - I guess that makes Robert Dyer, Cpl. Max Klinger.

Anonymous said...

@914- whatever it is, he is definitely Communist

Anonymous said...

Dyer @ 5:54

He was obviously referring to you. GGW has a large and rapidly growing reader base and is actually considered reputable.

Anonymous said...

Some council members promised we could afford to build the Purple Line and fix Metro. Is anyone surprised that's not actually the case?

Anonymous said...

@ 7:12 PM - I guess it all depends on your definition of "afford".

Robert Dyer said...

12:42: No, GGW has published looney articles many times; on my site, the only crazy talk comes from anonymous commenters like yourself.

GGW has only the reader base brought to it by the Washington Post and Washingtonian, old media monopoly gatekeepers of the DC region, and the expenditures it makes to buy social media placement.

How can GGW be "reputable" when the site's owner refuses to disclose the source of funding for his expensive to operate site? Based on the pro-developer content, that may not be surprising, but it does little to suggest any journalistic integrity.

Robert Dyer said...

7:12: The Council has repeatedly lied to the community, which is why there is major momentum behind term limits.