Public shut out of MoCo Transit Task Force "public" hearing

Task Force

report suggests

5 new taxes on

County residents

to pay for BRT

The Montgomery County Transit Task Force is at it again, attempting to shut an angry public out of a so-called "public hearing" September 30 at 6:00 PM. To be held once again in the 3rd floor hearing room at the County Council Building at 100 Maryland Avenue in Rockville, the hearing is ostensibly for the public to comment on a Public Draft of the "Report of the Task Force".

This document was supposed to be posted on the Transit Task Force website "on or about" September 16, 2015. Then the public was supposed to have a chance to sign up to comment on it. A set of arbitrary rules were imposed prior to the sign-up "window" opening.

To quote the Task Force hearing announcement (which I have not seen in either of the two newspapers widely-circulated in the County so far):

Members of the public wishing to speak at the forum must sign up between Wednesday, September 16 at 9 a.m. and Wednesday, September 30 at 10 a.m. To register to speak, call 240-777-7165, Monday through Friday, between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.; TTY users call Maryland Relay. People signing up must provide their name, address and contact information. Those registered to speak may not substitute or cede time to others.

A maximum of 50 people will be able to present their views during the public forum. Speakers will have three minutes to make their comments and are encouraged to submit written remarks – which may include additional information and materials. If 50 people sign up before September 30, no additional names will be accepted and there will not be a waiting list.

These ground rules were unacceptable and unorthodox in themselves, as is the 6 PM start time, when most citizens are stuck in traffic trying to commute home.

Seriously - 50 people can speak, in a county of 1,000,000, on a ton of new taxes that will be paid by residents countywide?

Then things went from bad to ridiculous on Wednesday.

When I called only a few hours after the phone lines opened, I was told all 50 speaking slots had already been filled. And that my name was being put on a contingency list.

A county public hearing filled and closed to the public after just a few hours on the first day of signups? Outrageous.

First, I'd like to see the list of these 50 people, and find out how many of them are from the MoCo political machine, developers and organizations overtly or covertly funded by development interests.

But secondly, this arbitrary decision should not be permitted to stand.

The taxpayers should demand to be heard at this "public" hearing.

If any member of the Transit Task Force is incapable or unwilling to sit and listen to public testimony for as long as it takes, he or she should resign immediately. They are clearly not up to the task the County Executive has charged them with, if that's the case.

Even if some on the task force are too lazy to sit in a chair for a few hours to listen to the public, they should at least be scheduling a second hearing, so that those of us citizens who have more energy than they do can testify.

Now, about that report.

The TTF writes that it considered alternative ideas to replace the proposed ITA, and like Bill Clinton's famous "I've worked harder on this than anything I've ever done in my life," reached the shocking, surprising conclusion that what it (and the developers behind the curtain) want - the ITA - remains the only solution.

Page 12 contains a laughable argument for Bus Rapid Transit (one of the major reasons the County needs the ITA, as BRT won't qualify for federal funds, and the $5 billion BRT system couldn't be funded without exceeding the Ficker amendment cap on property taxes), claiming it is needed to keep all of the jobs that supposedly will be coming to MoCo from going to other jurisdictions.

This argument is preposterous on two fronts. First, the County has failed to attract a single major corporate headquarters in over decade. So, under the current moribund business climate, there aren't any jobs coming. But BRT will allow urban redevelopment of suburban areas like Rock Spring, Wildwood, Georgetown Square, Aspen Hill, etc. Those mixed-use developments will only create jobs for baristas and jeans-folding boutique salespeople. Only a moron would spend $5 billion to attract low-wage retail/restaurant jobs.

Finally, the TTF has proposed changes to the ITA bill that will again go to the state legislature in Annapolis in the coming months.

It has recommended staggered, 4 year terms for a 7-member governing board for the ITA. Interestingly, it suggests the possibility of term limits, which the County's political machine has fought against for decades for other offices. Is this an acknowledgement that term limits work? Interesting.

The ITA would be required to submit its Capital Improvements Program (CIP) budget to the Council for review and approval, as well as the operating budget for the ITA itself, and the transit projects it oversees and operates.

Amending the ITA budgets would follow the same process as amending those of County agencies, the report states.

Eminent domain seizures would have to be reviewed and approved by the Council, as well.

The report also suggests "that any tax rate set by the authority shall be subject to disapproval by the Council."

It should be noted, however, that this current language does not impose the same political disincentive to the Council as the Ficker Amendment cap does for property taxes. Therefore, it would be far less likely that a majority of members would vote to disapprove of the ITA tax rate. The Ficker cap requires all 9 members of the Council to vote for a tax increase over the charter limit.

There is also a provision for an "excise tax" "not to exceed 30 cents per gross rentable square foot of leased commercial space, subject to disapproval by the Council."

Speaking of the Ficker charter limit cap on property taxes, the TTF says that provision is now outdated, since the state legislature passed the Maintenance of Effort law which requires education funding to be maintained at an equal or higher level each year. It therefore says it favors allowing taxes to exceed the charter limit, but with some restrictions on the amount. It also suggests other sources of revenue that could be substituted for property taxes.

Those proposed revenue sources include the aforementioned excise tax, a local-option sales tax, an employment withholding tax, and a congestion tax. Heard enough yet?

The report veers back into laughable territory in discussing the serious issue of the higher interest rates the ITA would have to pay for revenue bonds, compared to the lower rate the County could get. Dismissing these concerns, the report says, "if there is such a premium it is likely to be insignificant."

Say what?

Several funding scenarios laid out seem to overestimate federal and state contributions, and lowball construction and operating costs.

And all of the taxes suggested are regressive, flat taxes, that would hit lower-income residents the hardest.

They want you to pay; they just don't want to hear your response.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY BRT: A BOONDOGGLE WE CAN'T AFFORD

Bus Rapid Transit System Will Still Cost

Bethesda Residents $1000+ a Year!

Another Robert Dyer @ Bethesda Row Exclusive!!!

A month later, there still has been no public dialogue, no release of credible data supporting ridership and time savings, and no credible finance plan for the boondoggle its few dozen supporters call Montgomery County BRT.

One other thing hasn't changed:  the financing plan put forward by the BRT committee will still cost many Bethesda residents $1000 or more per year in new taxes.

Supporters are trying to lowball the numbers by using real estate values that would pass for "affordable housing" in the county, when calculating residents' estimated BRT tax.  Rents will also increase.

Worst of all, the BRT system proposed is simply an ideological, political and vanity project run amok.

Wait, the worst of all is that no reporter, politician or other public voice has criticized or critiqued the BRT plan, its performance and ridership projections, real-world application, and financing.

If you would finally like to hear the other side of the BRT story, read this article  I posted last month, which is the only critical evaluation of BRT in Montgomery County ever put forward and published.  It's a shame that this week we are simply getting more reworked press releases posing as "articles."

Ever noticed that none of the BRT articles ever include the phrase, "Critics of the proposal say that ______."  That's apparently by design.  You the public are to believe that BRT is inevitable; it's just a question of how we're going to pay for it.  Scary stuff.  All this talk for two years, and not one public hearing or charade... I'm sorry, charette.

They mean for working families to finance the BRT boondoggle, but less than 20 people in a county of nearly a million will design and pass the project nearly by fiat.  Are you as dumb as they think you are?  No.  And that's why we'll be lucky to have one public hearing, once this is all a predetermined done deal.

It's outrageous.  And as I argued in the linked article, it will also take funds from our already struggling Metro system.

There are many smart people on the BRT committee.  And that's why their proposal assumes no federal funding.  They're smart because this BRT project has zero chance of qualifying for federal funds in its current form.  USDOT guidelines outright forbid awarding funds to wasteful projects like this.

If BRT was competing with the Rockville Freeway for federal funds, the Rockville Freeway would win, hands down.   Why?  It meets an actual and quantifiable need for a corridor between White Flint and Columbia, two exploding employment and housing hubs.

More significantly, for a fraction of the cost, the Rockville Freeway would move more commuters each day than the entire BRT system.  That is an incredible statistic.  And one that is the deciding factor in awarding federal funds.

Media hype aside, how bad is this BRT plan?

It's Yugo-meets-New Coke-meets-John Carter bad.  Now that's bad.

We need to get real and focus on improving capacity of our existing Metro, Metrobus and Ride On routes in the county.  And building our long- and intentionally-delayed master plan highways.

The future of transportation is multimodal.  And expensive.  We simply can't afford the BRT boondoggle.

BRT BOONDOGGLE

COULD COST

BETHESDA RESIDENTS

$1000 OR MORE

PER YEAR IN

NEW TAXES

Oversized Montgomery County

Rapid Bus Network Would

Drain Wallets, Existing Metro System

Another Robert Dyer @ Bethesda Row Exclusive!!!

Can anyone stop Montgomery County's runaway rapid bus proposal? Despite a serious "Emperor's New Clothes" problem, not a single journalism outlet in the DC region has spoken out against the BRT plan, or even provided an in-depth critique.

Yesterday, it was revealed that the "Montgomery County Rapid Transit Task Force" is considering tax plans that could charge Bethesda condo and single-family home owners well over $1000 per year, according to the Washington Post. This whopping tax increase would be just to pay for BRT.

With that kind of abuse of county taxpayers ahead, someone needs to speak out soon. Strangely, the BRT process - nominally public - has provided no forum for public input, even as the task force has dragged out its deliberations for a year.

There have been a handful of presentations, a jumble of different and confusing plans, but no public comment or involvement. And much like the panels of developer agents testifying about the Rockville Pike plan before the Rockville Planning Commission, no dissenting opinions are being permitted.

Allow me to present the very first critique of perhaps the most audacious fiscal and tax boondoggle in Montgomery County history.

First of all, you can't have a few elected officials ram a $2.5 billion dollar transit project through, with a back room plan presented and voted on with one public hearing in 2013. This process needs to SLOW DOWN. NOW.

Second, there is no credible evidence that people will ride rapid buses once they are in service. If they've got the miracle numbers, why not share them with us?

Third, on routes such as Rockville Pike/Wisconsin Avenue and Georgia Avenue, BRT is a duplicative service. If you believe people will switch from a faster subway to a slower bus, then you are taking revenue from the already struggling Metro system. But if people don't switch, the buses will be empty. Either result is a complete waste of money.

Fourth, if we can so easily raise revenue for BRT, why wouldn't we just raise enough to add capacity to the Red Line north of Grosvenor and Silver Spring?

Fifth, likewise, we could take just a fraction of the $2.5 billion, and buy more Ride On and Metrobus vehicles. Run them one behind the other on 355, for example, and you'd have the same 5 minute service intervals.

Sixth, we don't have highway capacity for these buses on many of the proposed routes. You can't take a car lane for rapid buses, and no one can take seriously the bizarre suggestion that they would knock down buildings in downtown Bethesda to make room. Ridiculous. It ain't gonna happen.

Seventh, why hasn't a figure been released for the time savings BRT will provide users? Will it be 2 minutes faster? Five? Zero? And will you be willing to pay $1000 a year more in property taxes to arrive 2 minutes faster on a bus? Is there anyone who would answer, "Yes!" to that question? Put your hand down, Warren Buffett. Most recent discussions have suggested that much of the system will run in regular traffic. If that's not a waste of money, I don't know what is.

Eighth, the primary muscle behind BRT (aside from some councilmembers' desire to point to this massive albatross and say, "look what I accomplished, now vote me to higher office") is - guess who - the developers! Just wait. We'll soon hear that neighborhoods along BRT are now eligible for "Transit Oriented Development." This means suburban, residential areas in Aspen Hill, Olney and Rockville will have their commercial areas bulldozed for "town centers" to tower over their backyards. And you'll pay for the developers to profit, to boot.

Ninth, what exactly will force the public to use BRT? We have a good bus system now, but people don't use it. Do we have to spend $2.5 billion to either subsidize laziness, or even worse, find out no one will use a rapid bus, either? I say laziness because, I've been used early in my life to walking a few blocks to get a bus to a Metro station. I've waited 30 minutes (and even 60, when the bus didn't come) in cold and/or heavy rain, often without a bus shelter to get under. Do you need to pay $1000 a year to subsidize people who think they are too special to do that? Are they made of sugar? Are they going to melt? Deal with it. I'm tired of being lectured about buses by people who don't ride them, when I've logged more Metrobus hours than they have combined!

Tenth, county and regional "smart growth" gurus keep talking about "walkability" and "pedestrian safety." How does making roads even wider, and thundering buses down the middle of them, make major roads easier and more quick to cross on foot? Hmm.

Eleventh, why are corridors like River Road excluded from BRT? The waits for buses are longer there than some of the roads proposed for BRT service.

Twelfth, how does it make any sense for Bethesda residents to pay for the BRT anyway? Bethesda Metro Center is the southern end of the line on the proposed 355 route. Hardly anyone is going north out of Bethesda in the morning, or south to Bethesda in the evening. Most downtown Bethesda residents will either commute by car, bicycle, or they will walk to the Metro and take the Red Line downtown. So what are we paying taxes for, exactly? Bethesda is getting virtually no use of the proposed system. Downtown Silver Spring residents could justifiably say the same thing.

The fact is, we have a great bus system now. Except for outrageous actions by the county council - who cut weekend and holiday service on Ride On Route 90 (Shady Grove Metro-Damascus), stranding non-driving Damascus residents in town on those days - you can actually get around quite well. We have Metro. And we have cars, but an incomplete highway system.

The Post said "County officials and task force members say (BRT) is the most affordable option available to move commuters along increasingly congested corridors such as the Midcounty Highway, Randolph Road and Rockville Pike."

Really? "Survey says... BRRRRNNNNNNNNNTTTT!!"

Come on. Midcounty Highway is not even a corridor, and MCDOT has already said BRT is unnecessary on Midcounty Highway Extended.

Rockville Pike? Again, add more conventional buses. Synchronize the stoplights. Use Metro, and/or add more Red Line capacity for less than $2.5 billion.

Randolph Road? Build the Rockville Freeway for a sliver of what the BRT would cost, and you move the long-distance, cross-county traffic off Randolph permanently. Combined with the already-scheduled interchange at the Randolph-Georgia Avenue intersection, the Rockville Freeway restores Randolph to A-1 operating capacity.

There are only a few corridors where BRT would make sense. One is Veirs Mill Road, but WMATA already has a solid plan to improve bus service along that corridor for far less than the cost of BRT.

Route 29 is another. Along with the Corridor Cities Transitway, a BRT line there would be a good pilot project. Will people really ride a bus just because it comes every 5 minutes in the middle of the road?

Even there, however, it's worth a try to promote what we've already got. Humorously, the Post claimed that the only way to reach a popular Indian grocery store on Old Columbia Pike is by car.

If this mystery store is the one I'm thinking of near the intersection of Old Columbia Pike and Briggs Chaney Road, it is served by no less than 4 - 4!! - buses: the Z6, Z8 and Z9 from Silver Spring Metro, and Ride On 39.

I've done my homework. With $1000 more in property taxes on the line for the biggest boondoggle in county history, it's time for county officials and the local media to start doing theirs.