The proposal summary reads:
"The Authority could have the following attributes: It could include governance for both BRT and Ride-On (and other County transit initiatives like bike trails, micro transit pilots, etc.); It would have separate bonding authority not linked to the County’s limits; It could have a 5-7 person board made up of appointees by the County (Executive and Council), the State and perhaps larger municipalities in the County; It could have authority to levy a small increase to the State gas tax or sales tax to finance County transit projects."
While you'd think it's unlikely County elected officials would dare to include the insane provision of the original ITA proposal - the inability of the elected Council to sign off on the unelected ITA's budgets, that question is not covered in the brief ITA proposal in the report.
Other major concerns were that the Council could offload massive amounts of debt from their own capital budgets to the ITA, and that the ITA would have unlimited taxing authority without any accountability to County voters. But it's no surprise that the MoCo cartel is trying to revive the ITA's corpse for a third try.
The ITA was conceived by the cartel for practical reasons foremost - specifically because it is literally the only way to fund the County's proposed $10 billion Bus Rapid Transit network, and secondarily, because the funding scheme for the Purple Line is going to drain away so much money from the future pot for transportation projects in the County. Because the ridership of BRT will be so low, there is no way to create a public-private partnership to fund it - there's no profit potential for a private partner.
Again we are seeing the overconfidence of a political cartel that thinks itself invincible after defeating their decades-old boogeyman, the Columbia Country Club. New property and trash taxes, a proposed drop in speed limits, and the creation of a monster spend-and-burn ITA that could bankrupt the County if taxpayers were held liable in the end for its debts. What will they think of next?
7 comments:
Not this nonsense again! When will Elrich get rid of his hard-on for BRT? He wants to steal entire lanes of traffic just for use by a bus that runs every 15 minutes at most, and often directly parallel to the Metro train (355 and Red Line).
"the zombie body with unlimited taxing power - and a potentially County-wrecking ability to rack up unlimited debt"
Reminder: The proposed ITA would have zero authority to levy taxes, "rack up debt", or acquire property by eminent domain. Any funding would need to be approved by the Council.
7:31: False - the legislation to create the ITA explicitly gave the ITA unlimited taxing authority, and the ability to rack up unlimited debt. The Council was prohibited from reviewing the ITA's budget, much less approving it.
“explicitly gave the ITA unlimited taxing authority”
I seriously doubt this is true.
Here is the actual bill proposing the ITA from 2015. Note that Dyer never, ever links to it.
http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2015RS/bills/hb/hb0104f.pdf
How would you fund local public transit or do you not believe in it?
Why are you so opposed to the ITA, but for public-private partership projects that similarly transfer authority and, often, profits to non-public, unelected and unaccountable entities?
2:16: I do believe in transit - that there should be a way to get anywhere in the County using public transit of some kind. But it's not the solution or option for a majority of people, and given the approaching dawn of autonomous vehicles, will not be for the foreseeable future.
A private firm building a new Potomac River crossing, for example, would not have taxing authority nor the ability to take on the debt of other County projects. Its potential to take down the whole County government finances is therefore quite limited.
Smart elected officials include a clause in a toll road contract that states if the private firm goes bankrupt or out of business, that the jurisdiction acquires the facility free of charge.
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