In This Issue

	Politicians Unite After Voters Reject Both Options
	Advocate Opposes Governor’s Rail Surcharge
	Maryland Lawmakers Seek Fuel Tax Increase
	Toll Roads Face Moratorium
	$3.8B Highway Plan Needs Tax Dollars
	SC Gov. Pushes DOT Reform
	Airport Extension Project Cut
	Ohio House Rejects Highway Priorities
	Group Sues to Detour Mexican Trucks
	WV Lawmakers Want to Oversee Tolls
	Fl. I-75 Loses Collier County Support

Politicians Unite After Voters Reject Both Options

OLYMPIA – The votes are in: Seattle voters rejected both the city’s plan to replace the quake-damaged Alaskan Way Viaduct with a $3.4 billion waterfront tunnel, as well as the state’s plan for a $2.8 billion elevated highway.

“We’re going to move forward not by highlighting the differences of yesterday, but by finding common ground today,” said Gov. Gregoire at a news conference in Olympia Wednesday. She said the state will provide no more than $2.8 billion, no matter what final replacement option is chosen.

While the vote did not tell elected officials which option to choose, it did force the feuding politicians to come together and try to find common ground. City and state officials announced Wednesday that they would begin $915 million worth of work on the viaduct they agree on this summer. Meanwhile, they will postpone the decision on how to replace it until late 2008, before lawmakers begin writing the next two-year state budget.

“We don’t know what that solution looks like, but we do know it will include transit, light rail, streetcars, buses, biking, walking, it will keep freight moving efficiently and our economy strong,” said Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, who favors the tunnel option. “I would look at it as a blank slate. The voters said no to the two options that were put before them, which were both highway options, and it is up to us to take a harder look at other alternatives.”

The voters said no to the two options put on the table. As with many such initiatives, there are more lingering questions than answers. The mayor seems to have surmised this to be a referendum on alternatives to highways. Or perhaps it was a commentary on taxes, a venting of frustration, or any number of other things troubling the public. All through this process I have wondered if the Seattle voters should have the ultimate say in the future of a facility of statewide significance? Perhaps the real question is- “What would the public say yes to?” Who knows the answer to that question? TW

Advocate Opposes Governor’s Rail Surcharge

Connecticut - A prominent commuter rail advocate in Connecticut says he is “heartened” by the governor’s decision to form a panel which will study alternatives to the looming $1-per-ride surcharge for riders of Metro-North commuter rail. Jim Cameron, chair of the Connecticut Metro-North New Haven Rail Commuter Council, opposes the surcharge, scheduled to be imposed beginning Jan. 1, 2008. The council is a group of volunteers created by the legislature to represent train riders.

Cameron says riders have already endured a “decade of poor service, dirty trains with no seats and smelly bathrooms,” and it would be outrageous for those who have purchased unlimited-ride passes to be charged $40 more per month. The $1 surcharge was proposed by Governor M. Jodi Rell in her 2005 transportation initiative. Cameron also stated that riders from Fairfield to Stamford paying $2.25 one-way will be paying 44 percent more with the new fees.

Governor Rell asked state Sens. William Nickerson (R-Greenwich) and Andrew McDonald (D-Stamford) to head an ad-hoc committee to study alternatives to the surcharge over the next three weeks. Rell asked the Senators to ask local government leaders, constituents, and rail advocates to identify additional funding alternatives to the surcharge.

While no one likes to see rates go up on the services they receive, it is usually inevitable with the cost of virtually everything going up in life. You have a commuter rail system here that is substantially subsidized, a transportation revenue crisis in the state, a ridership that is largely white collar or certainly not supported by state or federal social programs and a complaint about raising fares. As I told a legislator in Utah the other day, we want more service and lower taxes. TW

Maryland Lawmakers Seek Fuel Tax Increase

Maryland - Two key legislators in Maryland have proposed a state fuel tax increase to raise funding for the transportation department’s funding deficit. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D-Chesapeake Beach, has called for a 12-cent-per-gallon increase to the state’s 23.5 cent fuel tax, an idea to which Gov. Martin O’Malley is said to be “receptive.”

The governor emphasized the state’s need for more transportation funding in his State of the State address. The Baltimore Sun reported that O’Malley’s transition team has also suggested raising the fuel tax to help fill the void for needed ransportation money. Miller’s increase would not only generate an additional $400 million annually, but it would also raise up to $3 billion for road construction over 5 years by allowing more bonds to be issued.

The chairwoman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Sheila Hixson, D-Silver Spring, has also proposed a 10-cent fuel tax increase for road work. Both lawmakers’ bills contain mechanisms for the tax rate to increase automatically with the cost of fuel. Miller’s bill also includes caps on the taxes, preventing the diesel fuel tax from rising above 40.25 cents per gallon, and the gas tax must stay below 39.5 cents.

Toll Roads Face Moratorium

Texas - A former Texas Transportation Commission member and toll advocate appears to have switched sides, after filing a bill with 24 Senate co-sponsors to place a two-year moratorium on private toll contracts. Robert Nichols served eight years on the commission before resigning in June 2005 to run for the Senate. His transportation peers expected his win would prove to be a legislative achievement for the department, given that Nichols was one of the commission’s key proponents in the 2004 signing of a 50-year contract with Cintra-Zachry, in which the firm agreed to build 300 miles of the Trans-Texas Corridor (paralleling I-35) and pay $1.2 billion to the state.

Transportation officials may have first noticed something was amiss with Nichols on March 1, when he began throwing tough questions at his former colleague, commission Chairman Ric Williamson about private toll roads at a commission hearing. Nichols claims that he still supports both public and private toll roads, but not in the way the state is going to do them.

Nichols said that the commission and Cintra-Zachry agreed their contracts would have no non-compete clauses, which would make the state pay Cintra-Zachry compensation if toll revenue was lost because new free roads were built. However, the I-35 expansion would be exempt, at least in the Texas 130 contract still pending. Before leaving the commission, Nichols tried to set a formula to try to control what the state would have to pay if it decided to take back the section of Texas 130, but Cintra-Zachry imprecise “fair market value.”

Nichols says that if the non-compete clause and fair market language which are in the pending contract are not taken out, future Texans may end up “having to pay the piper.” He says the proposed moratorium is simply a way to allow angry legislators to cool off, and keep them from banning toll roads completely.

$3.8B Highway Plan Needs Tax Dollars

CARSON CITY, Nevada – Transportation officials in Nevada hoping for $3.8 billion to build 10 “super” highway projects from the legislature this session could be facing a tax wall. State Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, said she doubts the transportation shortfall will be reduced this session, considering Gov. Jim Gibbons’ promise to veto any tax increases, and the tax increase opposition by most legislators.

Assembly Transportation Committee Chair, Kelvin Atkinson, says hour-long traffic jams will become a daily occurrence in greater Las Vegas if lawmakers do not designate $3.8 billion to build highways. The “super” highway projects are mainly in Clark County and include multiple U.S. Highway 95 and I-15 widening projects, to be built between 2008 and 2015. “We’re hopeful,” Atkinson said Friday. “We aren’t going to get $3.8 billion from any one source, but we will get there.”

In December, the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Task Force recommended the 2007 legislature increase taxes by about $280 million a year. Then the transportation department would issue $3.8 billion in bonds, which the tax money would pay off over a 24-year period. Final costs would be in excess of $7 billion.

Alternatives to tax increases being considered by legislators include private investment in road projects. The newly appointed transportation department head, Susan Martinovich, says she can see additional lanes being built on I-15 at private expense that would be dedicated to trucks or high-occupancy vehicles. “They don’t build roads out of the kindness in their heart,” said Martinovich. “There has to be something in there for them.”

SC Gov. Pushes DOT Reform

S.C. - South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is continuing his campaign for continued citizen involvement to pass his plan to restructure the state DOT. The state is one of only 3 states in which the department is not directly accountable to the executive branch, and Sanford hopes to soon change that. The governor believes the agency’s director should be appointed by him, to create a higher level of accountability. As it is, the Legislature appoints a board, and the governor selects a chairman. Then the board chooses a director.

The recent push for reform stems from a November audit of the agency which showed too much paid for contracts, mismanaged funds, and millions of wasted taxpayer dollars. Bills have recently been passed by the Senate Transportation Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee which would let the governor appoint the director, but members of the Transportation Board would still be selected by the Legislature.

“I’m not keen on any kind of (Transportation) commission but it seems to the consensus that some are retained,” Sanford said. He said state statistics show South Carolina spent $317 in highway dollars per person annually compared to the national average of $246. “These reforms will mean more bang for our buck. It isn’t so much more money or people but a greater level of accountability and doing a better job setting priorities.”

Airport Extension Project Cut

Tennessee - Plans for the airport-access extension project in Sullivan County, Tennessee will not be advanced at this time, according to an announcement by the Tennessee Department of Transportation Tuesday. After spending almost two years evaluating the community’s input, Commissioner Gerald Nicely plans to improve the U.S. 11E and U.S. 19E intersection, instead of moving forward with the State Route 357 Extension Project. The extension would have connected U.S. Highway 11E with the existing State Route 357 by the Tri-Cities Airport.

The project was reviewed by the University of Tennessee Center for Transportation Research in 2003, after which a group of 19 citizens formed a Context Sensitive Solutions research team to represent the public’s interests and concerns about the project. “After months of meetings, it seems clear that the community feels there is no urgent need for an extension of State Route 357,” Nicely said.

TDOT Chief of Environment and Planning, Ed Cole, agreed with the decision, saying that the SR357 Extension Project is not considered a top priority project by the First Tennessee Regional Planning Organization (RPO) or the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO). The two planning organizations inform TDOT of the needed projects in the Kingsport and northeast Tennessee areas. “The absence of the SR357 Extension Project from (RPO and MPO)’s list of priority projects certainly was a factor in the decision to move forward with only intersection improvements at this time,” said Cole.

Ohio House Rejects Highway Priorities

Ohio - Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland’s $7.8 billion 2-year transportation budget was approved by the House Finance Committee on Monday, but only after the committee pulled out language which would give higher priority to construction projects that increase public transportation capacity and stimulate economic development. The governor had been promoting his plan to reprioritize transportation projects, particularly to enhance economic growth, because he said the state could not keep up the extensive road construction schedule of the last couple years.

Projects in Strickland’s plan which would have been given higher priority because they encouraged economic development included upgrading airports and other infrastructure, reduce city traffic, expand public transportation, enhance safety, improve rail freight, and give municipalities more control over land uses. The Finance Committee rejected the language because it would “leave too many questions unanswered.”

Ohio Department of Transportation spokesman Scott Varner said ODOT officials had hoped for a “comprehensive and transparent review” of the state’s transportation policy, but they did not plan to appeal the decision to remove Strickland’s language. The Finance Committee also voted to hire a deputy inspector general assigned to the Ohio Department of Transportation to look for waste and corruption in transportation projects.

Group Sues to Detour Mexican Trucks

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is being sued after failing to release information regarding the controversial program to allow Mexican truckers to travel throughout the U.S. Public Citizen filed the lawsuit on behalf of the nonprofit Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety group, after a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed with the FMCSA in October 2006.

The group requested information regarding the activities that have taken place through any program to allow Mexican carriers deeper into the U.S. than ever previously allowed. Public Citizen says that public safety is at stake, and so far no details about the methods of evaluation or the criteria have been revealed for the program.

The 12-month pilot project permitting Mexican truckers beyond the border zone was announced by the Bush administration in February 2007. The FOIA requires agencies to respond to a request for documents within 20 working days. Highway safety coalitions say that the pilot project does not comply with safety requirements mandated by congress, which must be in place before implementation of a 2001 NAFTA order which requires the border to be open for Mexico-domiciled trucks traveling into the U.S. and vice versa.

“FMCSA has been stonewalling us by not supplying the information on this program,” said Jackie Gillan, vice president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. “We’ve been forced to sue because the agency has been trying to keep this material out of the public domain.”

WV Lawmakers Want to Oversee Tolls

West Virginia - Lawmakers in West Virginia may soon have the power to approve any toll increases on the West Virginia Turnpike before they are implemented, according to bills passed in the current legislative session. But turnpike officials at the Parkways Authority say such laws could damage the agency’s relationship with its bondholders.

“What happens if you do something to injure that bond rating or relationship? Your interest rates go up,” Barr said Monday. “It could cost millions in additional debt services.” The agency still has $98 million in bonds to pay off before 2019, said Greg Barr, general manager of the Parkways Authority, which oversees the 88-mile highway between Charleston and Princeton. The bond money funded the construction of the turnpike.

The new legislation was prompted in response to the Parkway Authority’s sudden toll hike last year, which raised passenger car’s toll from $1.25 to $2, and from $4.25 to $7 for five-axle commercial vehicles. Some Turnpike motorists sued the authority for not properly notifying the public before the increase, and a Kanawha County judge reversed the increase.

Barr says that if they Legislature’s bill is implemented, it would be harder to impose toll charges through the legislative process. He said he isn’t aware of any toll agencies in the nation who must receive full legislative approval before changing their toll rates.

Fl. I-75 Loses Collier County Support

Florida - The Southwest Florida Expressway Authority convinced the Collier County Commission to put off a decision to loan the authority $625,000 until the next commission meeting at the end of March. Most commission members saw no sense in loaning the authority the money, after they have already given it $125,000, but Jim Colletta, a Southwest Florida Expressway Authority board member and a Collier County Commissioner convinced them to delay the decision.

The Authority is looking to toll lanes in the contract to widen I-75 from four to six lanes, to help fund a future expansion of the roadway to ten lanes when the two lanes are finished. Collier commissioners are opposed to that plan; some saying taxpayers have already paid for a six-lane road without tolls.

However, Lee County Commissioner and authority board member Tammy Hall said the legislation depended on Lee and Collier Counties both supporting the expansion plan. Hall said Colletta had given no indication that Collier County may not support the plan that he had been involved and supportive of every move the authority has made. Hall said without the support of Collier County, there would be no authority, and that with no authority, any expansion of I-75 beyond six lanes is decades away.