Maryland Transit Administration

Last night, Congress finally passed “cromnibus,” the $1.1-trillion spending bill designed to keep most of the federal government afloat through next September. Among the bill’s many provisions is a $100-million earmark for the Maryland Transit Administration’s proposed Purple Line.

If constructed, the 16-mile stretch of light rail will connect Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, areas in recent decades marked by stark divisions along racial, income, and property-value lines. For communities east of New Hampshire Avenue, especially, the Purple Line promises much by way of small-business growth and mixed-use development.

The $100 million in federal construction funds have not, however, swayed Maryland Governor-elect Larry Hogan, who, during his campaign last summer, said that he would shelve the project in favor of more basic infrastructure improvements and a balanced state budget.

As reported by Bethesda Now, Hogan remarked on Friday that the funding “doesn’t really impact us much because we still gotta look at the state’s role. It doesn’t matter what the federal government does.”

$100 million amounts to only a fraction of the $900 million that the MTA was originally seeking, and a smaller fraction still of the estimated $2.43 billion that, over the next five years, the project will cost to build.

According to the MTA, the Purple Line, which was conceived as a public–private partnership, will require between $500 million and $900 million in private investment, and between $350 and $700 million from the state.

Studies conducted by the Purple Line Corridor Coalition, a partnership of regional stakeholders, indicate that more than 150,000 people, 130,000 jobs, and 6,000 small businesses are currently within a half-mile of the line’s proposed path. The coalition also projects that the line will transport 60,000 riders per day and create 10,000 new jobs.

Hogan, who will face a $1-billion budgetary shortfall when he assumes office on January 21, has argued instead for tax cuts intended to spur economic growth and less costly transit solutions: road rehabilitation projects and new bus routes, both serving the would-be Purple Line communities north of DC.