Washington – The new Maryland transportation bill passed during this year’s legislative session has been welcomed by local leaders at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, who have strongly urged lawmakers to increase revenues for the region’s transportation system.

Maryland’s new transportation funding bill is positive news for our state and the metropolitan Washington region as a whole,” said Karen Young, Chairwoman of the Council of Governments, and president pro-tem of the City of Frederick, MD Board of Aldermen. “Greater investment in the transportation system will strengthen our region’s economic competitiveness and help us accommodate the 1.3 million more people and 1.2 million more jobs we forecast by 2040.”

Yesterday, the region’s Transportation Planning Board (TPB) at COG sent a letter to Governor O’Malley, Lieutenant Governor Brown, and Leaders of the Maryland General Assembly, thanking state leaders for their leadership and dedication in reaching a successful outcome.

Leaders at the Council of Governments have consistently called for significant investment in transportation to address pressing needs for system maintenance, new infrastructure, and the increasingly urgent problem of congestion on both roadway and transit systems.

In December 2012, the TPB sent a letter to state lawmakers explaining why additional transportation funding is essential for the maintenance and development of the area’s roads and transit system and highlighting successful funding strategies that have been enacted elsewhere in the country.

Earlier this year, COG members congratulated leaders in the Commonwealth of Virginia for their new transportation funding bill.

The complete text of the letter from the Transportation Planning Board to Governor O’Malley, Lieutenant Governor Brown, and Leaders of the Maryland General Assembly is included below:

Dear Governor O’ Malley, Lieutenant Governor Brown and Leaders of the Maryland General

Assembly:

In a letter to you dated December 31, 2012 the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (TPB), the metropolitan planning organization (MPO) for the Washington region, expressed its support for your efforts to enact revenue increases for transportation. The letter provided background information underscoring the urgent need for additional revenues to ensure that the region’s highway and transit systems are adequately maintained and have the capacity to support anticipated population and employment growth in the region. The letter also provided examples of approaches for raising transportation revenues that have been implemented in other states and localities throughout the country.

The TPB would like to take this opportunity to thank you for enacting a bill that employs reliable sources to significantly increase transportation revenues for present and future years. The bill will provide additional statewide revenues as well as establishes a Task Force to address major local and regional transportation challenges in the future. The TPB recognizes that extensive negotiation and compromise were needed in crafting this bill, and greatly appreciates your leadership and dedication in reaching a successful outcome.

Please feel free to contact me at Scott.York@loudoun.gov or Ronald Kirby, staff director to the TPB, at rkirby@mwcog.org, if there is any additional information or support that the TPB can provide in the implementation of this important and much needed new legislation.

Sincerely,

Scott K. York

Chairman

National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board