Transportation Bill

GAS PRICES a pain? No worries. A soothing new bridge, wider road or bike trail - plus a tax write-off to buy a hybrid car - is headed your way courtesy of Congress. Depressed or worse about the Iraq war? A boost to the local economy from federal subsides for corn or coal might help, Congress hopes. However disappointed taxpayers may be in the general trend of things in Washington, Congress is betting they will at least find something appealing on the list of nearly 6,500 pet projects and $14.6 billion in tax breaks that lawmakers are back home boasting of to their constituents.

WASHINGTON -- Be creative and get involved in the political process.That was the message participants heard at a meeting yesterday of the Minority Business Braintrust.The political scene is ripe for minority businesses to actively promote their interests, the panelists said. Presidential candidates are wooing votes, contracts stemming from the new transportation bill are being sought, and economic stimulus programs are being debated on Capitol Hill.Former Maryland Rep. Parren J. Mitchell, who founded the group in 1972 while serving in the House, presided over the meeting with Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-7th, the organization's chairman.

ANNAPOLIS -- Amid the gloom of state budget woes, Gov. William Donald Schaefer yesterday proposed an economic jump-start of sorts, unveiling a plan to speed up highway construction projects by borrowing money from the federal government.But the governor cautioned that a 5-cent increase in the state's 18.5-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax is needed to meet Maryland's transportation needs -- although he stopped short of formally proposing the tax increase himself.Instead, Governor Schaefer said a nickel-a-gallon tax increase phased in over three years -- 1 cent this first year and 2 cents in the following two years -- is "merely a suggestion" to the General Assembly, which rejected his proposed 5 percent sales tax on gasoline early in 1991.

Hours before the House was scheduled to debate a proposed increase in gas taxes supported by Gov. Martin O'Malley, Republicans lawmakers excoriated the plan Wednesday as a $2 billion drain on taxpayers' wallets over the next six years. House Republicans called a news conference to promise to fight the plan to raise revenue for roads, bridges, mass transit and other transportation needs. The plan would raise taxes on gas by 3.8 cents a gallon on July 1 and add increments in subsequent years.  By mid-2016, the Republicans said, the increase could reach 44.1 cents compared with the 23.5 cents Maryland motorists have paid since 1992, when the tax was last raised.

A $100 billion transportation bill President Barack Obama signed into law Friday will put 10,000 people in Maryland to work on state bridges and roads and represents "what can actually be accomplished if Congress comes together," Gov.Martin O'Malley said in an interview. O'Malley attended the signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House on Friday along with a bipartisan group of lawmakers who worked on the bill, including House Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica, a Florida Republican, and Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat who heads the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.

The daily northbound commuter backup on U.S. 29 near Columbia won't likely ease until a third lane is completed in roughly four years, but $11 million in federal money will help, officials said. Congress has approved two versions of a five-year federal transportation bill that is expected to funnel $15.6 million in federal funds to Howard County to help pay the estimated $250 million cost for widening U.S. 29 and Route 32. The funds will also help cover the $10 million price tag for a new bus maintenance facility to be shared with Anne Arundel County.

DON'T GET us wrong: A 40 percent increase in federal highway money to Maryland over the next six years and a 59 percent boost in mass transit money sounds mighty tempting. Certainly, the construction contractors and business interests drooling last week over the prospect of more state transportation spending would swoon over such a swollen federal revenue stream. With such largess, much could be done to shorten commuting times, ease congestion and improve the quality, safety and efficiency of all Maryland's ground transportation.

The battle over higher motor vehicle fees may not be over, even though a House of Delegates committee rejected the proposed increases this week.House Speaker R. Clayton Mitchell Jr. said last night that he would reconsider a Schaefer administration bill that would raise fees charged by the Motor Vehicle Administration if the state Senate could reach an acceptable agreement with transportation officials on how the money would be used."

WASHINGTON -- It was conceived as a challenge, a clarion call to Congress that would cause lawmakers to charge out of the bunkers.But President Bush's Wednesday night exhortation to "move forward aggressively on the domestic front" has triggered mostly yawns and snickers on Capitol Hill, where members of Congress -- particularly majority Democrats -- doubt that Mr. Bush will be able to translate accolades for his Persian Gulf choreography into enhanced political...

President Barack Obama's call for spending an additional $50 billion on transportation was quickly dismissed by Republicans as more of the same old economic stimulus. They could not be more wrong. If there was a valid criticism to be made of the first stimulus package, it was that not enough was invested in the nation's infrastructure needs. What Mr. Obama is proposing is not some wild-eyed liberal spending scheme but the kind of basic investment that Washington should be making whether today's unemployment is 9.8 percent or 2.8 percent.