UPDATES
Delegate Solomon’s essential P3 Reform bill, HB1424, is hot off the presses! Read more about it below!
But the 2020 legislative session is 1/3 over!
(The 2020 session runs from Jan. 8 – Apr. 6)
NOW IS THE TIME TO BE HEARD !
ACTION ITEMS
ACTION 1: EMAIL Del. Kumar Barve, Chair of the Environment and Transportation Committee HERE. Ask him to report FOUR CRITICAL BILLS out of committee so they can be voted on. (More details on the new bills below)
*HB299: To limit eminent domain for P3 toll projects on I-495/I-270 (to save our homes and backyards)
*HB292 : The House counterpart to SB229, the “County Consent” bill (to force MDOT/SHA to work with Montgomery County on this toll road project, and possibly even cancel it)
*HB1424: Public Private Partnership (P3) Process and Oversight Bill (details below)
*HB1249 - I-495 and I-270 Public-Private Partnership - Partnership Agreement - Requirements (Maryland State Department of Transportation Promises Act of 2020) (details below)
ACTION 2. Come to Annapolis Thursday for the HB292 hearing. (details below) Chair Barve needs to see you really care!
ACTION 3. Come to Annapolis Tuesday to join the Citizens Against Beltway Expansion (CABE) Lobby Day (details below) and/or attend the HB299 hearing (details below)
ACTION 4. Watch for next week’s email for Updates, Action Items, Details, and More Good Reads – things are happening fast!!!!
HEARINGS TO ATTEND THIS WEEK
District 17 Delegate Kumar Barve chairs the House Environment & Transportation Committee and will hear two critical bills THIS WEEK:
Tuesday, February 11, 2020 at 1:00 p.m.:
HB299 : To limit eminent domain for P3 toll projects on I-495/I-270Thursday, February 13, 2020 at 1:00 p.m.:
HB292 :The House counterpart to SB229, the “County Consent” bill
Both hearings are in Room 251, House Office Building, Annapolis MD 21401
DETAILS
Jared Solomon’s HB1424 P3 Reform Bill Details:
(from DW270’s partner, CABE)
One of the bills CABE and DontWiden 270 plan to lobby for on Tuesday, February 11 is HB 1424, which sets new taxpayer protections and transparency requirements for all public-private partnership (P3) transportation proposals with enhanced protections for proposals exceeding $500 million. Introduced by Delegate Jared Solomon (D-Mont.), the bill builds on legislation overwhelmingly passed by the House of Delegates last year and gives the General Assembly up to a year to review and nullify previously approved P3 designations.
Solomon's bill aims to fix the current P3 review system, which allowed the Board of Public Works to vote on the $11 billion P3 Luxury Lane proposal for I-495/I-270 despite MDOT's two-year refusal to share basic project and fiscal information with the Board, affected local governments, and the public.
If passed the bill would stop the BPW from designating $500+ million transportation proposals as P3s until they are cleared by a new Public-Private Partnership Oversight Review Board. Made up of appointees from the General Assembly, Governor, Comptroller, and Treasurer, the new panel would review projects, pre-solicitation reports (with the General Assembly's Budget Committees), develop recommendations, and provide a report to Budget Committees and BPW.
The bill would also give the General Assembly up to one year to revisit BPW decisions to designate a proposal as a P3 and, if necessary, pass legislation to nullify it.
To protect taxpayers, HB 1424 would require independent auditors (or rating agencies) to conduct a rating assessment survey for every contract under a large P3 agreement before the Board of Public Works can vote on it.
This is a smart response to numerous studies from the U.S. Department of Transportation and others that blame over-optimistic assumptions about traffic volumes and revenues for unexpected taxpayer bailouts of struggling P3 tollways in Texas and other states.
Finally, the bill would expand existing 'no-compete' requirements to ensure local governments can add roads, transit, and other options for commuters that may compete with P3 toll roads without having to pay a penalty or get the P3 company's permission. Current law only affects state-funded transportation projects.
Bottom line: this is an important bill that would go a long way to restoring certainty and public confidence in massive P3 proposals for highways and other transportation projects. We strongly urge both houses to take it up and pass it.
HB1249 - I-495 and I-270 Public-Private Partnership - Partnership Agreement - Requirements (Maryland State Department of Transportation Promises Act of 2020)
This legislation sponsored by Del. Marc Korman (D16) puts into statute all of the promises the Administration made to get the Comptroller's vote and the Montgomery County Executive's positive press statements. If you saw his exchange with Secretary Slater a few weeks ago, (watch here) it has all of the elements he hit on there. For example, local toll setting hearings; 10% or more for transit; bus access to the toll lanes for free; no taxpayer costs; etc.
This is not how Marc Korman would do this project, it is how MDOT claims they will do it.
If the Administration has agreed to these elements of the project, then why do we need this bill? Because we know these promises may not be kept, just as they were not in the case of the Harry Nice Bridge where the Administration backed off of announced plans to have separated bike/ped lanes: read here
No hearing is set yet, but it is not too soon to email Chair Barve to ask him to support this bill.
CABE Lobby Day
February 11, 2020
10:00 am
Main Entrance to the Senate Office Building
11 Bladen Street
Annapolis, MD 21401
The General Assembly is in full swing and we need you to help convince our Senators and Delegates to pass bills that protect taxpayers, communities, and commuters from high-risk boondoggles like Governor Hogan's $11 billion Luxury Lane plan for I-270 and I-495.
We came close last year. The House passed legislation overwhelmingly, but it stalled in the Senate. This year we can get it done. But only with your help.
Time is short. MDOT has issued a new Request for Qualifications to line up vendors and hopes to sign a contract by spring 2021.
We need to meet with as many Senators and Delegates as possible. Bigger turnout on Tuesday, means more meetings with Senators and Delegates. More meetings is how we get it done.
Mark your calendar. Join us on Tuesday, February 11, for CABE Lobby Day at the main entrance of the Senate Office Building, 11 Bladen Street, Annapolis, MD.(Remember to bring a driver's license or other government ID to enter the Senate building.)
Contact Barbara Coufal for more information at bcoufal10@aol.com.
City of Rockville Opposed I-270 Widening
From Cliff Cumber, City of Rockville Public Information Specialist
The Mayor and Council continued efforts in January to oppose a state project to widen interstates 270 and 495 over the American Legion Bridge with toll lanes, as a state board approved the project.
The Board of Public Works, comprised of the governor, comptroller and state treasurer, approved the project on a 2-1 vote on Jan. 8, with Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp voting in opposition. In a letter to the board on Jan. 6, the Mayor and Council said they “were stunned to learn from the press” late on Jan. 4 that the vote had been scheduled for Jan. 8 and that the plan had changed.
The approved plan calls for toll lanes between a widened Legion Bridge and Interstate 370, and defers widening the remainder of I-495. “This plan is dramatically different from the previous plan and no one has had time to study the impacts these changes will have,” the letter said. The city will be “the most critically affected municipality,” with the highway’s 12 lanes abutting homes, Julius West Middle School, two churches and senior facilities, the letter said.
The Mayor and Council have actively engaged with the state about this proposed project, encouraging state officials not to take homes or breach sound-wall boundaries. The Jan. 6 letter expressed their concern that the project would force Rockville to reconstruct city-owned bridges over I-270 at Wootton Parkway and Gude Drive.
The Mayor and Council requested an analysis of the traffic that construction related to the widening will generate, and a discussion of long-term maintenance needs resulting from additional traffic. The letter noted noise pollution from the existing highway and questioned why other options were not considered, telling the board, “Let’s put transit options first – not last.”
The Mayor and Council also questioned why state officials were not more transparent and rushed toward a vote, asking the board to remove the item from its agenda and work with the city. Read about Rockville's efforts to advocate on behalf of the community about the widening project at https://rockvillereports.com/?s=I-270.
MORE GOOD READS
More Lanes on I-95 Won’t Fix Virginia’s Traffic Woes, VDOT Says, Greater Greater Washington, Feb. 4, 2020
Maryland Can’t Afford the Costs of Building More Highways, Greater Greater Washington, Feb. 3, 2020
Letter/Testimony from Sidney Katz, Tom Hucker and Mark Elrich re: SB229
OLDIES BUT GOODIES
And how could we forget….
Maryland’s Lesson:Widen the Roads, Drivers Will Come Washington Post, Jan. 4, 1999, about the unexpectedly quick return of congestion when I-270 was widened from 4 to 12 lanes. (The construction lasted 6 years (1985-1991); the rolling parking lot was back by 1998, just 7 years later.)
Or this…..
From the April 25-May 2, 2019 Washington Post-Schar School poll of 1,507 adult residents of the Washington area, with an error margin of +/- 3.5 percentage points:
Question: How concerned are you that the express toll lanes will do these?
Percent saying “Very” or “Somewhat” concerned
-Require destruction of homes 73%
-Be too expensive to use 69%
-Fail to reduce congestion 68%