State of Maryland – Office of the Governor

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 16, 2003

Ehrlich Plan will Deliver An Additional $320 Million Annually for Roads;
Transit Administration to Invest $13 Billion in Transportation over Next Six Years

Hughesville – Demonstrating the importance of transportation to Maryland’s economy and quality of life, Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., today announced he will generate an additional $320 million dollars annually through user fees and other sources to improve Maryland’s highway and transit network. With Governor Ehrlich already budgeting $25 million to replenish the Transportation Trust Fund, new money available for transportation in Fiscal Year 2005 will total $345 million.

“Today we are taking a major step toward improving the safety of our highways, reducing congestion and building a transit system that works for people,” said Governor Ehrlich. “Over the next six years, we will invest $13 billion to improve our statewide transportation network.”

With the additional revenue, the FY 2005-2010 capital transportation program funded by the Transportation Trust Fund will total nearly $11.5 billion. The Maryland Transportation Authority will construct another $1.6 billion in improvements during the same period.

In 2003, Governor Ehrlich appointed the Transportation Task Force to study how best to fund Maryland’s transportation in the future. Chaired by former Maryland Transportation Secretary William Hellmann, the task force identified more than $17 billion in state transportation needs that are unfunded. The task force recommended Maryland’s annual capital investment be increased by at least $300 million per year to begin to address that need.

Elements of Governor Ehrlich’s transportation funding program that will produce the additional $320 million per year include:

$153 million – generated through an adjustment to the annual base vehicle registration fee. Cars will pay an additional $23.50 per year. Trucks will pay an additional $36.00 per year;
$11 million – generated through the application of a $200 surcharge attached to each DUI/DWI conviction;
$40 million – generated through the application of a $50 surcharge attached to each conviction of a moving violation;
$20 million – generated by an increase in miscellaneous MVA fees, including an increase in the MVA’s ability to recover more of its costs associated with the program that assists local jurisdictions in collecting parking fines and fines for other violations;
$32 million – generated by dedicating a full 100 percent of the rental car sales tax to the Transportation Trust Fund;
$10 million – generated as the Transportation Trust Fund’s share of the Delaware Holding Company Settlement;
$54 million – generated from higher than expected titling tax receipts, motor fuel tax receipts and additional bonding capacity projected for the six-year period.
In FY 2005 Governor Ehrlich has already budgeted $25 million to begin to replenish the amount transferred from the Transportation Trust Fund to the General Fund in FY 2004. This will result in a total of $345 million in additional transportation funding in FY 2005.

“The program I have developed to generate the transportation revenue we so desperately need is a fair one,” Governor Ehrlich continued. “It asks those who use our transportation system to help pay for improvements that will make their drive safer and faster. It also demands that those who break our traffic laws pay an additional financial penalty that benefits the safety of our driving public. The 661 traffic fatalities in Maryland in 2002 are proof that we can no longer tolerate loss of life, injury, and property damage on our roadways.”

Governor Ehrlich announced the funding program beside the interchange of I-695 and US 40 in Baltimore, which was designed and built nearly 50 years ago. Increased traffic volumes have made the interchange obsolete and created safety problems. Needed improvements totaling $8 million cannot get underway without additional funding.

For more than a decade, key revenue sources that fuel the Transportation Trust Fund have not been adjusted to keep pace with inflation, reducing the buying power of the Transportation Trust Fund. Base vehicle registration fees have not been adjusted since 1987. If the fee had been adjusted for inflation from its inception in 1950, it should be $120 today. However, the planned adjustment leaves the fee at less than half that figure at $50.50 per year.