(The following story by Jennifer Donatelli was posted on the Annapolis Capitol’s website on January 29.)
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Local lawmakers sifting through Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.’s fiscal 2004 budget have found a nearly $1.5 million increase in funding for the proposed Maglev high-speed train.
Projections from the fiscal 2003 budget approved by the General Assembly in April called for about $1.7 million to be allocated to the state’s pursuit of the magnetic levitation rail project. The budget Mr. Ehrlich recently unveiled, however, calls for $3.1 million to study it, leaving lawmakers scurrying to bend the governor’s ear.
“Now’s the time that we’ve got to get the funding removed,” said state Sen. Ed DeGrange, D-Glen Burnie, one of several lawmakers who have written to Mr. Ehrlich on the topic.
The $4 billion plan, sponsored jointly by the MTA, the Federal Railroad Administration and several local governments, calls for a high-speed magnetic levitation train to run from Baltimore to Washington, D.C., with a stop at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. Maryland is competing with Pittsburgh for the project. The FRA is expected to make its decision this year.
The project has been opposed unanimously by local lawmakers and blasted by residents in Linthicum, Severn and Odenton who fear their neighborhoods would be destroyed by the rail line.
Mr. DeGrange co-authored a letter to the governor with Sen. Edward Kasemeyer, D-Arbutus, earlier this month asking the state to discontinue its pursuit of the project. Dels. Mary Ann Love, D-Glen Burnie, and Ted Sophocleus, D-Linthicum, did the same.
Kenneth Masters, the governor’s chief legislative officer, wroteMr. DeGrange Jan. 22 telling him the state would not abandon the project. Mrs. Love said she and Mr. Sophocleus also received a similar letter.
The topic may come up Feb. 5 when the task force set up last year by the legislature to study the financial aspects of the project holds its last meeting to finalize the report it will present to the legislature.
Del. John R. Leopold, R-Pasadena, a member of the Transportation Subcomittee of the House Appropriations Committee, said he stated his opposition when the governor met with Republican committee members Jan. 21.
“I indicated the strong opposition of the county residents as as well as my own,” Mr. Leopold said, adding the governor told those in the meeting Maglev received strong support when he was a congressman.
Henry Fawell, a spokesman for Mr. Ehrlich, said Thursday the governor supports the Maglev concept, but realizes it probably won’t be funded this year because of the state’s fiscal crisis. He said the money is to complete the environmental impact statement to be submitted to the FRA next month.
“He thinks it’s a common-sense approach to transportation problems,” Mr. Fawell said.
“He’s inherited a $1.8 billion deficit. It’s not a near-term priority,” the spokesman added. “We don’t have the funds to immediately invest in Maglev. First and foremost, his priority is to solve the deficit. Once that’s complete, we then can turn our attention to Maglev.”