Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Coalition Seeks to Protect Transportation Trust Fund
The Maryland Chamber of Commerce joined with Greater Baltimore Committee, AAA Mid-Atlantic, local chambers and many other organizations yesterday to launch a new statewide coalition to protect and enhance transportation funding.
“We have to restore trust to the Transportation Trust Fund and increase transportation funding,” Maryland Chamber President and CEO Kathy Snyder, CCE said. “It will create jobs, but it’s also an economic development issue, a workforce issue and a quality of life issue.”
The new coalition, the State Transportation Alliance to Restore Trust (START), held a press conference yesterday to announce that nearly 30 organizations and businesses have joined together to advocate transportation funding because:
- Money from the Transportation Trust Fund has been diverted to the General Fund for decades;
- Transportation funding is inadequate to address the backlog of transportation projects statewide;
- Transportation is an essential element in job growth;
- The Baltimore-Washington area ranks among the worst in the nation for traffic;
- State elected officials must be educated about the problem and address the crisis now.
The coalition was joined by Senator Rob Garagiola (D-Dist. 15), who plans to introduce legislation this session to increase transportation funding and propose a constitutional amendment to establish that the Transportation Trust Fund may only be used for specified transportation purposes and not transferred to the state’s general fund. Here is a brief video of Sen. Garagiola’s remarks to the group:
