Steve Burns
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON – (WMAL) Less than a day after his proposal came out, some doubt has already been cast over Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s proposal to give Metro additional funds over the next four years. Hogan’s proposal calls for equal contributions from Maryland, the District, Virginia and the federal government. But a Metro Board member representing the federal government told WMAL it would be more prudent to focus on other solutions.
Steve McMillin, appointed to WMATA’s Board of Directors by the Trump administration in July, said the region’s leaders shouldn’t assume help will arrive from “some unidentified savior.”
“I don’t think it’s wise for us to count on some large check coming out of the ether to save us from some hard decisions we need to make,” McMillin said. “I don’t think we can count on that.”
McMillin said there are good arguments on both sides on whether the federal government should pay more. However, he said the current political climate makes it a tough ask.
“I look at the funding challenges and legislative challenges that the administration and Congress have facing them, and I think it’s a tall order to get issues like this on that agenda,” he said.
McMillin cautioned he had not asked for or received any policy guidance from the Trump administration on the issue.
McMillin spent most of the 2000s in the Bush Administration’s Office of Management and Budget. He is currently a partner at US Policy Metrics, an economics and public policy consultancy firm. He previously described his role as providing a fiscal reality check for those around him.
“What I’ve tried to do throughout my career is help persuade people and help them understand the fiscal realities of the policy choices they face,” McMillin told WMAL in July. “Very often, policy needs to be constrained and informed by the dollars available.”
Hogan’s proposal calls for each jurisdiction, including the federal government, to contribute $125 million per year over four years. During that time, Hogan wrote, the region will have time to develop a more permanent solution to Metro’s funding.
While there were no full endorsements, other regional officials were quick to praise Hogan’s new approach. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office, however, was noticeably more dismissive.
“Our hurdle is to identify dedicated revenue that the agency can bond and bring Metro to a state of good repair,” Bowser spokeswoman LaToya Foster said in a statement. “Anything short of that does not get us over the hurdle and to our priorities: safety, reliability, and capacity.”
Metro Board Chairman Jack Evans said he was encouraged by Hogan’s proposal, but said Metro still needs certainty in its funding by the start of the agency’s new fiscal year on July 1. A reliable, dedicated source of funding, Evans said, allows Metro to borrow the billions it needs to continue fixing the system.
“At that point, it becomes very, very difficult to figure out how we’re going to pay for thee changes at Metro,” Evans told WMAL. “No, we can’t take four more years to figure this out.”
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