Hogan cancels expected vote on toll-lane plan for I-270, Beltway
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Version 4 of 7. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) has canceled this week’s meeting of the Board of Public Works amid a growing public feud with state Comptroller Peter Franchot, whose vote he needs on the board for his plan to add toll lanes to the Capital Beltway and Interstate 270. The board was expected to vote as early as Wednesday on the latest changes to Hogan’s proposal. The governor needs the board’s approval before the state may begin soliciting private companies to build the lanes and finance their construction as part of one of the largest public-private partnerships in the country. However, Franchot (D), who supported the plan in June and is considered the board’s swing vote on the toll lane proposal, said last week that he objected to the latest changes. The meeting cancellation, announced late Saturday in an email from the governor’s office to other state officials, pushes the toll-lane debate into a likely legislative battle early next year. Opponents in the General Assembly have said they’ll try to fight the plan in the new legislative session, which begins Jan. 8, by tightening what they say are holes in the state law governing public-private partnerships. Maryland Gov. Hogan’s toll lane plan hits a new political snag Hogan spokesman Michael Ricci said Sunday that the cancellation has “no connection” to the toll-lane plan and that the state was “finally close to solving the region’s traffic crisis.” Ricci cited a recent agreement between Maryland and Virginia to replace the American Legion Bridge and widen it with toll lanes as part of the governor’s plan. “We continue to have good conversations with the comptroller and appreciate his support for the project,” Ricci said. When asked why the meeting was canceled, Ricci said, “We looked at the agenda and thought we could move everything to the new year, so we are.” Hogan and Franchot have often been close allies, but a back-and-forth exchange of jabs on Facebook between Hogan’s and Franchot’s offices that started Saturday and extended into Sunday morning revealed a growing feud and an explicit lack of support from the comptroller. Hogan’s personal Facebook page first posted a Dec. 6 editorial from The Washington Post in support of building the toll lanes. The governor’s office highlighted a quote from the editorial saying that Franchot and other political opponents could “play politics by pandering to naysayers or face the fact that traffic will get much worse without major new highway construction.” Maryland transportation chief apologizes for hours-long backups at Bay Bridge Franchot’s chief of staff, Len Foxwell, responded with a reference to lengthy traffic backups that have occurred at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge since the Maryland Transportation Authority began a major repair project on its western span. Franchot has blamed the authority for not giving motorists enough notice or coordinating with local governments on both sides of the bridge. “As the governor and his administration hopefully learned from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge fiasco, this is complicated work, and good intentions alone aren’t enough,” Foxwell wrote. Foxwell added that the state needed an “evidence-based, data-driven approach to transportation planning. We cannot afford to simply make it up as we go along.” On Sunday morning, the governor’s office posted a photo of Franchot on Facebook with a quote from the comptroller when he voted for the toll-lanes plan in June: “Our congestion crisis has made life unbearable for people trying to get to work on time, for parents driving their kids to practices and games, and for police officers, firefighters and ambulance drivers who are trying to save lives.” In a statement Sunday morning, Foxwell responded, “The comptroller works for the taxpayers of Maryland and not the governor.” Hogan’s toll lane plan clears key vote — with some changes Foxwell added in a later Facebook post that Hogan’s latest plan breaks three “promises” that Hogan had made to Franchot before he initially supported the plan in June: That a controversial section of the Beltway between I-270 and Interstate 95 would be done after lower I-270, that the state wouldn’t begin buying private property along the highways until a federal environmental review was done, and that 10 percent of the state’s net toll revenue would go to transit expansion. “It’s time to put down the red Sharpies, take a deep breath and do the serious work that it takes to get this thing right,” Foxwell wrote. “Right now, it just feels like darts being thrown at a board.” Hogan needs one vote other than his own on the three-member Board of Public Works to allow the Maryland Department of Transportation to begin soliciting proposals from companies. State Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp (D), who is elected by the General Assembly, opposed the proposal in June, saying MDOT hadn’t provided enough detail about the toll lanes’ potential environmental and financial impact. Maryland, Virginia reach deal to replace, widen American Legion Bridge Hogan previously delayed a Dec. 4 vote on the toll-lane plan after Franchot, who is weighing a run for governor, requested that it be pushed to Dec. 18 to allow more time to assess the changes. MDOT has not put it on the Wednesday agenda. A Hogan spokesman said it could be added as late as that morning and that state officials were continuing to answer questions from board members about the changes. Agencies typically don’t seek approval at the Board of Public Works unless they know they have the necessary two votes — in this case, the governor’s and Franchot. MDOT plans to expand both highways by up to four lanes each via a public-private partnership in which teams of companies would build the lanes and finance their construction in exchange for keeping most of the toll revenue over 50 years. State officials have said the state would pay nothing. The existing lanes would be rebuilt and remain free. The contracts, which MDOT hopes to finalize in 2021, would have an estimated value of more than $9 billion, state officials say. Last year, lawmakers who opposed the plan tried to amend the public-private partnership law to require that the state complete a federally required analysis of a project’s potential environmental and community impact before soliciting companies to build it. The bill passed the House but died in a Senate committee. Poll: 61 percent of D.C.-area residents favor plan to add toll lanes to Beltway, I-270 Hogan, MDOT officials and supporters of the toll-lanes plan say the lanes would help ease traffic by allowing motorists who need a fast, reliable trip to buy their way out of congestion by paying a toll. Toll prices would adjust with congestion to ensure speeds of at least 45 mph in the express lanes, MDOT officials have said. The lanes on the Capital Beltway would extend over the American Legion Bridge and connect with toll lanes on Virginia’s side of the Beltway, creating a regional network. Opponents say Hogan’s traffic-relief plan doesn’t do enough to expand transit options and shouldn’t focus on expanding highways where auto emissions contribute to global warming. They say the plan also would destroy too many homes and too much environmentally sensitive public parkland while bringing the highways closer to long-established neighborhoods. |