U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood recommends $100 million for TriMet's Portland-Milwaukie light-rail line
Published: Tuesday, February 14, 2012, 7:50 PM Updated: Tuesday, February 14, 2012, 7:52 PM
By Joseph Rose, The Oregonian
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood recommended Tuesday $100 million in federal funding to the Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail project and said the federal government is on the verge of signing a pledge to cover half the Orange Line’s price tag.
In a conference call with reporters, LaHood said that President Barack Obama considers the $1.5 billion light-rail line extension from downtown Portland to Milwaukie an integral part of rebuilding the nation’s economy.
Meanwhile, LaHood sounded confident that the federal government's dedicated gas-tax funding for public transit would survive the current showdown in the U.S. House. LaHood, a former Republican congressman from Illinois, said the GOP-led transportation bill, as it stands, “takes us back to horse and buggy era.”
If the bill became law, TriMet and other mass transit companies would no longer automatically receive one-fifth of federal fuel tax revenue and other user fees in the highway trust fund. It would scrap a system that has been in place since the Reagan administration in 1983.
Instead, Congress would establish a general-fund “Alternative Transportation Account” that would force transit agencies to compete annually with other programs for a smaller share of the 2.86 cents per gallon federal gas tax.
Currently, TriMet gets about $42 million a year from the "formula funds," which it dedicates to maintenance costs.
TriMet General Manager Neil McFarlane recently told The Oregonian that he would probably have to ask himself "what-if" for several more months. "I'm assuming there won't be a vote (on the House transportation bill) until after the presidential election," he said.
However, Allan Pollock, Salem-Keizer Transit General Manager, is already in panic mode.
The proposed House bill, the Cherriots bus service leader said, would create uncertainty and a deeply politicized funding process that would force transit agencies to operate on a wing and a prayer.
"This change will make it very difficult for us to plan for the future," Pollock said. "Instead of creating jobs and encouraging economic growth, we will be forced to contend each year with a deeply divided Congress."
LaHood also recommended $39 million for the Columbia River Crossing as a gesture of support for the project. The transportation departments in Washington and Oregon estimate the the proposal for a new Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River could cost between $3.1 billion and $3.5 billion. Federal appropriations are projected to make up about a third of the funding.
Ultimately, the bridge would depend on $850 million in federal "new starts" funding, officials said. But that appears to be a long way off.
In fact, transportation officials said the proposed $39 million allocation for this year would materialize only if the controversial project stays on course.
In May, the federal government is expected to sign a nearly $750 million funding agreement with TriMet promising to cover half the cost of building the Orange Line. LaHood said the budget politics in Congress won't alter those plans.
The $100 million recommended for the Portland-Milwaukie line by LaHood, and contained in President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2013 budget, is in addition to the $85 million received by TriMet for the project last year.
The project itself will create up to 14,000 jobs and generate up to $573 million in personal earnings, Oregon's largest transit agency said.
On Tuesday, LaHood recommended $2.2 billion in funding to begin or advance construction of 29 significant rail and bus rapid transit projects in 15 states.
“President Obama called on us to rebuild America by putting people back to work on transportation projects that are built to last,” LaHood said. “The budget proposal released yesterday demonstrates our commitment to put people back to work to build the infrastructure we need that will improve our transit systems, highways, railways and airports well into the future.”
President Obama’s proposed budget also recommends investing $243.7 million for seven new transit construction projects, including $75 million for the West Eugene EmX Extension in Eugene.
TriMet, which is facing a $17 million operating budget shortfall this year, has already begun work on the the $134 million Portland-Milwaukie light-rail bridge across the Willamette River.
In a recent interview with The Oregonian, TriMet General Manager Neil McFarlane said he doesn’t expect the agency’s ongoing budget woes to delay the projected opening of its newest light rail line in September 2015.
"I fully expect that we will have the funding,” McFarlane said. He expressed confidence that Clackamas County will contribute its $25 million share. Currently, two citizen initiative petitions aim to force a public vote on the funding.
LaHood said the latest U.S. House transportation bill makes no sense at a time when the economy is crawling back from a long recession. Transit systems, he said, are “the lifelines for our national and regional economies, the way we lead our lives and pursue our dreams.”
--Joseph Rose
http://blog.oregonlive.com/commuting...retary_ra.html