Comments on: In D.C., WMATA faces similar fiscal woes

By: JP

JP — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:48:08 +0000

Let’s not forget there are some ups to the DC metro, recently in the news:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/allte.....=102920358

By: Alon Levy

Alon Levy — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:37:53 +0000

It’s the other way around. DC and its suburbs pay above average amounts of taxes. But they also get much, much more in federal spending – even areas that don’t have big federal offices, such as Fairfax and Montgomery Counties.

By: SEAN

SEAN — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:38:39 +0000

Washington’s local bus fares are among the lowest in the US for large cities. $1.35 cash or $1.25 with a Smartrip card. For some reason governor Airhead of Maryland has an alergy towards funding transit. MTA in Baltimore recently double tracked it’s lightrail system & the governor made sure that the construction was as disruptive as possible so the ridership levels wouldn’t return to prior figures. For a while that plan was successful until gas prices jumped in 2008. Today ridership levels are at their highest numbers. So what was gained for pulling such a stunt?

Now Maryland is spending tons of money on a new toll road called the Inter County Connector between Prince George’s & Montgomery counties, yet a lot of people said we don’t want it. What they wanted was increases in transit not road expantions.

By: rhywun

rhywun — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:19:21 +0000

Fares should simply be raised to cover all the necessary costs. When the public’s collective head explodes, then a serious discussion of priorities can begin.

By: Alex B.

Alex B. — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:01:44 +0000

Alon,

DC does indeed get more back in Federal dollars, but it also has unique burdens due to the location of the Capital here. Huge portions of the city (and some of its best real estate) are tax exempt, either for government facilities or for other associated uses (embassies, etc). Additionally, there are extra security concerns and costs that the District bears in the name of the Nation’s Capital. Furthermore, federal interests directly limit the kinds of taxation available to local governments.

We may like to think of DC as a city like any other, but the reality is quite different.

With that said, I don’t think that kind of thinking applies to Metro, necessarily. Metro’s capital funds were indeed met with a large federal contribution, but the rail system still operates with some of the highest farebox recovery rates in the US.

By: Alon Levy

Alon Levy — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 06:54:41 +0000

Yet, the vitality and viable of the D.C. area is heavily dependent upon a properly functioning Metro system.

It’s even more heavily dependent on subsidies from cities like New York and San Francisco. In 2005, Greater New York paid $93 billion more in federal taxes than it got back in spending, and the Bay Area paid $40 billion more; Greater Washington paid $67 billion less.

On the Northeast Corridor, money flows south, as surely as along the Hudson it flows north.