Transit Backers to Elected Officials:
Stop Playing Games with Metro Funding
Press release issued October 26, 2017
The Action Committee for Transit welcomed today's WMATA board decision not to tie Purple Line land transfers to changes in board governance -- and said Metro's funding needs also must be met without blackmail or restrictions.
Every day countless Marylanders, Virginians and District of Columbia residents rely on Metrorail and Metrobus to get to work and school and go about their daily lives. Each and every day the nation's capitol relies on WMATA to keep the entire region running. "Funding Metrorail and Metrobus isn't a game of poker - it's how the teachers, and employees at the Pentagon, Social Security, the Smithsonian and the Bureau of Printing and Engraving get to work every shift of every day," said ACT president Ronit Aviva Dancis. "It's past time for area politicians to stop playing games and live up to their responsibility to properly fund WMATA."
"We applaud Governor Hogan for refusing to give in to threats of extortion regarding WMATA," Dancis added. "We call on all elected officials, whether in Annapolis, Richmond or DC, to resist all threats and blackmail directed at our transit agency. Remember the people who rely upon Metro -- and how the entire country relies on many of those people -- and properly fund WMATA without extraneous conditions. Our elected representatives must make sure our region's key transit system is funded without restrictions."
Maryland Delegate Marc Korman joined in: "Metro is critical to the success of the region and petty jurisdictional disagreements cannot be allowed to infringe on Metro's critical mission," he said. "Jurisdictions blackmailing one another or holding the Metro system itself hostage are completely inappropriate actions. Everyone needs to cool down, take a breath, and think about how to move forward cooperatively on a regional basis."