The Together for Transportation Funding (TTF) Coalition is a group of diverse experts from across the transportation industry intent on raising awareness about the transportation funding crisis in Maryland — and ultimately, changing the trajectory of this issue. The TTF Coalition fights for holistic, sustainable, and innovative funding solutions to provide safe roads & highways and dependable, efficient mass transit.
How did we get here?
The Maryland General Assembly last approved a major increase in transportation funding formulas back in 2013. Since then, there has been no real action to innovate & progress with Maryland’s changing financial & technological landscape. Today, these funding formulas no longer work:
There has been significant growth in more fuel-efficient vehicles and electric vehicles, leading to a steady decline in gasoline tax revenue since 2005.
The COVID-19 pandemic sharply reduced transit ridership and farebox revenues. While highway travel has rebounded to pre-COVID levels, transit ridership has not, and supplemental Federal funding has ceased.
Meanwhile, over the same period, highway & heavy construction costs have risen by approximately 50%, and our need to invest in Maryland’s outdated road, bridge, and transit infrastructure only continues to compound.
These factors, alongside the lack of a floor on gas prices in the 2013 bill, contribute to a major “structural problem” in the funding formulas that support the TTF.
Since the start of Fiscal Year 2021, we began to feel the pain from severe cuts to the System Preservation program. To date, companies in our industry have already reduced their workforce, some as much as 60%. Now the construction budget for System Preservation has been cut by more than 50%, and the Design & Engineering budget has been cut by more than 90%. Not only is our system degrading due to a lack of sufficient maintenance, but there are virtually no projects in the construction pipeline to ease congestion, provide new transit options like the Baltimore Red Line, or protect & enhance the transportation systems that Maryland’s economy depends on. This is not sustainable.