Greens hail passage of transportation bill
Maryland's greens have found something to cheer on the last day of the 2010 legislative with the passage of a rather wonky bill that would require the consideration of a series of environmental criteria in evaluating transportation projects.
The bill won passage 31-14 over the opposition of Republican senators.
I'll let Brad Heavner, state director of Environment Maryland, explain why environmentalists are so pleased:
The Maryland Senate today passed legislation designed to make transportation spending line up with the state’s official smart growth goals. SB 760/HB 1155 will help the Maryland Department of Transportation evaluate transportation proposals in order to fund the projects that would do the best job of promoting smart growth. The lead House sponsor of the bill is Del. Steve Lafferty (Baltimore County). The lead Senate sponsors are Sen. Catherine Pugh (Baltimore) and Sen. David Harrington (Prince George’s).
"Especially in this time of tight budgets, we need to make sure we are spending our state transportation dollars wisely," said Environment Maryland State Director Brad Heavner.
The bill passed the House on March 26 by a vote of 104-32. The Senate passed the bill on the final day of the session by a vote of 31-14.
The bill increases transparency to a decision making process that many people consider to take place mainly behind closed doors. Currently, counties submit wish lists to the state and the Department of Transportation has wide latitude to choose which projects go into the state capital budget.
Supporters of the legislation have highlighted the benefits of building modern, vibrant neighborhoods centered around transit stations and boosting rural Main Street communities. The bill would seek to use transportation dollars to promote that vision.
The state updates its official transportation goals every five years. This bill requires that state agencies make a stronger effort to stick to those goals. The categories of the state goals are quality of service, safety and security, system preservation, environmental stewardship, and connectivity for daily life.
