Uh, Oh, Metro Needs Another $9.5 Billion
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7 responses to “Uh, Oh, Metro Needs Another $9.5 Billion”
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This is what Bob Simon predicted to me years ago. He said that doglegging the Metro through Tysons would add billions to the cost over the coming decade.
What he was talking about, as we had coffee at Lake Anne, was the decision to change (Dogleg) the path of Metro to Dulles through Tysons Corner rather than going straight up the toll road as originally planned. The “Dogleg” as Simon called it added four stations and more than a half hour getting to the airport and hundreds of millions in costs.
He had opposed the doglegging but said the county would make tax money from the development and that money might pay the cost of the “Doglegg.”
And, as usual Robert E. Simon, Reston, was right and Virginia will have to pay a big bit of the billions of cash shortfall. I doubt if all Northern Virginians will agree to a special sales tax to pay the bill though. After all Fairfax County supervisors made the Doglegg decision. Check who made the decision and wonder why? Hard times are coming. Any land owners influence the decision? Who knows?-
Very interesting perspective…thank you.
I did not know about the dog-leg being a change.
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” Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) upended the regional debate over Metro funding Monday by offering to give the transit system an extra $500 million over four years if Virginia, the District and the federal government each do the same.”
I think what needs to be done also is to do an honest comparison with other rail systems to see how METRO compares.
The continuing Mantra from some is that because “billions” are involved, that it has to be bad… yet another example of govt gone bad… yadda yadda.
This would be not unlike similar criticisms from the govt “hawks” that because VDOT screwed up the US 460 PPTA project that it “proves” that VDOT is “wasting” billions of dollars and “too big to fail”.. blah blah blah.
You hear a similar story from the folks who don’t like tolls… it’s all BAD NEWS about how unfair tolls are and how VDOT is “giving away” roads already paid-for by taxpayers.. on and on and on ….
so what’s the truth?
does anyone really want to know it or does everyone just choose up sides.. in METRO’s case – anti-govt/anti-transit and then the “socialists” and govt “apologists” on the “other” side?
I’m no defender of bad government nor bad institutions govt or otherwise but in this case – I’m not yet convinced that METRO is that much different from a lot of other transit systems… and no.. if they are similar -that does not mean that transit itself is a “failure”.. either…
The funny thing is that Jim B is a PROPONENT of functional settlement patterns.. and opposes (he says) auto-dependent sprawl.. but you’d never know it when he gets on his “what’s wrong with METRO now” … kick…
😉
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Are there any government programs or operations that you could support cutting or even eliminating? From public transit to public schools to public colleges to public health care you seem to advocate more spending (and presumably, higher taxes).
The Tax Foundation released a study indicating Americans pay more in federal, state and local taxes than we do for food, clothing and housing combined. https://legalinsurrection.com/2017/04/in-2017-americans-spending-more-on-taxes-than-food-clothing-and-housing-combined/
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Dear Jim,
Billions & trillions of bucks for wars abroad, while practicing scarcity at home. Seriously misplaced priorities we have.
Sincerely,
Andrew
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re: cutting taxes?
yes – I’d cut Medicare for those who make enough money to own multiple cars and houses… means-tested…
I’d cut subsidized flood insurance
I’d cut money to Colleges and give it to students as vouchers that pay for basic tuition only and the student/parents are responsible if they want “more”.
I’d cut local school funding that is over and above the required SOQ match – I’d mandate that this part of the School budgets be explicitly clear as to what it is spent on.
I’d require all counties in Virginia to take over their own local roads like Arlington and Henrico have.
I’d toll every major interstate that is used for home-to-work commuting more than 20 miles .
re: THe Tax foundation – ALSO points out that we have more than a billion dollars a year in tax expenditures that could be used to get rid of the deficit, pay down the debt and give those who don’t have employer-provided health insurance the same tax breaks as those who have it – regardless of income.
but the bigger point on any expenditures – like METRO – is to not just stupidly advocate cuts no matter what… because a lot of money is being spent. We need to understand if METRO spends more than other transit and if they do – then we need to go after them. But to go after them without knowing that is dumb… it’s like going after VDOT because they spend 3 billion dollars a year … and that’ the reason .. it’s just a LOT of money.
If we held VDOT to the same standards we hold METRO in NoVa – we’d be after VDOT also for all the money they are spending… all the “deteriorating” highways and structurally deficient bridges… and all that money an no improvement in congestion!!!!
Do we do with VDOT what we do with METRO? Nope.
why not?
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[…] over the next ten years. Yet after spending that $15 billion, it admits it will still have another $10 billion in repairs to do. So clearly, Wiedefeld knows that much of the system’s infrastructure is worn out, and […]
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