Fairfax Board of Supervisors.

Maryland and Fairfax County both took promising steps toward providing the needed $73.7 million in contributions to WMATA, and Alexandria officials are likely to follow, but there’s still a long way to go.

First, MDOT’s proposed budget increases its WMATA contribution by $8.7 million. Under the WMATA funding formula, Maryland’s share of overall contributions has increased, meaning most of that added money is not really “added” but just goes to keeping total jurisdictional contributions the same.

However, they also provided some extra, totaling $3.7 million. That’s a good start, about one-eighth of the $29.57 million total needed to balance the WMATA budget and avoid service cuts. Keep those letters coming to Maryland state leaders to ask them to come up with the other $25.9 million.

Over in Fairfax County, the Board of Supervisors has voted to advertise a property tax rate 3¢ higher than proposed by the County Manager. About ½¢ of that would need to go to transit to avoid WMATA service cuts, plus a little more to keep the Fairfax Connector running and restore the bicycle coordinator position.

By advertising high enough rates, the Board of Supervisors has kept its options open. Now we need to encourage them to actually exercise this option. Others will be wanting some of that money for other purposes, including schools, affordable housing and more, which are also worthy programs. Ask the Board of Supervisors to dedicate $9.26 million to WMATA, plus restore the Fairfax Connector and the bicycle program.

Alexandria held a budget hearing yesterday, and is likely to advertise high enough tax and fee rates to contribute its share to WMATA. According to Alexandria transit advocate David Kaplan,

Eight people testified about the importance of City funding for transit needs both on DASH and WMATA. Stewart Schwartz testified on behalf of the Transit First Coalition and talked about the importance of transit oriented development to the City’s regional competitiveness.

The most poignant testimony came from an elderly woman who lives in the City’s Northeast neighborhood and is transit depend ant. She uses a DASH bus route (AT 4), which is slated to lose off-peak and weekend service even after a 25¢ fare increase taking effect in July. This is the only bus that directly serves her building. The speaker called this bus her “chariot” and her connection to the world. Restoring this route would cost about $61,000.

Vice Mayor Kerry Donley said that the City would likely advertise a maximum tax rate that could accommodate additional subsidy for WMATA. The vote is on Saturday. The Vice Mayor also expressed his concern that Metro would not be able to overcome the challenges it faces unless the Commonwealth creates a dedicated funding source to meet Metro’s operating needs.

The Vice Mayor had proposed and the City had included in its legislative package this year a bill increasing the gas tax from 2.1 to 4.2 percent within Northern Virginia with revenues being dedicated to funding for WMATA. The bill (HB 269) was carried by Delegate David Englin and failed in the House of Delegates.

Mayor Euille added that he is President of the Virginia Transit Association. The association’s board members met recently with the Commonwealth’s Secretary of Transportation about the need for dedicated funding for transit operations.

You can watch excerpts here. The Mayor and Vice Mayor’s comments regarding transit begin at about 1 hour and 47 minutes into the hearing.

You can also urge Alexandria Councilmembers to actually advertise high enough rates on Saturday and to devote some of that money to transit.

Finally, there’s some good news for the WMATA budget. According to WMATA’s Matt Brown at this morning’s Board meeting, rail ridership for January is up year over year, having finally turned the corner after declines. Expenses are also running a bit below projections, meaning that the budget outlook will likely improve a bit, though tempered by Metro’s big losses during the February snowstorm.

This is great news, but doesn’t fundamentally change the budget situation. As it stands, even with a large fare increase and painful service cuts, WMATA still needs $40 million from jurisdictions to close the budget, or $74 million to avoid service cuts. If the budget hole shrinks by a couple million, that might mean jurisdictions would need to come up with only $70 million to maintain service, but they still have to pitch in.

Tell your elected officials not to let us get into the “death spiral” and to protect transit.

David Alpert created Greater Greater Washington in 2008 and was its executive director until 2020. He formerly worked in tech and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco Bay, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He lives with his wife and two children in Dupont Circle.