McDonnell trying to take WMATA seats from NoVA

Transit

McDonnell trying to take WMATA seats from NoVA

by David Alpert • June 4, 2010 10:18 am

The McDonnell administration is making a push to take some of Virginia's WMATA Board seats away from Northern Virginia jurisdictions, which currently appoint elected officials to the Board.

Connaughton (left) and McDonnell (right). Photo by VDOT.

In a letter to the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC), Virginia Transportation Secretary Sean Connaugton wrote:

With the increase in [state] funding [for transit], plus the recent commitment of additional resources to improve the performance of the federally-mandated state safety oversight program, the Commonwealth believes it is appropriate to request that NVTC provide two of its four appointments to the WMATA Board of Directors, one Principal Director and one Alternate Director, to [the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation,] DRPT.

This would be a big setback for riders and the region. The Virginia members, being elected officials, are some of the most responsive and transparent members of the WMATA Board. It was the Virginia members who pushed for the proposed budget to be released and have most strongly opposed overuse of executive sessions, for example.

Northern Virginia counties also were the first to increase their support for transit after residents demanded it. Maryland, where the Governor answers to the entire state, was far more difficult. At least a tough reelection that depends on Montgomery and Prince George's voters, coupled with strong support from the Post editorial board, persuaded Governor O'Malley not to raid transit.

In Virginia, the state government is already beholden to rural interests and refuses to let Northern Virginia govern itself as it sees fit. Northern Virginia is not Governor McDonnell's base. He isn't making this move because he wants to listen to riders and make the Board more responsive to our concerns. He doesn't want to make transit better. He doesn't seem to even believe in transit at all.

While WMATA faced its historic $190 million budget gap, Governor McDonnell never offered state assistance, and according to an NVTC member, Northern Virginia never really asked. Until now, it's always been expected that Northern Virginia appoints the Board members and Northern Virginia finds the money if they want more transit service. In contrast, in Maryland, where the Board members are appointed by the Governor, the state pays the full WMATA bill.

There's also been strong speculation that this is the objective of the Board of Trade/MWCOG commission that was created to "study WMATA governance" but didn't include any representatives of riders or transit advocates. Some influential business figures would like to make WMATA more like MWAA: run through backroom deals by powerful insiders, completely unresponsive to residents, like when they pulled the rug out from under the Fairfax Connector.

Connaughton argues that the state will soon provide a little more than half (52.2%) of the funding for WMATA, including Virginia's share of the $50 million per year in federal match and the existing discretionary and formula capital and operating funds that go to transit systems across the state.

However, this argument obscures several realities. As Connaughton notes, much of the money is allocated to Northern Virginia via a formula, worked out in the General Assembly through long negotiation. Northern Virginia allocates more of its money to transit, while the rest of the state gets more for roads.

Plus, this money is all Northern Virginia taxpayers' money anyway, just collected by the state and then distributed in part to WMATA via NVTC. Overall, Northern Virginia residents pay more to the state in taxes than they get back.

Connaughton seems to threaten not to participate in the 6-year capital funding that continues after Metro Matters expires unless he gets control. Area Congressional representatives would probably not look kindly upon such a move. At the recent Senate hearing, Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), who sits on the appropriations subcommittee that handles transportation, expressed a strong feeling that the states and the District need to keep up their commitments to a state of good repair if Congress is going to continue making extra contributions.

Virginia, like Maryland, DC, and now the federal government, appoints four members to the WMATA Board: two voting Principal Directors and two nonvoting Alternate Directors. NVTC consists of 13 elected officials from Arlington (3), Alexandria (2), Fairfax County (5), Fairfax City (1), Loudoun (1), and Falls Church (1), 2 state Senators, 4 state delegates, and one appointed by the Governor.

NVTC then selects the four Board members. The current Principal Directors are Catherine Hudgins from Fairfax County and Chris Zimmerman from Arlington, and the Alternate Directors are William Euille from Alexandria and Jeff McKay from Fairfax County.

If the change were to go through, DRPT Director Thelma Drake, a former Republican Congresswoman from the Hampton Roads area and current resident of Norfolk, is expected to be chosen as the voting member. At their meeting last night, NVTC didn't act on the proposal, but agreed to send a letter in response to Connaughton outlining their concerns about the idea. Most representatives were opposed to the proposal. One of the few supporters was Joe May, delegate from Loudoun and Clarke Counties and Chair of the Virginia House Transportation Committee.

26 comments

Tags: Alexandria, Arlington, Bob McDonnell, Fairfax, Loudoun, MWAA, Sean Connaughton, Tri-State Oversight, Virginia, WMATA, WMATA Board, WMATA governance

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David Alpert is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Greater Greater Washington. He has had a lifelong interest in great cities and great communities. He worked as a Product Manager for Google for six years and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He loves the area which is, in many ways, greater than those others, and wants to see it become even greater.

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If the deal is that you get seats when you pay, when will riders get to directly elect some representatives on the board?

by Michael Perkins on Jun 4, 2010 10:27 am

I feel sorry for the Northern Virginia counties for the nonsense and hostility they have to deal with from Richmond. This is another case where the rest of the state sees Northern Virginia as little more than a wallet to be raided and how little regard Richmond has for its cash cow.

Wanting to appoint someone from Hampton Roads to the WMATA board when Richmond never gives the Virginia WMATA jurisdictions a cent for yearly operations contributions is just mendacious. I suppose it's a good thing that Gov. McDonnell has no shame or decency.

by Cavan on Jun 4, 2010 10:35 am

This is a basic constitutional issue in Virginia related to the county structure and abilities to enact laws and levy taxes, etc. Counties are and will be beholden to Richmond unless the constitution is amended. The other option is incorporation as an independent city/s in this region. There's a reason 39 or the 42 independent cites in the US are in Virgina.

We're paying our fare share in Virginia already, and then some. I expect that will continue.

by Lou on Jun 4, 2010 11:03 am

I believe this would be disastrous for Metro customers from VA. Not only would we lose the responsiveness you mention in this post that we currently experience with our WMATA board members, but I suspect that our bus service would suffer significantly as well.

by Penny Everline on Jun 4, 2010 11:04 am

I lived in Hampton Roads for a few years.

I took the bus to work every day....for two weeks, and then bought a car. I've never seen such a disastrously-planned transportation system in my life. I shudder at the thought of letting those same people have a hand in WMATA's operations.

(Rant ahead)

I'd start out on a WAT bus in Williamsburg, which would snake along back roads parallel to 60 and 64, making virtually no stops along the way, traveling about 8 miles over the course of 35 minutes. These buses run on a 1-hour headway.

The bus route abruptly ends in the parking lot of a food store in the middle of nowhere. The entire bus disembarks, waits about 15-40 minutes for an HRT bus to show up, and boards that, paying an additional fare, coins-only. The bus snakes around for a bit, but eventually heads onto Jefferson Ave, Newport News's (traffic-clogged) main arterial, which is fine -- most of the businesses in the area are located along this strip. (Because WAT operates on a 1-hour headway, the reverse commute requires a ~30 minute wait to transfer at this point)

However, no buses actually drive down the length of Jefferson Ave.

The first HRT bus drives part way down Jefferson Ave. If you happen to be unlucky, the driver will pull into Burger King, and stop for 10 minutes to eat breakfast. It's worth noting here that the driver has several friends who do not pay the fare, and the bus inexplicably does not stop at the airport (or even near the airport's access road).

Eventually, we end up at the Patrick Henry Mall. Almost the entire bus disembarks here, because they too need to travel further East along Jefferson Ave. Here, we wait approximately 20 minutes for another transfer (one time I missed it, and had to wait over an hour in 100+ degree weather. this was the day before I shopping for a car). The bus makes a convoluted U-Turn, and finally continues down Jefferson Ave, and I disembark at my workplace.

The equivalent trip by car takes 25 minutes in moderate traffic. It is a heavily-traveled corridor, with a fairly simple traffic pattern. Hundreds, if not thousands of workers had the same exact commuting pattern as I did, although nobody who can afford a car uses the public transport.

The Hampton Roads Transit system is large, well-funded, and profoundly unusable. Please, please, for the love of God, don't put these people in charge of WMATA.

by andrew on Jun 4, 2010 11:23 am

The 52% the state quoted is also incorrect, it does not fully factor the cost of metro paid by the local jurisdictions. They pay more in the 30% range currently. They are excluding certain funding items to skew the numbers in their favor

by James on Jun 4, 2010 11:30 am

Didn't all Northern Virginia jurisdictions except for Alexandria/Arlington vote for Confederate Bob and his right-wing extremist attorney general pal? Well, you get what you pay for. In my opinion the best thing for NoVa to do would be to pull a "West Virginia" and secede from the rest of the state and join it's more progressive Northeastern neighbors (DC and MD), although looking at how that part of the state voted in the gubernatorial election I don't really see that happening any time soon.

by one4all on Jun 4, 2010 11:34 am

@one4all That would require the permission of both Virginia and the Federal government, and thus, isn't going to happen.

by Dan on Jun 4, 2010 11:37 am

Dear Arlington and Alexandria:
Consider this karma for retroceding in 1847. If you don't want to be the wallet for 7 million people who live 100 miles away, then maybe you should ask us to take you back.
Love,
DC

by tom veil on Jun 4, 2010 11:55 am

Whatever happened to that time-honored conservative principle -- of which I as a liberal often am a proponent -- that the best government is that which is closest to the people?

by Dennis Jaffe on Jun 4, 2010 12:15 pm

Here in Fairfax County, for every dollar we send to Richmond they send us back $0.18 of funding. Thats right, eighteen cents. With the additional funding to match the federal dedicated funds, that number may creep closer to twenty cents. With that level of generosity, you can understand why the governor would demand greater control.

I doubt McDonnell would appoint Thelma Drake to the WMATA board. Here are the early favorites:

Wendell Cox
Bob Chase
Eugene Delgaudio
Pat Robertson
Newt Gingrich
Lynne Cheney
Sean Hannity
Dick Black
Dick Armey
Ronald Reagan

by Rod Johnson on Jun 4, 2010 1:01 pm

My new state of Columbia, made up of DC and the surrounding counties in VA and MD would solve this problem.

by jcm on Jun 4, 2010 1:04 pm

@tom veil, no thanks. We prefer to keep our voting representative in Congress.

Love
Virginia's 8th District

by Lou on Jun 4, 2010 1:29 pm

Lou +1

p.s. we don't believe in that heathen "karma" bs

by spookiness on Jun 4, 2010 1:34 pm

Hey NOVA now do you know why DC Voting Rights is so important to us? Looks to me like the VA Gov just wants a little piece of the Congressional-overlord action. If I were a NOVA resident (which I'd likely never be unless it ceded from the rest of the state) I'd be contacting Richmond to let that @$$ hole know I want him to keep his grubby hands off my local transit management & funding!

by Matt on Jun 4, 2010 2:38 pm

Had many dealings with Connaughton while he was at MARAD. He is a graduate of the US Merchant Marine Academy. He knows quite a bit about intermodal shipping and spoke impressively during his stint at MARAD.

This idea, however, is CUCKOO.

by Unsuck DC Metro on Jun 4, 2010 3:02 pm

Thelma Drake's nomination to the Metro board will be a dark day. She has never lived in northern Virginia, but my experiences with her in Hampton Roads would suggest that she would be as completely beholden to the Hazeloid growth machine here, with all consequences in a complete vacuum to her, as she was in Virginia Beach.

by J.D. Hammond on Jun 4, 2010 3:33 pm

And to be fair, Andrew, HRT is incrementally more useable than GRTC in Richmond. HRT may not go to any airport, but it at least goes to the suburbs whatsoever.

by J.D. Hammond on Jun 4, 2010 3:37 pm

If ONLY WMATA were run like MWAA. Then maybe Metro wouldn't be such a money pit! MWAA runs one of the finest airports in the nation as well as the Toll Road.

We should be so lucky!

by Frank on Jun 4, 2010 4:05 pm

OK, Frank, and who can afford to fly out of Dulles...?

by J.D. Hammond on Jun 4, 2010 5:11 pm

I would love to secede from the rest of the state. Greedy bastages bleed us dry with nothing in return. Why do we put up with it?!?

by NikolasM on Jun 4, 2010 6:47 pm

Gov. Scrooge McDonald is a clown. Thank god for one-term limits in Virginia.

VA Democrats: start selecting a decent candidate. Don't make the same mistake you made last time. This is an election for you to loose. Tim Kaine: You dropped the ball in this one.

BTW: If Nova, MoCo, PG and DC (minus the Mall, let the NPS keep that as federal district) were to merge into a state, please don't call it Colombia. Seriously folks, while Marion Barry is still alive, I think we should avoid all confusion with the South-American cocaine producer. Let's go for Capitol, Potomac, Jefferson, Mason, or Ellington.

by Jasper on Jun 4, 2010 9:18 pm

Kaine was inept. Going out as the party chief and giving up the seat basically affirms that. Then the 26% slash to universities funding on his way out was the last straw. Strange guy.

by Lou on Jun 4, 2010 11:50 pm

The great bug bear of Northern Virginia politics: Dillon's Rule. Up there with the great commuter tax of DC, and well, I don't know what the equivalent is in Maryland.

Look, I'm no fan of this creepy, football throwing governor and his far creepy children. But the basic argument: Virginia is paying more, and wants to have a seat at the table, isn't an unreasonable request. Dave's arguments against are weak. It is not "northern Virginia" money; it is state money. This isn't about cutting off funding it is about changing seats at the table. And I suspect the animus is more about cutting off Dave's dream of being the rider's representative on the board.

let me put it this way: if mark warner was making this argument, people would be whining less. And I'm not sure where Dave got the idea that Thelma Drake is in the lead. Plenty of nova republicans would like job as well.

by charlie on Jun 6, 2010 11:18 pm

Charlie, he got the idea because Thelma Drake is McDonnell's Secretary of Rail and Public Transportation, and as such, it stands to reason she would be a front-running candidate. They are, after all, representatives of the state government, not of the GOP.

by J.D. Hammond on Jun 7, 2010 1:24 am

A big idea that will never happen...
1 Virginia stops giving money to WMATA
2. WMATA responds by not providing service to Virginia
3. VRE fills the void
4. Virginia ends up having a transit service that it controls and directs with its own money

by Paul on Jun 17, 2010 10:47 am