Today’s Baltimore Business Journal reviews funding proposals affecting the State’s Transportation trust Fund, and the various shifts and transfers that have compromised both state and local road funding in recent years. From the article:
Gov. Martin O’Malley plans to cut $60 million from the state’s transportation improvement fund, dealing yet another blow to advocates who have been lobbying Annapolis for years to raise more money to improve the state’s roads and rails.
The cut is part of O’Malley’s 2012 fiscal budget, intended to close a $1.35 billion deficit. Details of the budget will were released Friday afternoon.
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The state has cut about $2.1 billion from the Transportation Trust Fund, the dedicated pot of money set aside for transportation improvements, to balance the budget over the past three years.
Local governments have seen their share of revenue from the trust fund drop off considerably as well in the past few years because of those budget cuts. Since 2008, local governments have seen their share of the trust fund drop from $45 million to just $1.6 million.