On February 18, Legislative Director Kevin Kinnally testified before the Ways and Means Committee to support HB 846 – Transportation Access and Revenue Act with amendments.
HB 846 expands the sales and use tax to generate new transportation revenue but prohibits any of it from supporting local roads and bridges. While counties would benefit indirectly from broader transportation investments, MACo contends that a sustainable solution must restore fair, predictable funding for local infrastructure.
The State faced a mid-year budget crisis during the “Great Recession” in 2009. In turn, the Board of Public Works adopted a 90% reduction of the local distributions of these Highway User Revenues and a roughly 40% reduction to Baltimore City’s allocation (the largest by far to any jurisdiction).
Since then, the State has fully or largely restored many recession-driven cutbacks. However, Highway User Revenues remain far below historic levels, even after the General Assembly enacted a substantial transportation revenue increase. The $446 million in the proposed budget plan for FY 2026 remains far short of proper and historic funding levels, even on a simple dollar-to-dollar basis.
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