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Politics & Government

A Rail of Two Cities: Rockville and Gaithersburg Discuss Metro Cuts

A proposed reduction in federal spending on the local rail system has municipalities served by Metro worried about the impacts.

Staff members for the cities of Gaithersburg and Rockville are drafting letters to Maryland representatives in Congress asking them to maintain federal funds for Metro in the federal budget, after council members from both cities convened for a rare joint meeting on Monday night in Rockville.

The federal budget bill drafted and passed by House Republicans in February eliminates $150 million a year in federal funds for Metro's capital and preventive maintenance. The funds are part of a 10-year agreement between the federal government, the District of Columbia, Virginia and Maryland to fund Metro that was passed as the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008, which was co-sponsored by Maryland Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D). Each of the states and the District would provide $50 million each to match federal funds.

Gaithersburg and Rockville are sending the letters not only as communities who actively use Metro, but also as members of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG).

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Prince George's County Council Vice Chairman Andrea Harrison, the COG board's chairwoman, sent a letter on Thursday addressed to Maryland Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D), asking her to "please maintain this vital funding in the FY 2011 appropriations."

In June, COG, along with the Greater Washington Board of Trade, created a joint task force in response to a "troubling decline in performance" in Metro, as well as to the fatal accident near the Fort Totten station that occurred a year earlier.

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The task force is recommending several fundamental changes to Metro's governance, most notably the formation of a Governance Commission, whose members would include the governors of Maryland and Virginia, and the mayor of DC, COG Executive Director David Robertson said at the meeting.

The threat of losing the $150 million in federal funds "adds a whole new wrinkle" to COG's efforts to improve Metro, Rockville City Councilmember John Britton said, adding that the loss would be "a disaster." Britton serves as Rockville's representative on COG's Board of Directors.

The idea for a joint meeting between the city's councils came about in November when the task force presented its findings to the COG Board. Britton and Gaithersburg City Councilmember Cathy Drzyzgula, who was serving as an alternate for Gaithersburg Mayor Sidney Katz, "thought that it would be a good idea to bring that information to our local jurisdictions," Drzyzgula said.

After Robertson's presentation to the councils, Katz suggested expanding the scope of communities from which the task force is seeking input to areas that may not be a part of COG, but whose residents also use Metro to commute into DC. Many Frederick residents, for example, commute to the Shady Grove Metro station, he said.

"There are a lot of recommendations which different jurisdictions may favor or may not favor," Drzyzgula said. "I think it's part of our responsibility to weigh in with our recommendations.

Monday's meeting provides a starting point for municipalities to have a greater voice, Britton said.

“If everybody agitates, you’re going to get things that might not be achieved just by sitting there quietly,” he said.

Along with a similar letter expressing support for continued federal funds for Metro, Rockville is also drafting a letter to voice their opinion on the task force's recommendations. Katz said that Gaithersburg will review Rockville's letter and considering writing one of its own.

The budget bill is now under debate in the U.S. Senate. Rep. Christopher Van Hollen Jr. (D-Dist. 8) of Kensington, who represents Gaithersburg and Rockville in the House, voted against the bill in the House, which also calls for drastic cuts across the federal government, including to the Community Development Block Grant program, which Gaithersburg and Rockville, as well communities across the country, use to fund projects such as affordable housing and urban renewal.

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