MARYLAND TRANSIT CAUCUS marylandtransitcaucus.org ● @TransitCaucus [email protected] Co-Chairs Delegate Brooke Lierman Senator Pam Beidle Delegate David Fraser-Hidalgo April 8, 2020 Senator Malcolm Augustine Delegate Marc Korman Delegate Erek Barron VIA EMAIL Members Delegate Gabriel Acevero Greg Slater Delegate Carl Anderton Secretary of Transportation Delegate Heather Bagnall Delegate Sandy Bartlett 7201 Corporate Center Drive Delegate Regina Boyce Delegate Tony Bridges Hanover, Maryland 21076 Delegate Alice Cain Delegate Al Carr Delegate Lorig Charkoudian Re: CARES Act Funding for Transit Delegate Paul Corderman Delegate Brian Crosby Delegate Charlotte Crutchfield Delegate Debra Davis Dear Secretary Slater: Delegate Kathleen Dumais Delegate Eric Ebersole Senator Arthur Ellis First and foremost, I hope this letter finds you and your family safe and healthy. Delegate Jessica Feldmark Delegate Wanika Fisher Thank you for your work supporting our transportation infrastructure during this Delegate Catherine Forbes Delegate Jim Gilchrist incredibly challenging time. Your work, and the work of the men and women of Delegate Michele Guyton Senator Guy Guzzone MDOT and MTA, continue to allow all those essential employees to access Delegate Anne Healey their places of business, be they hospitals, grocery stores, pharmacies, or the Delegate Shelly Hettleman Delegate Terri Hill like. Thank you to you and to all of them. Delegate Kevin Hornberger Delegate Carl Jackson Senator Cheryl Kagan On behalf of the Transit Caucus, I am writing to inquire about your ongoing Delegate Anne Kaiser Delegate Ariana Kelly need for funding for transit and to inquire about plans for the funding available Delegate Ken Kerr Delegate Trent Kittleman under the CARES Act. Delegate Carol Krimm Senator Susan Lee Delegate Mary Lehman First, MTA and WMATA, like our peer systems, are both vitally important to Delegate Robbyn Lewis Delegate Jazz Lewis allowing essential employees to get to work, but are also suffering from a huge Delegate Karen Lewis Young Delegate Mary Ann Lisanti reduction of passengers. These system’s workers are also on the front lines, Delegate Lesley Lopez Delegate Sara Love exposed to people who have or may have COVID-19 and we support every Delegate Eric Luedtke effort to ensure they are kept safe. It is clear that the entire Transportation Trust Senator Cory McCray Delegate Maggie McIntosh Fund will generate significantly less funds than anticipated this fiscal year and Delegate Mike McKay Delegate David Moon beyond. Can you provide an update on MDOT’s estimates, at this time and Delegate Julie Palakovich Carr Delegate Joseline Pena-Melnyk understanding they may change, of the projected impact on the Transportation Delegate Lily Qi Trust Fund of COVID-19, including the impact on each modal unit budgets? Delegate Kiril Reznik Senator Jim Rosapepe Delegate Emily Shetty Delegate Stephanie Smith Second, the federal CARES Act, passed and signed last week, includes a section Delegate Jared Solomon Delegate Dana Stein under the Federal Transit Administration allocating funding for our transit Delegate Vaughn Stewart systems. Section 5307 provides FY20 funding apportioned under Sections Delegate Jen Terrasa Delegate Kris Valderrama 5337/5340 to urbanized areas, including Maryland. According to the chart Delegate Geraldine Valentino-Smith Delegate Jay Walker available online, the Maryland allocation for WMATA will be $235,661,687 Delegate Alonzo Washington Senator Mary Washington (with DC and VA shares, WMATA’s total comes to over $1bn) and for MTA Delegate Courtney Watson will be $385,511,664. We have several questions concerning this funding: Delegate Melissa Wells Delegate Jheanelle Wilkins Delegate Nicole Willams Delegate Pat Young Senator Ronald Young Senator Craig Zucker MARYLAND TRANSIT CAUCUS marylandtransitcaucus.org ● @TransitCaucus [email protected] Are these the dollar amounts you understand to be coming to Maryland? Do you plan to use them to supplant funding already allocated for MTA or will they be provided as a supplement? How will they be held within the TTF and reserved for exclusive use by our transit agencies? With this funding, what remaining gap in operating dollars do you foresee to maintain current levels of service (current as of March 1, 2020)? Have you had conversations with the US DOT or FTA regarding by when this money must be spent or in what way it must be spent? Is this money all operating or is there some flexibility for spending on capital or state of good repair needs? Understanding that this budgeting and planning is all very preliminary, we hope that you will continue to keep in touch with us about your plans for budgeting for transportation projects and programs in the coming year and years. Transit Caucus members and I look forward to supporting your efforts to make sure our transit systems stay “on track” to deliver high quality, safe, and reliable service to Marylanders during this public health emergency and long into the future. My best, Brooke Lierman Cc: Chairwoman Maggie McIntosh, Chairman Guy Guzzone, Subcommittee Chair McCray, Subcommittee Chair Marc Korman, Transit Caucus Executive Committee .