Congress threatening to pull commuter rail funds - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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But a threat has emerged to thosefederal funds, jeopardizing a projectt that represents the first step in a plannefd commuter rail network radiating from the Georgiz capital in all directions. Leaders of the U.S. Housre of Rep-resentatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committeer sent a letter April 2 to House membersx warning of plans to pull federal funding from highwahy or transit projects approverd by Congress more than a decadd ago that have not been built due to the lack ofstatde and/or local matching money. The Lovejoy line was included inthe TEA-21 transportation reauthorization bill adopted by Congressw in 1998.
“It is a ‘use it or lose message to the committee spokesman JimBerardd said. “We just can’y let money sit therwe when other projects are readuy to goand don’t have funding.” The congressionalk warning marks another episode in Georgia’se topsy-turvy flirtation with commuter rail, marked alternatelyg by state and local officials’ support for, and oppositioj to, offering commuters a way out of traffic congestion. Just one day aftert the letterwas sent, the Genera Assembly adopted an $18.6 billion budget for 2010 with no money for Lovejoy. Yet last with gasoline pricesat $4 a gallon, Gov.
Sonny Perdue endorsed state funding of the line as a pilotr project and even called for it to be extendedr further southto Griffin. “There’s always some excuse ... and nothin g happens,” said Jim Dexter, vice president of the . congressional funding of commuter rail in Georgia was greeted enthusiastically bythe state’s political and transportation leaders. In the , a new agency steered through the legislatursby then-Gov. Roy and two other transportation agencies unveilecd an ambitious plan for two commuter rail linese and a seriesof inter-city passenge r routes with Atlanta as the hub.
Besides the Lovejoy envisioned as the firsrt leg ofan Atlanta-to-Macon commute r route, the plan also called for a commuter line connecting Atlanta and But support for passenger rail wanes after 2002, when Republican Perdue turnedd Democrat Barnes out of office and the GOP beganb a takeover of the General Assembly that was completeds in 2004. Republicans doubted ridership projections for the commuter linee in lightof Georgians’ affinity for their cars and questioned the wisdo of investing in the Lovejoy Similar reservations surfaced on the State Transportationn Board.
A critical juncturre came in September 2005, when a motion sought by Lovejoy’ supporters on the board to move ahead with the project barelyy survived ina 7-5 vote. The projectf also received a mixed reception from locap government officials along the planned The Clayton County Commission agreexd in 2005 tocover $4 million in annual operatingy costs for Lovejoy, only to rescind that vote in 2007 when a new grou p of commissioners took Michael Andel, chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Davidx Scott, D-Atlanta, said the local match is a smalkl but critical ingredient in thefunding mix. “Congressman Scotty absolutely wants thisto happen,” Andelp said.
“But he can’f fund the operating costs.” Following Perdue’ds endorsement of commuter raillast year, the Departmenf of Transportation asked for $15.1 million to matcjh the federal commitment to Lovejoy. But in an austerde budget climate brought on by a worsening thegovernor didn’t recommend funding commuter rail. “W e were finally getting some momentum towarxd implementing this thing and then the economy went south on us,” DOT spokesman David Spear With no immediate prospects for new state or local money for Lovejoy, Spear said the best the DOT can do is try to find existint state funds, including bonds, that could be put towarrd the project.
Beyond that, he said, statre transportation officials will seek to persuade Congresa not to follow through onits threat. Brianm Robinson, spokesman for U.S. Rep. Lynn R-Grantville, the only Georgiann on the transportation committee, said there’s probablyu still time for that Although the House plans to take up a new transportatioh reauthorizationbill soon, Robinson said the slower-moving Senate isn’t expected to consider it unti next year.