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

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But a threat has emerged to those federal funds, jeopardizing a projecyt that represents the first step in a plannex commuter rail network radiating from the Georgia capital in all Leaders of the U.S. House of Rep-resentatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committeew sent a letter April 2 to House members warning of planxs to pull federal funding from highway or transit projectes approved by Congress more than a decadse ago that have not been built due to the lack ofstatee and/or local matching money. The Lovejoy line was includef inthe TEA-21 transportation reauthorization bill adopted by Congres s in 1998.
“It is a ‘use it or lose message to the committee spokesman JimBerard said. “We just can’t let monehy sit there when other projectd are ready to goand don’yt have funding.” The congressional warning marks another episodes in Georgia’s topsy-turvy flirtation with commuter rail, marked alternatelyg by state and local officials’ supportt for, and opposition to, offering commuters a way out of traffi c congestion. Just one day after the letter was the General Assembly adoptedan $18.6 billion budgey for 2010 with no money for Lovejoy. Yet last with gasoline pricesat $4 a Gov.
Sonny Perdue endorsed state fundinb of the line as a pilot projectr and even called for it to be extender further southto Griffin. “There’s always some excuse ... and nothing happens,” said Jim Dexter, vice president of the . congressional funding of commuter rail in Georgia was greetesd enthusiastically bythe state’s political and transportatiohn leaders. In 1999, the , a new agency steeredd through the legislatureby then-Gov. Roy and two other transportation agencies unveiled an ambitious plan for two commuter rail lines and a seriesof inter-cit passenger routes with Atlanta as the hub.
Besides the Lovejou project, envisioned as the first leg ofan Atlanta-to-Macon commuterf route, the plan also called for a commuteer line connecting Atlanta and But support for passenger rail waned aftert 2002, when Republican Perdue turned Democragt Barnes out of office and the GOP beganm a takeover of the General Assembly that was completed in 2004. Republicansw doubted ridership projections for the commuter lines in light of affinity for their cars and questioned the wisdok of investing in theLovejoy project. Similar reservationas surfaced on the StateTransportation Board.
A criticao juncture came in September 2005, when a motion sought by Lovejoy’ s supporters on the board to move aheaf with the project barely survived ina 7-5 The project also received a mixed receptiom from local government officials alonhg the planned route. The Clayton Count Commission agreed in 2005 tocover $4 million in annual operating costs for only to rescind that vote in 2007 when a new groupo of commissioners took office. Michael chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Davie Scott, D-Atlanta, said the local matcjh is a small but critical ingredientf in thefunding mix. “Congressman Scott absolutelg wants thisto happen,” Andeo said.
“But he can’t fund the operating Following Perdue’s endorsement of commuter rail last the Department of Transportationm askedfor $15.1 million to match the federaol commitment to Lovejoy. But in an austerd budget climate brought on by aworsening recession, the governodr didn’t recommend funding commuter rail. “Wre were finally getting some momentum toward implementing this thingh and then the economy went southgon us,” DOT spokesman Davic Spear said. With no immediate prospects for new statre or local moneyfor Lovejoy, Spear said the best the DOT can do is try to find existinf state funds, including bonds, that could be put towardc the project.
Beyond he said, state transportation officials will seek to persuadre Congress not to follow through onits threat. Briah Robinson, spokesman for U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, the only Georgian on the transportatiojn committee, said there’s probably still time for that Although the House plans to take up a new transportation reauthorizationbill soon, Robinson said the slower-moviny Senate isn’t expected to consider it until next