Hogan gives up pressing for the misbegotten P3 before he leaves office; Wes Moore will be able to show his mettle

Today, Bethesda Beat reported that Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has given up trying to secure the misbegotten P3 plan for the I270/495 highway before he leaves office. https://mailchi.mp/bethesdamagazine/bethesdabeat-alert-636503?e=127235b306

The early months of the Wes Moore/Aruna Miller Administration will be a test of their commitment to sensible, progressive, and fiscally-sound government. 

 

While big-moneyed interests keep pushing the Hogan P3 Plan for I270/495, it is significant that Congressman Jamie Raskin and Congressman (and Attorney General-elect) Anthony Brown have strongly opposed the Plan for a long time. 

https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/OPI/Resources/Files/pdf/2021/Letter_to_TPB_Rep_Raskin.pdf.

 

Comptroller-elect Brooke Lierman expresses serious concerns about the Plan’s wisdom and fiscal propriety. See 

https://wamu.org/story/22/10/21/a-conversation-with-maryland-comptroller-candidates-glassman-and-lierman/ (beginning at the 12:30 mark of the transcript). 

 

Elected Montgomery County leaders, including newly-reelected County Executive Marc Elrich, in-coming Council President Evan Glass, and a majority of the in-coming Council  oppose the Hogan Scam.   https://mastcoalition.org/candidate-stances

 

And the Sierra Club of Maryland (one of the Moore/Aruna campaign’s earliest supporters) is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit to stop the Plan; Friends of Moses Hall, whose mission is to protect historic Black Communities, is also a plaintiff. See 

https://www.sierraclub.org/maryland/blog/2022/10/groups-sue-halt-beltway-toll-lane-project

 

The Hogan Scam would make traffic worse, would create environmental problems, and would leave the taxpayers with huge financial multi-million dollar commitments to TransUrban (the Australian builders of the toll lanes), when those lanes inevitably do not produce the toll revenues projected by TransUrban. 

Soon enough, it will be time for Wes and Aruna to show that they will not be pushovers for big-moneyed interests, but instead will stand up for everyday Marylanders, leaving no one behind.