wishful thinking

Prince George's County Exec: No new money for Purple Line - WTOP

Give Baker credit for understanding that when the state reduces its contribution from $700 million to $168 million that the counties can't make up the difference. Don't give him credit for his wishful thinking that the Purple Line is going to get built anyway.

However, there's an even bigger issue that needs to be addressed. 

Why, on the heels of the "monumental debacle" Silver Spring Transit Center public-private partnership, would one use the same, failed, public-private partnership model to build the Purple Line? To do so would be insanity.

Instead of allowing politicians to noncompetitively select their private business buddies to build public works projects that cost all taxpayers billions, and end up poorly managed, severely flawed and grossly overbudget and overdue, like the Silver Spring Transit Center, why not go back to the tried and true methods of the past where private businesses are selected competitively to build expensive public works projects? To do otherwise is insane. 

Prince Georges County MD
Montgomery County MD
Hogan
public-private partnership
Silver Spring Transit Center
Paul S. Sarbanes Transit Center
Federal Transit Administration (FTA)
Maryland Transit Administration (MTA)
WMATA