Gov. Larry Hogan, one of two scheduled keynote speakers at this year’s Montgomery County affordable housing summit, was a no-show Monday—with his office citing the governor’s continuing focus on the recent unrest in Baltimore for his absence.
But the conference’s other keynote speaker, U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez—widely seen in Democratic circles as a potential challenger to Hogan in 2018—did appear, and used the occasion to turn up the heat on the governor over the Purple Line.
In a 25-minute address that was alternately personal retrospective, policy seminar and political stump speech, Perez—a Takoma Park resident and former Montgomery County Council member—declared: “One question you could ask legitimately is, ‘What the hell is the Department of Labor secretary doing at a housing conference?’ You know, we are all links in the chain. This conference is about linking transportation, linking housing, linking investment in workers and workforce, understanding that’s how we create opportunity, that’s how we create mobility.”
“And that is why, by the way, the Purple Line is so doggone important to this region…We have to build the Purple Line,” he added to applause from an audience of 600, largely comprised of members of the local real estate and development community. “If we want to illustrate what this conference is about, the answer is the Purple Line.”
Perez’s remarks came just weeks before Hogan—who was critical of the Purple Line in last year’s campaign, but has said little publicly about the $2.45 billion project since taking office—is expected to make a decision on the future of the 16-mile light rail line extending from Bethesda to New Carrollton in Prince George’s County. He ordered a reevaluation of the project shortly after taking office in January.
Hogan’s scheduled luncheon speech at the 24th Annual Affordable Housing Summit, held at the Bethesda North Marriott Conference Center, was initially announced several weeks ago. It had been awaited with anticipation: The Republican governor’s last previous public appearance in the state’s largest county was in December, before he was sworn into office. At that time, Hogan spoke to the annual breakfast of the Committee for Montgomery, and—in what some members of the large audience of county leaders saw as humor, but others regarded as a threat of payback—pointedly noted that Montgomery was one of only three counties in the state where he did not receive a majority of the votes last November.
On Monday, organizers of the affordable housing gathering publicly expressed understanding of Hogan’s absence. “Because of the situation in Baltimore, our governor is not able to be with us today,” Barbara Goldberg Goldman, co-chair of the Affordable Housing Conference of Montgomery County, said at the outset of the summit, referring to the unrest in Baltimore related to the death of a black man in police custody. “He was trying to get here, but I think everybody understands where he must be and what he must do.”
Privately, however, there was grumbling from a number of conference attendees, who questioned whether Hogan was using the situation in Baltimore—where a week-long curfew was lifted this weekend, with peace largely restored to the city—to avoid an audience heavily focused on two issues associated with affordable housing: transit-oriented development in general, and the Purple Line in particular.
According to a spokeswoman, Hogan was back in Annapolis Monday after nearly a week of operating out of Baltimore. The governor had no public events on his schedule until late afternoon, when he was due to attend a screening of a Korean film honoring Korean War veterans. But Hogan spokeswoman Shareese Churchill said Monday afternoon that Hogan “has been in internal meetings all day regarding last week’s events,” adding, “This situation in Baltimore is the reason why he did not attend” the housing conference.
Meanwhile, Perez, who served in the administration of former Gov. Martin O’Malley before being named by President Obama as an assistant attorney general and later labor secretary, turned up the political heat. In remarks aimed at Hogan, Perez—apparently speaking on behalf of the federal government—declared: “We are ready to fund the Purple Line when you give us the green light. That’s what I’m told by our friends at the [U.S.] Department of Transportation.”
He was referring to the fact that the Federal Transit Administration has recommended the Purple Line for a so-called full-funding agreement for $900 million, which would cover about 40 percent of the project’s current estimated cost.
Montgomery County officials are still expecting Hogan to disclose a decision on the Purple Line sometime between the middle and end of this month. If the project receives a go-ahead, this timetable would allow bid solicitation to proceed in mid-August for a private partner, which would build and operate the line. In addition to the $900 million from the federal government, such a private partnership would front another $600 million to $1 billion, although the money to pay back this amount over a 30-year period would come from the tax-paying public.
Hogan has publicly acknowledged that he wants to cut the overall price of the project before he will consider allowing it to go forward. According to sources, officials at the Maryland Transit Administration—during a meeting with county officials late last month—indicated the state is now seeking to cut about $175 million from its share of the project. The latest estimates put the state’s overall contribution at $300 million to $700 million, depending on the amount of financing offered by a private partner.
Sources said the state was originally seeking savings of more than $200 million, but backed down on several proposed cost reductions—including substituting a street-level crossing for the Purple Line for a proposed bridge over Connecticut Avenue adjacent to the Chevy Chase Lake development. With trains running every several minutes, county officials feared this would greatly exacerbate traffic problems just north of the already congested intersection of Connecticut Avenue and East West Highway
In addition to such savings, the state is also looking to shift another $100 million of the project to the local jurisdictions. This could mean approximately $50 million more apiece for Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, translating into a nearly 50 percent increase over the $110 million that each of the two counties is now being asked to contribute to the project. On top of its contribution, Montgomery is committed to paying nearly $100 million for construction of the Capital Crescent Trail alongside the Purple Line from Bethesda to Silver Spring.
The state has not formally asked the two counties to kick in additional funds, but the issue is expected to be discussed this week by Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett and Maryland Secretary of Transportation Pete Rahn. These discussions come as lobbying efforts on behalf of the Purple Line ramp up in anticipation of Hogan’s upcoming decision.
Economic Partners of the Purple Line, a business coalition organized by the Chevy Chase Land Co., met Friday with Rahn. And Transportation for America, which describes itself as “an alliance of elected, business and civic leaders from communities across the country,” this morning is releasing a report on what it sees as the economic benefits of both the Purple Line and the proposed light rail Red Line in downtown Baltimore. The Transportation for America report follows the release two weeks ago of an economic impact study underwritten by Montgomery and Prince George’s counties and the Greater Washington Board of Trade that touts estimates of 27,000 more permanent jobs if the Purple Line is built.
In addition, in a letter dated late last week, more than 50 state legislators from the Baltimore and Washington metropolitan areas wrote to Hogan, arguing that both the Purple and Red lines “will connect people to employment opportunities, encourage community development, and spur economic growth and job creation.”
At least half of the 32-member Montgomery County legislative delegation signed the letter, with the bulk of the signers representing districts in the Bethesda and Silver Spring areas. The only one of four District 18 legislators to sign the letter was Del. Ana Sol Gutierrez of Chevy Chase; District 18 includes Chevy Chase, where resistance to the Purple Line remains strong.
Correction: Due to an editing error the original report said Sol Gutierrez did not sign the letter. She in fact did sign it.
