Road improvements in Towson will be limited by Maryland’s restricted transportation budget.
With the revitalization of Towson new transportation plans, including road improvements, the money for some of the improvements will be coming from county taxes instead of state money, Baltimore County Councilman David Marks said.
In highway user revenue, Baltimore County has gotten 40 or 50 million dollars each year, Marks said. But since Governor Martin O’Malley’s administration, it has been reduced to a trickle.
“All counties are dealing with this problem,” Marks said. “Unfortunately we’re better off than other counties in this situation.”
Junior Roland Emeni said that it would help if they just allowed students on the local Maryland Transit Administration bus for free. He said he thinks Maryland residents pay enough in taxes to have some road improvements.
“Some of the roads are kind of bad,” Emeni said. “For the most part they’re pretty bad.”
In a previous Towerlight interview for an article in the Oct. 3 issue, Marks said there was a possibility for a new transportation option, similar to the Charm City Circulator in Baltimore. Even though funds are less available, money has been found to resurface and fix some of the roads, he said.
“Baltimore County has been finding money from its own general fund,” he said. “Our financial situation is such that we can do some improvements.”
This isn’t the first time Baltimore County has found trouble getting monetary support from state funds, Marks said.
“This has been a recurring problem for the past few years,” he said. “The O’Malley administration has eliminated support for road improvements.”
Road and transportation improvements should be a priority, freshman Carlos Melendez said.
“I think they could do a little more,” he said.