A panel of Rhode Island state lawmakers is investigating ways to prevent future service cuts at the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority.

The Senate Study Commission on Sustainable Transportation Funding is scheduled to meet Friday at the Statehouse.

RIPTA has had to eliminate jobs and trim service on some routes to eliminate budget deficits. Lawmakers have said the state needs to find better ways of funding public transit to prevent future cuts.

Friday’s meeting is expected to feature a presentation from RIPTA staff.
Associated Press

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/d7u_kJnzoVw/ri-legislators-study-transit-funding.html

BY JACOB GERSHMAN AND LISA FLEISHER

ALBANY—Gov. Andrew Cuomo has taken a tightfisted public stand against legislative pork-barrel spending, a point of pride for his administration.

But nestled inside the state’s $132 billion budget are several examples of money that has been appropriated without a specific recipient that can be used for lawmakers’ pet projects and the governor’s economic development initiatives.

For example, there is $40 million of what’s known in Albany as “bullet aid,” grants that legislative leaders and Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, can hand out to school districts and nonprofits of their choosing outside the regular funding process.

According to budget officials, the Democratic-led …

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/vbUsTCYdeEk/SB10001424052702303404704577312161276788318.html

BY HEATHER HADDON

A toll authority for four southern New Jersey bridges wasted millions of dollars on perks and is accused of allowing a powerful ally of Gov. Chris Christie to choose its insurance companies, according to a report released Thursday.

It is the second report in a month by state Comptroller Matthew Boxer alleging wasteful government payments were made to the brokerage firm of George Norcross, the Camden Democratic chief whose support helped Mr. Christie, a Republican, pass dramatic changes to pensions and benefits for state workers, among other policies.

Over a decade, an insurance company that received Delaware River Port Authority …

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/nP4qh6glqIY/SB10001424052702303404704577311923605657212.html

Noah Addis/For The Star-LedgerDelaware River Port Authority CEO and former New Jersey Senator John Matheussen, center, speaks to the media in 2010. His department is under fire for wasteful spending.

TRENTON — The Delaware River Port Authority has wasted millions of dollars in toll payer money in the past decade, with much of it enriching authority officials as well as friends and political allies, the New Jersey comptroller said today.

Among the beneficiaries of the mismanagement was the insurance executive and Democratic powerbroker George Norcross, who allegedly orchestrated the payment of $455,000 to his company and an associate in return for recommending a New Jersey insurance broker for the authority.

In addition, the comptroller concluded in a 77-page report that a policy allowing authority commissioners, family members and others free access to its four bridges linking South Jersey with Pennsylvania was rife with abuse, robbing the public of $1.2 million.

The report also found the authority donated money to organizations with ties to commissioners, reimbursed its top officials for lavish meals and conferences and put itself deep in debt by undertaking more than $440 million in politically-directed development projects.

In almost every case, the investigation found, the authority’s actions flew in the face of its own policies.

“In nearly every area we looked at, we found people who treated the DRPA like a personal ATM, from DRPA commissioners to private vendors to community organizations,” Comptroller Matthew Boxer said in a statement.

The state’s findings are another example of patronage and waste at public authorities and commissions, favorite targets of Gov. Chris Christie. He asked Boxer to investigate the authority in 2010, when he also began criticizing the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission.

A spokesman for Christie, Michael Drewniak, said in a statement that the governor’s focus on the authority and pressure to implement reforms helped end a “history of financial mismanagement.”

Drewniak said that when Christie took office, he zeroed in on the DRPA for “abusing toll payer money for

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/gIcxpSr00WA/nj_comptroller_deleware_river.html

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MnDOT announces flood mitigation projects
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The Associated Press
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<!– ST. PAUL, Minn. Minnesota transportation officials have announced eight flood mitigation projects to be built over the next five years. –><!– –>

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota transportation officials have announced eight flood mitigation projects to be built over the next five years.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation on Thursday said the projects total $30 million and are part of a $50 million flood mitigation program.

MnDOT Commissioner Tom Sorel (sohr-EHL’) says after statewide flooding in the fall of 2010, the department created the program to make state roads more resistant to flood damage.

The projects are funded through existing bonding authority.

One project is to build a new bridge on Highway 101 north of the existing Minnesota River Bridge and raise the existing two-lane highway. Construction will be in 2014 or 2015.

Another major project realigns Highway 75 north of Breckenridge to be outside

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/IgUxuLCel58/974820666.shtml

ST. PAUL, Minn.
– Minnesota transportation officials have announced eight flood mitigation projects to be built over the next five years.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation on Thursday said the projects total $30 million and are part of a $50 million flood mitigation program.

MnDOT Commissioner Tom Sorel (sohr-EHL’) says after statewide flooding in the fall of 2010, the department created the program to make state roads more resistant to flood damage.

The projects are funded through existing bonding authority.

One project is to build a new bridge on Highway 101 north of the existing Minnesota River Bridge and raise the existing two-lane highway. Construction will be in 2014 or 2015.

Another major project realigns Highway 75 north of Breckenridge to be outside the flood plain. Work begins in 2016.

___

Online:

http://www.mndot.gov/floodmitigation

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/QFKrBPslKXM/144979405.html

Maryland and Virginia’s transportation officials met earlier this month to explore the possibility of building another Potomac River crossing, reviving a discussion of the idea of an outer Beltway loop that has been booted about for decades.

The aim remains the same: siphon traffic away from the Capital Beltway so that travelers from outside the region who want to bypass Washington and its suburbs could motor up I-95 in Virginia, cross the Potomac over a new link upriver from the American Legion Bridge in Cabin John,.and connect with Route 270 in Maryland.

But a key problem also remains: namely, where exactly?

Virginia Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton disclosed the new push for a second crossing while talking with reporters Wednesday following a luncheon hosted by the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce to discuss Dulles rail. Such a link could eliminate 15 percent of rush-hour traffic on the Beltway.

“We’ve started to engage in discussions with the state of Maryland,” he said. “It may not have support with all the special interests.”

A spokesman for Maryland’s Department of Transportation said Thursday that Maryland and Virginia transportation officials met March 9 to follow up a general discussion between Gov. Martin O’Malley and Gov. Robert F. McDonnell.

“These discussions are very preliminary,” said Jack Cahalan, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of Transportation. “We’d like to keep the dialogue going. . . This has been on the radar screen for many decades.”

In the past, Maryland has refused to consider a link that would land in Montgomery County’s agricultural preserve. It has long insisted that a bridge north of the Beltway should land no farther south than Point of Rocks in Frederick County, where a bridge already carries Route 15 across the Potomac.

Virginians have traditionally viewed that location as too far west, arguing for a link between western Montgomery County and Loudoun County that could serve as a “techway” between Interstate 270 in suburban Maryland and high-tech offices near Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia.

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/mmljlgcFcUU/gIQAHZlYkS_blog.html