Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tribune article on Congressional transportation bill:
By TED JACKOVICS | The Tampa Tribune
Published: March 16, 2012 Updated: March 16, 2012 – 12:00 AM
TAMPA —
Traffic crawled along the westbound lanes of Interstate 275 through downtown Tampa late Thursday morning, five hours before the evening rush hour would jam things up even more.
Congestion like that is what’s at stake in a transportation bill tied up in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill is pitting Republicans against Republicans and threatens highway projects, construction jobs and transit funds for agencies including HART.
Although the Senate this week approved a two-year, $109 billion bill to fund highways and transit, there’s no assurance the House will act by a March 31 deadline to forestall a major transportation funding collapse.
The good news locally: I-275 reconstruction between State Road 60 near Tampa International Airport and the Hillsborough River downtown should not be affected by the outcome of the pending federal bill.
Contractors will submit bids in April — the maximum bid is about $255 million — to complete reconstruction of I-275’s southbound lanes from the Hillsborough River to Himes Avenue, and both directions between Himes and State Road 60.
Construction will begin after the Republican National Convention in late August and will take four to five years to complete.
“This project will move forward as planned,” Florida Department of Transportation spokeswoman Kristen Carson said. “The funding is over 80 percent federal, but there is some state funding. The funding has been in place and to our knowledge, should not be affected by the transportation bill.”
The same cannot be said for continued federal transit funding and road and bridge projects that could affect up to 2.8 million jobs nationwide.
“This transportation bill is all about jobs,” said U.S. Rep Kathy Castor, a Tampa Democrat. “The House of Representatives is tied up in knots in a rigid ideological battle. We need to come together and pass the Senate bill.”
The bill, co-sponsored by one of the most liberal Democrats, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, and one of the most conservative Republicans, U.S. Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, keeps federal highway, transit and other surface transportation projects intact, although not at levels President Barack Obama sought.
In the House, various Republican versions separated transit appropriations from highway bills, which transit supporters fear would lead to less money, and tied expanded oil drilling to transportation measures.
However, Republicans have not been able to agree about specifics. With the March 31 deadline two weeks off, they are faced with adopting the bipartisan Senate measure or risking national voter backlash from business and workforce interests.
Republican Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandy Murman, a Hillsborough Regional Transit Authority board member, joined Castor on Thursday to back passage of a transportation bill, saying, “Politicians, let’s wake up.”
If the bill isn’t signed by March 31 and there is no extension, HART wouldn’t be reimbursed for the reserves they are using now and would enter fiscal 2013 with $5 million less in its budget, HART spokeswoman Marcia Mejia said.
J.C. Miseroy, of Granite Construction of Tampa and chairman of the Florida Transportation Builders Association, said transportation projects need to be budgeted on an ongoing, long-term basis.
“If you don’t have long-term funding, it’s hard to make plans and you end up with a mess like this,” Miseroy said, pointing to unfinished construction along I-275 and midday traffic congestion.
