Montgomery County Council members are pushing back against County Executive Ike Leggett’s plan to cut or reduce 27 bus routes, saying the move is short-sighted and flies in the face of county efforts to curb traffic congestion.
Leggett’s proposed reductions, which also would cut 52 bus driver positions, are part of a $70 million midyear budget cut needed to counter lower-than-expected income tax revenues. The county is also facing a projected budget cut of more than $600 million for fiscal 2011.
County Council Vice President Valerie Ervin, D-Silver Spring, said Leggett should have looked elsewhere to find the $1.2 million his proposed reduction in bus routes would save, though she did not specify what she would have cut.
“This is a mess of epic proportions,” Ervin said, pointing to the proposal to reduce the frequency of the No. 22 rush-hour bus between the Silver Spring Metrorail station and the Food and Drug Administration’s White Oak campus on New Hampshire Avenue.
About 5,000 FDA employees work at the campus and 1,000 more are slated to move in soon, FDA officials said. The campus is expected to have almost 9,000 employees once construction is finished in two or three years, but is limited by zoning rules to having two parking spots for every three employees, officials said.
“We need more buses, not less,” said Marc Bloom, director of Division of Logistics, Services and Facilities at the FDA.
The No. 22 bus runs every 15 minutes during rush hour; Leggett’s proposed cuts do not detail how the line would be reduced.
Betsy Bretz, a neighborhood advocate, said the county would be “shooting itself in the foot” by passing Leggett’s proposal.
“Why cut down on a good thing we have going?” she said.
Leggett could not be reached for comment about the bus cuts, but he noted in a meeting with council members that the county is facing “pretty devastating” cuts across county services.
Councilman Mike Knapp, D-Germantown, also voiced displeasure that Leggett’s cuts would eliminate services from some parts of the county entirely.
The County Council balked last spring at Leggett’s attempt to reduce service for 18 bus routes, voting instead to increase the hourly parking rate by 25 cents in Bethesda.
