A federal spending bill passed by Congress this week and signed by President Donald Trump on Friday gives most of the money — but not all — to finish the controversial $119 million Albuquerque Rapid Transit project.
The Albuquerque Journal confirmed a few days before the signing the $1.1 trillion bill contained funds for the project that would dedicate nine miles of Central Avenue (aka Route 66) to bus lanes for a massive mass-transit project.
The bill would provide $50 million for the Albuquerque Rapid Transit project and continued funding for the popular Community Development Block Grant program that helps cities and towns pay for local projects.
Mass Transit Magazine reported:
Albuquerque city officials were breathing a sigh of relief at the news, particularly given that President Donald Trump’s budget blueprint for next fiscal year calls for significant cuts to domestic programs.
Among the programs Trump has targeted for cuts is the Federal Transit Administration’s Capital Investment Program, the same New Starts grants that Albuquerque has been banking on to provide $69 million for the ART project. Specifically, Trump’s blueprint calls for limiting New Starts grants “to projects with existing full funding grant agreements only.”
The fellow who probably breathed the biggest sigh of relief was Mayor Richard Berry, who shepherded the ART proposal, saying it was needed to attract more high-tech companies and millennials to Albuquerque.
Congress apparently ignored Trump’s budget wishes and allocated money for the program anyway.
However, no media outlet seems to have noticed this discrepancy: The budget passed by Congress gives $50 million to ART, significantly less than the $69 million it anticipated in February 2016.
ART was budgeted at $119 million. It apparently will have to make do with $100 million. A shortage of $19 million — about one-sixth of its budget — is no small thing. The city has not weighed in on what it will do with less money than anticipated.
ART has proven unpopular with dozens of businesses along Central Avenue, mostly because construction has made driving on that street a headache. In the meantime, Grants, New Mexico — 80 miles to the west — has tried to recruit those struggling businesses there.
It’s not known whether there any takers, but it certainly is some expert trolling by Grants.
(Artist’s rendering of one of the proposed Albuquerque Rapid Transit stations at Central Avenue and Washington Street)