HOGAN REVERSES ON METRO FUNDING: Gov. Larry Hogan upended the regional debate over Metro funding Monday by offering to give the transit system an extra $500 million over four years if Virginia, the District and the federal government each do the same, reports Robert McCartney and Faiz Siddiqui for the Post. Hogan’s proposal narrowed the jurisdictions’ differences over funding and appeared to increase chances that the region could agree on a plan to save the agency. But it remained to be seen whether the other three parties — especially the federal government and Virginia — would go along.
Bryan Sears of the Daily Record reports that Hogan said that a four-way commitment to provide $125 million from each jurisdiction over four years would satisfy the needs of the system, as outlined by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.“There is absolutely no separation between us on how critical Metro is and that action needs to be taken to guarantee its short-term and long-term future,” Hogan wrote. “However, there is very clear separation between us on how we collectively meet this $500 million funding challenge.”
Bethesda Beat’s Andrew Metcalf reports that Hogan had dismissed the regional sales tax proposal, floated by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and other D.C. officials, that’s designed to provide a dedicated funding source for Metro. The proposal to increase local sales taxes by 1 cent would place a greater share of the tax burden on the more populous jurisdictions in Northern Virginia and Maryland than the District would have.
FROSH SUES OVER DACA: Maryland has joined three other states in suing the Trump administration over its termination of a program designed to shield young undocumented immigrants from deportation, Attorney General Brian E. Frosh said Monday. Frosh, a Democrat, joined the attorneys general of California, Minnesota and Maine to challenge the decision by President Trump in federal court in California, Michael Dresser of the Sun reports.
The suit, filed in federal court in the Northern District of California, alleges that the administration violated the due process provisions of the Constitution as well as federal laws. Fifteen other states and the District of Columbia filed a similar lawsuit last week in the federal court in the Eastern District of New York to block the administration from winding down DACA, which stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, writes Josh Hicks for the Post.
O.C. BIZ WORRY OVER VISA PROGRAM CANCELLATION: As the summer tourism season comes to a close in Ocean City, many businesses fear they may soon lose much of their seasonal workforce if the Trump administration cancels the J-1 visa program, writes CNS’s Chris Miller in MarylandReporter. “We wouldn’t be able to function and would probably have to shut down at least half of the hotel,” if the J-1 program is cut, said Greg Dominguez, front office manager at the Grand Hotel and Spa. The hotel employs about 100 J-1 students each summer.
