Photo by Maryland GovPics on Flickr.

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has still made no decision on the Purple Line (or, if he has, is refusing to announce one) while calling the project’s current costs “not acceptable.”

Hogan had been expected to decide around “mid-May,” but told the Washington Post Friday that a decision would come “in the next month sometime.” This further pushes off the possible schedule for private bids and then construction, which is now totally uncertain.

Hogan did say the cost would have to be “dramatically lower” to convince him to move forward. He said that “two miles of [the line] would fund our entire school construction for the entire state.”

This argument about fiscal poverty rings very hollow when Hogan just lowered tolls across the state, costing about $54 million a year.

Since the Purple Line is $153 million per mile (for one-time construction), the school construction Hogan says costs the same as two miles of the line also costs only six years’ worth of the foregone tolls. Hogan could have said he’d keep the tolls high for six years to fund school construction.

The line would actually cost the state of Maryland relatively little; the federal government will provide $900 million, Montgomery and Prince George’s $220 million, and hundreds of millions from the private bidders. Two miles of the Purple Line cost would only pay for school construction if schools suddenly became eligible for federal transit funding and private bidders offered to foot some of the bill.

But what we’re hearing is a sadly common refrain among anti-transit, so-called “fiscally conservative” politicians. They talk big about how important it is to save money, but really mean saving money by cutting things they don’t like, usually in particular things that are associated with denser, walkable, perhaps more liberal areas.

Hogan’s priorities are apparently, drivers first, then students, then transit riders.

Likewise, Hogan is choosing not to give credence to studies that show significant economic growth benefits for the Purple Line.

Pete Rahn, Hogan’s transportation secretary and someone who at least appears to be making some effort to find a path to approval, said after talking with bidders, he believed the project could happen for about ten percent less money. Hogan hasn’t said if that is “dramatic” enough for him.

In the Post interview, Hogan also talked about New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, whom Hogan considers a mentor. Christie also came into office and almost immediately canceled a major transit project that had been in the planning stages for many years. New Jersey lost a lot of federal funding, and worse yet, there’s now no redundancy for commuter trains coming into Manhattan; shutting down one tunnel at a time for needed repairs will cripple commuting across the Hudson.

Hogan seems poised to make a similarly short-sighted blunder for Maryland. He himself summed it up best to the Post while talking about another matter: “It’s challenging to change the mind-sets of folks that believe very strongly in what they’re talking about.”