Most readers understand that editors’ dispatches on the Opinion Page are just that - an editorial/opinion. Editors should have strong opinions even if those opinions, in recent times, have been wrong.
The Funding Accelerating Safety in Transportation program which Sussex County Council recently adopted, and one that I strongly support, was misrepresented on the editorial page. The FAST program, along with Transportation Improvement Districts and the Special Development Districts program which I hope to introduce in the near future for adoption by Sussex County Council, will all contribute to fixing the lack of transportation improvement funding in Sussex County.
The recent editorial in the Cape Gazette suggested that county council was not funding the FAST program adequately and should consider using real estate transfer tax revenue as a funding source. The fact of the matter is that the FAST program is funded by RTT revenue. Sussex County Council designed this program as a step in improving our roadways. The council deserves enormous credit for this one-of-a-kind, innovative program. Let’s all hope that it is successful. Since it has never been done before, we won’t be able to gauge its success until sometime in the future. The first approved FAST project is the Sweetbriar-Hudson-Cave Neck Road intersection. Its $4.5M cost is funded by RTT funds.
The editorial suggests that Sussex County Council should immediately start dumping RTT money into the FAST program. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way in the State of Delaware. The state owns the roads and has control of how, when, and where roads are built and/or improved. Sussex County Council created the innovative FAST funding program and is working aggressively on other FAST and TID areas to speed up road improvements. However, none of this will happen without the Department of Transportation’s preapproval and consent. I believe that we all know that DelDOT doesn’t do anything quickly.
I have been a strong advocate of these innovative programs for a number of years and pledged to the people I serve that I would make bold and innovative proposals to finally begin to fix our roads. I hope to have county council’s support for the Special Development Districts initiative soon. With this program, council can require that off-site road improvements are made at the time housing subdivisions are built, not years after.
Facts do matter, even on the editorial page. And the fact is that this Sussex County Council “gets it” and understands that the old way of providing transportation improvements is broken and needs fixing.
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