Like a driver caught in a traffic accident that was not his fault, Gov. Wes Moore finds himself in an awkward position when it comes to a projected six-year cumulative $3.3 billion shortfall in the state transportation budget. He could assert himself and singlehandedly devise a plan to clean up the mess, or he could, perhaps more strategically, offer to have a lot of those vehicles scrapped to see if that prods his fellow motorists into action. So far, he seems to be following the second route with the recent Maryland Department of Transportation proposal calling for some modest fee increases but mostly for broad across-the-board cuts. This has produced a predictable response from elected officials who stand to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in local road, bridge, rail and transit projects — a collective gasp.

To be fair, the shortfall was not exactly a surprise, although the scale was much larger than expected (by about $1.2 billion). The problem, which it’s far from unique to Maryland, is that while transportation-related revenue is growing at a modest pace of about 1% annually, costs are surging ahead at a 7% rate. Some of that $600 million or so annual imbalance was overcome in recent years by Biden administration infrastructure spending, but now it’s laid bare.

Maryland’s Transportation Trust Fund relies too much on motor fuel taxes and vehicle excise taxes that continue to take a big hit as cars become more fuel efficient and are less often bought and sold. Blame inflation for much of the rising costs on the other side of the ledger.

Transportation Secretary Paul J. Wiedefeld says the intent is to pursue a balanced approach and that the cut-heavy plan is simply a “first position.” He notes, for example, that a task force assembled to review transportation funding by the General Assembly is now only halfway toward its two-year study. “A quick fix isn’t the answer,” he says.

And we’d agree that there are a lot of moving parts here and that some trims (eliminating bus lines with few riders, for example) are justified.

But we also believe some revenue-side solutions are apparent. Higher fees for trucks, for example, or on out-of-state E-ZPass users. Drivers caught speeding ought to pay bigger fines (as was recommended by the governor’s own Work Zone Safety Work Group last month), and Maryland is probably overdue for an increase in vehicle registration fees. If the administration wants to get really creative, there are opportunities to lease highway right-of-way to install underground power lines or fiber optic cables.

This isn’t the only budget deficit the governor is facing. The overall state budget faces a major deficit, as well, and that is traditionally a tougher political challenge. The beauty of transportation spending is that it amounts to a fee for service: Users pay more as they travel more. Not so with the general fund budget. The governor will need to push his Democratic allies to produce a sustainable long-term spending plan, which will likely feature both cuts and tax increases. And there’s the matter of reshaping Maryland’s transportation system. We must stop enabling development sprawl and the destructive greenhouse gas emissions that come with it. We must support Maryland’s urban centers and make them more transit, bike and pedestrian friendly. That within days of the budget plan’s release, Baltimore’s light rail line had to be closed for safety repairs was symbolic of the glaring under-investment. All the more so given light rail is slated for $78 million in capital funding cuts.

Governor Moore doesn’t need a year to extricate his state from this transportation mess. He can surely devise a more workable plan in the next 30 days and present it to the Maryland General Assembly next month. He didn’t cause these problems, but leadership demands that he be at the forefront of a better solution now.