October 16, 2012

The Honorable Ray LaHood, Secretary U.S. Department of Transportation The Honorable Sharon Bulova, Chairman Fairfax County Board of Supervisors

Mr. Michael Curto, Board Chairman Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority The Honorable Scott York, Chairman Loudoun County Board of Supervisors

Dear Lady and Gentlemen, We at the Reston Citizen Association (RCA) Reston 2020 Committee were pleased to learn that the local partners in building the Silver Line have submitted a letter of interest to the Department of Transportation for TIFIA financing. We hope that your efforts succeed and, indeed, that the federal government provides a substantial sum to help defray some of the costs of this $5.6 billion project. We are concerned, however, about reports we have heard from several sources that the funding partnersMWAA and Fairfax and Loudoun countieshave not yet decided how to allocate the funds that may be provided through TIFIA. The arguments weve heard pertain to who has better credit ratings, suggesting that the counties with their AAA ratings ought to get a disproportionate share of the financial relief. In short, this would mean that the counties would substitute federal funds for their meager current combined commitment of $1.2 billion to Phase 2 Silver Line construction. To the extent that such an arrangement is agreed to, there would be no addition of funds to the construction effort, just a substitution of one funding source for another. This would, once again, leave Dulles Toll Road users holding the bag to pay for more than half of the cost of Phase 2 construction. We believe that any and all funds received through the TIFIA process must be used to reduce toll road users share of cost of Phase 2 construction, now put at $1.7 billion and more than $9 billion for Phase 2 including debt servicing costs over the next 40 years. As you know, in the absence of some outside relief, tolls are forecast to climb steeply to more than $18 full one-way toll by 2050. We have already demonstrated the substantial adverse effects of those increases are household wellbeing, economic growth, and traffic diversion to local roads in our recent comment to MWAA on its proposed toll increases. And, yet, toll road users will receive no benefit, financial or otherwise, from construction of the Metrorail line. In contrast, Fairfax and Loudoun counties are among the two wealthiest counties in the country who look to earn huge increases in tax revenues as a result of their investment in the Silver Line. Indeed, a

recent George Mason University report1 puts the gain in annual gross regional product for the year 2040 alone at $142.6 billion in the regional activity centers along the Dulles CorridorTysons to West Dulles, excluding Herndon. Certainly these counties can recoup the costs of their borrowing for Phase 2 construction from the resulting taxesproperty, sales, etc.without once again putting the bulk of the construction costs on toll road users, the bulk of whom live and vote in their two counties. We do not know what discretion the Department of Transportation has in directing that TIFIA financing be used in a certain way, such as applying the financing strictly to the debt toll road users are expected to pay. To the extent that the Department has some say in how the taxpayer funds it manages are invested, we urge in the strongest possible terms that the Department require that all the TIFIA funding be spent to lower the burden faced by toll road users. Otherwise, the Department may reasonably expect that it is simply substituting steeply discounted federal funds for county funds that would likely be borrowed at the lowest municipal bond lending rates anyway, precisely because of their AAA ratings. If the Department of Transportation does not direct the use of TIFIA financing to lower the burden the funding partners imposed in secret on Dulles Toll Road users, we urge the funding partners to at least partially right the wrong of their current financing arrangement that sticks toll road users with at least 62% of the cost of Phase 2 construction. Using all the TIFIA financing to lower the costs toll road users carry would be a significant step in correcting the egregious funding arrangement now in place. Our core goal is to help find additional fundingstate or federal, grants or loansthat will be used to reduce the toll road users share of construction costs to 25 percent or less consistent with the benchmark 2004 FEIS that launched the current effort. We sincerely hope that Phase 2 construction of the Silver Line receives substantial TIFIA funding as a result of upcoming deliberations, and we hope that you all have the wisdom to invest it wisely in reducing the unwarranted financial burden current arrangements place on Dulles Toll Road users. We welcome your questions and comments concerning this matter and look forward to helping you if we can be of assistance in any way. Sincerely,

Terrill D. Maynard Co-Chair, RCA Reston 2020 Committee Member, RCA Board of Directors terrmayn@yahoo.com 703-476-5376

Connecting Transportation Investment and the Economy in Metropolitan Washington, John McClain and Alan Pisarski, George Mason University Center for Regional Analysis, October 2012. See Table 3.

CC: The Honorable Jim Webb, US Senator The Honorable Mark Warner, US Senator The Honorable Gerry Connolly, US Representative The Honorable Frank Wolf, US Representative The Honorable Jim Moran, US Representative The Honorable Bob McDonnell, Governor, Commonwealth of Virginia Mr. Sean Connaughton, Virginia Department of Transportation Ms. Thelma Drake, Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transit The Honorable Janet Howell, Virginia State Senator The Honorable Ken Plum, Virginia State Delegate The Honorable Joe May, Virginia State Delegate The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Mr. Jack Potter, Chief Executive Officer, MWAA Mr. Tom Davis, Vice Chairman, MWAA Board Mr. Rusty Conner, Chairman, Finance Committee, MWAA Board Mr. Andy Rountree, Chief Financial Officer, MWAA Fairfax County Federation of Citizens Associations Officers Ms. Patty Nicoson, President, Dulles Corridor Railway Association Mr. John Townsend, President, AAA Mid-Atlantic Mr. Lon Anderson, Managing Director, Public & Government Affairs, AAA Mid-Atlantic Mr. Ken Kneuven, President, Reston Association Board of Directors Mr. Milton Matthews, Executive Director, Reston Association Mr. Gerry Volloy, Chairman, Association of Reston Clusters and Homeowners BCC: The Reston Citizens Association Board of Directors The RCA Reston 2020 Committee Selected News Media