How Del. Ric Metzgar Just Signed a $1 Billion Mortgage in Your Name
By: Adam Reuter
They say the devil is in the details, but in Annapolis, the devil is usually in the font size.
If you look at House Bill 229, it looks harmless. It is a single sheet of paper. It has no complex legal jargon. It has no “Whereas” clauses. It simply deletes the number $4,000,000,000 and replaces it with $5,000,000,000.
That is it. That is the whole bill.
But that single keystroke—which Delegate Ric Metzgar just voted to approve—authorizes the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) to take on One Billion Dollars in new debt.
And here is the part that should make every driver in Dundalk furious: You are the collateral.
The “Revenue Bond” Trap
Ric Metzgar will tell you this isn’t a tax hike. technically, he is right. It is worse.
HB 229 authorizes “Revenue Bonds.” Unlike general obligation bonds, which are paid back by income taxes, revenue bonds are paid back by the income generated by the project.
For the MDTA, that income comes from one place: Tolls.
By voting to raise the debt ceiling to $5 billion, Metzgar is mathematically guaranteeing future toll hikes. You cannot borrow an extra billion dollars without a plan to pay it back. The MDTA is going to pay for this new debt by squeezing the commuters who use the tunnels and bridges every single day.
When the toll at the Key Bridge (or its replacement) or the tunnels goes up to $6 or $8, remember this moment. It wasn’t “inflation.” It was HB 229.
The “Committee Man” Betrayal
Ric Metzgar isn’t just a backbencher who got confused by the vote. He sits on the Appropriations Committee—the very committee that sponsored this bill.
Look at the top of the PDF: “By: Chair, Appropriations Committee (By Request – Departmental).”
That means this was a rubber-stamp job for the bureaucracy. The Department of Transportation asked for a billion-dollar blank check, and instead of asking “Why?”, Metzgar’s committee said “Yes.”
He had the power to stop it. He had the power to demand an audit of the first $4 billion before authorizing the fifth billion. Instead, he played the “Go Along to Get Along” game. He voted to let the state max out the credit card, knowing full well that the working class of District 6 will be the ones paying the minimum monthly balance at the toll booth.
The “Simple Bill” Scam
This is the ultimate trick of the “Sludge” economy. They make the theft look boring.
They know you won’t read a 100-page regulatory bill. But they also know you won’t panic over a one-page bill that looks like a typo correction. They rely on the fact that “$4 Billion vs. $5 Billion” sounds like monopoly money to the average voter.
But to the single mom driving from Randallstown to her job in the city, that debt is real. That debt is the reason she can’t afford a transponder. That debt is the reason our infrastructure costs three times more than it should.
The Verdict
Ric Metzgar campaigned as a Fiscal Conservative. He wears the hat. He talks the talk.
But when a one-page bill came across his desk asking to mortgage the future of Maryland commuters for another billion dollars, he didn’t act like a conservative. He acted like a banker. Guys like him are the reason the costs to be a Maryland commuter keep going up.
He signed the check. He sold you out. And he did it with a bill so simple, he hoped you’d never notice.
We noticed, Ric. Voters will remember this in June.
