BY PAUL BARTON
Enquirer Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- To many watchdog groups, an all-in-one transportation center envisioned for Cincinnati's riverfront illustrates the controversies surrounding the $217 billion federal transportation bill.
But to Sen. Mike DeWine, it's a question of fighting for his state and returning money to Ohioans that is rightfully theirs.
The Cincinnati "intermodal transportation center" got $8 million in the bill -- due to some last-minute work by Mr. DeWine, R-Ohio -- even though local officials have no idea how the facility will look, how soon it can be built or even an estimate of its eventual cost.
Nevertheless, advocates of planned riverfront projects -- including the $80 million National Underground Railroad Center -- contend it was vital to get the federal funding pipeline going.
Now or never?
The center has been described as a transfer station where cars, buses, rental cars and public transportation such as light rail and commuter trains would converge.
Proponents envision commuters driving to the station, parking and then taking a bus or train to work. Tourists could take a train to the station to visit riverfront attractions and then take a bus to another destination.
"You'd make it sort of one-stop shopping for a visitor in town," said John Schneider, transportation adviser to Downtown Cincinnati Inc., the downtown marketing group. "I don't think you want a bus station. But you
want shelter, you want a welcoming center and information for visitors."
Mr. DeWine said he championed the project, even with its uncertainties, because the transportation legislation that President Clinton recently signed is not scheduled to be revisited until 2004.
Projects that don't get at least a mention now will be hard-pressed in the scramble for federal transportation dollars later, the reasoning goes.
"This is a six-year transportation bill. If you do not avail yourselves of the money today, you do not get it," Mr. DeWine said. "The train only comes through every six years."
But organizations such as Citizens Against Government Waste contend the Tristate project is typical of the many local projects jammed into the highway bill at the last minute without any real evaluation of merit.
"There was no questioning that went on," said Shawn Rychling, spokesman for the group. "The process is not really something that is working properly."
Sens. DeWine and John Glenn, D-Ohio, were notified the night of May 21, less than 24 hours before the Senate voted on the final version of the bill, that they would each get $34 million that they could distribute to transportation projects around the state as they saw fit.
The extra money was intended to help even out funding among the states.
Mr. Glenn, who is retiring from the Senate, marked his funds to go to the general pot of federal money that the Ohio Department of Transportation receives.
Mr. DeWine, who will run for re-election in 2000, gave the largest share of his funds to the Cincinnati project, with various transportation safety projects around the state also getting money.
There was no hesitation, Mr. DeWine said, about assigning some of the funds to the intermodal center. He said his earlier discussions with Cincinnati officials, as well as his following of National Underground Railroad Freedom Center Project, had convinced him of the need for it.
"Is this the way the process should work? No, I don't like it either," Mr. DeWine said. "I can either be a participant in that and fight for Ohio or choose to walk away. I chose to fight for my state."
Planning comes later
Several Cincinnati-area congressmen voted against the bill: Reps. Rob Portman, R-Terrace Park; Steve Chabot, R-Cincinnati; John Boehner, R-West Chester; and Ted Strickland, D-Lucasville. Voting in favor were Reps. Jim Bunning, R-Southgate, and Lee Hamilton, D-Nashville, Ind. Mr. Bunning was personally interested: He got $9.5 million included for a bridge connector to the Fort Washington Way project.
Critics say that like the Cincinnati center, transportation projects often are funded before they are fully planned.
"Most of them are, in fact, pipe dreams," said Ronald Utt, who tracks transportation funding at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank.
"Suddenly, there is a lot of money to go around and people call for this idea and that idea."
Mr. Utt called it "monkey see, monkey do."
Ed Rigaud, head of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center project, met with Mr. DeWine in Washington on April 22 to tell him about the need for the transportation center.
"We told him we were aware of the transportation bill and we weren't aware of any money being pursued for the intermodal transportation center, and if it wasn't too late, we would encourage the senator to look at that," Mr. Rigaud said.
Mr. DeWine said if the riverfront is going to develop properly, the transportation center has to be a part.
"It's a question of whether you have a vision or don't have a vision. Do you want to develop the riverfront?" the senator said. Local officials agree.
"Some people call it pork. I don't," said Jim Duane, executive director of the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments.
Ohioans, he said, have long been shorted on the amount of money they get back in exchange for gas taxes sent to Washington.
Cincinnati officials insist the planned facility is not a pipe dream.
"It is going to happen. I don't think there is any doubt about that," said Mr. Schneider of Downtown Cincinnati Inc.
But local officials also concede there are many unknowns about the transportation center.
"It really hasn't been designed as to what it would look like," said Fred Craig, an engineer at the firm of Parsons Brinckerhoff, which is assisting riverfront efforts.
One cost estimate that is now several years old, he said, is near $40 million. Mr. Duane said the $8 million will be used for initial design and construction.
The key is that it's mentioned in the federal highway bill, he said. That will make it easier to pursue additional funds in years ahead.
