(a) The development of a transportation system, composed of transit facilities, public highways, and other modes of transport, is necessary for the orderly growth and development of Montgomery and Prince George's Counties, for the safety, comfort, and convenience of their citizens and for the economical utilization of public funds. The provision of the necessary facilities and services cannot be achieved by the unilateral action of the counties and the attainment thereof requires planning and action on a regional basis, conducted cooperatively and on a continuing basis, between representatives of the counties and the state roads commission. Montgomery and Prince George's Counties are contiguous to the District of Columbia and to portions of Northern Virginia, and together with these areas form a single metropolitan area. The development of a transportation system adequate for the needs of Montgomery and Prince George's Counties requires cooperative planning and action with such adjoining areas. Such planning and action should be conducted in a manner which preserves, to the extent the necessity for joint action permits, local autonomy over patterns of growth and development. The requisite joint action may best be achieved through the device of a transit district having the powers, functions and duties hereinafter set forth in this chapter. In the provision of improved or expanded transit facilities, it is the policy of this chapter to make use of private enterprise to the extent reasonably practicable.
(b) The General Assembly finds that, due to the interest of the State in transportation facilities in the Washington Metropolitan Area, and due to the substantial level of State financial support for transportation facilities and operations provided to the Commission under §§ 10-205 and 10-207 of the Transportation Article, Annotated Code of Maryland, and the substantial level of support through the Commission to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, it is in the State’s interest to alter the composition of the Washington Suburban Transit Commission to require that the Governor make certain appointments to the Commission and that the Secretary of Transportation, or the Secretary’s designee, and one of the Governor’s appointees serve as the Commission’s principal representatives on the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Board of Directors and that the State’s interests are appropriately represented in Commission decisions. (Mont. Co. Code 1965, § 72-1; 1965, ch. 870, § 1; E. S. 1992, ch. 3, § 1; 2012, ch. 433, § 1; 2018, ch. 353, §1.)