Photo by volcanojw.

And so, the epic saga of the magical “$1.5 billion” dedicated Metro funding continues.

The Washington Post reports this morning that Metro’s District-based leadership is being awfully picky about $1.5 billion over ten years — $50 million per year for each jurisdiction which Metro serves — that Congress has allocated to the cash-strapped transit system. The beef the Metro board has is clear: the funding bill requires D.C., Maryland and Virginia to both match the funds and modify Metro’s organization to allow two federally appointed, voting board members. Maryland and Virginia, in a bit of a surprise, have already agreed upon these measures in concert, and have the appropriate legislation in place. D.C. does have a matching funding agreement in place, but that document, passed in February, requires that the feds deliver the cash (not just say they will) as a prerequisite to allowing federal appointees on to the Metro board.

Unfortunately, the Maryland and Virginia bills contain no such language. Whoops. Metro board chairman Jim Graham said he “wants to work with Maryland and Virginia” on the issue. (Uh, Chairman, both Maryland and Virginia’s legislatures are done for the year, so best of luck with that.) If the District doesn’t get it together soon — Graham said that he will broach the subject at a board meeting tomorrow, and the funding bill, passed as emergency legislation, expires in May — Metro could well miss out on the funding for 2010.

The $1.5 billion in question has been floating around for what feels like forever — first, as money former Virginia Rep. Tom Davis wanted to set aside for the agency years ago; then as funding which was finally approved by Congress last September. This latest development, featuring both Maryland and Virginia hovering over the punch bowl and D.C. in the corner, cutting off its nose to spite its face, is just another ridiculous chapter in this already too-long story.