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It was a monumental heist, similar to the Great Train Robbery, yet the Maryland General Assembly and Gov. Martin O'Malley got away with it.

Some $400 million was stripped from county governments and Baltimore city so state legislators could crow about closing a yawning budget gap without raising taxes.

Even worse, state lawmakers then passed a law shifting a huge chunk of the state's highway user revenues from the counties permanently.

Montgomery County's share of the highway user funds went from $39 million to just $1.3 million. Prince George's County's share dropped from $33.5 million to $1.2 million. Frederick County's went from $16.4 million to $563,000. Baltimore County's portion plunged from $37 million to $1.2 million. St. Mary's County's went from $6.9 million to a paltry $223,000.

Baltimore city, which unlike the counties gets no state help in maintaining streets within its urban borders, had its share cut a stunning $66 million.

Finally, Somerset County — one of the state's poorest localities — saw its share of highway revenue chopped from $2.9 million to, believe it or not, a mere $96,000.

All told, highway user revenues to the counties were cut an incredible 96 percent. Money that counties depend on to keep their roads in good shape and fill potholes was yanked from their pockets.

Ironically, the individual who helped orchestrate this grand theft was O'Malley. Four years ago, he savaged then-Gov. Bob Ehrlich for raiding the state transportation trust fund so Ehrlich could erase a deficit in the state's general fund budget. At that time, O'Malley pledged to cease this borrowing practice.

That's one pledge the governor could not keep — and never should have made.

Borrowing transportation dollars in times of recession is a longtime practice by Maryland governors. In the past, the deal was to shift transportation money to the general fund on a loaner basis, then repay it later when the state treasury was flush.

That's what Ehrlich started to do before being ousted by O'Malley in 2006.

But when the current governor ran into a deep recession, he opted to go after the counties' share of highway user revenues with no intention of giving back the dollars.

He then stood by when legislators changed this money grab into a permanent rip-off totaling $339 million by 2012 and growing larger in later years.

What this means is that there won't be dollars to fix deteriorating local streets — unless counties raise their own taxes. That isn't likely to happen until local citizens start pressuring county councils to do something about the crumbling roads they travel. Government will be making life harder, not easier, for its citizens.

Maryland's road quality already ranks 37th in the nation. Maryland drivers pay an extra $425 in vehicle costs due to rough roads, according to the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund.

Imagine Maryland's ranking after the highway revenue heist fully kicks in. It won't be pretty.

This adds to the ballooning crisis that is about to hit Maryland's transportation department.

There's virtually no money available to undertake important projects, such as:

The Red Line in Baltimore; the Purple Line and Corridor Cities Transitway in suburban Washington; new freight tunnels in Baltimore; completion of I-95 express toll lanes from White Marsh to Aberdeen; widening I-270; critical bridge replacements; badly needed MARC rail improvements, and capacity expansion for roads near growing federal bases.

Even before the Great Revenue Grab of 2010, the legislature's own analysts had warned of dire consequences for transportation projects due to shrinking tax revenue in the recession, earlier raids on the trust fund by the governor and lawmakers and a heavy debt load making it difficult to borrow much more for transportation.

The answer, of course, lies in finding additional revenue — unless Maryland voters want to halt nearly all future transportation projects.

That almost certainly will include consideration of much higher tolls to cross the Chesapeake Bay and other waterways, a sharply higher gasoline tax (Maryland's levy is 6 cents below the U.S. average) and higher vehicle licensing and registration fees.

But as long as the governor and legislators regard the transportation trust fund as a piggy bank, there's no certainty the money raised for transportation will actually be spent that way.

A blue-ribbon commission is supposed to deliver an interim report by year's end on how to finance transportation projects. This is mainly window dressing because the all-important final report isn't due until Nov. 1, 2011. That gives the governor and lawmakers an excuse for not acting until the 2012 General Assembly session at the earliest.

By then, Maryland's roads, rail, port, bridges, mass transit and airport could be in a mess, with little or no funds available to make costly repairs and certainly no money for major improvements.

The only hope is that O'Malley's favorite uncle (Sam, the one who lives in the District of Columbia) will find a way to dump new truckloads of stimulus dollars on states for transportation construction.

But that is more a prayerful wish than a hope. O'Malley's transportation department is literally up a creek without a financial paddle.

Barry Rascovar is a State House columnist and communications consultant. His e-mail address is brascovar@hotmail.com.