By Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

Somerville is Deval Patrick country. We gave him one of his biggest margins in the state. We support his effort to forge a new partnership with cities and towns. We back his agenda to promote economic growth by supporting transit-oriented Smart Growth development. We’re with him all the way on his campaign to improve health care coverage and manage health care costs. We’re in full agreement with his proposals to invest in education at the primary, secondary and college levels. He’s our guy.

So you can imagine my dismay to have the Patrick administration propose a change in regional transit funding that might result in another two-year delay in the scheduled 2014 completion date for the Green Line Extension from Lechmere through Somerville and on to Medford. As I understand it, the state wants to enlarge the pool of money for regional transit improvements by qualifying for more federal grant money. The Green Line extension is their best shot at getting federal money, so that’s the project they want to bring to the U.S. Department of Transportation for approval.

So far, so good ‚Äì so long as the current project deadline is honored.  The problem, however, is that the application process would potentially push the completion date out to 2016 ‚Äì and that‚Äôs unacceptable.

There are few issues about which Somerville residents are more united, or care more deeply, than the need to improve our city’s environment, economy and quality of life by building out the Green Line and adding a new Orange Line station at Assembly Square.

The Green Line Extension is already long overdue.  It was part of the commitment the state made to mitigate the regional environmental impacts of the Artery-Tunnel Project.  Seventeen years after it was announced, the Big Dig is finished, but a series of Republican governors has stalled on meeting the state‚Äôs obligation to fulfill the mitigation plan. Just last year, the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), which had been suing to force the state to keep its promises, finally signed a binding agreement with then-Governor Mitt Romney in which the state agreed to honor the 2014 completion date. In return, the CLF dropped its litigation.

Needless to say, the CLF is hopping mad about the latest turn of events. As CLF president Phil Warburg said just last week, “Not only does the Commonwealth have a legal obligation to stop its backpedaling on the Green Line Extension, it has a moral duty to reduce air pollution, spur economic development and expand transit equity for these long under-served communities.”

Our local transit advocacy group, the Somerville Transit Equity Partnership (STEP), is also up in arms about this proposal, and has urged Somerville residents to call and write the offices of Transportation Secretary Bernard Cohen and Governor Patrick to register opposition to the schedule change.

Our entire Board of Aldermen is understandably angered, and its members have urged me to work with them, and with the state delegation, to do everything we can to preserve the project’s current schedule.

So here‚Äôs what I‚Äôm doing:  This week I‚Äôm convening a meeting with Congressman Michael E. Capuano, D-Somerville, our state senators and representatives, CLF and STEP to come up with a joint strategy. Then next Monday we‚Äôll sit down with state officials to present our case. After that, we‚Äôll know whether we‚Äôll be able to work this out amicably or whether we‚Äôre taking this issue to court ‚Äì and, if necessary, to the streets.

Whatever the short-term outcome, two things are clear: The CLF agreement is unequivocal about the state’s obligation to abide by the 2014 completion date. And the Green Line extension is too important to Somerville, Medford and the entire region for any of us to accept any further delay.

Somerville is Deval Patrick country, but if we need to fight the Governor on this, we will.   We‚Äôll be respectful. We‚Äôll be cooperative. But we‚Äôre not backing down.