Transportation fix on hold
By Monty Tayloe
Solutions to Fairfax County's transportation problem will remain even murkier than usual for at least another month, as the Virginia General Assembly seems poised to delay a decision on alternative funding schemes to replace Northern Virginia Transportation Authority dollars.
A Virginia Supreme Court decision two weeks ago removed the authority's ability to collect a set of taxes and fees for Northern Virginia transportation projects.
Legislators have already needed an extended session to iron out the wrinkles in the biennial state budget, and will let the numerous transportation questions raised by the Feb. 29 Supreme Court decision go until April's veto session.
In the meantime, uncertainty about the future of the projects slated to be funded by the NVTA's $300 million a year is creating budget confusion all over the region.
At a budget planning meeting on Saturday, county staff showed Fairfax County supervisors an extensive transportation spending plan, pockmarked with asterisks noting that the projects described had depended on the NVTA for funding.
“Further delay in solving the transportation crisis would be a great detriment to us all,” county Board chairman Gerry Connolly (D) wrote in a letter from the Board of Supervisors to Gov. Tim Kaine (D) and General Assembly leadership. Connolly cited specific projects that will remain in limbo, including road work meant to soften the impact of the thousands of Department of Defense jobs moving to southern Fairfax and to improve the Fairfax Connector bus system.
“Without this dedicated funding, all of these projects will be in jeopardy,” Connolly wrote.
However, three of the biggest projects that NVTA dollars were to finance are not likely to be left out in the cold. The $50 million in matching funds for Metro and funding for Virginia Railway Express will probably be among the first things the Assembly addresses in April.
“ No matter how the NVTA controversy is resolved, Metro can’t be allowed to suffer,” U.S. Rep. Tom Davis (R-11th) said in a released statement.
When the General Assembly does get around to discussing alternatives for financing Northern Virginia transportation projects, early indications are that the conversation will look a great deal like the original debate about the bill that gave the authority tax-collecting abilities in the first place. Like that bill, solutions to the problem are divided between statewide and locally focused measures.
One proposal on the table would have the General Assembly constitutionally collect the taxes and fees ascribed to the NVTA.
However, many opponents of the original bill are using this crisis as an opportunity to make a broader change to the way infrastructure is funded in Virginia.
Currently, the Senate is considering the problem at the statewide level, a larger-scale problem than the immediate one created by the loss of the NVTA funds.
“I won't agree to a balkanized solution for transportation in Northern Virginia,” said Vienna Sen. Chap Petersen (D).
Gov. Tim Kaine (D) and Transportation Secretary Pierce Homer also back a statewide solution.
According to Petersen, the break between the General Assembly's consideration of the budget and the transportation package will allow the legislature to get constituent feedback on what should be done.
“We've all been here 60 days, we need to go home and get back in the mix a little,” Petersen said.