Transporation Compromise far away
By Monty Tayloe
Last week, the Virginia General Assembly passed the state budget ... sort of.
The $77 billion budget leaves the question of transportation funding largely unanswered. Virginia's transportation funding gap will have to be addressed in a more ad hoc manner, during the legislative veto session in late April and a possible special session that would have to be called by Gov. Tim Kaine (D).
The governor has said that he will only call the special session when the competing General Assembly factions have come to a compromise. And that doesn't look likely to happen anytime soon.
“They just want to wait until we're drained dry and driving around on mud!” said Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw (D-Fairfax).
“The Senate's plan is a recipe for doing nothing, a plan to deny Northern Virginia roads,” said Del. Dave Albo (R-Springfield).
Albo, Saslaw and their fellow lawmakers can't seem to agree on how to repair Virginia's transportation funding, which has been effectively torn to shreds over the last year.
Low tax revenues have created shortfalls all over the state, leaving less money to plug into state transportation budgets, a situation exacerbated by the repeal of the extremely unpopular “abuser fees.” The final straw was the recent Virginia Supreme Court decision that the Northern Virginia Transit Authority is constitutionally unable to collect taxes and fees that would have provided $300 million a year for transportation in Northern Virginia.
To address these problems, legislators have seized on two approaches.
Albo and other House Republicans want to enact what they say is the easiest option, simply ratifying the taxes that were to be collected by the NVTA in the General Assembly, which would make them constitutional.
“It would be different if there weren't already legislation and procedures drawn up to do this, but there are,” Albo said.
The opposing solution, supported by Democratic leadership and Gov. Kaine would be a statewide tax increase dedicated to statewide transportation funding.
“I won't agree to a balkanized solution for transportation in Northern Virginia,” said Vienna Sen. Chap Petersen (D).
While the statewide increase would lead to much more money for transportation than the regional solution, a tax increase to fund roads during a time of a possible recession is not likely to be popular in the more rural bulk of the state.
“They couldn't pass it in 2005 or 2006. ... No rational person could believe that a statewide tax increase for transportation is going to pass now,” Albo said.
However, the Republican regional solution is looked at unfavorably by local government leaders in Northern Virginia, who would have to adopt the legislation. Loudoun County was a plaintiff in the suit against the original NVTA taxing authority, and Fairfax County board chair Gerry Connolly (D) is similarly opposed.
Saslaw says he will not allow legislation that would make the NVTA taxes and fees constitutional until a statewide solution is passed.
“I'm in opposition to doing anything regionally until we fix the statewide maintenance budget,” Saslaw said.
What all sides agree on is that, right now, a compromise between the opposing forces seems unlikely.
Sen. Ken Cuccinelli (R-Centreville), believes the situation is impassable and says he will begin to push for a more rigorous transportation funding system, similar to the Federal Transit Administration's system.
“We need to fundamentally change our transportation plan. ... We need objective criteria. ... We need to know how much congestion does each project alleviate,” he said.
If the division in the assembly proves too strong to come to an accord on the budget, Virginia will have to make what transportation improvements it can using close to $300 million in road construction funds left over from last year, a small number on the large scale of Virginia's transportation budget.
------ mtayloe@timespapers.com