Efforts to save wrecked Virginia transporatation package likely impossible

Without a new statewide means for funding upkeep and repairs to existing state highways, Democrats legislators insist, there will be no fix.

The Associated Press

3/7/2008

RICHMOND, Va. — Proposals for fixing the wrecked 2007 transportation package gained speed Thursday, but finishing it by the General Assembly's adjournment was improbable.

The Supreme Court a week ago ruled that unelected regional authorities created by last year's law to levy taxes in Hampton Roads and northern Virginia were unconstitutional.

Behind-the-scenes talks about reviving the regional funding plans gained currency in the backdrop of session-ending negotiations to finalize a new two-year state budget.

Without a new statewide means for funding upkeep and repairs to existing state highways, Democrats insist, there will be no fix. That virtually ensures lawmakers will work overtime for the third time in four years.

The regular session is scheduled to end Saturday, although budget talks that bogged down on Thursday cast doubt that lawmakers would finish their work by then.

Democrats in the Senate majority want new statewide taxes to cover growing maintenance costs. By law, maintenance needs trump new construction, and at the pace they are increasing they will consume all new road projects funding within seven years.

The Democratic proposal, made Thursday, calls for a 3 percent wholesale gasoline sales tax increase over the next three years, not to exceed 10 cents per gallon. It also boosts the sales tax on car purchases from 3 percent to 3.5 percent. By June of 2011, the statewide taxes would generate an estimated $535 million a year.

"People say, 'Well, deal with the maintenance later.' (If) you don't deal with the maintenance now, it ain't going to get dealt with," said Sen. Richard L. Saslaw, D-Fairfax.

Last year's ill-fated transportation package sought to raise about $65 million a year for maintenance through harsh fees on dangerous drivers. Virginians, however, were outraged to learn that the surcharges — often $1,000 or more — didn't apply to nonresidents. Lawmakers have voted to repeal them since the disclosure in January that they failed to make roads safer or come close to meeting the targeted revenue.

For the two regions with the state's worst traffic congestion, money for new projects would come from a one-half cent sales tax increase and a 40-cent increase in the tax imposed on home sales.

A $5 lodging tax would be imposed in northern Virginia and a 2 percent motor-fuels tax increase would be added in Hampton Roads.

By 2011, the regional plans would yield an estimated $343 million for the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority and $185 million for the Hampton Roads Transportation Authority.

Democrats want to ensure the constitutional validity of the new regional taxes by imposing them under the General Assembly's unquestioned power to tax.

Besides their resistance to imposing new statewide taxes, particularly on gasoline, the House's ruling Republicans are skeptical that money the legislature collects from the two regions won't later be diverted elsewhere by the legislature in tough fiscal times.

Del. Clarke N. Hogan, R-Halifax, said he favored resolving the issue in the current session, extending Saturday's adjournment if necessary. Lawmakers would feel less pressure to correct the problem in a special session, he said.

"We're not going to be rushed or stampeded," said Saslaw, the Senate majority leader. "The Senate Republicans and the Senate Democrats are not voting anything out ... until we fix the statewide maintenance."

"This ain't going to get settled by Saturday," he said. Legislators need time to reach a compromise and align enough support behind it to pass the House and Senate before they return to Richmond, he said.

Kaine said he had been skeptical since the court ruling that a remedy would emerge in the regular session.

"If they can do something by Saturday, great. If they can't, we're going to keep talking — maybe take a couple of days off for a break," he said.