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NVTA decision creates transportation mess
On Feb. 29, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled against the tax collecting ability of the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority. The court's decision that the NVTA was an unelected body constitutionally prevented from levying taxes wiped out millions of dollars in transportation projects, and has created an unprecedented mess in the General Assembly.
Legislators are already down to their final days to resolve a contentious budget in a very lean year, and must now try to salvage what they can from the NVTA's list of orphaned transportation investments.
“Friday was a very bad day for transportation in Virginia,” said Arlington County Supervisor and NVTA chairman Chris Zimmerman, citing huge cuts to VDOT that took effect the same day.
The NVTA had already approved funding to a long list of important transportation projects in Fairfax County, including the widening of Route 7 near Reston and improvements to the Fairfax County Parkway.
The money gap may also have an effect on the region's other current transportation disaster, the foundering Dulles rail project. One of the main reasons cited for the Federal Transit Administration's rejection of the project last month was insufficient Metro infrastructure to support the added demand the rail extension would cause. In his response to the FTA, Gov. Tim Kaine cited $50 million in NVTA-collected funds slated as Virginia's contribution to bringing Metro up to date. Friday's court decision invalidated those funds, backing up FTA concern that the massive rail project's funding is based on uncertain sources.
In an attempt to allay those concerns, Gov. Kaine, Speaker William Howell and the rest of the General Assembly are scrambling to find a way to fund the endangered projects while simultaneously creating a viable budget. Some legislators have suggested that both problems could be solved before the session ends at the end of the week, a prediction that seems impossible given the enormity of the task.
“It's hard to imagine we'll resolve it in five days” said Del. Steve Shannon (D-Vienna).
The alternative is a special session to consider the problem. Some proposed solutions for taking up the transportation slack include the General Assembly simply voting to collect the taxes itself, or authorizing localities to do so.
However, Kaine has said that it would be unacceptable for the General Assembly to pass the burden to localities.
“Transportation policies should not be about what we can beg of the federal government or localities,” said Kaine.
Regardless of what happens in Richmond, Kaine has said that the $8 million already collected by the NVTA must be refunded, a process which has not been planned for and may involve significant administrative costs. Del. Margi Vanderhye (D-McLean), a critic of the transportation bill which gave the NVTA taxing authority and a former NVTA member, characterized the situation as a chance to pass a better transportation bill.
“Now we have the opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to transportation,” said Vanderhye. “The GA should have funded transportation. I was sent here to step up.”
“They have to vote for something, there's no way around this now,” said NVTA chair Zimmerman. “Even if that means voting for more taxes, they have to vote for something, or else we languish.”
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