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Lawmakers agree to disagree with Kaine
Since the Virginia General Assembly failed to develop new funding sources for transportation in March, Gov. Tim Kaine (D) has said that he would wait for lawmakers to agree on a plan before calling a special transportation session to finish the budget.
On Monday, the governor officially set a date in June for that special session, but early reaction from lawmakers shows that Virginia legislators are not exactly in lockstep.
“It's going to be a bloodbath,” predicted Del. Dave Albo (R-Springfield), reacting to the governor's transportation plan that was unveiled Monday.
Kaine's plan combines the regional solution of a 1-percent increase in sales tax in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads dedicated to regional transportation projects with statewide increases in motor vehicle sales taxes and registration fees. The plan also would create the “Transportation Change Fund,” which would apply revenue from a statewide 25-cent increase in the real estate grantor's tax to transit projects.
The plan is clearly designed with compromise in mind, taking ideas from both parties, sparing rural districts the bulk of the tax burden while still spreading the funding sources beyond just Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads. Delegations from the two regions met last week to discuss mutually beneficial transportation solutions.
But for Albo and other Northern Virginia lawmakers, Kaine's plan doesn't do enough for Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads, the areas with the most acute transportation problems.
“The statewide fees are a total rip-off for Northern Virginia,” Albo said, forecasting a possible battle during the special session over the way transportation funding is allocated in Virginia.
Sen. Chap Petersen (D-Vienna) also has a problem with funds based on real estate sales that he thinks will unduly impact Northern Virginia but pay for roads all over the state. Petersen believes that, regardless of concessions, Republicans from outside Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia will try to block any tax increase.
“If they're not going to move the ball anyway, why put them on the 50-yard line?” Petersen said.
According to Del. Tom Rust (R-Herndon), possible changes to the transportation funding formula could be in the works, along with less drastic measures, such as a separate fund for transportation from the 2008 budget, to be allocated “more fairly” to the more densely populated regions of the state. There are early indications of another battle during the special session concerning Kaine's choice of a sales tax increase as a funding source.
'The people using transportation should fund it. A sales tax hits everybody,” said Petersen, who along with other Senate Democrats, favors an increase in the statewide gas tax. Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw (D), a major proponent of the gas tax, emphasized the mutable nature of the governor's plan in a released statement.
“The governor does not expect this to be the final plan. We understand this will most likely not be the final plan, but hopefully we can use this as a starting point for discussion,” Saslaw said.
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