Printer-Friendly
Email this Story
Post a Comment (0)
Legislators erect roadblocks
Legislators erect roadblocks
By Tara Slate Donaldson
Times-Democrat Staff Writer
Legislators are moving at the speed of Northern Virginia traffic this week as the General Assembly slogs through a special session on transportation.
The session that began on Monday morning was completely mired down by Tuesday. Gov. Tim Kaine (D) has introduced a plan for funding transportation but he has no sponsors in the Senate and the House of Delegates is refusing to even consider the proposal unless the Senate acts first.
In the meantime, Senate Democrats, led by Fairfax Sen. Dick Saslaw (D-35th) and Prince William Sen. Chuck Colgan (D-29th), may have enough votes to get several tax increases through the Senate but their plans are almost certainly dead on arrival in the House.
The entire situation is fraught with politics and intentional road blocks.
The governor cannot introduce a bill himself; he must convince a legislator in the House or Senate — or preferably both — to introduce it for him. Martinsville Delegate Ward Armstrong (D-10th) has introduced Kaine’s bill in the House but Speaker William Howell (R-28th) has refused to call a committee meeting to discuss it. That essentially holds Kaine’s plan in limbo; without a committee meeting, the bill cannot be voted on or discussed.
In the Democratically controlled Senate, Kaine couldn’t even find a sponsor for his bill.
“The structure of the governor’s bill is what a lot of us have trouble with,” Saslaw said on Tuesday. “That’s a huge problem.”
Kaine’s plan is a three-pronged approach based on safety improvements, regional fixes and alternatives to roads. Each piece of the transportation puzzle is accompanied by a tax increase to fund it.
The first part of Kaine’s proposal is a stable maintenance fund to keep bridges and roads in good repair and to free up existing funds for new projects. To pay for the maintenance fund, Kaine would increase the annual vehicle registration fee by $10. He’d also up the statewide automobile sales tax from 3 to 4 percent.
The second piece of the Kaine plan is a targeted approach for Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.
The governor’s plan would increase the sales tax by one percent in both regions on everything except food and medicine. The funds would be used only for regional projects.
The final part of the transportation puzzle is Kaine’s “transportation change fund.” The governor has called for the creation of a special fund to pay for alternative solutions, such as transit, rail, telework and ridesharing.
Under his plan, 75 percent of the fund would be used for transit and rail projects while the rest could be used for new solutions to gridlock, as well as for airports and harbor projects that support economic development.
To fund the transportation change fund, Kaine has proposed increasing the grantor’s tax by 25 cents statewide. That’s less than the 40-cent tax hike that was approved only for Northern Virginia last year before being struck down by the Virginia Supreme Court.
One of the problems is that Northern Virginia generates an overwhelming share of the grantor’s tax, Saslaw explained. While Northern Virginia legislators were willing to raise the region’s grantor’s tax to fund Northern Virginia projects last year, they’re not willing to raise a tax that will hit the region disproportionately and then share it with the rest of the state.
Saslaw and Colgan have both introduced funding plans that include statewide gas tax increases. Saslaw says his 1-cent-per-year gas tax increase means the average driver would pay an extra $7.50 each year to fuel up.
“For that price, he has to give up one-and-a-half Big Mac meals per year,” Saslaw said. “That ain’t a lot.”
The Saslaw and Colgan bills also include statewide increases in the titling tax, which is charged when cars are purchased.
Saslaw has also proposed a one-quarter-percent increase in the state sales tax and Colgan has suggested decreasing the tax on food by one-half cent to help out taxpayers who will be paying more in other areas.
Both bills also include regional tax increases for Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.
On Wednesday, the Senate is expected to adopt a proposal that will be a combination of the Saslaw and Colgan plans.
On the House side, Fauquier Delegate Scott Lingamfelter (R-31st) drew high praise for his gas tax proposal on Tuesday but it was nevertheless defeated in a House committee.
Lingamfelter’s plan was to eliminate the state’s current 17.5-cents-per-gallon gas tax and replace it with a standard 5-percent sales tax.
Lingamfelter said that as cars become more fuel-efficient, gas sales decline, meaning less revenue for the state. A 5-percent sales tax would better keep pace with fuel efficiency, he said.
The bill had bipartisan support, as well as the backing of the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance and the Old Dominion Highway Contractors Association.
“We think it’s a step in the right direction,” said alliance president Bob Chase.
Nevertheless, the bill was put on hold until next year because some delegates said they want more details on the idea before they change the entire structure of the gas tax.
The House of Delegates is continuing to deal with bills calling for audits of VDOT and those that would put the state’s Transportation Trust Fund in a lock box to keep road funds from being used for other issues.
However, Speaker William Howell (R-28th) has said the House will not discuss any revenue bills until the Senate has approved its own proposals. Delegates have expressed frustration that Kaine has called a special session without having lined up enough votes to pass anything.
Kaine’s speech to the legislators on Monday was met with rousing skepticism and hostility. In a taped response, Fauquier Sen. Jill Vogel (R-27th) pointed out that Kaine has failed to pick up even a strong Democratic support for his proposal, voicing the irritation that has been displayed in both houses.
“Governor Kaine has failed to build consensus or support for his plan before calling legislators back to Richmond,” she said, adding that “there is no indication that the people of Virginia support his proposal.”
For the most part, that seems to be true.
And though nothing is expected to come from the session, many legislators say they want to at least consider every option.
“The people have sent us down here to look seriously at a range of things and I’m waiting to look at what comes across the desk,” Lingamfelter said.
You must be logged in to post a comment.