Can Roads Be Fixed By Weekend
Lawmakers toyed cautiously with transportation fixes Monday as the General Assembly continued to react to a Virginia Supreme Court decision that gutted last year's roads plan.
Both chambers set up negotiating teams to work on a transportation compromise during this year's session, which is scheduled to end Saturday.
Some leaders remain publicly optimistic that they can craft a solution in the tight time frame, despite strong indications otherwise.
House Speaker William Howell, R-Stafford, sponsored last year's transportation plan. Howell said Monday that there's a sense of urgency in Richmond and lawmakers want a fix by this weekend.
"I think we can get it done by Saturday," Howell said. "That's what we'll shoot for."
There was, however, almost no debate about transportation in either chamber Monday and there are growing rumors that addressing the state's over-stressed road network could require a special session.
"We have got to do something, but we don't have to do something this week," said Sen. John Miller, D-Newport News. "There's no reason to rush through this."
Virginia's transportation funding troubles reclaimed the spotlight last Friday when the Virginia Supreme Court declared that the General Assembly violated the state constitution by delegating taxing power to nonelected regional authorities in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia.
The ruling doesn't halt mandated reforms at the Virginia Department of Transportation or the $3 billion in borrowing for road projects that were also part of last year's road plan. But the court decision dismantled the two bodies charged with addressing bottlenecks and traffic jams in the most heavily populated sections of the state.
The Hampton Roads Transportation Authority was supposed to begin collecting a handful of taxes and fees on May 1 to raise about $165 million a year to pay for six major road projects expected to cost about $9 billion.
The list of taxes and fees was chosen by state lawmakers and approved by a majority of local communities. They would have driven up the cost of buying, fueling, inspecting, registering, renting and repairing cars. The plan also included a levy on home sales. In Hampton Roads, no local money has been collected.
Some communities in Northern Virginia started collecting similar taxes at the beginning of the year, and lawmakers were beginning to wrestle with how to refund money already collected on rental cars and at gas pumps.
Six legislators are meeting to discuss what happens next in this session regarding the transportation plan and the response to the Virginia Supreme Court decision. They are House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem; Del. Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights; Del. Sam Nixon, R-Chesterfield; Senate Majority Leader Richard "Dick" Saslaw, D-Fairfax; and Sens. Yvonne Miller, D-Norfolk; and Roscoe Reynolds, D-Martinsville.
Sen. Frank Wagner, R-Virginia Beach, proposed Monday that the General Assembly vote to approve the new taxes and fees destined for Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia. If state lawmakers approve the idea it would likely answer the constitutional questions.
In the House, Del. David Albo envisioned the new Northern Virginia Transportation Authority as an alliance of four counties and five cities, each of which may independently enact or reject the slate of taxes. That approach could create an unworkable patchwork if some localities opt out.
"Maybe the Supreme Court decision means you can't solve all the problems," said Albo, R-Fairfax County.
But Saslaw said his caucus wouldn't allow the issue to fall onto the backs of local elected officials.
"We're not going to be foisting this off on local governments," Saslaw said.
Senate Transportation Committee Chairwoman Miller said negotiators had not set a time to meet and she had no idea when substantive discussions would start.
Howell said House lawmakers would continue to try to avoid tax increases.
"It's always been our concern to vote for a lot of new taxes, particularly now that we're in a recession," Howell said. "I just think there's a natural inclination to look at different ways of doing it."
Published in the Daily Press on March 4, 2008
Article by Kimball Payne
Staff writer Hugh Lessig and The Associate Press contributed to this report.