For all their wrangling and grandstanding about Virginia’s road congestion problems, state lawmakers this year failed to do anything about a crippling problem they readily admit needs urgent attention.
Dueling plans to fund road construction, one that relied on the state sales tax and another that would have raised the gas tax, both died very early in a General Assembly session that went on to be dominated by controversial social legislation and furious debate over new money for a Metro line to Washington Dulles International Airport.
By the time budget negotiations rolled around, no one had a plan for how to raise the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to maintain old highways and start new projects in Northern Virginia.
“We had to agree that was something that should not hold this budget hostage and that will have to wait for another day,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Walter Stosch, R-Glen Allen. “But addressing transportation is already overdue.”
Gov. Bob McDonnell proposed shifting 0.25 percent of the sales tax to pay for road maintenance over the next eight years, a plan backed by the Republican-led House but killed by Senate Democrats.
The Senate backed a bipartisan measure to raise the gas tax to keep up with inflation, but McDonnell and House Republicans balked at raising taxes.
Neither plan was a viable long-term solution, said Bob Chase, president of the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance.
“There was never a serious discussion of providing the level of funding that was needed,” Chase said. “It’s all symbolic and no substance. We are well over a billion dollars short of what we need.”
McDonnell’s administration points to last year’s plan to borrow more than $3 billion in low-interest bonds to pay for vital transportation projects as a positive step.
“We’re putting a lot of money into transportation,” Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton said. “When you look at just straight dollar value on mega-projects, we probably have the most projects getting underway of any administration recently.”
Even Republicans admit the state needs more. Stosch said legislators should resurrect a 1989 law that authorizes local governments in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads to establish an income tax of up to 1 percent to help pay for transportation projects. The catch is that voters would first have to approve the tax increase.
Despite the lack of action this year, it’s unlikely officials will get much more done next year, an election year for state officials, said Sen. Don McEachin, D-Henrico.
“This governor has done nothing but kicking the can down the road,” McEachin said. “I have hope [for 2013], but I’m also mindful of the fact that it’s an election year for the House of Delegates.”
