The differences among General Assembly members over how to fund transportation, which have become sharper over the past week, have Northern Virginia legislators concerned that they might have to face voters in the fall without having done anything to solve the region’s tangled traffic problems.
Most troubling to area Republicans, whom Democrats are targeting for defeat in the fall, is a plan unveiled in the Senate on Thursday that would pay for transportation by adding a 5 percent sales tax to gasoline purchases instead of using money from the state’s general fund as the package agreed to by leading GOP legislators would.
“We compromised, but now they’re saying in the Senate that compromise doesn’t mean meeting them halfway, it means completely agreeing with them,” said Del. David B. Albo, R-Springfield.
In case legislators were thinking that the public might forget about any potential transportation stalemate, elected officials from Northern Virginia spent Thursday lobbying area lawmakers to increase transportation funding.
“To use a football analogy, we have the ball inside the 10-yard-line and are heading towards the end zone; we are that close to getting something done,” said Falls Church Mayor Michael Snyder. “We have a month to get something done. If we fail, the voters will remember.”
The local officials would not say whether they prefer the accord negotiated by Republican leaders or the plan unveiled Thursday afternoon to increase the gas tax. Both packages include separate funding packages that would generate an additional $400 million annually for Northern Virginia.
