The state Supreme Court ruling striking down the authority of a Northern Virginia transportation body will lead to delays in some major Arlington County transit projects and will force the county to scramble to fund some projects that it can’t put off, officials said.
The General Assembly authorized the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority to levy taxes on Northern Virginia home sales, car rentals, car registrations and hotel-room stays, and distribute them to localities for transportation projects — a system the court ruled was unconstitutional because the NVTA is composed of nonelected officials.
The ruling invalidates about $300 million in bond money the NVTA raised from the taxes, $23.5 million of which Arlington was set to receive over the next two years.
“There’s no denying that this decision is going to cause a delay in the delivery of some of our projects,” Arlington transit chief Steve Del Giudice said.
Del Giudice said the project most in jeopardy is the Columbia Pike streetcar, which is planned for a 4.7-mile stretch from Pentagon City to Skyline and was estimated for completion in 2014.
The NVTA had allocated $6.35 million to the streetcar for the next two years. Without that money, and the money that could have come from the NVTA in the following years, the $138 million project will take longer to complete, Del Giudice said.
“Without the NVTA money, we would just have to drag out the projects and use what funding we are able to get through the local option taxes or federal or state sources, but those are also being drastically reduced,” regional transportation planner Tamara Ashby said.
Arlington was scheduled to receive $7.85 million to build a new entrance and high-speed elevators for the Rosslyn Metrorail station — a project that cannot be postponed because it is linked to surrounding development already in progress, according to Del Giudice.
“The county will have to address whether it will float revenue bonds to help finance some of these bigger-ticket items,” he said.
County officials already were considering a commercial real estate tax increase to help fund additional transportation projects before the court handed down its NVTA ruling Friday.
Virginia lawmakers have signaled they will schedule a special session of the General Assembly to try to restore the NVTA funding.
