As expected, the Virginia House of Delegates overwhelmingly rejected a Virginia Senate amendment to the state’s two-year budget bill Thursday that would require a statewide transportation plan to be in place by November.
The Senate is expected to insist on their amendment when they meet next week, forcing the bill back into the hands of the conferees, in a slow and increasingly expensive process of argument and delay.
Since the beginning of the year, the House has fought against embedding transportation-related tax increases into the budget. Last month, the Senate created new transportation legislation that included a statewide plan, regional plans and new taxes to permanently support those plans.
But in a bow to the House, the proposed taxes in the new Senate bill were to be addressed outside of the budget legislation.
“They took out all of their tax increases in the budget, which we always felt were unconstitutional,” said Del. David Albo, R-Springfield.
The House did support tax to fund regional transportation plans for Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.
Sen. Charles Hawkins, R-Chatham, said that support is welcome, but without a statewide plan, the disparities between populations would grow. He hoped, he said, the discussion on the budget and transportation can continue “in tandem.”
House Speaker William Howell, R-Fredericksburg, did not agree with the tandem approach.
“We won’t focus on transportation until this budget is behind us,” he said.
The Senate amendment would order $339 million be used from the general fund for transportation if the House agreed to a statewide plan by November. If there was no plan by November the money would go towards other capital projects.
Howell added the Senate’s amendment was unclear and that he “can’t believe the Senate wants to pull away over $300 million” from transportation.
“I think we know all we need to know about the transportation challenges and there is no reason to delay the conversation any further,” said Kevin Hall, spokesman for the governor. “We’ve seen progress towards a compromise in some of the procedural steps taken in the past week and the governor remains committed to a budget and transportation compromise sooner rather than later.”
