A Virginia House panel killed a bill Monday that would have raised the state’s 17.5-cent gasoline tax by a nickel over the next five years.
The bill, which would have used the tax money to maintain the state’s highways, died in a 14-6 House Finance Committee vote after passing the Democrat-controlled Senate last week.
The House panel killed a similar bill two weeks ago.
The state recently revoked its abusive-driver fees, which were enacted last year to generate a large chunk of Virginia’s highway construction and maintenance funds.
The gas tax bill’s sponsor, Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax, said the tax is needed because the skyrocketing cost of road maintenance will eat up all of the state’s road construction revenue by 2015.
Virginia is required to fund road-maintenance needs before funding new construction.
Maintenance costs increase $65 million a year because of inflation, Saslaw said.
The tax was projected to raise $47 million its first year and $281 million in 2014.
Virginia has not raised its gas tax in 20 years.
“We desperately need the funding to stop the bleeding from the construction fund into maintenance,” said Del. Vivian Watts, D-Fairfax, a House Finance Committee member who voted for the tax.
Watts cited unsafe bridges, rusty guardrails, potholes, grass cutting and snow removal as items needing attention.
“Particularly for Northern Virginia — this hurts us more than any other part of the state, because we get approximately 18 percent of the state’s construction dollar, but only 11 percent of the state’s maintenance dollar.”
Del. Brian Moran, D-Alexandria/Fairfax, a House Finance Committee member who voted against the bill, said the bill did not garner enough support from both sides of the aisle.
“We need a bipartisan solution to our traffic problems but today’s bill lacked bipartisan support,” he said. “It was laid on the table and can be considered in the future. Every Northern Virginian stuck in traffic knows we need to look at much-needed new revenue for transportation and new solutions like transit and land-use planning.”
Watts said she does not expect the House committee to take the issue up again soon.
“It’s very slow progress, but at least a few a more people are talking about it,” she said.
