Del. Tim Hugo, R-Fairfax, proposed three budget amendments that would block transportation funding for Arlington County and several other Northern Virginia localities. Two of the amendments are directed specifically at Arlington. One would require the inspector general for the Virginia Department of Transportation to investigate the quality of Arlington’s highways compared with other Northern Virginia jurisdictions. The other would deny any state funding for a streetcar line along Columbia Pike.
The final amendment could punish counties and cities from Arlington to Dumfries by reducing transportation funds allocated to local jurisdictions in the event that the Interstate 95/395 high-occupancy toll lanes project was removed from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’ long-range plans.
Arlington County filed a lawsuit in 2009 against the HOT lanes project, saying the state’s failure to do environmental studies could harm poor and minority residents living adjacent to the roads.
Last week, Hugo blocked a bill to renew an Arlington hotel surcharge, which raises about $800,000 annually to run the county’s tourism promotion efforts.
Hugo cited the county’s rising legal fees in the HOT lanes lawsuit, already more than $1 million, as evidence that the county may not need the extra hotel tax revenue.
Arlington County Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman maintains that the lawsuit is intended only to address the county’s concerns about traffic on the interstates. He said the county is still negotiating with VDOT over its objections to the project.
Hugo introduced the measures because he’s upset that Arlington’s lawsuit singles out state officials by name, said Hugo’s spokesman, George Faatz.
