A panel in Virginia’s Republican-led House scuttled Gov. Tim Kaine’s proposed $1.1 billion tax plan Thursday before lawmakers called a two-week hiatus to a special session that has seen little progress.
The delay, said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Del. Brian Moran, of Alexandria, has “no purpose.”
“We should stay and get this done,” said Moran, who backed the plan.
Republican delegates offered their own answer to the governor, putting forth a bill that would raise millions of dollars solely for projects in the state’s two most-congested urban regions — Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads — and leave local governments to raise some of the new taxes.
It is one of the two major surviving plans to raise transportation revenue during the four-day-old special session, along with a 6-cent increase in the gas tax statewide from Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw, D-Springfield. Both were sent to the House floor without a recommendation Thursday by the Rules Committee, which sunk Kaine’s package in an 11-4 vote.
The Republican plan, proposed by Del. Phil Hamilton, R-Newport News, is meant to replace the set of regional fees and levies passed by the legislature last year but tossed out by the Virginia Supreme Court in February. Hamilton said the bill would raise about $363 million a year in Northern Virginia, though opponents say some of that money is from a commercial tax increase already approved by local governments.
Proponents of Hamilton’s bill argue it would bring in transportation revenue for the areas that need it most while leaving out statewide tax increases that have proven to be poison for any legislation in the House.
“This is very important,” said Del. Tim Hugo, R-Centreville. “And I think it would be a mistake to sacrifice good regional plans because you want a statewide gas tax.”
Still, the regional tax plan could face problems both in the Senate, which is set on finding a way to close a growing gap in statewide road maintenance, and from local governments, which already have raised taxes to counter the tanking housing market and fund transportation.
Fairfax County Supervisor Sharon Bulova also criticized Hamilton’s bill for leaving revenue at the mercy of Northern Virginia localities.
“You’ve essentially got a balkanized tax revenue package that makes it difficult if not impossible to adopt a regional program and do regional projects,” she said.
DUELING PLANS
From Senate Democrats:
Statewide tax increases
- Gas tax 1 cent per year for six years
- 0.5 percent auto titling tax
- 0.25 percent sales tax, excluding food and drugs (Cuts of 0.5 percent to the sales tax on food)
Northern Virginia
- 0.5 percent sale tax
- 40 cent per $100 value grantor¹s tax
- $5 per day tax on hotel and motel stays
From House Republicans:
Northern Virginia
- $100 initial driver’s license fee (excludes minors), collected by state
- 2 percent car rental tax, collected by state
- 40 cent per $100 value grantor¹s tax, collected by localities
- 2 percent tax on hotel and motel stays, collected by localities
