The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority does have the power to tax and borrow to fund local transportation projects, an Arlington judge ruled Tuesday. Loudoun County and a score of conservative politicians had disputed that power in court this week and will continue to do so. The decision, by Judge Benjamin Kendrick, will be appealed, said Delegate Bob Marshall, a Republican who represents Manassas.
Following the passage of the transportation bill in Richmond this spring, the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority voted to raise some $300 million annually through seven different taxes and fees. The initial list of 22 projects they want to fund includes improvements to roads, overpasses, interchanges and metro stations, and new Virginia Railway Express locomotives.
“This was the first step forward for the people of Northern Virginia who’ve suffered in traffic for many years,” said Bob Chase, president of the Northern Virginia Traffic Alliance, a business organization that advocates for transportation funding and maintenance.
Kendrick’s ruling doesn’t mean the authority can start taxing and spending; it has to wait until final rulings on the appeal. Meanwhile, Marshall and the other politicians have filed a second, broader lawsuit attacking the transportation bill in Richmond Circuit Court. That case hasn’t been heard, but the Virginia Supreme Court may wait and hear both cases together, said Patrick McSweeney, an attorney representing Marshall and the other politicians.
Monday, McSweeney argued that empowering an unelected organization to tax is unconstitutional.
“The most remarkable thing (in the ruling) is that the ability and power of the taxing authority is not constrained,” McSweeney said after the ruling.
“The Arlington bridge club could be given the authority to tax,” according to the ruling, Marshall said.
Only elected governments have the authority to tax Virginians, under the state constitution, McSweeney and Loudoun’s county attorney, Jack Roberts, argued Monday.
Kendrick agreed with the NVTA’s attorney and a deputy attorney general, who argued nothing in Virginia’s constitution prevents the general assembly from granting taxing authority to the NVTA. Other non-elected agencies, like sanitation authorities, have the ability to tax, Broaddus argued.
“The NVTA is a political subdivision established by an act of the general assembly with limited powers (including taxation,)” Kendrick said Tuesday.
