Gov. Tim Kaine said on Thursday he expects to call lawmakers back to Richmond in mid-to-late June to address the state’s lingering transportation funding crisis, a projected date creeping deeper into the summer as lawmakers and the governor show no signs of reaching a funding agreement.
At hand is how to replace millions of dollars in annual road revenue lost when the Virginia Supreme Court struck down a large part of the funding package approved by the General Assembly last year.
The court ruled in late February that the regionaltaxing authorities empowered under the plan in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads were unconstitutional. Kaine and the assembly’s Democratic leadership have suggested a statewide replacement — in the form of a car or gas tax — which Republicans have vowed to fight.
Kaine, a Democrat, has declined to offer glimpses of the specifics of his plan, but on Richmond radio station WRVA’s “Ask the Governor” program on Thursday said it won’t reflect a “my way or the highway” approach.
“If we want to have a good system, good maintenance, we’ve got to pay for it,” the governor said.
Meanwhile, the Republican opposition — which wants to limit the taxes raises to local governments — has been growing increasingly restless as Kaine toils away on a solution.
“I don’t think he has a plan,” said Del. Timothy Hugo, R-Fairfax. “He needs to demonstrate some leadership, get off his rocking chair, get off the porch.”
Kaine also told Richmond-area radio listeners that the government has pushed state agencies to consider more telecommuting to conserve energy, and that his administration has tried to move state jobs in high-traffic areas like Northern Virginia to less congested areas in the south and southwestern part of the state, where commutes are shorter.
The governor, however, misspoke, said spokesman Gordon Hickey, who said state jobs have not been moved out of Northern Virginia.
“He was talking about setting up teleworking people who work in their homes … there is no instance in which we’ve closed an office in Northern Virginia and moved to Southside or Southwest Virginia,” Hickey said.
