Gov. Bob McDonnell outlined proposals Thursday that he said would provide $4 billion of funding for transportation in Virginia over the next three years. The plans involve taking $150 million in state surplus and $250 million from money uncovered by a Department of Transportation audit to create a $400 million fund. That money would then be loaned to local governments for transportation projects. Leveraging that money would eventually yield the state $1 billion, Virginia officials said.
Others proposals involve getting the General Assembly to accelerate the sale of transportation bonds authorized in 2007 and modify the state code to allow for what are known as GARVEE bonds, which allow investors to be paid through future federal highway funds.
Those moves would generate an estimated $1.8 billion and $1.1 billion, respectively.
| Highlights of the transportation proposals |
| » Put $400 million — $250 million from a VDOT audit plus $150 million in surplus cash — into a Transportation Infrastructure Bank with the goal of providing a total of $1 billion for roads |
| » Modify Virginia code to authorize $1.1 billion in GARVEE bonds, which repay investors through future federal highway funds |
| » Accelerate bond sales from 2007 transportation legislation to a maximum of $600 million per year, generating $1.8 billion over 3 years |
| » Amend the state Constitution to prohibit transfers from the Commonwealth Transportation Fund to the general fund |
| » Eliminate a $50 million annual cap and $1 million per-project cap on revenue-sharing projects between localities and the Virginia Department of Transportation |
“This is the best opportunity in modern Virginia history to build roads,” McDonnell said at the Governor’s Transportation Conference in Roanoke, citing competitive bids and low interest rates.
“We need the jobs now, we need the congestion relief now, and we need to make the deals now,” he said.
The 2007 transportation bonds had been tied to federal match requirements, but using federal toll credits, as recommended in an independent audit released in September, will free up bond money to be used on state projects, Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton told reporters on a Thursday conference call.
The state has obtained verbal approval to use $450 million in toll credits from the Federal Highway Administration.
The plan would not push Virginia’s debt above a self-imposed state limit of 5 percent of tax revenue, according to the McDonnell administration.
But Brian Moran, newly elected chairman of the Democratic Party of Virginia, fired off a statement lambasting the plan as a “Jim Gilmore-type financing scheme.”
“At a time when our state budget is already perilously balanced on the backs of Virginia’s retirees, we simply can’t afford for the governor to float a reckless and irresponsible plan to pay for his priorities by borrowing money that we don’t have and cannot pay back without raising taxes,” Moran said.
McDonnell said that finding transportation fixes would be a multiyear process, and that he would outline more proposals next month, including measures on public-private partnerships and telecommuting.
