The Virginia General Assembly ended months of speculation and political gamesmanship Wednesday night by approving the commonwealth’s first major transportation funding plan since 1986.
The House of Delegates voted 85-15 to pass Gov. Tim Kaine’s multitude of amendments to the package, which legislators had initially approved Feb. 24. The Senate approved the amendments 29-10.
Kaine and the Republican lawmakers who crafted the proposal spent months sniping at each other about the bill’s funding sources. Last week they agreed to use revenue from the tax on auto insurance premiums to pay off the legislation’s bond package instead of cash from the commonwealth’s general operating fund. The bill also raises the vehicle registration fee statewide and slaps financial penalties on drivers with at least eight demerit points on their records.
“There are concerns about the bill, but we can fix those in the next session,” said Del. Stephen Shannon, D-Vienna. “We cannot fix inactivity. This is a compromise between Democrats and Republicans and between the legislative and executive branches.”
The bill calls for $3 billion in bonds to be issued over a decade for projects across the state and another $400 million from tax and fee increases on Northern Virginians to pay for local projects. Overall, the measure will bring $500 million to $600 million a year to Northern Virginia to deal with the region’s traffic nightmares.
Northern Virginia counties and cities must still approve the local funding package before it can be implemented. Under the package, new taxes would be imposed on home sales, hotel rooms, rental cars and automotive repairs, and fees for vehicle registration and safety inspections would increase. Del. Robert Marshall, R-Manassas, voted against the bill, citing advice from the state attorney general’s office that the new local levies will be imposed in an unconstitutional manner. Other legislators disputed his argument. In the Senate, some Northern Virginia Democrats opposed the bill because the plan still took some money from the state’s general fund.
In addition to money for construction and maintenance of roads, the funding package contains significant money for mass transit projects, which have not fared well previously with state appropriators. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, for example, receives $50 million a year.
