Going into this year’s General Assembly session, many Virginia legislators predicted they would approve a proposed constitutional amendment protecting money in the commonwealth’s transportation trust fund before leaving Richmond.
When the session ended Saturday, however, differences over details derailed efforts to pass the measure. Even if legislators had agreed, the proposal still would have needed the General Assembly’s OK again next year before voters would have a chance to approve it in the 2008 elections.
The trust fund consists of money from revenue sources, such as the gas tax, that are explicitly dedication for transportation spending. Lawmakers have twice in recent years tapped the account for nontransportation purposes— once to erase a deficit in health care programs and once to fund reductions in the car tax. Both times the money was later repaid with interest.
The House and Senate each passed versions of an amendment this year. The House preferred a measure that would bar future raids on the trust fund, but the Senate wanted a bill that also stopped money from the state’s general operating fund from going to transportation.
“We need to protect the transportation trust fund and the general fund,” Sen. Janet Howell, D-Fairfax, said on the session’s final day. “We should keep the money for transportation safe, and we should guard the general fund that pays for the commonwealth’s core services.”
A small group of legislators tried to reach an agreement in the session’s final days and decided to try a final time to get the Senate to agree to the House’s version, which did not protect the general fund. The Senate shot down the idea on a 29-11 vote, upsetting some members who did not see the need to safeguard the general fund.
“If there is extra money in the general fund, there is no reason it should not be used for transportation,” said Sen. Ken Cuccinnelli, R-Fairfax. “The people of Virginia pay taxes into the general fund and deserve to have a quality transportation system.”
