Governor Tim Kaine will propose his transportation plan in a press conference at noon today. The Daily Press has AP writer Bob Lewis’ report on last night’s conference calls with Senate and House Democrats. The Virginian Pilot also has an article on the topic.
According to my sources, the Governor’s plan takes a three-pronged approach to solving the problems facing the Commonwealth.
Safety first. Maintenance of the roads is eating up the transportation funds. Each year, the transportation trust fund (TTF) is being tapped in order to pay for the shortage of funds available for construction. The Governor proposes to cure the deficit by:
- Increasing the auto titling tax by 1%
- Increasing the annual auto registration by $10
- Allocating 1% of the current auto titling tax (currently going into the TTF).
Combined, these items should generate approximately $440 million for maintenance.
Regional. Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads have needs that are not being met. In order to pay for the projects in these two areas, the Governor proposes a 1% regional sales tax, excluding food and drugs. The regional sales tax is expected to generate $300 million for NoVA and $168 million for HR. These amounts are expected to grow to $450 million and $228 million, respectively, by 2014.
Transportation change. Tackling the issue of transit, the Governor proposes a 25-cent grantor’s tax. These funds will be put into the TTF (replacing the auto titling tax being removed above) but will be allocated with a heavy focus (60%-65%) on transit. It is expected that this will initially generate $142 million.
The Governor will be taking his plan on the road over the next few weeks leading up to the General Assembly special session, which is scheduled to begin June 23. Already announced are town hall meetings in Woodbridge Tuesday and on the Peninsula Thursday. Additional town hall meetings will be announced later.
UPDATE: Forgot to mention that Sunday’s Pilot had two articles on transportation worth reading. The first was by House Democratic Caucus Chair Brian Moran and it discussed a sales tax proposal. The second was by HRCCE Chairman Jim Oliver and it talks about the need for dialogue on the subject. (Note: view the links in IE. They don’t play nice with FF.)
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Thanks for posting this summary. No increase in the gas tax? Too bad. With respect to those regional sales taxes, that money better be dedicated to the paying region in a rock solid fashion (and I’d prefer to put the planning and spending authority in the hands of each region, too).
Frankly, transportation bills make me sleepy, but I’m going to try to pay better attention this time around. Is there anyone in the VA press that regularly does a good job of working through these bills in detail?
No gas tax. It is a non-starter in the House. And yes, the sales tax is going back to the source.
One of the biggest problems with transportation is that it is so complex and full of acronyms that the conversation is hard to follow. I’m not aware of anyone in particular in the press that covers transportation exclusively. I’m trying to understand it better myself. Fortunately, I’ve got a couple of folks who are well-versed in it that are bringing me along.
So, we’re back to the same plan rejected 2 to 1 in 2002 by referendum.
How long will it take for it to sink in that it is not the funding method that is the problem, it is the $9 billion dollar plan of which $6.2 Billion is to serve the Port of Virginia and will do nothing to relieve congestion in the Tidewater cities?
The people have spoken, but Kaine is listening to the business lobby and not to us. We don’t want to pay for a driveway for the Port. He can refigure how to take the money from us as many times as he wants, but we will still resist the idea so long as the planned road package serves special interests and not the people of Tidewater. The Tidewater Libertarian Party has proposed an alternative approach http://tinyurl.com/4kwcjh
There has been much discussion at RK about this. But I would love to hear what Hampton Roads folks think about this.
I would like for us to fix the RTAs. And I think we can do this best through a delegation of taxation authority to localities. We could specify that this additional revenue should counties/cities opt to enact would have to go into a separate fund for transportation (reported separately in their financials). The jurisdictions could then contribute that money to the RTAs or the RTA could direct how the pool of transportation funds in it’s area was used.
I know that statewide tax increases are a non-starter for Republicans. So, I would prefer that we move this down to the local level. Republicans can then keep their promise to not raise taxes as they would be putting the onus on localities. Also, this way Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia get to keep their transportation related revenues and put in place solutions that work best for their citizens. Afterall, who knows better how to spend this money than the people who have to endure the commutes every day?
If the General Assembly delegates that power to localities, then we can use it conjunction with our existing land use powers to come up with a good solution. If the state government is incapable of solving this problem, I’m willing to roll up my sleeves at the local level (where I feel I have more say anyway) to fix this problem. And it should be easier because my fellow residents share my concerns and experience in a way that residents of say Roanoke do not.
i am a VA resident, unhappy with Gov Kaine’s new transportation plan for reasons OTHER than what i have seen thus far.
i sent this email to Gov Kaine today (sure, i bet he really sees it! haha)
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i am DEEPLY disheartened that in all of your new Transportation Plan there is not ONE SINGLE REFERENCE to the responsibility VA Driver’s bear to STAY RIGHT EXCEPT TO PASS. i sent a message to you via our mutual friend (name deleted) many months ago. I also sent emails to all VA delegates, etc. In my opinion, not to include and fund a small campaign to educate drivers to this SIMPLE rule that could correct MOST of the ‘non-work hour’ traffic hold-up issues, not to mention alleviate a great deal of road rage. is born of great unconsciousness. I am so disappointed. I believe you are doing much good for our state and I thank you for that. You appear to be very authentic. So it’s beyond me why you would ignore something like this, that’s so simple and could do so much good, and instead do the typical governmental thing of favoring complication and doing less (even though you call this plan simple.) I sure wish i could hear the rationale of leaving this out of the plan.
tx2vadem – the HRTA is almost universally hated. You aren’t going to get the localities down here to pass the taxes. If you look at the governor’s announcement today, you will see that it includes a provision to abolish the local income tax option in the localities (including NoVA, by the way). I didn’t know such an option even existed. The fact that the option exists and was never exercised should give you some hint on how anxious local leaders are to imposing taxes.
Dorothy – I can understand your concern but this package has to do with transportation funding, so I’m not sure why you would expect your issue to be included.
That’s a difference between our regions, I guess. I’m pretty sure that NoVA voters would easily pass a regional sales tax so long as funds and control remained local.
I thought NoVA rejected the 2002 sales tax referendum, too?
It did, primarily (in my view) because no one believed that funds and control would remain local.
That was the biggest issue here, although also there was the issue that transportation wasn’t really a big problem.
One other thing that the Kaine proposal will do: add the HRBT to the mix of projects. That has become a HUGE issue here. Folks, particularly on the Peninsula, see that as our biggest source of congestion. (Heck – I went to my mother’s on the Peninsula yesterday and there was a backup at the tunnel. What should have been 20 minutes was close to an hour.)
HRTA universally hated, I had read that, but why? It seems better than leaving this all to VDOT. Also, if localities do not have the will or cannot raise taxes, then what hope is there for the state to do that?
So, transportation is not really a big problem in HR. So what is the big issue in HR?
My understanding is that the problem with HRTA is an unelected body, a layer of government without accountability to the voters. Add that to the list of projects approved by the MPO (another unelected body) didn’t include the HRBT and you have a recipe for non-support.
Transportation IS a big issue – now. But a lot of folks didn’t see it that way in 2002.
There is a MAJOR communications problem in HR between its leaders and the citizens. (I touched on that here.) We don’t have the same openness of government that you guys have in NoVA.
Another issue is the whole concept of regionalism, something that also hasn’t been embraced down here. (Again, check out this post.)
Finally, as I see it, there are still folks down here who think it is the state’s problem to fix, not ours.
VDOT is always a convenient scapegoat, and I will allow that there has in the past been good reason for this–I’m sure I’m not the only HR resident who remembers the decade-long construction project just north of the HRBT at the Coliseum interchange, and I’m likewise sure that wasn’t the only decade-long construction project in the state. But we cannot take our eye off the ball and buy into the feel-good notion that we can fix this if we just add another layer or two of government bureaucracy.
What it all comes down to is this: someone, somewhere has to have the courage to stand up and say “this is what we need to do to fix our roads.” And we shouldn’t have to create a new level of bureaucracy to find that leadership. The House GOP caucus had ample opportunity to roll out a plan of their own, but they failed to do so. Governor Kaine stepped forward into that leadership void and essentially proposed a plan that encompasses many of the tax provisions the House GOP passed down to the unconstitutional regional tax authorities in 2007–as Vivian correctly pointed out, the sales tax option was already in previous transportation package!
The fact that House Republicans are willing to let someone else raise the sales tax in Hampton Roads and NOVA but aren’t willing to pull the trigger on it themselves, I think, is telling. Make no mistake: this isn’t about House Republicans wanting to do what’s best for Virginians, this is about our elected Republican representatives not wanting to be held accountable for anything.
If you don’t have the courage to make a tough decision and be held accountable by your constituents, you shouldn’t run for public office; democracy isn’t really your thing.
I have yet to figure out what selling your house has to do with any of this transportation disaster we have. the gratuity tax once again has got to go. Why not end this debate and do what Pennsylvania and Ohio have done forever-tax the interstates. there is a way to do this without backing up any traffic. I have seen it in those states. some problems are easier than people make them out to be.