Yes Virginia, There Really IS Money For Transportation
Whether you are legitimately concerned about the future of transportation development in Virginia or simply sick of the endless debate clogging column inches in your local paper, the end is finally in sight.
When the General Assembly finally compromised on a transportation funding package earlier this month, Governor Tim Kaine was not particularly pleased with what he saw. The Governor had promised to exercise his option to amend the bill and send it back to the legislature for approval. Some predicted Kaine might insist on amendments that Republicans would surely reject, in a partisan attempt to pin the failure to fund transportation on their party in the November election. In a flurry of legislative activity Monday in Richmond, however, the Governor countered with some ideas of his own that make a good-faith attempt to find some middle ground that everyone can live with.
Kaine's proposed changes, which will generate about $1.1 billion a year for statewide transportation spending, are certainly not going to make everyone happy. Overall, the plan relies on a lot of debt, it still takes money from the General Fund, typically reserved for schools, health care, and law enforcement, and makes it easier to raise taxes locally and regionally. It also significantly increases spending on mass transit and forces more of the cost of new transportation infrastructure onto developers, who are helping to fuel the rapid growth behind much of the problem. In other words, there is something in the bill for everyone not to like.
Indeed, grumbling has been heard from those on all sides of this debate. Both Democratic municipal officials in NoVa and Republicans in the Assembly have said they would support Kaine's proposal, though. Unless a major bombshell drops in the next week, we expect the bill to be approved by the legislature in a special session on April 4th. After that, we hopefully won't have to write about anything so outrageously narrow-minded as this legislative process has been anytime soon! But we're not holding our breath...
The specifics of Governor Kaine's main changes can be found after the jump:
Photo by Eye Captain
- The Governor's plan would generate $3 billion in state-issued bonds over 10 years, up from $2.5 billion over 8 years. The percentage of bonds going to transit would increase from 15.7 percent to 20 percent.
- Two thirds of Virginia's future surplus revenues would go to transportation.
- Funds from the Commonwealth's General Fund would be cut from $148 million to $64 million, much of which would be dedicated to mass transit projects.
- Three cents of taxes on deeds, contracts, and other legal documents would go to transportation, with 2 cents for transit.
- The tax on diesel fuel would go up from 16 to 17.5 cents and be dedicated to highway maintenance.
- About $400 million a year, raised from local and regional taxes and fees, would fund road and transit projects in Northern Virginia. Authorization for these revenue increases would have to be passed by six of the nine local governments in NoVa, instead of unanimous approval.
- Northern Virginia cities and counties would be able to vote for additional taxes and fees, such as commercial real estate taxes, that could only be spent on transportation needs in each municipality.
- Counties would not be responsible for taking care of roads in new subdivisions, and impact fees on commercial and residential developments would go up in 75 rapidly growing communities to pay for road improvements to accommodate the development.