The legislature is going into session next week for the purpose of dealing with the transportation issue that has been unresolved for several sessions. I thought this thoughtful report by David Toscano might be helpful to you in getting briefed on the issue as the legislature attempts to resolve it. Let's hope some plan can be agreed upon so that this very important issue can begin to be managed. Fred
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Delegate David Toscano
The Town Meeting and The Special Session
Since
Governor Kaine unveiled his plan to address our transportation challenges, town
meetings have been held around the state to discuss various ideas. I held one myself on Monday, June 16,
2008. Present was the Deputy Secretary
of Transportation, Barbara Reese, who presented an excellent power point
detailing the nature of our problems. We
had a great turnout, and many ideas were explored. For those who have not been following this
issue, two events occurred during the General Assembly session this year that created
additional challenges for transportation funding. The first was the decision to repeal the
abusive driver fees. While I supported
repeal, the action means the Commonwealth loses $50 million per year in
transportation funding. The second was
the decision of the Supreme Court of Virginia to hold the mechanism for raising
funds in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads to be unconstitutional. This created a huge problem for those areas,
as the bill we passed in 2007 enabled them to raise significant monies to address
transportation.
The Governor recently proposed a
plan focused on the following:
1. The maintenance funding shortfall and safety on our roads.
2. Regional relief for Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.
3. New statewide initiatives to increase investment in transit,
rail, aviation, and ports.
Under
the plan, regional sales tax increases would raise about $300-450 million for
northern Virginia and $168-228 million would be raised for Hampton Roads to
address problems in those areas. Beyond
that, the Governor's plan would increase the auto titling tax from 3% to
4%, increase vehicle registration fees
by $10.00 per year and raise the grantors tax to $.25 per hundred. These measures would create $440 million in
yearly additional revenue to help fund statewide initiatives for maintenance,
construction and transit. Whatever you
think of the Governors plan and the various revenue sources he proposes, he is exercising
leadership in addressing critical problems. There are significant numbers in
the legislature who have chosen not to recognize that there is a problem, or in
the alternative are so blinded by their opposition to raising revenue, that
they will oppose any plan. While I do
not agree with everything the Governor has suggested, there is no doubt we need
some change and some additional revenue. In my view, we should emphasize the following:
1. We need a reliable, dedicated source of revenue that can
address our statewide transportation issues. If we do not have a statewide plan, Charlottesville, Albemarle, and our
region will suffer, and local citizens will likely pay more in local taxes so we
can maintain our roads and transit in many ways that our citizens expect. For example, Albemarle County is spending in
excess of $3 million per year in local monies on roads. This amounts to about $.02 of the real estate
tax rate. Monies from Richmond would
lessen the pressure on the local real estate tax.
2. Any increase in monies should be strategically invested in
maintaining our existing roadways and bridges. We should build new roads where appropriate and boost investments in
transit and rail. While our region is
not enamored with building new roads, there are road improvements that need to
be accomplished and have languished because of the lack of state monies. These include improvements such as the
expansion of Georgetown Road, improvements to Jarman's Gap Road, the Hillsdale
Drive extension, and targeted improvements to Route 29. They also include things such as traffic
light synchronization, which has a dramatic impact on congestion and therefore
increases the road capacity without building new roads. In the City, there is an increased demand for
transit and desire to improve the headways on bus routes. This does not come free, and cities throughout
the Commonwealth could use additional operating monies to help with this
effort. For those who do not think we have a congestion problem, it is
interesting to note that between 1994 and 2008, the number of vehicles in
Albemarle County increased by a much higher percentage (34%) than it did in
Fairfax County (23%).
3. Since we cannot pave our way out of our problems, we need to
think about new and creative ways for linking land use and transportation. I now serve on a committee that will look at
all land use policies on the Commonwealth to see how they may be improved. I hope our focus will be on ways we can
increase the connectivity of roads so as to increase their capacity at minimal
cost, provide incentives for communities to focus development in areas where
the infrastructure is already in place, and give localities greater flexibility
in the planning process.
It
remains to be seen what will happen during the Special Session on
transportation which begins Monday, June 23rd. If you have additional ideas, please contact
my office or post on my website at www.davidtoscano.com..
Contact Info
As always, I appreciate hearing your thoughts and concerns about legislative matters. Please call the Charlottesville office at (434) 220-1660 or send emails to deldtoscano at house.state.va.us.
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