Kaine touts transportation proposal

By Brian McNeill

Published: May 30, 2008

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has a message for critics of his proposed $1.1 billion transportation plan: If you don’t like it, come up with a better idea.

“If you can do better, great. Do better,” Kaine said Friday in an interview with The Daily Progress. “But don’t do nothing.”

Virginia lawmakers will consider Kaine’s statewide plan in a special session starting June 23.

Through a series of tax and fee increases, Kaine’s proposal would boost funding for road and bridge maintenance, increase spending in heavily congested Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads, and invest more heavily in rail, public transit, teleworking programs and ridesharing initiatives.

Kaine’s transportation package is intended to restore the nearly $600 million that was lost when last year’s transportation finance plan fell apart earlier this year. Roughly $500 million was slashed when the Virginia Supreme Court struck down the tax powers of regional transportation authorities. Another $65 million was cut out when lawmakers repealed the so-called abuser fees, which levied heavy fines for traffic offenses.

“My goal is basically to ratchet up the pressure to solve the problem,” Kaine said. “The only reason for inaction is that we don’t want to solve our transportation problem.”

Republican leaders in the House of Delegates have denounced Kaine’s plan, saying that working Virginians cannot afford to pay higher taxes at a time when gas and food prices are at record levels and many residents are struggling with home mortgage payments.

Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle, said that while he is not necessarily opposed to Kaine’s transportation funding ideas, he is deeply skeptical.

“There’s a real concern by fiscally responsible people that we cannot raise taxes again at a time when the economy is very sluggish,” Bell said.

Kaine’s proposal aims to address a $300 million — and rapidly growing — deficit in Virginia’s road maintenance fund, which is frequently “cannibalized” to pay for road and bridge construction projects. The Commonwealth Transpor-tation Board’s Culpeper District, which includes the Charlottesville region, has a $25 million deficit of its road maintenance fund.

If approved, Kaine’s plan would:

l free up funding to expand passenger rail service from Lynchburg to Washington;

l replace Belmont Bridge in Charlottesville;

l reconstruct and widen Proffit Road in Albemarle County;

l pave Octagon Church Road in Louisa County;

l improve safety on James River Road in Nelson County; and

l raise spending on paving Central Virginia’s rural roads by 200 percent.

To address highway maintenance funding, Kaine’s plan would increase Virginia’s motor vehicle sales tax from 3 percent to 4 percent and would dedicate all motor vehicle sales tax funds to maintenance. It would also increase the statewide annual vehicle registration fee by $10, with all of the increase earmarked for road maintenance.

“We never want to short ourselves on maintenance,” he said. “We don’t want to be Minnesota and watch a bridge collapse in a river.”

Kaine’s plan would increase the retail sales tax in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads by 1 percentage point.

The cash raised by the tax increase — which would not apply to food or drug sales — would be allocated to each region’s transportation authority for local projects.

To increase rail and public transit funding, Kaine is calling for a 25-cent increase of the statewide grantor’s tax, which would generate an additional $140 million.

The grantor’s tax is a statewide levy on home sales that is paid by the home seller at closing.

Kaine’s package does not include a gas tax increase. Though such an idea has merits, Kaine said, motorists do not want to pay any more for gas right now. Plus, he said, the GOP leadership has told him that they would never support such a measure.

Melissa Barlow, director of transportation programs at the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commis-sion, welcomed Kaine’s proposal to fill the state’s maintenance coffers and begin to pay for more projects that could ease congestion.

“We’re definitely in support of filling the gaps,” she said. “I would love to see our legislature take the bull by the horns in a way that would affect the whole state. There are transportation needs commonwealth-wide.”

Kaine expressed optimism about his plan’s chances for success. He is embarking on a statewide tour to drum up support at town hall meetings. Meanwhile, he predicted, the Republicans’ initial “saber rattling” is likely to diminish in the coming weeks.

The GOP, he said, will probably submit a rival transportation plan.

A spokesman for House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, did not immediately return a call for comment Friday.