By Steven Ginsberg
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 27, 2005; B04

Republican gubernatorial hopeful Jerry W. Kilgore yesterday proposed creating regional transportation authorities that would have the power to put tax increases before voters, as part of his plan to improve Virginia's road and rail networks.

The former state attorney general said that creating the authorities would move decision-making away from state lawmakers and bureaucrats by giving local leaders the power to make planning decisions and fund projects, through ballot measures to raise taxes, highway tolls or fees.

"To be decisive and move these projects along, I think we need regional authorities," Kilgore said. "Money would stay in that region and be used to build roads."

Kilgore's plan also includes increasing fines for drunk drivers, aggressive drivers and habitual offenders, a proposal that he said could raise as much as $100 million a year. A similar plan was killed during this year's General Assembly session by legislators who thought the penalties too harsh.

Kilgore said he also supports private investment in road projects, improved transportation technology and a constitutional amendment prohibiting use of the state's Transportation Trust Fund for other priorities.

He said he would use extra revenue in the state's general fund from a growing economy to pay for transportation projects, an approach criticized by his likely Democratic opponent, Lt. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.

Kaine spokeswoman Delacey Skinner said that "paying for transportation out of the general fund is ultimately going to put transportation dollars in competition with education dollars. What you'll end up with is money that would have gone to education going to transportation."

Skinner added that the proposal to hold referendums on tax increases shows a lack of leadership. "When you ask the difficult question of how are you going to pay for this, Jerry always wants to put that off on somebody else," she said.

In 2002, Gov. Mark R. Warner (D) won approval from the General Assembly for transportation tax referendums in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads. The proposals, which would have funded billions of dollars in road and rail improvements, were defeated.

Kilgore, who supported putting those measures on the ballot, said his plan differs in that decisions about how much to tax and what projects to build would be made at the local level and voters would be assured that the funds would stay in their region.

Localizing transportation funding and planning is an idea that is gaining currency across Virginia, one of only a handful of states that owns and operates virtually all its roads. Some state legislators like the idea because it would relieve the state of a chunk of its road-building burdens, while some local leaders believe they can build projects more quickly and better on their own.

A regional transportation authority was created in Northern Virginia in 2002 in anticipation of funds that would be raised from the tax increases, but without money the authority has had little real power to improve transportation.

David F. Snyder, a Falls Church City Council member and chairman of the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, said the ability to place referendums on the ballot would allow Northern Virginians "to control our own destiny, to decide what it is we spend our money on and how we want to spend it. It's a very positive development for Northern Virginia and offers the only hope to get out of the transportation mess we're in."

Snyder added that he thought a regional tax increase would pass in Northern Virginia if local residents were involved in the process of deciding how much money to raise and where to spend it.

But some in Kilgore's party said they were wary of the idea. State Sen. Ken Cuccinelli (R-Fairfax), one of the leading opponents of the 2002 measure, said he's "always concerned about creating additional openings for higher taxes. There are things we need to pay for, and transportation is one of the top ones in state government, but I'd like to see us doing that from within the current budget."