Kaine Takes Roads Push Back to Town Hall
Higher Taxes Urged For Growing N.Va.

By Steven Ginsberg
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) told Northern Virginians at a town hall meeting last night that paying more in taxes to raise nearly $1 billion a year for transportation improvements is a good bargain, and he continued his criticism of less ambitious alternatives.

Before a crowd of about 200 in Woodbridge, where many had just endured another long trek from work, Kaine described a state in which highway congestion and traffic safety problems that have grown dramatically worse. Congestion has increased by 60 percent in Northern Virginia in the past decade, he said.

Over the next 25 years, he said, the area's population will increase by 42 percent, employment will increase by more than half and 59 percent of peak-period traffic will be in gridlock.

Kaine said it will be worse in spots such as Woodbridge, where 75 percent of rush-hour traffic will be in perpetual jams.

"That's where we're going if we don't do anything different," Kaine said. "If we do nothing, we have a reality coming at us that we're going to be living and our kids will be living."

The governor got a standing ovation at the outset of the meeting. But some speakers said his plan could reduce carpooling, overtax Virginians and favor roads over transit.

At one point, many booed when he mentioned the state's plans to build express toll lanes, which some commuters see as a threat to carpooling. "I don't see how you really address the problem of getting us to drive less," said Randy Salzman of Charlottesville. "Really, that's the problem."

Kaine conducted a first round of town hall meetings on transportation after his election in November.

This second round, which includes stops in Norfolk, Salem, Martinsville and Culpeper, comes amid heightened debate in the General Assembly's final weeks about what to do to fix Virginia's road and rail system. The governor, House of Delegates and state Senate have offered competing plans.

"We're three weeks or so from the end of the session," Kaine said. "What are the prospects for a compromise or a solution?"

"I'm an optimist," Kaine said. "The citizens of Virginia have spoken in all parts of the state. . . . This is not a problem that can't be solved. There's only one reason this can't be solved, and that's if people don't have the will to solve it."

Kaine and the Senate back tax plans that would raise nearly $1 billion a year, which they say is necessary to build infrastructure and maintain roads and rail lines.

They are battling Republicans in the House, who have proposed raising considerably smaller amounts by relying on state surpluses and higher fines on habitually bad drivers. Republicans also argue that Virginians should not have their taxes raised again two years after the legislature increased sales, cigarette and additional taxes to support schools and other services.

Unlike his previous town hall tour, in which Kaine spoke briefly and generally before listening to suggestions from the public, the governor talked specifically and forcefully about his vision for the state's transportation future.

Kaine hammered on the theme that "there's a cost to doing nothing." He said that by 2011, Virginia will lose federal funds because it won't be able to match federal highway dollars.

He said that on the state's present course, the budget for local roads would shrink substantially. Prince William County's secondary roads budget, for instance, would shrink from last year's $7.4 million to $2.6 million in 2010. That amounts to enough to build a single lane a little more than five miles.

Kaine said the House approach, which would shift some general fund money to transportation projects, would cut payouts to schools, public safety and health care while doing little to improve commutes.

"They're sweeping money out of these programs for transportation," Kaine said. "What we see is there are ways to get to a big number. But there are ways to advance the state, and there are ways to hurt the priorities we care about."

Kaine's plan would increase the sales tax on a car purchase from 3 to 5 percent, an amount that would cost consumers about $400 more for a $20,000 car. Taxes on auto insurance premiums would double, auto registration would go up and fines for bad driving would escalate sharply.

Kaine told the audience last night that the new taxes would cost drivers no more than $156 a year: $18 a year in insurance premiums, less than $18 in annual registration fees and no more than $10 a month on car loans.

In return, he said, they would get a revamped road and rail network, powered by a 90 percent increase in local road funds and a doubling in funding for mass transit.