Rust Vows to Get Transit Funding Back on Track
Lawmaker's Plan for Roads Includes New Real Estate Tax
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 7, 2006; Page LZ03
A Northern Virginia Republican legislator who helped draft an unsuccessful $417 million plan this fall to ease area traffic problems told Loudoun County business officials this week about a new transportation funding proposal he plans to introduce in the coming legislative session.
At a Loudoun Chamber of Commerce breakfast Monday, Del. Thomas Davis Rust (R-Fairfax) and four other area legislators vowed that generating money to improve and expand the region's transportation network will remain their top priority.
  A sluggish line of afternoon traffic heads west on Route 50. (By Ricky Carioti -- The Washington Post) |
"We are going to keep coming back, keep trying again," said Rust, who co-sponsored the bill that was rejected by the House Finance Committee during a three-day special General Assembly session in September.
The new proposal, however, is likely to face stiff opposition from Republicans on the House Finance Committee, who have said they remain opposed to any new taxes.
Rust said his revised plan would generate $400 million to $435 million a year. As in the previous proposal, the transportation money would come from taxes and fees imposed only in Northern Virginia, and all of the revenue would be spent there.
The package would include a special real estate tax on commercial and industrial property; an increase in the grantor's tax imposed on property sellers; an increase of $100 in the cost of a driver's license for first-time Virginia drivers; and a 2 percent tax on hotels and rental cars.
Rust, whose district includes parts of Fairfax and Loudoun counties, said the real estate tax would be modeled on the special tax paid by property owners for transportation improvements along the Route 28 corridor. He said that those landowners, as well as others in the region who are paying a special levy for transportation, would receive credit so that they would not be taxed twice.
The proposed higher driver's license fee for first-time Virginia drivers reflects the impact that new residents have on traffic congestion, Rust said. He said 16- and 17-year-olds who have taken a driver's education course would be exempt from the fee increase.
The transportation bill defeated during the September special session included such charges as fees on new homes and higher fees to register new vehicles.
"I think the prospects are a little better this time" for passage of the bill, Rust told the chamber members.
Tony Howard, president of the Loudoun chamber, said the group would support the bill, including the tax on commercial and industrial property owners.
"Within reason, we are willing to pay our share," Howard said, noting that gridlock on the roads hinders employee-recruitment efforts.
Rust said that in the weeks before the General Assembly convenes Jan. 10, he and his co-sponsor, Del. David B. Albo (R-Fairfax), will travel across the state and meet with delegates and senators to see whether they can find common ground.
Also attending the breakfast meeting Monday were Dels. C. Charles Caputo (D-Fairfax), David E. Poisson (D-Loudoun) and Joe T. May (R-Loudoun) and Sen. Mark R. Herring (D-Loudoun).
Herring said that any transportation package would need to include enough money to complete some key unfunded or underfunded projects, such as the widening of Route 50 between Poland Road and the Fairfax County line and an overpass on Sycolin Road at the Route 7/Route 15 bypass near Leesburg.
"These projects aren't a million here and a million there; they are $25 million here and $50 million there," he said.
Randall L. Kelley, the new chief executive of Inova Loudoun Hospital, which hosted the breakfast, said congestion in the region affects everyone, from students who need to get to school to patients who need to reach hospitals quickly.
"Our quality of life" in Northern Virginia is affected by the "quantity of life," he said.
