1st Goal Is to Build Staff, Organization
By Eric M. Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 13, 2007
It was not the first meeting of the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, but last night's was the first that mattered.
After essentially sitting idle for the past five years, the authority was granted power this month to raise about $400 million in local fees and taxes to pay for regional transportation projects.
"There are a few more faces here than last time," said Christopher Zimmerman, the authority chairman and an Arlington County Board member. About 75 people attended the meeting, which was moved to George Mason High School in Falls Church to accommodate the crowd.
Zimmerman said the authority will focus on building an organization and staff over the next several weeks. The panel plans to create five working groups to consider legal, finance, public outreach, project implementation and organizational issues. The authority will be officially granted power to raise taxes and fees July 1.
"We want to get things moving so we can be able to make decisions," Zimmerman said.
The authority must make a slew of decisions, none bigger than how to use the money headed its way.
The body could use the $400 million a year it is expected to raise through taxes and fees to pay for new projects, or it could leverage that money into billions by issuing bonds, a power granted to the authority when it was created in 2002.
The authority estimates that it would require $700 million a year in new spending for the region to build all the projects needed to address Northern Virginia's extensive transportation problems. Floating bonds would allow it to get a quicker start on the backlog in its TransAction 2030 study, which sets out unfunded road, transit and trail projects to improve commutes.
The authority also has flexibility in how to spend the money. It could write checks to the Virginia Department of Transportation and use its expertise to build projects. The authority could also contract with jurisdictions, such as Prince William and Fairfax counties, which have substantial transportation construction experience, to build projects.
Or the authority could go into the road-building business, which would require it to build a staff to bid projects and oversee construction.
The authority has no paid staff. Its bylaws allow it to hire a chief executive and "qualified professional and other persons as the Authority determines to be necessary to carry out its duties and responsibilities." But members said they were wary about adding a layer of government.
"We need a cost-effective way to implement the program without creating a new bureaucracy," said David F. Snyder, a member of both the Falls Church City Council and the authority.
Members are also wary of the Transportation Department, having become familiar with its shortcomings over the years. They say they will probably rely on the department's economies of scale and experience in megaprojects and the speed of local governments to get as many projects done as quickly as possible.
The authority is a strange creation in Virginia politics: empowered to make major taxing, funding and construction decisions but restricted by the General Assembly to voting on fees and increases approved by legislators.
The authority's power is "something that is, frankly, revolutionary in terms of Virginia," said Gerald E. Connolly (D), a panel member who is chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. He said the creation of the authority takes a big step away from the commonwealth's tradition of concentrating power in Richmond.
Although no voters cast ballots for authority members, 12 of its 14 voting members are elected officials on other bodies. The authority includes the top elected official, or a designee, from each of the nine Northern Virginia jurisdictions; two members appointed by the House of Delegates; one appointed by the Senate; and two appointed by the governor.
"It's a strange combination, really," said Mark J. Rozell, a professor of public policy at George Mason University. "You could have some real accountability problems. Members have a lot of power to affect a lot of people outside their voting jurisdiction."
That so many members are heads of governments could help the authority avoid the pitfalls of other powerful organizations, such as the urge to create fiefdoms and expansive bureaucracies.
Authority members also must rely on each other to choose what projects are built because of a complex voting system that attempts to balance the interests of small and large localities. The interconnection of the region's transportation systems provides another incentive.
For example, the widening of Interstate 66 in Arlington helps commuters in Fairfax and Prince William as much as, if not more than, those in Arlington. Similarly, improvements to the Dulles Toll Road in Fairfax would also be a boon to Loudoun County drivers.
But that does not mean dealings will be free of conflicts, especially because congested roads are at the top of the list of frustrations for Northern Virginia motorists.
"That's where it can get particularly ugly down the road -- no pun intended," Rozell said.
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