Residents Speak Out on Need to Solve Region's Traffic Tie-Ups
By Amy Orndorff
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 1, 2007;
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About 75 Northern Virginia residents attended a town hall meeting hosted by the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority last week, and many urged board members to approve a $102 million bond package that would fund transportation improvements in the region and be paid for by new regional taxes.
The majority of the 36 residents who spoke at the meeting Thursday supported the bond, which would include $18.25 million for four transportation projects in Prince William County, Manassas and Manassas Park.
County Supervisor Martin E. Nohe (R-Coles), vice chairman of the transportation authority, said residents who attended the meeting, at the George Mason University campus in Manassas, were most interested in making sure they were going to see quick, regional solutions to Northern Virginia's traffic problems.
"The group that we had last night was thinking regionally, which fit right into what we are doing with the NVTA," Nohe said Friday.
Created by the Virginia General Assembly in 2002, the authority is made up of local elected officials and two residents. There are nine members who represent each of the jurisdictions that would be involved with the project, plus one state senator and two members of the House of Delegates.
To fund the bond, the authority would have to raise about $300 million a year until the projects are completed. Part of the proposal for raising funds includes seven new regional taxes.
Del. Robert G. Marshall (R-Prince William), who has consistently spoken out against the authority, did so again at Thursday's meeting. Marshall has questioned whether the authority has the constitutional right to raise local taxes because it was created by the General Assembly and its members are appointed, not elected.
"We take an oath to uphold the constitution," Marshall said in May about the authority. "If the process is corrupt, the product will be corrupt."
Nohe said he thinks the authority is within its legal right to approve taxes. The Virginia Attorney General's Office said in a letter to Marshall that the taxes are constitutional.
"The NVTA is trying to make this process as transparent as possible," Nohe said.
The bonds would be funded by an increase in the vehicle registration and safety inspection fees in Northern Virginia. Also, an increase in taxes for hotels, car rentals, auto repairs and home sales would be used to fund the transportation bond.
"That some people oppose these taxes and fees and, in some cases, any new taxes and fees comes as no surprise," Robert Chase of the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance, a business-resident group advocating regional transportation projects, said in a written statement to the authority.
Chase said residents have spoken in support of new transportation funds in elections and by urging legislators to act on the issue.
"Our legislators have responded, and it is now time for the authority members to adopt and make these measures operational -- not because they are perfect, but because they represent the best opportunity we will have for many years to invest in projects that can make an immediate difference," he said.
The authority will vote on the transportation bond package July 12.
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