Fees From Transportation Bill Kick In Today
By Bill Turque
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 1, 2008; B01
If you plan to sell a home, buy a car or get a vehicle repaired in Northern Virginia, it's going to cost a bit more starting today, because of the transportation bill passed by the General Assembly last year.
Lawmakers gave the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority the power to impose taxes and fees that are expected to raise as much as $325 million a year for road and transit improvements. About $75 million of the annual revenue will be earmarked for Metro and the Virginia Railway Express.
The new taxes are:
¿ A "congestion relief fee," or grantor's tax, of 40 cents per $100 of assessed valuation on the sale price of a house. The seller will be responsible for the fee. For a $500,000 home, the extra charge would be $2,000.
¿ A 1 percent "initial registration fee" based on the sale price of a vehicle. If a vehicle is bought from a dealer, the fee will be part of the purchase; if a vehicle is bought privately, regardless of where, the fee will be paid when the car is registered. For a $25,000 car, the fee would be $250.
¿ A $10 annual regional registration fee for all vehicles.
¿ A $10 annual safety inspection fee for all vehicles.
¿ A 5 percent sales tax on auto repairs. Warranty work will be exempt.
¿ A 2 percent car rental tax, adding about 80 cents to a $40-a-day vehicle.
¿ A 2 percent hotel room tax, adding about $2.40 to a $125-a-night room.
The General Assembly also gave Northern Virginia governments the option of increasing the tax rate on shopping centers, office buildings and other commercial property by as much as 25 cents for each $100 of assessed value.
Prince William and Loudoun counties decided not to raise the commercial tax rate. Fairfax County, which taxes residential and commercial real estate at the same rate, is expected to approve a commercial increase of about 10 cents, which could raise $100 million for transportation improvements. Other jurisdictions are considering whether to raise the commercial property tax.
The transportation bill will also allow counties to charge impact fees when land is rezoned, an option that Fairfax officials said they are studying.
Bob Chase, president of the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance, which advocates for funding and construction of projects, said that the new taxes and fees are reasonable alternatives to an increase in the state gasoline tax, which has been 17.5 cents a gallon since 1987.
"No one is saying this is the perfect solution or the ultimate solution," said Chase, who said that nonresidents will bear the brunt of some of the new fees, such as those on hotel rooms and rental cars.
Fairfax residents paying taxes at the government center last week said they were generally aware of the impending increases but not eager to think about them.
"This is already a burden. This is ridiculous," said Laura D'Angelo, a consulting engineer who lives in Reston. Whether the added expenses are an acceptable way to try to reduce traffic congestion, she said, "Maybe a little bit."
Although the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority is to begin collecting the new revenue today, the plan still faces a potential barrier.
The state Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal next month challenging the right of the 16-member authority, which includes the mayors and board chairmen of nine cities and counties in the region, to impose taxes and issue bonds. Richmond lawyer Patrick McSweeney, who is representing a group of conservatives and antitax activists opposed to aspects of the transportation bill, says that the Virginia Constitution bars bodies whose members are not elected, such as the transportation authority, from imposing taxes.
McSweeney's group is also challenging the constitutionality of the state's decision to transfer management of the Dulles Toll Road to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, also an unelected government entity, with members from Virginia, Maryland and the District.
An Arlington Circuit Court judge upheld the transportation bill in August, saying that courts make a "strong presumption" that laws passed by the General Assembly are constitutional.
The authority, a once-obscure regional body that met in borrowed office space with no staff and a small budget, is preparing for its enhanced role in spending hundreds of millions of dollars and selling billions more in bonds on transportation projects.
It has hired an executive director, former Fairfax City mayor John Mason, and found office space, and it will hold a hearing Jan. 10 on its six-year plan.
Authority Chairman Chris Zimmerman, who is also on the Arlington County Board, sounded fatalistic about the legal challenge. "The court's going to issue a ruling," he said. "If they say one thing, we'll do one thing; if they say another thing, we'll do another."
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