Toll-and-Tax Cap Sparks Concern
By Jonathan Mummolo
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Del. Joe T. May (R-Loudoun) has introduced a bill that would place new limits on toll increases on the Dulles Greenway starting in 2013, while also capping the amount of property taxes the road's owners would have to pay -- a fair compromise, he says.
But the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors isn't buying it.
On Tuesday, the board passed a motion opposing the bill in its current form. Supervisors said that although they favored limiting toll increases on the privately owned highway, they could not support a measure that would hamstring the county's ability to raise funds.
"We would support bills that cap the ability of the Greenway corporation to increase tolls on the commuters, [as long as] it's done in a manner that doesn't affect the local jurisdiction's ability to raise its revenues," board Chairman Scott K. York (I) said in proposing his motion, which passed 8 to 1.
Under May's bill, toll increases beyond 2013 would be limited to the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index since the date the State Corporation Commission had last approved a toll increase, plus 1 percent. May said the details of the proposed limits on real property taxes were being finalized.
The bill would allow the SCC to approve a higher toll increase, however, if the owner could prove that it was otherwise unable to meet the terms of its debt agreements.
A spokeswoman for the Greenway's operator, Toll Road Investors Partnership II (TRIP II), said the company supports May's bill.
"In totality we think the bill is fair," spokeswoman Ann Huggins-Lawler said. "If there is a cap on real property taxes, then we can live with a cap on tolls."
The company said its property tax bill rose from about $2 million in 2005 to about $3 million in 2007. Those figures include taxes paid to the Town of Leesburg and the Route 28 tax district, but at least 95 percent of the money went to Loudoun County, Huggins-Lawler said.
TRIP II won approval in September from the SCC to increase the one-way toll from $3 to as much as $4.80 by 2012. Several toll increases have taken effect since the road opened in 1995, when the fee was $1.75.
May said that he had not formally briefed the Board of Supervisors on his bill but that its opposition was not surprising.
"I understand the situation, and as I said, this is a compromise . . . and we're asking Loudoun [County] to at least share in part of the pain," May said.
He said his bill is preferable to the idea of having the state seize the highway, as some critics of the toll increases have suggested.
"Such draconian measures as taking the Greenway by eminent domain were proposed, and I don't think that serves anybody well," May said. "For one thing, it would be a chilling effect on the other public-private relationships that are being developed around Northern Virginia . . . on which we are going to have to depend for quite a while. Virginia doesn't have the funds to do the transportation improvements that are required."
Although county staff members recommended that the board simply pass a resolution opposing May's bill, Supervisor Lori L. Waters (R-Broad Run) proposed that the board include language stating that it supports capping toll increases on the Greenway.
"While I understand and I agree with the staff's position that we don't want to lose our real property taxing authority and collection, I don't want to be put on record that I'm opposing a bill that would limit toll increases," Waters said.
Supervisor Eugene A. Delgaudio (R-Sterling) was the sole opponent of the board's resolution.
"Here we have a gentleman that represents our county that's trying to respond to public demand that something be done" about toll rates, Delgaudio said of May. "Here we have the county smacking Mr. May in the face. . . . We're opposing a solution to reducing the problem, essentially solving the problem."
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