Fairfax Bid To Divert New Transit Funds Sparks Uproar

Republican lawmakers, Northern Virginia business leaders and even Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) yesterday criticized a Fairfax County proposal to use millions of dollars of new transportation funds to balance the county's tight budget.

Del. David B. Albo (R-Fairfax) stood on the floor of the House of Delegates to condemn a $3.3 billion budget proposal presented Monday by Fairfax County Executive Anthony H. Griffin. Facing declining home values and tax receipts and a $152 million shortfall, Griffin proposed diverting about $30 million in transportation funds generated by landmark General Assembly legislation last year to pay for such expenses as existing Fairfax Connector bus routes and the transportation department's 93-person payroll.

"It scams all the business owners in Fairfax County who agreed to belly up to the bar and help pay for transportation," Albo said. "And I just want to send a shot across the bow. They, in my opinion, cannot even consider that. In fact, it would be very helpful if affirmatively they would say that they would never do it, because we're here for a week and a half, and we're going to have to find a mechanism to stop this."

After months of often rancorous negotiations, the General Assembly last year approved a far-reaching package of transportation initiatives that, among other things, allowed local Northern Virginia governments to raise a series of taxes and fees to increase regional spending on a backlogged list of road and transit needs. Fairfax and the region's other four localities did so, but now Griffin is proposing to divert some of that money from new projects to existing expenses.

House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) also criticized Griffin's proposal, noting that the "big selling point" of last year's transportation package was that it would raise $400 million in Northern Virginia, money that would stay in Northern Virginia for transportation.

"It's not raised for social services, for the general fund," Howell said. "I understand the problem, and heck, we're guilty of it down here, scrambling for money, trying to find it everywhere we can in a lean budget time. But the clear understanding we had with local government people, and Fairfax especially, is that this money would go toward new transportation projects."

In his budget proposal for the year beginning July 1, Griffin suggested using more than $11 million to fund the county's transportation staff, $8.5 million to cover part of the county's prior obligation to Metro operations and $12 million to pay for bus routes.

Griffin said he understood the criticism. They are "certainly legitimate concerns," he said.

"I've put a proposal out there, and I'm sure it's going to get debated," he said. "The bottom line is, if people don't support it . . . I've got to figure out where the money's coming from. I'm trying to fill a $152 million hole."

Griffin also noted that the legislature regularly commits to new programs without providing the necessary money. "Two wrongs don't make a right," he said. "But I would hope there would be some understanding."

Kaine, an ally of board Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D), defended Fairfax for its long-standing practice of spending local money on transportation. But even he expressed concern at the idea of using revenue from a new commercial real estate tax -- a hard-fought accomplishment in the transportation package -- for existing programs.

"House Bill 3202 represented a deal where a lot of parties were at the table," Kaine said. "The reason the commercial property owners came on board and largely agreed to help is that the escalation would be used for more transportation, not the same amount of transportation."

Business leaders expressed a similar concern. "It took a great deal of self-reflection and change within the business community to move away from one of our long-standing principles, which was no undifferentiated tax rate," said William D. Lecos, president of the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce. "But because of the magnitude of the transportation crisis, we bit the bullet."

Bob Chase, president of the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance, a consortium of business leaders who advocate for higher road and transit funding, suggested that if the proposal survives, "it would be terribly damaging to future efforts to get General Assembly support for additional regional funding."

Connolly would not say whether he supports the proposal. The board is scheduled to approve a final spending plan this spring.

"I think the county executive was faced with a daunting challenge to provide a balanced budget as revenue was disappearing beneath his feet," Connolly said. "It's now for the board to dispose of that budget. We're going to have a public hearing, a workshop, town meetings. We're going to look at it carefully, and we're going to bring to bear our judgment."

Staff writer Anita Kumar contributed to this report from Richmond.