Transportation Fix, Take 2: The Cast and Plot Change

RICHMOND As the political establishment reels over a bad case of deja vu, lawmakers are struggling to figure out what to do in the recurring battle over how to raise more money for transportation.

The state Supreme Court's Feb. 29 decision to toss out the regional taxing authorities in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads, a cornerstone of last year's transportation deal, could soon lead to political chaos.

But as Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) and House and Senate leaders consider whether they can come up with a solution, a big question remains unresolved:

Has the window for addressing transportation closed?

The transportation deal, designed to raise $1.1 billion annually for highway and mass transit projects, might have been a once-in-a-decade opportunity for a bipartisan compromise in a state traditionally resistant to taxes and change.

After years of bickering, Virginia Republicans got a big scare in 2006 when James Webb (D) unseated George Allen (R) in a U.S. Senate race.

Convinced that they needed to act to avoid major losses in the 2007 state legislative races, Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell (R), U.S. Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) and Ed Gillespie, the Virginia Republican Party's chairman at the time, teamed up to force House and Senate Republicans to work together on a transportation solution.

House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) bought into the plan and persuaded his colleagues to go along with some higher taxes and the creation of the regional transportation authorities to raise money and distribute it to local road projects.

Senate Republicans, who have long been skeptical of the motives of antitax conservatives in the House, also agreed to go along with the plan, even though it meant undercutting then-Senate President John H. Chichester (R-Northumberland), who opposed the plan and has since retired.

Kaine, who had been consumed by the transportation fight during the first 18 months of his administration, amended the GOP bill and then signed it so he could move on to other issues.

But a lot has changed since, all of which suggests that neither Republicans nor Democrats have much incentive to make significant sacrifices for the sake of another deal.

In November, Democrats picked up the four Senate seats needed to regain the majority for the first time in a decade.