Tax Issue Muddles Outlook on Va. Roads

"In the coming weeks, I will be meeting with legislators and stakeholders about much-needed funding for transportation,'' Kaine said in a statement. "I look forward to continuing our bipartisan efforts to address our transportation needs."

Kaine has met with leaders of the Republican-controlled House and Democrat-controlled Senate twice since the Supreme Court ruling. Another meeting had been scheduled for Wednesday night but was canceled after legislators worked late into the night haggling over judicial appointments.

House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem) said he did not even bother to show up for the second meeting with Kaine and other legislators because Democrats insist on considering only plans that call for statewide tax increases.

"It's dead on arrival. Until that issue is put on the backburner, I don't see us agreeing on anything," he said. "They keep telling people they don't want to raise taxes and then they turn around and raise taxes."

The Senate passed a bill this year that called for a 1-cent increase in the gas tax in each of the next five years. The state gas tax of 17.5 cents a gallon was last raised in 1986.

The House rejected that proposal and quashed any discussion of raising the state sales tax, currently 5 percent. House Republicans prefer to focus on salvaging the regional panels by allowing local governments to enact tax and fee increases.

But Deeds, who is running for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2009, said House Republicans from Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads, who feel immense pressure to find money for their clogged roads, might consider other options. Last month, eight Republican delegates from Hampton Roads announced that they would support a 1-cent regional sales tax increase to pay for road construction.

"We will wait and see," Deeds said.