Kaine Pushes Tax Package For Transportation Funds

INTERACTIVE

Virginia Road Work Plans Are Halted

The Commonwealth Transportation Board has approved a plan to cut hundreds of road projects statewide. See a sampling of key projects that will be delayed or eliminated.

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House Republicans want an independent audit of how the Virginia Department of Transportation is spending tax dollars.

"House Republicans want to make sure government is functioning properly before even considering asking for more money from hardworking families," said Del. Samuel A. Nixon Jr. (R-Chesterfield).

Kaine also faces a hurdle in the Senate, where Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax) is vowing to push his own proposal.

Saslaw wants increases of one-quarter percent in the sales tax and one-half percent in the car titling tax. He also is proposing a 5- or 6-cent increase in the state's 17.5 cent-a-gallon gas tax, which would be phased in over five or six years.

Saslaw said his proposal would raise $650 million annually, when the gas tax increase is fully phased in, and would "solve our problems for a decade or two decades."

In the past, Kaine has resisted calls to increase the gas tax, but he said yesterday there is a "high likelihood" he would sign one if approved by the General Assembly.

GOP delegates are floating a number of options, including tolling interstate highways and reauthorizing regional taxing districts in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia.

The cuts to the statewide plan came on top of the loss of $454 million in projects proposed by the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority. The NVTA projects were to be financed by taxes and fees on Northern Virginia residents. But the authority's taxing powers were ruled unconstitutional by the Virginia Supreme Court this year.

The NVTA cuts included funding for Metrorail, Virginia Railway Express and a proposed $29 million interchange at the Fairfax County Parkway and Monument Drive in the Fair Lakes section of Fairfax.

House Minority Whip M. Kirkland Cox (R-Colonial Heights) said there would be little incentive for House Republicans to act as long as Democratic leaders are pushing two competing plans.

"We certainly would be willing to fix the biggest piece that is broken, which is the regional plans, and that would take care of the immediate problem," Cox said.

Transportation Secretary Pierce R. Homer said the scaled-back statewide spending plan places relatively more emphasis on transit and on safety-related maintenance on bridges and pavement. State law requires that maintenance come before spending on new projects.