Partisan Bickering Kills Va. Roads Bill

RICHMOND, July 9 -- The General Assembly's special session on transportation failed to come up with an agreement on how to pay for millions in road and transit projects across the state, including the most congested area of Northern Virginia.

Frustrated legislators spent Wednesday and early Thursday embroiled in name-calling and parliamentary maneuvers as Republicans and Democrats tried to blame each other for the session's failures.

The General Assembly ended its session at 1:32 a.m., after the Senate killed a remaining House bill that would have diverted proceeds from possible offshore oil drilling into transportation.

Despite nothing getting done, both Republicans and Democrats said the session was worth it.

"You certainly know where everyone stands now," Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax) said. "We did the best we can. I did my job and got a bill off the floor of the Senate that dealt with the problem. It didn't get out of the House."

Del. Timothy Hugo countered that it was the House Republicans who tried hardest.

"I hope people realize we tried and will continue to try to pass a bill that provides significant money to Northern Virginia," Hugo said.

"We should be ashamed of ourselves," House Minority Leader Ward L. Armstrong (D-Henry) said on the House floor. "Are we proud of what we are doing? . . . This is silly. This is gamesmanship."

The failed special session, the second on transportation since 2006, caps an effort to address one of the state's most pressing issues. Officials estimate that the state will face about a $3 billion shortfall over the next six years in the part of the budget used to maintain highways and bridges and that money devoted to new construction would instead x have to be used for maintenance.

It appears unlikely that an agreement will be reached until leadership changes in the Governor's Mansion or General Assembly. The issue may dominate the 2009 election, when Virginians will select a governor and all 100 members of the House of Delegates

In all, three major tax bills and a slew of other transportation proposals were considered. But not a single significant bill passed both chambers.

The House of Delegates revived a proposal by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) to raise $1.1 billion a year in taxes and fees, but this time his fellow Democrats helped kill it in the hopes that they could amend and pass another tax bill they preferred. After rejecting Kaine's bill, however, the House then defeated the Democratic-preferred Senate bill that would have raised additional taxes. Before killing the Senate bill, the House stripped out a provision to raise the gasoline tax. Only one Republican, Thomas Davis Rust of Fairfax, voted for the bill.