State budget battle may boil down to transportation

Published 10:50 pm Saturday, February 18, 2012

By Hannah Hess

Virginia Statehouse News

Virginia’s crumbling roads will force lawmakers into “uncharted territory” this spring, as they divvy up taxpayer dollars to develop a budget, a political science professor predicted Wednesday.

Email newsletter signup

Michael McDonald, of George Mason University in Fairfax, said the budget fight could envelop the evenly divided state Senate in partisan gridlock.

Democrats support raising the gas tax as one way to avoid diverting sales tax funds.

Tom Kazemi, station manager at Jermantown Shell in Fairfax, said he worries that raising the state’s 17.5-cent-per-gallon gas tax on July 1, 2012 — a solution the Senate advanced to solve transportation and human services funding problems — would hurt gas stations statewide.

“It’s funny that they want to raise the price of gas right before summer driving season,” Kazemi said. He predicted car owners would cut down on their driving to cope with higher prices.

Senate Bill 639, sponsored by state Sen. Frank Wagner, R-Virginia Beach, would index the gas tax annually to the U.S. Department of Labor’s producer price index for nonresidential construction.

It cleared the Senate on Tuesday, 26-14, but a similar proposal — House Bill 899, sponsored by Delegate David Albo, D-Fairfax — was rejected in committee.

“There are some on our side of the aisle who say, ‘Why are you going to force Virginians, solely Virginians, to fund a transportation system and let out-of-state people use it for free?’” said Delegate Jenn McClellan, D-Richmond, who supports raising the gas tax.

Democrats and Republicans acknowledge that repairing the state’s shoddy roads must be part of the final budget, but they disagree on how to do it.

The 2011 legislative elections transformed the Senate into a split body of 20 Democrats and 20 Republicans, but the GOP has controlled divisive issues — such as abortion and gun rights — thanks to the tie-breaking vote of Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling.

Bolling can’t cast a vote on the state’s spending plan, so Republicans will need to win a vote from the other side of the aisle — or compromise with the Democrats — to craft a budget.

McDonald said a stalemate is possible, if the chambers can’t reach a compromise. Passing a budget requires 51 votes in the 100-member House, and 21 votes in the 40-member Senate.

Doubt over the fate of the budget, and whether the bill will be sent to Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell by the March 10 date of adjournment, “speaks to the fact that we are in a more polarized environment than we ever were in the past,” McDonald said.

Last year, lawmakers crafted the largest transportation investment in state history into the budget — $4 billion via bonds and grants lent to localities.

McDonnell’s office announced Wednesday, after the monthly meeting of the Commonwealth Transportation Board, that all construction projects funded by the investment are on time and on budget.

This year, McDonnell asked for a statewide Virginia Toll Authority with the power to impose tolls on bridges, tunnels and highways, plus a 0.25-percent increase in the share of state sales taxes dedicated to transportation, which would be implemented over the next eight years.

McDonnell’s package, House Bill 1248, sponsored by Delegate Scott Lingamfelter, R-Prince William, passed the House, 63-35, on Tuesday.

But a Senate Finance Committee shed the sales tax proposal and the Virginia Toll Authority from McDonnell’s transportation package, replacing it with provisions to index the gas tax to inflation.

“Tolls are taxes on the poor,” state Sen. Yvonne Miller, D-Norfolk, said Wednesday, explaining that many of her Hampton Roads constituents travel across bridges proposed to have tolls on a daily basis. “Tolls are taxes on people who want to get from one place to another.”

Virginia has several toll facilities — in Northern Virginia, central Virginia and Hampton Roads.

E-Z Pass, an automated toll collection system that allows motorists to pay without stopping at toll booths, is available on many of the roads.

Dulles Toll Road, Route 267 in Fairfax County, is a 14-mile toll road that stretches from the Capital Beltway west to Dulles International Airport. Tolls range from 75 cents to $2.25.

The Downtown Expressway and Powhite Parkway form a 16-mile highway network that extends from Interstates 95 and 195 in Richmond to central Chesterfield County. Tolls range from 15 cents to $1.50, depending on vehicle size and toll-collection location.

The Richmond Metropolitan Authority operates the tolls.

Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, Route 13, is a 23-mile bridge and tunnel structure that stretches across the bay to connect Virginia’s Eastern Shore to Virginia Beach. Tolls vary depending on vehicle size, from $12 for passenger vehicles up to $42 for six-axle tractor-trailer trucks.

It is operated by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel District.