Kaine challenges GOP lawmakers on transportation

BY JIM NOLAN
AND JEFF E. SCHAPIRO
Media General News Service
Published: May 29, 2008

In the run-up to next month’s General Assembly session, Democrats and Republicans remain far apart on transportation — literally and figuratively.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, speaking at a transportation conference yesterday at the Capital One complex in suburban Goochland County, challenged House Republicans to be “problem-solvers,“ not “problem-avoiders” when lawmakers return June 23.

Kaine urged 150 business leaders to pressure legislators to make new investments in road and rail. Kaine also talked up his nearly $1 billion package in new taxes and fees. “No plan is not a plan,“ the Democrat said.

Kaine asked out loud, “We say we want to do something, but are we willing to invest? Are we willing to have an infrastructure that’s on the mend or on

the decline?“

Later, at the General Assembly Building in downtown Richmond, Republicans — again vowing to block higher taxes — said a fix for transportation should include a bigger role for private business.

That might include multibillion-dollar lease-and-maintenance deals for highways, bridges and tunnels. Such states as Indiana, Texas and Pennsylvania have enacted or are considering such plans.

Unless Virginia fashions these partnerships, it will fall entirely to the state — and by extension, taxpayers — to generate dollars necessary for transit, suggested Del. Joe T. May, R-Loudoun, chairman of the Joint Commission on Transportation Responsibility.

Republicans spotlighted public-private arrangements during a commission meeting heavily attended by lobbyists for transportation and construction firms as well as industries that could be hit by new taxes, including automobile dealers. They are rallying against Kaine’s proposal for a rise in motor-vehicle sales levies.

House Republicans, at this point, want only to bring last year’s hard-won transit-financing plan in line with a Virginia Supreme Court edict.

With the court having ruled that taxing power for unelected authorities in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads is illegal, the GOP is proposing extending it, instead, to localities within the traffic-clogged regions.

Kaine said lawmakers can’t “put it on the shoulders of the poor schlubs in local government to pass taxes” that they should have the political courage to enact themselves.

The commission May heads was created under the 2007 transportation initiative, chunks of which were scrapped by the court and the General Assembly — forcing next month’s special session , which legislative staff members say could last two or three days.

A total of $500 million in bonding authority was lopped from the package by the Supreme Court decision in February. An additional $65 million was lost when lawmakers retreated this winter on bad-driver fees following a voter revolt.

Further compounding Virginia’s transportation headache: the down economy and fuel prices, which keep going up. Secretary of Transportation Pierce Homer said this means usually reliable sources of dollars, such as the fuel tax, are less so.

As he told the commission, “They were built on a foundation that is sliding.“

Contact Jim Nolan at (804) 649-6061 or .

Contact Jeff E. Schapiro (804) 649-6814 or .