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Will state deal with highway woes?
Governor, state legislators will have to agree that Virginia has a transportation funding problem before they can solve highway woes
BY CHELYEN DAVIS
Date published: 5/15/2008
BY CHELYEN DAVIS
RICHMOND --One thing's for sure in the General Assembly's debate about transportation funding: It'll be pretty hard to agree on a solution when they don't agree on what the problem is.
Gov. Tim Kaine this week unveiled a transportation funding plan that raises about $1 billion in new money, about half of which would be dedicated to road maintenance.
He has called a special session of the General Assembly to address transportation starting June 23.
Kaine and fellow Democrats say maintenance funding is becoming a critical problem.
But Republicans in the House of Delegates say Kaine's administration is underestimating revenue estimates. They distrust his figures and believe the funding problem--if there is one--is not as bad as the governor says.
So does the state have a maintenance funding problem or not?
Apparently, yes. The Virginia Department of Transportation's numbers back it up. Even House Speaker Bill Howell, R-Stafford County, acknowledges that there are issues with maintenance funding, although he disagrees with Kaine on how bad it is and how to fix it.
State law requires that money for transportation go toward maintenance of existing roads and infrastructure first, with what's left over going toward construction of new roads and bridges and other transportation needs.
Maintenance has its own fund, gathered from the gas tax, the vehicle registration fee, and the sales tax on vehicles.
But since 2002, those revenue sources have not brought in enough money to cover the cost of maintenance. That's in part because the state's roads are aging and maintaining them costs more. In addition, the cost of materials used in repairs such as asphalt and steel are escalating far beyond inflation.
MATERIAL COSTS RISE
The American Road and Transportation Builders' Association reported last year that the cost of materials for highway and street contractors had increased 43 percent since 2003.
Meanwhile, the revenue sources that pay for maintenance aren't keeping pace, says Barbara Reese, deputy secretary of transportation.
The gas tax in Virginia is a flat tax--17.5 cents a gallon--instead of a tax on the percentage of sales.
So if you have the same car you had five years ago, you're paying the same amount of state sales tax to fill it up as you did then, even though the current cost of the gas is much higher.
Couple the flat tax rate with more fuel-efficient cars, Reese said, and you've got a source of revenue that isn't increasing as fast as the costs of maintenance.
When the gas tax, and the other sources of revenue, don't bring in enough to pay for escalating maintenance costs, the money is made up from the construction fund.
In 2002, VDOT took $3.6 million from construction to cover maintenance needs. By this year, that number has jumped to $260 million.
Date published: 5/15/2008
Most recent reader comments:
Yeah Right
(posted by
winwood
, May 15, 2008 10:49 am)
Yeah, I got it. Bill Howell has a plan but he won't be able to announce it for two weeks. He's been so critical of the Govner, but his pants are down.
Too many hangups
(posted by
GlenK
, May 15, 2008 9:55 am)
The state legislature has too many hang-ups and emotional baggage to deal intelligently with the transportation problem.
The only possible solution is to change the business culture on telecommuting, and make it more psychologically acceptable!
Even with all of the emotional baggage that carries, it's still a path of less resistance than the state legislature!.
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