TRANSPORTATION
FUNDING UPDATE
The Governor has until March 26th to submit his
amendments to the transportation funding legislation (HB
3202.) The General Assembly will return on April 4th to
vote on those amendments.
The Governor and legislators need to hear from you
about our priorities. The bill (HB 3202) has
significant flaws that must be fixed if we are going to
provide a meaningful solution to the transportation
funding crisis. Here are the points to make in your
communications to the Governor and your legislators:
- The legislation must solve the highway
maintenance funding problem. This year VDOT will
take $450 million from the construction program to
cover immediate maintenance shortfalls. That number
grows by $50 million dollars a year just to keep up
with inflation. HB 3202 provides less than $200
million a year in maintenance funding. Under this
plan, the patient (VDOT) will continue to bleed to
death.
- The legislation must have enough sustainable
money to address the funding crisis. There is
less than $300 million of "sustainable"
funding (funding that can be expected to occur year
after year) in HB 3202. There has been general
consensus that at least $1 billion a year in
"sustainable" funding is needed to meet
our transportation needs.
- The regional transportation funding packages
must work. The legislation does not provide any
new revenues for Northern Virginia or Hampton Roads.
Rather, the legislation allows those regions to
raise $400 million and $200 million respectively, if
they enact a series of new fees and taxes. The only
fees and taxes they are allowed to enact are those
in the bill. In addition, if the Northern Virginia
localities enact the new fees and taxes, they must
take over their road construction program. Fairfax,
Loudoun and Price William counties have already said
they would not enact the provisions of the bill. In
Hampton Roads there are not currently seven
(required in the legislation) local governments that
will adopt the new local revenue provisions in the
bill. We need to have regional funding packages that
local governments will use to provide new revenues
for transportation in their community.
You can e-mail the Governor at: Governor's
E-Mail
Your legislator's contact information can be found
at: Contact
your Legislator
|
