How refreshing. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and Republican leaders in the General Assembly are finally talking to one another about transportation — and doing so cordially, no less. Judging by the multiple news reports, the lawmakers’ closed-door meeting yesterday was fairly productive.
Kaine must submit his amendments to HB 3202 by Monday, and the legislature has until April 4 to accept or reject them. Apparently, much of the conversation centered on finding areas of common ground.
Michael Hardy and Jeff Schapiro report in the Times-Dispatch: “The lawmakers indicated that there appeared to be major progress toward reaching a transportation agreement on a batch of regional tax and fee increases to raise more than $400 million a year for Northern Virginia and $200 million for Hampton Roads.”
Christina Nuckols reports much the same in the Virginian-Pilot: “Several of the 10 lawmakers participating in the latest meeting said they do not expect to reach compromise on every change the governor wants to make. However, they said they have agreed on most details of the regional funding plans for Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia.”
Seth McLaughlin at the Washington Times notes areas of continued disagreement: “Mr. Kaine opposes paying the state’s debt with money from the general fund, which primarily pays for schools, police and social services. He also has legal concerns about charging repeat driving offenders larger fines and wants to reduce or eliminate the option for Northern Virginia localities to increase the commercial real estate tax. “
If this legislation passes, my concern is that legislators will declare victory and move on to other topics. My sense is that everyone has had a belly full of the transportation issue over the past three or four years, and that there will be little appetite to follow up with a second round of reforms. While HB 3202 does do some useful things — particularly in prioritizing road projects and devolving more responsibility for secondary roads to localities — it doesn’t come close to “fixing” the problem. More roads will get built, but congestion will not improve. Taxes will rise, but they won’t prove sufficient.
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