The debate over Rail-to-Dulles has taken a fascinating new twist. For years the controversy over the heavy rail project and its concomitant financing through Dulles Toll Road revenues has been a purely Northern Virginia issue. It received zero coverage in the Rest of Virginia (RoVa). Ninety-nine percent of downstate residents were ignorant of it, and the other one percent was indifferent (with the exception of your humble correspondent and a handful of others).
Now Rail-to-Dulles financing has become the sole remaining object of dispute between Senate Republicans and Democrats in resolving the state budget impasse. The controversy has spilled over regional boundaries. Suddenly, what happens in NoVa matters to RoVa.
So far, the proposal to borrow an additional $300 million — to be applied to reducing Dulles Toll Road fares incurred to help finance Phase 2 of the Rail-to-Dulles construction — has divided the General Assembly according to partisan, not regional, lines. Senate Democrats from RoVa have hung tough on the issue, even though their constituents will help shoulder the added debt burden. That raises the issue of whether Rail-to-Dulles is really a cause or pretext. Is it just a tool for getting Senate Dems what they really want, which is parity in committee and subcommittee representation in line with their 20 seats in the 40-member body?
It will be interesting to see if regional tensions manifest themselves later today at the Commonwealth Transportation Board. The McDonnell administration will ask the board to allocate $100 million to help offset tolls for the Midtown-Downtown Tunnel project in Norfolk and Portsmouth. Sounds fair, considering that Governor Bob McDonnell has already promised $150 million in state funds for Rail-to-Dulles (possibly contingent upon resolution of a controversy over Project Labor Agreements in the bidding process). Is that enough to mollify CTB members from Northern Virginia? Will they express support for the additional $300 million in borrowed funds? Will rural representatives object to all the swag going to urban districts. Or will they simply rubber stamp administration requests?
Stay tuned.
— JAB