BY CHELYEN DAVIS
RICHMOND--
It may be months before state lawmakers hold a special session to deal with transportation issues.What was already a standoff between the two political parties over whether to offer more money for statewide transportation needs is now also a disagreement between two groups of Democrats over how to pay for such a statewide plan.
Democrats, pushing for some sort of statewide revenue increase to pay for rising maintenance costs, can't agree on what form of tax that should take.
Many Senate Democrats want a gas tax, while some House Democrats are leaning toward using the sales tax.
Meanwhile, Republicans are still adamant that solving the transportation issue shouldn't involve a statewide tax at all. Instead, they want to reconstitute two regional transportation authorities and be done.
The stalemate doesn't seem to have moved at all since the legislative session ended, and at least one Democratic leader says that even if a plan is agreed to, public hearings should be held before it's voted on, which would put a transportation special session even later in the year.
"The need continues to grow," said Sen. Edd Houck, D-Spotsylvania. "The inability to find compromise continues. So we're no further down the road."
The issue is one lawmakers thought they had solved last year with a sweeping transportation package.
It raised various taxes and fees, instituted bonds and imposed fines on abusive drivers, but the biggest part of the package was the creation of two regional authorities, one in Northern Virginia and one in Hampton Roads, to raise taxes and spend the money on projects in those regions.
But the abusive-driving fees proved so unpopular that lawmakers decided to repeal them. Then, just days before the regular legislative session ended in March, the state Supreme Court knocked down the two regional authorities.
The court said that the authorities were not elected and thus not allowed to levy taxes.
Lawmakers immediately began talking about a way to rebuild the authorities around that ruling. Republicans say it would be easy to do, but Democrats see an opportunity to push for statewide transportation solutions.
The General Assembly ended its session without having done anything to revive the regional authorities.
In the weeks since, there have been closed-door meetings and talks between legislators and Gov. Tim Kaine, who has promised to call a special session on transportation, but those meetings haven't moved either side toward compromise.
Kaine recently told reporters no action would be taken until sometime after this Wednesday's veto session.
"We're in dialogue until after the reconvened [session]," Kaine said.
He plans to submit a new transportation bill of his own, but that also won't happen until after the veto session.
Kaine and others have been quoted as saying they don't think a transportation special session will be called until May or June.
But Del. Ward Armstrong, D-Henry, the House minority leader, says he doesn't think a special session could, or should, be held as early as this spring.
"I think it's going to take us longer than that," Armstrong said. "This thing is pretty complicated, and I don't think we can put something together by then and build a consensus. If we have to go back to the drawing board, we need to get it right this time. We're not going to construct a bill that has a bunch of gimmicks in it."
Armstrong is one who wants a statewide revenue source for road maintenance, which is costing more every year and threatens to drain the road construction budget within a few years.
"We're still kicking around some things. I would say that all three parties--the governor and the Senate leadership and our House leadership--are pretty resolute that whatever we do has got to have a statewide component to it," Armstrong said. "The regional fixes, while certainly that's on the table, you can't do that alone because of the maintenance reserve problem."
Armstrong didn't want to detail the options discussed in closed-door sessions of Democratic leaders, but said he personally is against a gas-tax increase.
While Democrats privately discuss what type of tax would best raise revenue for statewide maintenance, Republicans accuse Democrats of muddying the issue of the regional authorities.
"Statewide [maintenance] was never discussed" before the court's ruling, said House Speaker Bill Howell, R-Stafford. "And for [Kaine] to all of a sudden interject it, what he's doing is holding Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads' solutions hostage to a statewide tax increase."
Howell said at least $550 million for transportation, some of it from bonds, remains from last year's bill. That's new, statewide money, he said.
"So there's not a crisis statewide that has to be fixed before you can fix what needs to be done for Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads," Howell said. "And yet he's costing them a million dollars a day in new transportation revenue by not allowing a special session until he gets an agreement on a statewide tax increase, and what's particularly galling about that is, I don't think he could get it through the Democratic caucus. And if it's not going to pass either caucus in the House, why hold on to it?"
Howell said Republicans are working on their own proposals, but are waiting to see what the governor comes up with.
"We're having a lot of talks and we're doing a lot of different things, but it would sure be interesting to know where he is," Howell said. "To me it would be easy. What the Supreme Court said was unconstitutional was the two regional plans. Let's fix them."
Armstrong thinks that is shortsighted because, he said, the regional authorities may raise more money but the maintenance needs will continue to drain it.
"I'd like to know how he wants us to do that for free," Armstrong said. "I'm frankly a little tired of their rhetoric. Let's hear proposals instead of just firing back at us. We're trying to come up with a solution. Where's your plan?"
Chelyen Davis: 804/782-9362
Email: cdavis@freelancestar.com