We also applaud the governor's contention that higher gasoline taxes not be included, for, as he has explained at several Town Hall meetings in recent weeks, this would "hit the hardest those who have already taken the hardest hits" at the hands of our "stagflationary" national economy. Yes, the gas tax is simple, and it appears to be a logical choice for roadway funding, but it is also one of the most regressive choices.

As a percentage of income--the only sound way to assess tax equity (and on one critical level, tax soundness, as well)--gasoline taxes take the most from those who have the least. First adopted by all states in the 1910s and 1920s when only 30 percent to 40 percent of American families owned automobiles, the gasoline tax was something of a luxury tax that quickly became a much more regressive user fee. Moreover, when Virginia adopted its first gasoline tax, a highest-in-the-nation three cents in 1923, no state had yet to adopt a sales tax, and only 11 had individual or corporate income taxes. Sounder alternatives, in other words, had yet to be established or tested very effectively.

Out of VOP's decade-long study of the state's tax system, we contend that no public official--including Gov. Kaine--has put forth a transportation funding proposal that adheres to sound public finance principles, including the critical concern for equity reflected in the governor's rejection of new gasoline taxes. Asking localities to shoulder the full responsibility ignores ongoing state funding deficits and encourages the fragmentation of what ought to be a state system, but also compels transportation funding at a place where it is certain to be financed regressively.