BY KELLY HANNON
The two candidates for governor have made proposals for funding transportation in Virginia.
BOB McDONNELL'S PLAN
Add tolls on Interstates 95 and 85 northbound for vehicles entering Virginia from North Carolina, generating $50 million a year.
This requires Federal Highway Administration approval.
Dedicate 75 percent of the state's annual budget surplus to transportation.
McDonnell estimates this could mean $86 million a year. But a surplus is not a reliable annual source; the state has not had one in several years.
Privatize ABC stores.
McDonnell says the one-time sale could raise $500 million for transportation, based on estimates in a commission report overseen by former Gov. Doug Wilder in 2002. However, Wilder's $500 million figure actually included efficiencies in other state agencies as well as privatizing ABC stores.
McDonnell also estimates the state would save $115 million in operating costs, while still collecting $179 million in taxes on wine, beer and spirits.
Audit VDOT.
VDOT is reducing staff by 1,000 full-time positions and 450 hourly workers, consolidating offices, scaling back maintenance services such as median mowing, and has shuttered 18 rest areas and outsourced some services.
But McDonnell's plan thinks another audit of VDOT could find $50 million in savings a year.
Use public-private partnerships and high occupancy toll lanes.
Some public-private partnerships have had success, although a proposal to build HOT lanes on I-95 has been slowed by community concerns, a lawsuit and a tough credit market for project financing.
Financing for large-scale projects may continue to be a problem until the economy turns around.
Both McDonnell and Deeds support the HOT-lanes project on I-95, which would build several thousand commuter parking spaces in the Fredericksburg area.
Drill offshore for oil and natural gas.
McDonnell proposes dedicating 80 percent of offshore drilling proceeds to transportation.
His campaign estimated the state could raise $5 billion over the next 30 years, translating to $132 million annually for transportation, plus $45 million a year in taxes from oil and natural gas.
However, these figures are all based on estimates, and drilling has not begun.
Let Northern Virginia retain sales tax.
McDonnell has proposed that 30 percent of all sales taxes in Northern Virginia stay there, going into a regional account, raising about $105 million a year just for Northern Virginia projects.
This idea would sidestep the concept of a regional transportation authority having taxing authority, which was declared unconstitutional by the Virginia Supreme Court in 2008.
CREIGH DEEDS' PLAN
Deeds says almost everything, including raising the gas tax, is on the table for transportation revenue, but hasn't committed to any specifics.
Deeds says the transportation problem cannot be solved without new revenue, but says the decision about where such revenue would come from will be made by a commission he'd convene after being elected, and would have to garner bipartisan support in the legislature.
He has said he thinks transportation revenue should have a "nexus" with the system it pays for--i.e., that the people who use it should be the ones who pay for it.
Deeds also advocates a statewide solution, not just a regional one.
The specifics in Deeds' transportation plan are not related to money, but instead to road and transit improvements.
Those include:
Increase oversight of VDOT.
Bring high-speed rail to Virginia.
Reduce congestion and commute times in Northern Virginia, cutting rush hour congestion by 5 percent a year in part by offering tax incentives to encourage telework.
Expand freight and passenger rail, and utilize bus rapid transit.
Expand capacity of bridges, tunnels and emergency evacuation routes in Hampton Roads.
Promote smarter land-use planning, including promoting growth in areas that already have transportation and other infrastructure, and continuing efforts to better coordinate land-use planning across jurisdictions
Expand road and rail projects in Southwest and Southside Virginia, including a promise to finish building the Coalfields Expressway in far Southwest Virginia.