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A Call for a special session for transportation
The General Assembly adjourned last week without coming any closer to agreeing on a funding package for transportation. Now Gov. Tim Kaine must call a special session to deal with the matter.
After last year's passage of HB 3202 the Commonwealth was taking a step in the right direction to provide new and much needed funding for our detierorating transportation system. However, with the recent overruling of the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority's (and subsequently the Hampton Roads Transportation Authority's) taxing power by the Virginia Supreme Court, the bill has completely unraveled.
HB 3202 was expected to raise $1 billion annually with approximately half of these funds coming from the regional taxes and fees that would have been collected in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.
On top of this, the recent downturn in the economy and the elimination of the abusive driver fees have caused the Virginia Department of Transportation's (VDOT) budget and Six-Year Plan to be reduced by approximately $1.1 billion.
With this big of a blow to our state's transportation system, we are basically right back where we started before the passage of last year's legislation. Unfortunately our local (urban and secondary) roads are going to take the brunt of this hit with a 44 percent reduction in funding.
By law, funding for these types of construction projects must take a back seat to other statewide transportation funding needs. Ultimately many of the Commonwealth's much needed local transportation system improvements will be taken off of VDOT's Six-Year Improvement Plan and the majority of localities will now receive less local road funding than they did in 1996!
The repeal of the abusive driver fees will eliminate over $300 million for highway maintenance over the next six years. Coupled with already growing maintenance needs, VDOT will have to take more than $300 million a year out of the construction program just to cover basic maintenance.
Governor Kaine has announced that he will hold a special session to introduce another transportation plan during a special General Assembly session this spring. While the details for his plan have not been released, he said that he wants "to make sure the regions have the money they need and that statewide maintenance needs are addressed."
It is absolutely critical that we urge our local legislators to re-convene for a special session regarding transportation funding. Our transportation system is not only pivotal to the vitality of our state's economy, but also a huge factor in the safety of you and your family.
Please reach out to your local General Assembly members and urge then to support a fix for the Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads regional funding packages as well as a sustainable funding to address the Commonwealth's statewide maintenance funding shortfall.
It's time that the General Assembly lives up to its commitment to the Commonwealth's transportation system.
For more information about how to contact your legislator, Click here.
For information about the transportation funding shortfall, Click here.
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Lack of transportation funding to hit local roads the hardest
According to an editorial in The News and Advance, Bedford County's Board of Supervisors learned that beginning July 1 the VDOT budget for the county's secondary roads will be reduced by more than 40 percent over the next six years.
This reduction will put Bedford's funding for unpaved roads to about $150,000, which according to the editorial is enough to maybe pave one road.
The county has maintained a list of nearly 40 unpaved secondary roads they have hoped to get added to VDOT's Six-Year Plan for many years, but according to Bob Sutton, the county's residency administrator for VDOT, the money for such projects as paving unpaved roads has all but dried up. Sutton also added, "If you do the math, it would take 120 years to pave all those roads."
A decade ago, Sutton said, Bedford had $1 million to spend on unpaved roads each year and now it is around $200,000.
The drastic cut also means that 15 projects scheduled for completion over the next six years will be cut in half.
To read the entire editorial, Click here.
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Road funding burdens counties
According to a recent article in The Daily Progress, Virginia is only one of a handful of states in which secondary roads are constructed and maintained by a state agency.
However, with the recent dip in the economy and the lack of funding for The Virginia Department of Transportation's (VDOT) budget, Albemarle County may be forced to take its local road funding into its own hands.
Mark Graham, the county's director of community development, says the biggest worry is if Albemarle assumes more responsibility, will the dollars follow from the General Assembly? According to the article he is not optimistic.
"The state is slowly seeing its whole road system degenerate," Graham said. "They're not building the roads to keep up with the demand. The sate seems unwilling to fund it, and they don't seem to be willing to give the local governments the ability to fund the problem."
Albemarle officials say that road projects continue to stack up as the skyrocketing costs of construction doesn't keep pace with money allocations from the state. County officials say they have become increasingly frustrated with projects that get put off and set back, both because of lack of funding and because they get caught up in VDOT's bureaucracy.
To read the entire article, Click here.
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The Commonwealth will have $1.1 billion less for roads
According to a recent article in The Virginian-Pilot, Virginia will have $1.1 billion less to spend on roads in the next six years.
Hit especially hard are the sources of money that Hampton Roads relies on to make most of its primary and secondary road improvements. These projects will see a funding reduction of approximately 44 percent.
"Forty-four percent is close to half of our construction money for urban, secondary and primary programs," Transportation Secretary Pierce Homer said. "That's a very significant loss of funding."
The decline will be extremely difficult for cities that had seen a brief increase in local funding after last year's transportation bill brought the first significant infusion of new money for roads and rail projects in two decades.
"The primary, secondary and urban funds are at 25 percent of their high marks of 15 years ago," said Dwight Farmer, deputy executive director for transportation at the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission. "When you account for inflation, we're getting one-tenth of what we were getting in the early 1990s."
To read the entire editorial, Click here.
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To read more about local road funding woes click on the following links:
Click here to see how VDOT's shrinking Secondary Road Construction Plan will affect Clarke County's road funding budget.
Click here to see how James City is affected by VDOT's 44 percent local road funding reduction.
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For more information about the transportation funding crisis or Virginians for Better Transportation, call 804-237-1399 or Click here to visit the It's Time Web site.
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