The 2007 Virginia General Assembly session ended in February with the first significant transportation funding package for the Commonwealth in the past 20 years.

• The legislation authorizes $3 billion in transportation bonds for statewide construction projects, as well as regional funding plans for Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia. If all the bill's funding mechanisms are implemented it would result in more than $1 billion a year for transportation.
  
  
• With the additional funding, Hampton Roads has the potential to raise $200 - $215 million annually, but the region must first create a regional transportation authority that would have the power to raise additional revenues for transportation. Projects in the area that would benefit from the additional funding include Rt. 460, I-64, Downtown/Midtown, Southeastern Pkwy/Dominion Blvd/Route 17, I-664, I-564 and Craney Island Connectors.
  
  
• Similarly, with the additional funding, Northern Virginia has the potential to raise $425 - $445 million annually. The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority has the power to raise about $325 million per year through the adoption of seven regional taxes and fees. Local jurisdictions could raise an additional $100 million or more by imposing three local fees. Of the $325 million generated regionally, 40 percent off the top is returned to the nine local jurisdictions in proportion to its origin/where it was raised. From the balance, $50 million would be allocated for Metrorail projects and $25 million for the Virginia Railway Express. The remainder of the funding would go toward regional road and transit projects.

Despite the transportation funding legislation passed by the General Assembly this year, the additional funding is only a beginning to solve Virginia's long-term transportation funding crisis.

• Virginia still faces more than $1 billion in unmet maintenance needs statewide. Despite the additional funding, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) will still have to take more than $200 million from the construction program every year to meet basic highway maintenance needs. (Source: Virginia Secretary of Transportation Pierce Homer, "2007 Transportation Initiative, HB 3202".)
  
  
• The newly allocated $3 billion in transportation bonds for statewide transportation projects will run out in nine years – only debt service will remain. Virginia needs a long-term, multimodal, sustainable transportation funding solution.
  
  
• The additional funding this year is still not enough to fund major statewide transportation CORRIDOR projects such as I-81, I-95, I-73, high speed rail and Rt. 460.
  
  
• The additional funding this year provides improvements to transit and rail that are long overdue. However, additional funds will be required to fully develop the intercity rail and regional transit networks that give travelers the convenient, seamless alternatives to driving they want. (Source: Virginia Transit Association, June 2007.)