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How does the ruling affect Hampton Roads?
The Hampton Roads Transportation Authority, created under the same law as the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, is now forbidden to levy taxes and fees. The authority was planning to impose seven taxes and fees on May 1 – but now has no way to fund itself.
What communities are in the HRTA?
The cities of Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Hampton, Newport News, Poquoson and Williamsburg, and the counties of Isle of Wight, James City and York.
What happened?
Last year, the General Assembly gave the regional agencies for Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia the power to levy a select group of fees and taxes in their regions and to impose tolls. The money was to pay for major local transportation projects. Each authority was to be governed by an unelected board that included the mayors or county board chairmen of each region .
The Virginia Supreme Court unanimously ruled Friday that the regional agencies don’t have the constitutional authority to levy the taxes and fees.
Why?
The General Assembly is prohibited from delegating its power to levy taxes and fees, the court said. If legislators want to levy those taxes and fees, they must make the decision themselves.
What happens next?
General Assembly members weren’t sure Friday. Several legislators say there is consensus that the large transportation projects need to be built, but there is no agreement on how to pay for them. The governor suggested a special session to address the issue later this year.
Can Friday’s state ruling be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court?
No. The issue involves the state constitution, not the U.S. Constitution.
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The HRTA
Well Mr. Barrett, the question appears to most of the bloggers on this subject is that YOU and the ones in your profession would be one the only ones that prosper, vice Virginia. The House of Delegates aren't the only ones to blame here. The Virginia Senate ALSO endorsed this "LOVE FEST" called the Hampton Roads Tax---Transportation Authority. Is it too much to ask that the GA play by the Constitution rather than pass the buck to an unelected body that NOBODY wanted. I attended the meetings and listened to all of this bulls*it about we taxpayers wanting a free ride. I have paid for my ride as everyone else has on this blog. Are you suggesting that The House ignore it constituents and their wishes? If you suggest all members of The House resign on false pretenses, then the same should be said of the Senate and Governor as well. THEY ARE ALL TO BLAME because they all signed off on it.
You also seem to assume that the folks that drive the roads around here don't have a clue as to road projects would benefit their needs. That is what is ABSURD! If any group that needs to resign are those donuts in The HRPDC.
Fix the Problem or Resign
Regretfully, the proposal by Speaker of the House Howell is not a solution; it is just an example of why we are in the dilemma we now face. That is, the House of Delegates has refused to fulfill one of its primary responsibilities which is to provide a transportation system so that Virginia can prosper. It is as if he believes the voters can design a system and a method to pay for it that would garner a majority vote. How incredibly absurd! To suggest that is just to basically admit that the Commonwealth will continue to defer improvements to the system, that we will stop building new projects, that we will give back our federal funds because we refuse to match them with state dollars, and we will wait until all the citizens of Hampton Roads can get together in a lovefest and design and pay for new transportation infrastrucure. No, they need to act now. They ran on a platform of having solved the transportation crisis. If they don't fix it, all members of the House should resign for running under false pretenses.
NO HRTA
The HRTA needs to go away.
So if?
Where is the funding for the HRTA to do anything? I suggest that the developers....the Hampton Roads Development Authority fund this endover. Oh, that's right. Developers don't have to pay for anything, they just develop and let the taxpayer pay. I agree, no need to miss a beat, tax the over-development that has created the transportation gridlock and we can all be happy. Except that developers don't pay. They just rake in the money. So Mr. Barrett, when will you assist to fund the HRTA? I await your check.
imposter
I think td84719 is actually just Mike Barrett with an alias. Don't listen to him. This is all about profit for his business interests. He doesn't care about you or me and what this area has been doing the past few years to lower our take home income and degrade our standard of living!
If the court says..."The
If the court says..."The General Assembly is prohibited from delegating its power to levy taxes and fees. If legislators want to levy those taxes and fees, they must make the decision themselves"...it seems like the solution can be complex if we want to reopen the can of worms, or simple. That is, let the General Assembly simply pass the taxes and fees. Afterall, if they voted to solve the problem then, there is no reason why they should not vote to do so again. And if they believe a different mix of fees or taxes is appropriate, then pass the existing fees as it and if you can develop consensus on some new scheme, then substitute that when it can pass. In the meantime, the HRTA can get to work designing the projects, completing the environmental studies, and issuing RFP's to get the work done. No real need to miss a beat, but of course, that means the GA must act. We should not let them off the hook; they ran on the faxt they had provided a solution; so make it so.
We can't blame anyone but ourselves
We vote these people in office and then we set them free. We don't watch what they are voting on, because we have the notion they are looking out for us. That is the biggest mistake any of us can make. If you are not signed up for sites like congress.org where you get to voice your opinion before our elected officals vote and then get a vote record on how they actually did vote, then we can't blame anyone but ourselves. If we do not continue to write/call them and let them know how we feel, then we cannot blame anyone but ourselves.
Reid, Reid, Reid
Somebody tell Reid that developers don't "dump" drivers on the roads. Developers build housing, rental and for sale, because, golly gee, our fellow citizens need places to live! Sometimes, we ourselves need places to live! So we buy houses, and our kids rent apartments, and then, they buy houses! And then, nature being what it is, they have kids too, so they need bigger houses, and they want to live in good school districts. And then, they like to live near their work, if they can afford it, but usually they cannot afford it, because housing close to employment centers is usually expensive because people like Reid complain about developers and development, so when the shortage of housing happens, prices skyrocket and our kids have to move to Suffolk and Isle of Wight to find the house they can afford, but then they have to drive back to Norfolk or Greenbrier or Va Beach to work. So then, they complain about the traffic on the roads.
Want a real life example of this? That's how northern Va.'s problems got to their present state. But of course, it can't happen here! Right????
*Sigh*
Gov't only gets bigger until something bad happens (it's coming). It expands, and more tax money is required to fuel it. HRTA was a bad idea, but there are way bigger problems on the horizon. A huge amount of tax revenue generated from housing and employment is going to go away, and it's going to create a huge problem for the municipalities. I've seeing talk of some places in California where the cities are talking bankruptcy. We're likely going to have bank failures due to the greed and stupidity over the past few years, and with the investments blowing up the world is likely to think America cheated them, and are not going to want to buy our debt. We depend on them buying our debt. But I'm sure the local "leaders" have no clue about any of this.
Cutting Back
When you say that there is plenty of tax money in the pot, we just have to redistribute it properly, so no new taxes are needed, sounds really great. The problem is that the legislators won't cut back on their pet projects, the ones that major contributors support. The first words you hear is that cutbacks in the schools, public works, law enforcement, roads and maintenance, the basic things that we must have adequately funded, will be required. Remember, we hired these legislators to represent us. Once they get in office if we just cut them loose and turn away, they will do whatever they want to do. Like all employees, they need to be trained and supervised in order to get a good days work out of them. Unfortunately, if you turn your back, you get what you've got now. They start looking out for themselves and not their employer. Us managers need to get it together and make our employees earn their pay and begin worrying about their progress reports and evaluations. We need to start documenting their performance so we can justify necessary disciplinary action. That's what good managers/business owners must do.