Tom Holden
The Virginian-Pilot
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Eight Hampton Roads lawmakers said Monday they would support a 1 cent regional sales tax increase to finance new road construction so long as the Hampton Roads Transportation Authority is eliminated in the deal.
The delegates said they would support legislation either to have the General Assembly impose the higher tax, or allow the region's cities and counties to enact the tax.
A 1 -cent-on-the-dollar sales tax increase, excluding food and drug sales, is thought to raise about $153.8 million a year if imposed on 12 localities in Hampton Roads, according to the Virginia Department of Taxation. The sales tax is now 5 percent.
A higher sales tax was the centerpiece of a failed transportation referendum in 2002 that voters rejected by a wide margin. Since then, the region has struggled to develop a transportation plan that could pay for six huge projects mostly located at water crossings that could cost $9 billion.
The Republican delegates from the Peninsula and South Hampton Roads issued two statements Monday urging the higher tax in light of a Virginia Supreme Court ruling that struck down the taxing power of regional transportation authorities as unconstitutional.
Stung by the court's insistence that taxing power must come from the General Assembly, the lawmakers suddenly found a year's work on transportation unraveling and no clear way to build new capacity at the region's most congested crossings.
Then a letter from Roberto Fonseca-Martinez, division administrator of the Federal Highway Administration in Richmond, made it clear to state and local leaders that unless they have a method to pay for their big road projects, those plans would have to be shelved.
That would leave only one of the region's six projects - a new Midtown Tunnel - as financially feasible, and only with new tolls on the existing tunnel and the Downtown facility.
Del. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, said Monday that would "leave too many of our residents outside of Norfolk and Portsmouth without solutions to their transportation problems."
Joining Jones in support of the higher tax were Dels. Robert Tata, R-Virginia Beach; John Cosgrove, R-Chesapeake; Terrie Suit, R-Virginia Beach; and Sal Iaquinto, R-Virginia Beach. Peninsula-based supporters are Dels. Phil Hamilton, R-Newport News, Glenn Oder, R-Newport News; and Brenda Pogge, R-James City.
The proposal could be raised today at a meeting of the House Transportation Committee.
In addition to the sales tax proposal, the Peninsula lawmakers insist that some of the revenue from the new taxes be spent on a wider Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel and other Peninsula projects.
Regional transportation planners have backed a new crossing between Hampton and Norfolk that would widen the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel and then build a connector from the south island to Interstate 64 as a relief valve for the crowded Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel.
Rather than widen the HRBT, planners have said a wider Monitor-Merrimac would provide congestion relief and greatly improve port access, easing truck traffic that today creates regional headaches.
Sen. Kenneth Stolle, R-Virginia Beach, said he is opposed to a Hampton Roads transportation plan that deviates from the current project list.
"They don't decide what the projects are," Stolle said. The Metropolitan Planning Organization makes that decision, and the MPO's projects come first, he said. "I don't think that's going to have a very warm reception in the Senate," he said.
Gordon Hickey, spokesman for Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, reiterated Kaine's position that a statewide solution must be combined with regional ones.
"But he's glad to see that people are taking this seriously," Hickey said Monday.
About the regional sales tax proposal, Hickey said, "It's too early to speak to that specific proposal. It's all hypothetical at this point."
Tom Holden, (757) 446-2331, tom.holden@pilotonline.com
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Ignorant?
Mr. Barrett, I assure you sir that I am not ignorant. What is preposterous is guys like you and those of you in the real estate development business try to push this same BS that these projects will relieve gridlock. It makes no difference to me whether the mayors of the political jurisdictions, the MPO, the HRPDC, the Attorney General, the Governor, or The Pope signed off on these projects. It is a bold face LIE that these six transportation projects at a cost of $4B or more dollars will relieve the traffic gridlock in Tidewater that the folks here in Virginia Beach expect it to relieve. This is how it is being sold. The same bottlenecks and choke points will STILL be there after these projects are built. These six projects were designed to relieve congestion for the ports with the benefits going to business. Any relief at all that these projects would provide would be minimal at the very least. Apparently it gets your goat when some of us out here pay attention to what is going on, rather than roll over and play dead. Now that WOULD justify being ignorant.
Sorry for the misinformation
Sorry for the misinformation in my last post when I said the projects have escalated by $1,000,000,000 since 2002. None other than Delegate John Cosgrove from Chesapeake, an anti tax delegate if I have ever seen one, was quoted in the Daily Press as having said the cost of the projects have doubled in the last three years. That is absolutely incredible; thanks John Moss, thanks Robert Dean, and all your craxed followers like Reid Greenmun, and your advocates like Delegate Johnny Joannou and Tom Gear. When Robert Dean appeared on the Kathy Lewis show this week and bragged about the TV ad he and others supported that cost only $36,000, in which Gear and Joannou appeared, the actual cost of the ad is currently $4,500,000,000; that is the increase in cost of the necessary projects since 2002. Folks, you can have a functional transportation system, or you can save the money. Your choice. You can't have both. Let's send the bill to Moss, Dean, Greenmun, Joannou, and Gear. They should pay.
"No one wants the proposed
"No one wants the proposed six projects." How preposterous. Maybe you don't, but I can assure you that every one of the projects has a major constitutiency. And the Mayors of every political jurisdiction in this region signed off on this package of projects as early as 2000. So did the HRPDC/MPO, the General Assembly, the Governor, and the FHA which must approve the projects for use of federal money. To suggest that no one wants these projects is to reveal the depth of ignorance about both the needs of this region and the general level of support for improvements in transportation infrastructure. And frankly, the extra billion in cost that has now escalated since 2002 is on posters like you, Reid, Robert Dean, and John Moss and on politicians like Delegate Joannou and Gear. In the end, those who have acted irresponsibility will have cost us more than a billion dollars; they will have cost us time with our families, productivity, and the loss of opportunity that comes when you are sitting in traffic at choke points.
The families displacement is
The families displacement is just a factor. Just like the Route 460 expansion. No one wants the six proposed projects. They want real traffic gridlock choke point relief. The MPO projects do nothing for those of us who count.
To quote a previous post "I
To quote a previous post "I guess this will present our region with a choice; preserve the balanced approach with the six projects plus a new one."
My thought to that is if you remove the "Third Crossing" from the list, there will be six viable projects that may receive public support. And the sales tax increase would support all six projects.
If memory serves, the lack of support for the third crossing is why the referendum failed in 2002. Some people just won't listen, I'll try to be as clear as possible. NO NEW THIRD CROSSING. It serves no one except Norfolk International Terminal (VPA). It doesn't provide any relief to those who have to pay for it.
one more thing
Chesapeake really isn't that bad; it isn't bumper to bumper like i-264 gets at times. There shouldn't be a need to even build the Southeastern Parkway, but eventually they'll get around to it, and people will have to start packing up and moving. Right now the money to build it is the obstacle, and given current trends, they'd be foolish not to build it at least as wide as 264 is in some parts or what they're doing with 64 already, because they'd just be wasting their time. enough with the roads though, what about putting more buses on the road more frequently and creating some real alternatives to driving around, since the train thing won't pay off anytime soon ...
Southeastern Parkway
I'm starting to wonder if the Southeastern Parkway will ever be built. That's the only real monstrous project I've seen which would obviously displace hundreds of families and a few businesses and cause a real disruption; both physically and psychologically, to the quality of life in Chesapeake. Stuff like another tunnel I figured they would eventually do because of the nightmare both tunnels can be at times. But at the same time, they are expanding i-64, and if that doesn't solve things (I mean like what 20 lanes almost??) that means there are serious, serious problems. Far as a Midtown tunnel I usually avoid it, but from what I've heard that is an inevitability. Problem is, you have like 2 main roads, i-264 and i-64, the rest (664, 464, etc.) should see capacity but never do because of the limited access they have to the rest of the region.
Well, if the displacement of
Well, if the displacement of families and businesses is your main criteria, then the proposed expansion of the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel clearly will not meet your test. The widening necessary for two more tubes will take a good part of W. Ocean view along the ROW. The Norfolk delegates have already said that is a non starter for them. The best compromise may be one more tube and a lane widening in both directions which can fit mostly within the existing ROW. Combined with the displacement of traffic to the third crossing, this will increase the ability of the HRBT to handle growth in the future. The sacrifice necessary for the Peninsula folks is that it must be a toll road for the financing to work out and for traffic to actually be distributed to the other roadways. I guess this will present our region with a choice; preserve the balanced approach with the six projects plus a new one, in return for a 1% sales tax and a 2% gas tax (like NOVA) and tolls on all the tunnel crossings. That approach certainly could work.
This is not the proper way to do this....
I realize gas prices are at all time highs, but the only way to get the money to improve roads is through "user taxes". I hate to say it, but Tax the gas and oil people use to drive on the roads. Taxing all items means that everyone will basically pay three times the sales tax. Wholesalers, retailers and consumers will all pay the tax meaning that little 1% increase will mean 3% by the time it hits the consumer. Everything will become more expensive (see the other Pilot Article saying the cost of living in Hampton Roads is already 6.8% higher than the national average). People who are trying to conserve and reduce gas usage/wear and tear on the roads will be penalized for the people who fail to conserve.
Come on now
How about they just reinstate the road tolls like they had before, that way only the people who travel on said roads pay for the repairs.