Warren Fiske
The Virginian-Pilot
©
RICHMOND
The General Assembly killed all transportation funding bills and adjourned a two-week special session in the wee hours Thursday morning without any solution to traffic gridlock.
The Republican-led House of Delegates defeated a package of tax increases that included a 6-cents-a-gallon hike in the gasoline tax. The measure had been approved by the Senate last month.
The Democratic-led Senate defeated a bill that would have tied road funding to the future growth of state tax revenues generated from ports in Hampton Roads and airports in Northern Virginia. The measure had been approved by the House on Wednesday.
Exhausted lawmakers ended the session at 1:39 a.m., dispensing with a planned farewell meeting with Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and offering no hint about when they might take up transportation again.
They also departed without a deal on judges, leaving open more than a dozen vacancies on benches from the state Supreme Court down to local courts in Hampton Roads and beyond.
Kaine, a Democrat, plans to hold a news conference today around noon. Many Republicans have faulted the governor for calling the special session before any legislative consensus had formed.
“It’s a good time for everyone to go home and regroup,” said Del. Clifford Athey Jr., R-Warren. “There’s no consensus in this General Assembly to raise taxes. I don’t know what the point is for us to meet any longer.”
Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax, put the blame of House Republicans. “They’re simply not interested in fixing this,” he said.
The General Assembly this decade has repeatedly tried and failed to find reliable new revenue sources for transportation.
This summer, Democratic leaders in the Senate and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine strongly opposed using revenues generated by the port and airports to fund transportation, saying that money is already earmarked for education, public safety and health programs. House Republicans, in contrast, steadfastly opposed tax increases.
During a special session marked by parliamentary maneuvers and partisan gamesmanship, no compromise came in sight. Leaders from each party often seemed more concerned with avoiding blame for the demise of the session than reaching an accord.
The full General Assembly met five times during the session at a total cost of $20,000 a day in expenses paid to lawmakers.
“Maybe we owe the taxpayers the $20,000 we spend today,” House Minority Leader Ward Armstrong, D-Henry County, said on Wednesday.
By a largely partisan 59-39 vote, House Republicans killed a package of tax and fee increases that included a 6-cent-per-gallon hike in the gas tax. The measure was approved in the Senate late last month.
The defeat left only one major tax increase package alive in the General Assembly: a $1.1 billion proposal by Kaine. The governor’s bill was killed last week in the House Rules Committee.
On Wednesday, the same panel resurrected the bill with hopes of killing it again in a showy vote on the House floor.
The House passed a measure that would earmark future royalties from oil and gas drilling off the Virginia coast to transportation. The Senate killed the bill.
Both chambers approved a bill instructing the state to seek bids within 90 days for extension of a light rail service from Newtown Road in Norfolk to near the Oceanfront.
Warren Fiske, 804-697-1565, warren.fiske@pilotonline.com
Julian Walker, 804-697-1564, julian.walker@pilotonline.com
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Dear Ken
Thank for your insight into a blown out of proportion commute but surely, if even slightly true, you would know that the democrat transportation plan would do nothing to improve your situation. You would know that your despised predicament would remain the same or get worse while your pocket gets picked by tax-em-til-they-drop democrats. Sad part is, even if passed, the money would be diverted anyway.
because tax increases solve every problem
We already bring in a boat load of money - probably enough to pave from here to Taiwan and back. Of course, we spend a huge portion of it on public education, because throwing money at socialized education makes our kids smarter - and the government simply does a much better job at running the nation's education than the private sector ever could. We also spend a ton of money on traveling, benefits, social programs and other services that government simply shouldn't be in the business of providing, but is, largely because citizens have been taught (in the public school system, no doubt) that our government is here to take care of us. So now, when it comes to our roads - the one thing we all agree our taxes ought to pay for - omg we must raise taxes to accomplish this. No. Cut your spending elsewhere, my liberal democrat friends. We Virginians pay enough in taxes already to support many small nations.
Dear House Republicans
I would like to thank you for, once again, failing to come up with a solution for the state's current traffic situation. Without your inept leadership, stubborn nature, and complete incompetence, I would miss out on the joy of sitting in traffic for hours at a time. I was very afraid that, this year, common sense would prevail in Richmond and I would only have a limited time left to experience the sheer entertainment of stop and go, bumper to bumper traffic inching towards a bridge, or a tunnel, or both. Indeed, the mere thought that I would no longer be able to waste gallons upon gallons of fuel doing this filled me with terror. But thanks to the fact that you're all a bunch of complete morons, I've got at least another year to do what I love, which is crawl down I-64, 264, and let's not forget 164 at a snail's pace for most of the day.
Thanks for nothing.
let's don't do anything
Problem solved! No one has to make a decision, no one pays for anything, no rantings back and forth, and everyone is happy. But that's not true, they won't be happy because we will still have the transporation problem that no one want to pay for, but some how we should be able to pull the money out of the skies. Good luck with all that!
Adios, amigos ...
I can commiserate with most of you on the anger and frustration. And those of you who don't want to pay for better roads 'cause you're freaked by the price of gasoline, well, you should consider how much of it you're burning when you're sitting in traffic or three cycles of a red light.
I've lived through too many years of this, from the GOP and Dems alike. Tom Moss and his crew didn't do any better, and this problem didn't crop up with the spring daisies.
So we're putting our house on the market, after 30-plus years here, and heading off for the Carolinas. There are several reasons, but high among them is the reality that living in a metropolitan cul-de-sac has gotten too oppressive. My wife is a native, I never thought I'd see her want to leave, but she's had enough, too.
You can only use the highways here if you plan your timing and route as intricately as Eisenhower planned D-Day. You can't get anywhe
Congestion problem
Has anyone thought that maybe PART of the problem may be due to the tourists who are coming to our region and perhaps VDOT needs to start routing traffic thru Monitor Merrimac? MMBT is usually light on traffic when the rush is on.
As far as Governor Kaine goes, thank God! he is almost out!
ATMs
Democrat ATM (Automatic Tax Machine)
We need better roads – go to the ATM
We need the light rail extended – go to the ATM
We need a new day care center – go to the ATM
We need a better marine terminal – go to the ATM
We need more social services – go to the ATM
We need to build a better house for the NSU President – go to the ATM
We need to develop more resorts at the beach – go to the ATM
There is an ATM conveniently located in a Capital building/City Hall close to you
Less population but still congestion
Just yesterday there was an article that stated the population of Virginia Beach and Norfolk have dropped, and yet, we've still got a congestion problem. Our representatives of the General Assembly, the people we are paying to assist us with these problems, managed to do NOTHING about them. Complaining and not doing anything is only going to make the situation more difficult and more costly. Congratulations to our do-nothing GA for proving that so-called great minds can't get anything accomplished even when the people that put them there are screaming for them to take action.
Gotta love the comments...
Gotta love the comments like "do nothing republicans", "they wasted our time" and "lack courage to raise taxes" (I like that one best). The republicans were forced to waste time couragiously killing tax increases, again, that democrats keep trying to force down our throats. The republicans offered other solutions but demos cry about not getting their tax increase. Plainly, we all know that the MPO projects are BS, massive amounts of tax money is already tossed down the socialist drain and demos refuse to lock down transportation funds for roads only. We all can smell this sewer pipe miles away but demos just keep hammering away at a losing proposition.
More lanes equal more lanes congested.
There is no logic in adding more lanes. Here in Tidewater, if there is an accident in one lane then all other lanes back up. Adding an additional lanes only creates a situation where 3 lanes are now backed up instead of 2 lanes. The most logical answer is to reduce the number of cars on the road on any given day. This can be accomplished by mandating that employers with greater than 5 employees institute a 4 day work week, or 4 days in the office and one day of e-work from home, or any variation that would accomplish at least a 30% minimum reduction on any given day of workers commuting. Then tax the employers that do not provide proof of compliance.
Hotels should stagger their weekly rentals, there is no reason they are all based on Sat to Sat bookings. Again -- tax those hotels that do not comply.
These taxes can be earmarked for road or transit funds.
And the Pilot could help out by mandating that all empl