Private roads plan carries a heavy cost

House Speaker Bill Howell's new vision for a Hampton Roads transportation plan is a pale shadow of the legacy legislation he championed last year - to much acclaim. The new one bearing his stamp of approval would demand far too much in tolls and would turn over to corporate control the critical arteries and water crossings in Hampton Roads.

House Bill 3202, which had the unusual distinction of being personally sponsored by the speaker of the House, would have generated $189 million a year from eight taxes and fees, seven of which have been nullified by the Virginia Supreme Court because they were to be imposed by an unelected regional authority.

The easiest fix would have been for Howell to get the House members to enact the increases themselves. But that was why Howell OK'd the regional authority in the first place, so his Republican caucus could avoid an unpopular vote.

After a state Supreme Court ruling, Howell's political problem became a lot more complicated, since the region's council members and supervisors balked at taking over a state responsibility, or raising taxes Richmond refused to raise.

That put Howell in this current corner. His answer is to reduce taxpayer support to a trickle and turn over every major transportation project in the region to private companies that will levy tolls far in excess of the taxes that would have been required.

New legislation, sponsored by Del. Phil Hamilton of Newport News and drafted with assistance from Howell's staff, offers only $50 million annually in new state aid from two vehicle fees and a small increase in the car rental tax.

Initially, even that paltry amount was deemed too rich, and Hamilton put a 2013 expiration date on the fees and rental tax. Hamilton now says he'll revise the bill to ensure that the revenues can be imposed over a longer period after hearing complaints that the original version prevented the region from using the money to issue bonds.

The bill also borrows on an idea from Sen. Ken Stolle to designate a portion of future revenue growth generated by the ports for road improvements. That's a logical way to help pay for a third crossing of the Hampton Roads harbor, but it will not yield significant money for nearly a decade.

Howell and Hamilton do not seriously believe Hampton Roads can pay for $10 billion in projects with a tax on rental cars and the distant promise of port revenues. Instead, they want a private company or companies to construct all seven projects in Hampton Roads in return for permission to collect tolls through a long-term lease lasting 50, 75 or even 100 years.

Their plan gives the Virginia Department of Transportation just 90 days to solicit proposals on what would be a privatization of unprecedented scope. A 14-member panel created to review and make recommendations on the proposals would include only three members of the Commonwealth Transportation Board, but six legislators, four of whom would be handpicked by Howell.

One of Howell's advisers is Frank Atkinson, whose McGuire Woods lobbying firm represents Macquarie Holdings USA and Skanska Infrastructure Development. The two firms were invited to participate in a recent legislative commission meeting on privatizing highways. They all but solicited the business of expanding the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel and the Midtown Tunnel. Those firms also have a pending proposal before VDOT to construct a new

U.S. 460 and could reap billions in other highway-building contracts.

The plan embraced by Howell and Hamilton represents a dramatic retreat from a meaningful public role in financing roads in Virginia, and raises questions that require sober and independent consideration. What are the consequences of placing Hampton Roads' mobility in the hands of private interests for decades to come? What will be the consequences from the steep tolls that will be required to get into, around and out of South Hampton Roads?

Given the number and expense of the projects needed in Hampton Roads and the decade-long delay in acting, state leaders have no choice now but to employ some public-private partnerships. But the plan by Howell and Hamilton would virtually remove "public" from the formula. That should make people in Hampton Roads wary and uneasy, and the influence of a lobbying firm for two likely bidders should underscore that concern.