Hampton Roads lawmakers oppose tolls on 2 bridge-tunnels

RICHMOND

Most Hampton Roads lawmakers didn't take too kindly to the proposal from a Northern Virginia colleague to put tolls on two Hampton Roads bridge-tunnels.

Del. Glenn Oder, R-Newport News, vice chairman of the House transportation panel, said he warned Del. Joe May, R-Leesburg, that he would find little support for the idea in Hampton Roads. Now he is circulating a letter among the local delegation urging opposition to it.

But May, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, is not backing down. He says the 52-year-old Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel is at risk of a catastrophic failure and needs a reliable funding stream.

"This is not the way to pay for transportation improvements in Hampton Roads," Oder said Thursday. He said any plan for tolls must be part of a comprehensive transportation package that includes adding more capacity to the region's traffic-choked water crossings. Such a package might include private-sector investment, he added, and imposing tolls now might undermine that prospect.

Most other local lawmakers interviewed Thursday agreed with Oder.

May's plan is "too ambiguous," said Del. Paula Miller, D-Norfolk. "People want to see exactly what their dollars are going to buy. This bill doesn't even hint at that."

Del. Kenny Alexander, D-Norfolk, called for a special session of the legislature to develop a comprehensive transportation plan. The tolls in May's bill "don't get us the money we need to build new projects," he said.

Sen. Fred Quayle, R-Suffolk, didn't rule out May's approach but expressed skepticism. "I don't think we can deal with our transportation problems on a piecemeal basis," he said.

One legislator said May's concerns shouldn't be taken lightly.

State Sen. Yvonne Miller, D-Norfolk, is a member of the Joint Commission on Transportation Accountability, which May also chairs. That panel heard testimony from state transportation officials after the flooding incident that shut down the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel for eight hours last summer, paralyzing traffic.

It was that incident that prompted May to introduce his bill calling for $2 tolls on the Hampton Roads and Monitor-Merrimac Memorial bridge-tunnels, with the revenue to be used for maintenance, improvement and possible replacement of the spans.

What Miller learned after the July tunnel shutdown was alarming, she said.

"The flood was the result of some very skimpy staffing of that tunnel and some people who weren't adequately trained," she said. At the current level of funding for the tunnels, she added, "we are at very great risk."

While not committing firmly to May's toll idea, Miller said she would give it serious consideration.

"It's not a preferred method, but we have elected a governor who says there will be no new revenue," she said, referring to Gov. Bob McDonnell, who ran for office on a no-tax-increase pledge.

"I represent an awful lot of people who would be handicapped by the loss of one of those tunnels, but I also represent a lot of people who aren't going to want to pay a toll," Miller said. "So I'm caught between a rock and a hard place."

Bill Sizemore, (804) 697-1560, bill.sizemore@pilotonline.com