Norfolk lawmaker's bid to stop tunnel tolls hits a roadblock

RICHMOND

A Norfolk lawmaker's legislative assault on the impending reimposition of tolls on the Downtown and Midtown tunnels hit a roadblock Thursday.

Del. Kenny Alexander's measure, HB1297, was tabled on a 3-2 party-line vote by a Republican-controlled House of Delegates subcommittee, meaning it is unlikely to advance.

The bill would have required that no revenue generated by tolling one transportation facility could be spent on any other facility. The measure was aimed at the state's pending deal with a private partner to reimpose tolls on the two Elizabeth River crossings.

Most of the revenue from the tolls would go toward a two-lane expansion of the Midtown Tunnel. The Downtown Tunnel would be upgraded, but no capacity would be added there.

The panel voted down the measure after hearing from Assistant Transportation Secretary Matthew Strader that Alexander's bill would be the death knell not only for the tunnel project, but also for the planned expansion of Dominion Boulevard in Chesapeake. That project, which includes a four-lane replacement for the Steel Bridge, will also carry a toll.

Alexander told the House panel a toll is a user fee, a "fare for passage." Motorists who use the Downtown Tunnel should not be charged a fee that will be used somewhere else, he said.

"People are very much opposed to those monies being diverted," he said.

Alexander, a Democrat, got a bipartisan boost from Patrick McSweeney, a former state Republican chairman, who called the planned tunnel tolling "a disguised tax."

"This is a very dangerous practice, using the revenues from one project to fund another," he said. "If it's going to be done, it ought to be done in a straightforward way by imposing a tax."