Only the governor's way for the highways

For years, political aversion to raising revenue has hobbled efforts to repair Virginia's crumbling transportation network. And lawmakers who've tried to buck the majority's sentiment have all but conceded they're engaged in an exercise in futility.

That's left a single strategy for posting small improvements: A hodgepodge of measures cobbled together by Gov. Bob McDonnell and his administration. But even it fails to fully address the challenges facing Virginians because it isn't capable of bringing in the money needed to pay for a backlog of projects.

Its components include billions in debt; millions from the state's general fund; an unknown amount raised by selling naming rights for highways, bridges and tunnels; and tolls on roads throughout the commonwealth.

The state already has inked a deal with a private firm to build a new Midtown Tunnel, fix up the existing Midtown and Downtown tunnels and toll them for decades. Fares are set to start at $1.84 each way during peak hours later this year and can increase at least 3.5 percent annually.

Hampton Roads lawmakers harboring fantasies of lowering those tolls, or eliminating them altogether, have been treated to an especially strong dose of political reality. Del. Kenny Alexander, a Norfolk Democrat, received it Thursday, when he went before a subcommittee to present a plan essentially to derail the Midtown-Downtown project.

Since tolls have been described as "user fees," Alexander reasoned, it only makes sense that the state would require those user fees to be funneled back into a maintenance fund specifically dedicated for that road.

Trouble is, that wouldn't have just voided the Midtown-Downtown deal; it would've ruined a key part of McDonnell's transportation plan by forbidding the use of tolls on certain highways to fund maintenance across a network of roads.

Not even the city of Norfolk was willing to sign on. Its director of intergovernmental relations, Bryan Pennington, said the need for the Midtown-Downtown project outweighed concerns over how the public-private partnership and toll rates were structured. He joined a rep from the McDonnell administration to speak against it. Alexander's bill failed.

Meanwhile, the unwillingness of Republicans controlling both legislative chambers to consider any alternative beyond the governor's prescribed solution has doomed virtually every other proposal to raise revenue. Or to even consider raising revenue.

Take the plan offered by Del. Lacey Putney, the House's senior member. It proposed letting voters decide whether to raise the state and local retail sales and use tax from 5 percent to 6 percent, with the new funds going to transportation, education and mental health services. It would've brought in $6 billion through 2018.

Putney, an independent who generally votes with Republicans, received no special treatment. A House finance subcommittee tabled his plan, in effect ruling that its opposition to tax increases precluded giving the people an option to decide for themselves whether they'd pay more for better roads and services.

That subcommittee's chairman, Del. Tim Hugo of Centreville, said he and other members were willing to listen to - but not approve - any proposal that could end up requiring Virginians to pay more, whether through an increased sales tax or through a higher state gas tax (unchanged, at 17.5 cents per gallon, since 1987).

Lawmakers who stepped to the lectern before Hugo's subcommittee on Wednesday acknowledged, almost sheepishly, the prospects of their revenue-raising proposals before even discussing them.

Democrat Algie Howell's plan would have hiked the gas tax a dime per gallon. Republican Joe May's would've established a new "pump toll," to be assessed each time a vehicle refueled, whether it used gas or an alternative fuel. Democrat Vivian Watts' would've imposed a motor fuels sales tax and increased other taxes for transportation.

About a handful of people spoke in support of each. Committee members listened and, in turn, politely voted to lay the bills "gently on the table."

After the decision on his bill, Howell turned from the podium and shrugged.

As he headed for the door, one of his supporters - Pennington, from Norfolk - patted his shoulder and offered two familiar words: "Good try."

Shawn Day is an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot. Email: shawn.day@pilotonline.com.