Outcry erupts over McDonnell request for toll authority

RICHMOND

Public outcry over impending tolls on the Downtown and Midtown tunnels has helped spark widespread opposition in the General Assembly to the governor's request for broad new authority to use tolls as a major transportation funding mechanism statewide.

There is no serious talk of legislatively halting the planned tolls on the two Elizabeth River crossings. A last-ditch attempt, initiated by Del. Kenny Alexander, D-Norfolk, was scotched by the Republican-controlled Assembly last week.

But outrage in Hampton Roads over the tolls, slated to begin this year and start at $1.84 for cars at peak hours, is a key factor in legislative pushback against the Republican governor's transportation funding package, which includes a powerful new statewide tolling authority.

Gov. Bob McDonnell's statewide tolling proposal "is on life support," House Minority Leader David Toscano, D-Charlottesville, said Tuesday. "People don't like tolls, and they especially don't like paying tolls that are going to be sent someplace else."

That has been a major objection raised to the tunnel tolls: Under the state's agreement with a private-sector partner, revenue collected at the Downtown Tunnel, which will not be expanded, is to be used in large part to help pay for a two-lane expansion of the Midtown Tunnel.

McDonnell's proposed Virginia Toll Road Authority would expand that concept statewide. The new state entity would be empowered to impose tolls for construction, maintenance, repair and operation of any roads, bridges, tunnels and other transportation facilities designated by the governor, the legislature or the Commonwealth Transportation Board. There is no provision tying toll revenue to the facility where it is collected.

In addition to the power to set tolls, the new authority would be given the power of eminent domain - the ability to take private property by condemnation - and it would be exempt from public procurement, personnel and administrative process laws.

This week, the Republican patrons carrying McDonnell's transportation package in the House and Senate were backing away from the tolling piece of it.

A key test for the proposal will come today when the governor's package is taken up by the Assembly's two budget-writing committees.

In the latest draft of the legislation in the House, the proposal for a stand-alone statewide tolling authority has been eliminated altogether. In its place is a scaled-down provision giving the Commonwealth Transportation Board authority to impose tolls for "any new or substantially expanded primary road."

The language specifies that toll revenue must be used solely where it is collected. In addition, no tolled project could begin before adjournment of the Assembly session after the project is announced - in effect giving the legislature veto power over the project.

Even that isn't good enough for some lawmakers. Del. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, said he thinks tolled projects should require the concurrence of the Assembly, not just after-the-fact review.

The House sponsor of the legislation, Del. Scott Lingamfelter, R-Prince William County, said he and the governor's office are in "a dynamic discussion."

"One of the things that General Assembly members, including myself, are sensitive to," he said, "is that, when you toll a facility, I should have a reasonable expectation that the toll is going to go to the operation, maintenance and improvement of that facility."

In the Senate, the governor's transportation package was still in the drafting stage Tuesday evening. But the patron of the legislation, Sen. Frank Wagner, R-Virginia Beach, said of the tolling provisions: "A lot of that language will be stripped out."

The uproar over the Elizabeth River tunnel tolls has sensitized lawmakers to the need for local input and involvement in transportation planning, Wagner said. Leaders in Norfolk and Portsmouth have complained that they were not sufficiently consulted about the project and were blindsided when they saw the details.

McDonnell's proposed statewide tolling authority would diminish the localities' role still further, Wagner said.

Jeff Caldwell, a McDonnell spokesman, said that "tolling remains a key component of the governor's transportation plan for financing major congestion-relieving projects."

"We continue to work with members in the House and Senate to determine the appropriate mechanism for moving forward on this proposal," Caldwell said.

Meanwhile, in Portsmouth, growing alarm over the tolls has prompted two influential groups to join forces for what members called the first time in their decades-long histories.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Steering Committee, composed of black political, church and community leaders, and the Portsmouth Partnership, a civic-minded organization of business leaders, will ride together on a bus to Richmond today in support of an amendment to the state budget proposed by Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, that would steer $500 million in bond proceeds toward the tunnel project.

Lucas has said her measure would reduce the tolls by 50 cents.

"It's really a bigger issue than both of our groups," said Philip Rudisill, president of the Portsmouth Partnership. "It's going to impact the business community and citizens. We certainly thought it was appropriate at this point in time to band together our resources to see what we can do to help the city."

Pilot writer Dave Forster contributed to this report.

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