Collegiate Times

Gov. Tim Kaine addressed a local audience at Radford University's Hurlburt Student Center on June 4 as part of a statewide series of town hall-style meetings promoting his 2008 transportation plan.

"The question we have to ask ourselves is, 'Do we want to invest in our future?"' Kaine said. "We need to act, because no state thrives with a declining infrastructure."

Kaine said Virginia has the third largest highway network in the United States and is experiencing rapid growth, while high gas prices had depressed driving, causing a decrease in gas-tax revenues that had removed a projected $1.1 billion out of Virginia transportation funds.

The Commonwealth's $250 million transportation maintenance budget is simply insufficient, Kaine said.

This, coupled with legal mandates privileging maintenance projects over new work, meant rural and economically depressed areas received few or no upgrades to their transportation infrastructure, which further hurt local and state economic bases, Kaine said.

Kaine also said that funding shortfalls in Virginia's transportation maintenance budget had forced the state to transfer $375 million from new road construction to maintenance projects.

According to Kaine, an excellent example of the local and state economies growing as a result of new transportation infrastructure work building was the transportation upgrade required to attract PepsiCo to Wythe County. The new Gatorade manufacturing and distribution facility created 250 new jobs in rural Southwest Virginia.

Kaine counterpointed the Wythe County success with the Virginia 713 bridge collapse at Walker Creek in Giles County, as an example of the state's aging and degrading infrastructure.

The bridge collapsed when a concrete truck from Fort Chiswell Construction attempted to cross the century-old 158-foot steel truss and timber deck bridge. The truck was over the bridge's stated weight limit.

Kaine said that 17,000 of Virginia's 20,000 bridges were rated "structurally deficient."

"Structurally deficient" can have a variety of implications, and does not necessarily mean that any of the bridges are in real danger of significant failure. Typically the finding means inspectors have identified some kind of deterioration, cracks or movement, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

Kaine said that an increase in the statewide motor vehicle sales tax from 3 percent to 4 percent, redirecting the entire sales tax, including the $35 state minimum to maintenance, and a $10 increase to the annual vehicle registration fee would add $2.9 billion to transportation maintenance funds over the next six years.

The governor's plan also calls for locally mandated sales taxes in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads, the areas with the highest congestion and maintenance budgeting. A 1 percent sales tax would add $2.2 billion to Northern Virginia and $1.2 billion to Hampton Roads for maintenance, construction and upgrades of the communities' transportation infrastructure.

Kaine said that while Virginia is fifth among states in income, and twelfth in size, it was thirty-second in tax burden on a state and local level and thirty-ninth in terms of transportation spending as a percentage of income at 1.1 percent.

"You can't have an 'A' system on a 'C' revenue stream," Kaine said.

Kaine's plan calls for the establishment of a Transportation Change Fund. The goal is to "focus on innovative practices that more efficiently coordinate transportation and land use planning to reduce congestion and ensure wise use of transportation dollars."

The Transportation Change Fund will allow a 30 percent increase in funding for public transportation, Kaine said.

This includes carpool services in rural areas and van service for elderly residents, along with increased funding for telework projects.

Seventy-five percent of the funds would be reserved for public transportation, with the remaining 25 percent for road projects like the Wythe County Gatorade plant.

The Transportation Change Fund would come from an increase in the statewide grantor's tax by 25 cents.

For every $100 netted from a real estate sale, a quarter would be paid into the fund, Kaine said.

Kaine stated he would call the general assembly into a special session to deal with his transportation plan.

"Transportation is too important to just set it and forget it," Kaine said.

One listener asked why Virginia didn't raise the gasoline tax to make up the funding shortfalls.

"I believe the gasoline tax is regressive, and disproportionately affects the poor, who can't simply drive less. Also, even if people did drive less, the net result would be reduced revenues," Kaine said. "If we go into special session and come out with nothing, it's because a majority of our legislature doesn't want to solve this."

"This isn't just a problem for (Northern Virginia) and Hampton Roads," Kaine said.

Discussion during the meeting shifted to more local concerns.

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