WINCHESTER — Virginia legislators apparently have a long way to go to find common ground before a special legislative session on transportation promised for later this year.
Legislators could revive the 2007 transportation plan, much of which was struck down by the Virginia Supreme Court as unconstitutional, but Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and the Virginia Senate are looking to raise taxes statewide, House of Delegates Speaker Bill Howell said Tuesday.
"The governor is using the opportunity created by the [Virginia] Supreme Court ruling that the regional transportation authorities are unconstitutional" to raise taxes statewide, said Howell, R-Fredericksburg.
"The bill that we sent to the governor from the legislature was constitutional. It was the governor that made it unconstitutional," he said.
Fixing the problem — and restoring the $1 billion in annual funding knocked out by the court decision — would be a simple matter of restoring the taxing power to the local governments, Howell said.
That's not what's on Kaine's agenda, though, he said.
"The governor is using this as an opportunity to raise taxes statewide," he said.
Statewide tax increases — in additional to regional levies — are needed, Kaine said, speaking on WTOP's "Ask the Governor" program Tuesday morning.
Kaine again declined to lay out exactly what his proposal for fixing the state's road problems will be, but he also again hinted strongly that a gas tax hike could be part of the solution.
"I'm not going to tell you what my plan is until I roll it out," Kaine said, but "all issues are on the table."
"The gas tax has been for many a third rail," he said. But "there is some precedent, even a recent precedent, at least in regional plans, there being support by Dems, Republicans, House and Senate."
Last year's House Bill 3202 contained a regional gas tax hike for Hampton Roads.
But a gas tax is a flat-out non-starter for House Republicans, said Howell.
"A lot of us don't think this is the right time to be talking about raising taxes, whether it be a gas tax, a sales tax, a car titling tax" or any other levy, he said.
Taxpayers are already on the hook for more expensive gasoline, food, health care, property taxes and other expenses. Adding to the burden now isn't the right thing to do.
"I can't think of a worse time to be proposing a billion dollars in new taxes.
That's not the thinking on the other side of the Capitol, according to Sen. Chuck Colgan, D-Manassas, the chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee.
"I think the Senate would go along with the gas tax, perhaps a half-cent on the sales tax up here in Northern Virginia," Colgan said.
But the Democratically controlled Senate is still a long way from having a plan to raise taxes, he said.
"We're still talking about a mechanism," Colgan said. "I really haven't polled the Democrats."
A gas tax hike would be a tough sell, but "I think perhaps a 2 percent sales tax on the wholesale price of gas would not be too painful and would certainly be a big help," he added.
"I don't know how many Republicans we'd get on that issue," he said. "I think the gas tax — in spite of the fact that gas is now approaching $4 a gallon, it's going to be tough for people to want to agree to pay more — but that's probably the fairest of all taxes."
Raising the gas tax would be the best way to get "out-of-state cars to pay their fair share," he said. Some "35 percent of traffic on interstates [is] from out of state."
* Contact Garren Shipley at gshipley@nvdaily.com
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