WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Gov. Tim Kaine said Tuesday he likely will announce his long-awaited transportation funding plan “sometime in the next 10 days” and that it may include tax increases on fuel and auto sales to pay for new road construction and maintenance.

On WTOP radio’s monthly “Ask the Governor” program, Kaine again declined to offer specifics on his replacement for last year’s transportation package, which was eviscerated by a Virginia Supreme Court ruling in February that tossed out the plan’s regional taxing authorities as unconstitutional.

Kaine has long suggested raising Virginia’s 3 percent car sales tax to the same 5 percent levied on other sales, which he said would raise $400 million a year.

He also raised the prospect Tuesday of a region-based gas tax for Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads instead of a statewide tax Republicans in the legislature have vowed to oppose. The assembly’s Democratic leadership has supported implementing a statewide gas tax.

“The way to solve our needs is not to just do one thing, you got to kind of spread the pain a little bit, and not have it just be in one area,” he said. “And that’s the right way to do it, and that will likely be the kind of guts of the plan that I propose.”

Kaine expects to call lawmakers back to Richmond for a special transportation session in June, as the General Assembly failed to reach a solution by the end of the regular session last month.

Del. David Albo, R-Springfield, one of the architects of the now largely defunct transportation package, said he won’t support any statewide plan that reallocates a portion of the money collected in Northern Virginia to other parts of the state.

Under the current funding formula, he said the region sees a return of 66 cents for every tax dollars it pays.

wflook@dcexaminer.com

Comments from Examiner Readers

10:45 AM MST on Mon., May. 12, 2008 re: "House nixes plan to cut teacher raises, leaving 2009 pay increases in danger"

max power said:
we do not need to make a big deal we can easily solve this by raising taxes we can make more profit from events and use it in schools that don't even have enough afterschool programs

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10:41 AM MST on Mon., May. 12, 2008 re: "Saslaw pushes tax increase to fill transportation gap after ruling"

bob howard said:
i agree with him that might sond kinda racist but its true we should raise the prices of fried chicken and cigaretes in atlanta in oder to solve the problem about the teacher budget fro next year let face it we all know a lot of people love fried chicken in the south and they smoke too they are killing themselfs y let that go to waste let make the best out of it and make a profit from those people who are doing the wolrd a favor.

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7:42 AM MST on Fri., Mar. 14, 2008 re: "Dulles rail re-bidding stripped from budget"

Lisa Green said:
I've read the State contract with Bechtel for Dulles Rail and I don't see how bidding out this project would be a "breach of Contract" as Sen. Colgan and Governor Kaine assert. This is hogwash that Governor Kaine has put out to stifle real competition. We've got to get him out of Bechtel's pocket already.

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7:41 AM MST on Fri., Mar. 14, 2008 re: "Dulles rail re-bidding stripped from budget"

Examiner Reader said:
Someone should look into Governor Kaine's connections with Bechtel. Something isn't quite right there. Maybe we'll get lucky and find that Kaine was Bechtel's "Client #10"?

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10:55 AM MST on Fri., Mar. 7, 2008 re: "Saslaw pushes tax increase to fill transportation gap after ruling"

Examiner Reader said:
i agree with the person below no excuse for va being so broke oh yea they left one out to va is one of the few states were u have to buy county stickers to just think of all those thousands of people that have to buy them here in va at twenty bucks apeace most other states dont have to buy, them so my question is were is all that money going to would really like to no the answer to that one,so the person below is exactly right theres no excuse for va being so broke,do your job kaine and quit getting off the wall bills passed that waste tax payers money,thats not the job we the people voted you in to do.

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2:22 PM MST on Mon., Feb. 18, 2008 re: "Governor�s plan to cut state aid puts squeeze on local budgets"

Examiner Reader said:
Get rid of the illegal people in N.Virginia, and the drain they have us and get busy taking care of the Americans. There is no excuse for Virginia to be so broke. One of the few states that have total controll of the liguor,beer and wine, one of the few states that you have to pay personal property taxes on your car every year,one of the few states that is a commonwealth. So Mr.Kaine, do your job, get your priorities straight and find out where all the money went.

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