CHANGE MY LOCATION
Va. House nixes Senate roads plan, despite removal of gas tax
SEE HOW THIS STORY DEVELOPED
Related Topics: WASHINGTON
WASHINGTON (Map, News) - The Republican-controlled Virginia House of Delegates killed one of the last hopes for raising billions of dollars in new transportation funding on Wednesday despite Democrats’ move to take a proposed increase in the gas tax off the table.
The House defeated the Senate’s proposed tax package, which proponents estimated would have raised $5.5 billion for road and rail projects over the next seven years, by a 59-39 vote. The widely expected decision came on the first day of the second act of a special General Assembly session that looks on track to accomplish very little.
Earlier in the day, a House panel resurrected Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine’s proposal, after appearing to kill it two weeks ago.
The Senate’s narrow Democratic majority had passed its bill June 25 with a provision that would have increased the state’s 17.5-cent gas tax by a cent a year for six years. House Democrats stripped that increase in an unsuccessful attempt to make the tax package more palatable to opponents.
The bill still would have increased the car titling tax by 0.5 percent and the sales tax by 0.25 percent statewide, while cutting the sales tax on food by 0.5 percent. In Northern Virginia, it would have raised the sales tax by 0.5 percent, the tax on selling a house by 40 cents per $100 value, and the tax on staying a night in a hotel room by $5.
“The House Republicans killed a plan that brought us one step closer to a transportation solution yet failed, for years, to come up with a comprehensive plan of their own,” said Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw, the bill’s patron.
The remaining statewide taxes included in the Senate’s plan appeared to be enough for opponents to kill it. The House’s Republican leadership has repeatedly accused Democrats of seeking tax increases that reach beyond the main purpose of the special session, which is to restore regional revenue from last year’s transportation package that were deemed unconstitutional by the Virginia Supreme Court. The state’s high court ruled in February that the unelected authorities empowered to collect the new fees in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads could not do so under the Virginia Constitution.
A Republican plan to raise money solely in those two traffic-congested regions was still alive Wednesday evening, but is expected to be killed in the Senate.
wflook@dcexaminer.com
Comments from Examiner Readers
2:16 PM MST on Wed., May. 14, 2008 re: "Governor’s plan revives NVTA"
Report as inappropriate
1:41 PM MST on Wed., Mar. 26, 2008
re: "Kaine signs tax refund law; paybacks should start in April"
Report as inappropriate
6:57 AM MST on Tue., Mar. 25, 2008
re: "Taxpayers face different systems to receive $24 million in refunds"
Report as inappropriate
5:04 AM MST on Tue., Mar. 25, 2008
re: "Taxpayers face different systems to receive $24 million in refunds"
Report as inappropriate
10:04 AM MST on Thu., Mar. 6, 2008
re: "Gas tax plan roils Senate debate over N.Va. transportation fix"
Report as inappropriate
9:50 AM MST on Thu., Mar. 6, 2008
re: "Gas tax plan roils Senate debate over N.Va. transportation fix"
Report as inappropriate
9:06 AM MST on Thu., Mar. 6, 2008
re: "Northern Virginians brace for seven new taxes, fees"
Report as inappropriate
8:25 AM MST on Thu., Mar. 6, 2008
re: "Gas tax plan roils Senate debate over N.Va. transportation fix"
Report as inappropriate
9:41 AM MST on Mon., Dec. 31, 2007
re: "Kaine promises no new taxes despite shortfall"
Report as inappropriate
9:35 AM MST on Mon., Dec. 31, 2007
re: "Northern Virginians brace for seven new taxes, fees"
Report as inappropriate
12:04 AM MST on Thu., Dec. 6, 2007
re: "Kaine promises no new taxes despite shortfall"
Report as inappropriate
Examiner Reader said:
I think the NVTA is tarnished. It can't continue. Kaine needs to come up with something else. Indeed, Northern Virginia and the Tidewater are the econonic engines of Virginia. We put more in the coffers than we get out.
6 agree | 2 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree
Jason said:
Taxation without representation. Hello! We fought a war over this! I thought that the sales tax being raised to 5% was suppose to take care of all our road problems? Another government LIE! Keep drinking the Koolaid people. You won't be happy until you are shoved into a FEMA camp!
7 agree | 5 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree
GMU92 said:
What a colossal mess. They shouldn't have collected a dime until a ruling was handed down by the VA Supreme Court. It's gonna take 3 months to return property and registration fees? Good grief, that data is readily available to them. And now people have to go rummaging around for old receipts from car rentals and hotel rooms? You know some of these people will never know to apply and won't see that money ever again. Wow, the Commonwealth messed this one up badly.
8 agree | 3 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree
Abolish the NVTA said:
Are the victims of the illegal NVTA taxes going to receive market rate interest on the monies that were taken from them? After all, there is a time value to money. The NVTA apparently didn't have a very good accounting system in place if they can't issue refunds directly and efficiently. This is yet another example of their sheer ineptitude and arrogance. The NVTA should follow in the footsteps of their "sister" organization in Hampton Roads and shut down AFTER refunding the people's monies.
6 agree | 3 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree
Chambek said:
If our elected officials would spend some time working out ways to spend OUR money better, we would not be in this predicament. Their answer to everything is to seek out a new revenue source. They have wasted lots of time and lots of OUR money throwing new taxes against the wall to see what sticks. Gov. Kaine shows little regard for Virginians. He is using use to advance his political career as a tax and spend democrat. I guess we really have only ourselves to blame - we put him in office. Fool me once .......
5 agree | 4 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree
Examiner Reader said:
NOVA sends more revenue to the State than it receives back. If the entire State isn't going to be taxed to fix this transportation crisis, then the formula should be changed so that NOVA isn't supporting the rest of the state. I support a gas tax increase - how would we even feel it when it's buried in the monthly 10 cent a gallon hikes we've had for the past two years? The other option is to cut spending. Just ignoring the issue is NOT an option. The House needs to govern!
4 agree | 4 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree
Examiner Reader said:
We are being taxed out of the area. The cost of living is getting out of control and I really don't know why that is always the answer to everything. Maybe they need to start looking into what they are paying themselves and start the cuts there.
3 agree | 2 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree
Examiner Reader said:
My comment regards the issues of raising money for road funding ONLY in the Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads area. Why the should the entire state have to suffer with any extra taxes if the only people to benefit are the ones in the two areas mentioned? How would citizens located in Central, South and Southwest Virginia personally benefit other than have less money to spend in an already high unemployment area? Maybe this talk a few years ago about how Northern Virginia was considering to be a separate entity from the rest of the State (Northern Virginia and Virginia) should be resurrected and re-hashed over again. You would then have two budgets.
4 agree | 3 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree
Examiner Reader said:
Just got to love Kaine's scare tactics. He needs to cut spending and take his pet project off the table to have any chance of passing a non tax raising budget. Chris
55 agree | 55 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree
Examiner Reader said:
Kaine is raising taxes just like Maryland's Gov. O'Malley. Thankfully Virginia has more sense and will elect a Republican governor in 2008. Chris
67 agree | 61 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree
Examiner Reader said:
That old 70;s song is back "Here comes that Rainy day feeling again" Kaino will surely get his money after the Jan session opens, they do it the old fashioned way, they just up your taxes
76 agree | 63 disagree
Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree