Lawyers clashed Monday over the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority’s ability to raise millions to fix local roads and upgrade public transportation.

For the first time in two decades, Northern Virginia has the opportunity to raise taxes for local transportation projects. The much-debated transportation bill that passed the General Assembly last spring included a provision that allows the authority to raise taxes on car repairs, hotel rooms, vehicle registrations and land sales.

Opponents of the bill say this isn’t the way to fund transit. They argue that the Virginia Constitution bars the authority from levying taxes.

“The issue in this case isn’t whether we have a big transportation problem,” Loudoun County Attorney Jack Roberts argued in Arlington Circuit Court Monday. “It’s who may impose taxes in the state of Virginia.”

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Loudoun’s representative to the authority voted against allowing it to raise most of the seven proposed taxes.

The majority approved raising about $300 million annually for 22 projects including new metro platforms, Virginia Railway Express locomotives, and road, interchange and overpass improvements. The county and 18 conservative politicians are challenging the authority’s ability do so.

Only elected governments have the power to issue bonds, levy taxes, and appropriate money under Virginia’s Constitution, argued Patrick McSweeney, an attorney representing the politicians. Allowing the authority to impose taxes would be unprecedented, he said.

“You would be the first to rule an unelected body can raise taxes,” McSweeney told Judge Benjamin Kendrick.

The constitution does not prohibit the General Assembly from empowering a regional authority to issue bonds and levy taxes, said William Broaddus, an attorney for the authority.

“The general assembly can do anything it is not prohibited from doing and it’s not prohibited in this case,” said Deputy Attorney General Francis Ferguson, who supported Broaddus’ arguments Monday.

There are many regional authorities that issue bonds and levy taxes, including sanitation authorities, housing authorities, park authorities, Broaddus said. He said that the authority members are elected officials from all the Northern Virginia governments.

Kendrick could rule tomorrow. Whatever ruling he makes, he said he anticipates an appeal.

mhegstad@dcexaminer.com