Transportation Compromise Moves Forward, Gains Critics

The bill aiming to build consensus around Bob McDonnell's plan to bring $3 billion to transportation projects met with mixed reviews.

By Whitney Spicer Capital News Service Critics of the transportation funding compromise reached by legislative negotiators say the plan would place a huge burden on Virginia taxpayers. The Virginia House of Delegates Friday passed House Bill 2313, which would raise about $900 million a year for transportation and transit projects. The 98-page compromise must win approval the Senate before it can be signed into law by the governor. The legislative session ends Saturday.  The new plan, which was hammered out by a 10-member conference committee over the past week, would potentially raise close to $900 million a year in transportation revenue.  It could be the first transportation funding overhaul in Virginia since 1986 if it passes this week…

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McDonnell Calls on Senate to Pass Roads Funding

The governor visited Fairfax County on Monday to rally support for his transportation bill, promising some money to reduce fees on the Dulles Toll Road.

Gov. Bob McDonnell made a stop in Northern Virginia on Monday afternoon to urge locals to push their representatives to support his divisive transportation-funding package, which the state Senate is scheduled to vote on again Tuesday. The governor said his proposal, which failed to pass the Senate in a partisan, 20-20 vote last week, would raise about $3 billion for road and transit improvements over the next five years. The bill would eliminate the state’s 17.5-cents-per-gallon gas tax and raise the state sales tax from 5 percent to 5.8 percent. The House last week amended their version of the bill, eliminating a $100 alternative vehicle fee for owners of hybrid cars and prohibiting tolls on I-95 south of Fredericksburg. Senate …

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Bob Bruhns

8:40 pm on Tuesday, February 12, 2013

It would also help if the line item cost numbers were not concealed from the public, as they are in the Dulles Rail / Silver Line project. The concept of a government-business partnership to build these projects was sold to us on the grounds that it would LOWER prices. But what we actually find is that these agreements allow the government and the businesses to conceal excessive line item prices…   more ›

Virginia General Assembly

McDonnell Urges Democratic Leaders to OK Roads Bill

In letter to Saslaw and McEachin, the Virginia governor pushed for cooperation on transportation bill.

By Whitney Spicer Capital News Service RICHMOND – Three days after Senate Democrats derailed his transportation funding plan, Gov. Bob McDonnell urged two key Democratic senators to support the House version of his proposal. McDonnell sent a letter Friday to Senate Minority Leader Richard Saslaw (D-35) of Fairfax and Sen. A. Donald McEachin (D-9). McDonnell encouraged them to pass House Bill 2313, which contains his proposals to eliminate the state’s gasoline tax, increase the sales tax and raise vehicle registration fees to fund billions of dollars in road and transit projects. “While we can disagree on the specific mechanisms for addressing our growing transportation challenges, we cannot disagree on the fact that the problems must be …

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Governor’s Transportation Plan Hits Roadblock

Funding package was derailed by Virginia Senate Democrats late Tuesday, though the House version of the legislation still has a chance for approval.

By Whitney Spicer and Alix Hines, Capital News Service  All 20 of Virginia's Democratic senators — including Loudoun-area Sens. Mark Herring (D-33) and Barbara Favola (D-31) — voted against Gov. Bob McDonnell's transportation plan late Tuesday, effectively blocking the Senate's version of the proposal for this legislative session. The move makes it less likely Gov. Bob McDonnell will pass a transportation package in his last year in office. While the House amended and approved a version of the plan, HB 2313, earlier Tuesday, sending it to the Senate Finance Committee, Senate Democrats "vowed to block any proposal that generated less than $1.2 billion a year in new roads money," the Washington Examiner reports. That opposition is what …

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Conservatives Meet in Richmond to Oppose Tax Hikes

AFP shows opposition to Gov. McDonnell’s transportation and support for the ‘Boneta Bill’ to expand definition of agricultural operations.

By Destiny Brandon Capital News Service  One of the country’s leading conservative grassroots organizations is voicing its opposition to tax and fee increases under consideration by the Virginia General Assembly, including Gov. Bob McDonnell’s funding plan for transportation. Americans for Prosperity, which claims 2.2 million members nationwide, including 85,000 in Virginia, has taken action online and at the state Capitol to try to stop the increases. Members headed to Richmond from all over the state last week to talk about their legislative priorities. “Obviously, as a free-market, limited-government group, we are against new taxes,” AFP Virginia State Director Audrey Jackson said. “We are all about keeping taxes low so people have more…

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McDonnell's Transportation Bill Moves Forward

House committee added amendments Wednesday to the package, which would eliminate Virginia's gas tax and hike sales taxes to raise $3 billion over five years.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s controversial transportation bill passed the House of Delegates Finance Committee on Wednesday, moving past its first hurdle in the state's 2013 General Assembly session. In a 14-8 vote, the committee passed McDonnell’s package, which calls for eliminating the state’s 17.5 cents per gallon gas tax and raising the state sales tax from 5 percent to 5.8 percent. The plan would also keep the 17.5 tax on diesel fuel and increase vehicle registration fees. It would also raise the amount of the state’s sales tax that goes to transportation from 5 to 75 cents over a five-year period. McDonnell said the bill would raise approximately $3 billion in that time, including $1.8 billion for new construction. The committee — …

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