Kaine talks transit tax in Prince William County

By Lillian Kafka

Published: May 13, 2008

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine began a series of town hall meetings Tuesday pushing his newest investment plan — this time by raising a regional sales tax in Northern Virginia to upgrade its transportation system.

If Virginia doesn’t start investing in its infrastructure soon, its economy will suffer, the governor told a crowd of nearly 200 gathered at the A. J. Ferlazzo Building in Prince William County, where commuters in were ranked last year as having the fifth longest commutes in the nation.

Money that was going to build an interchange at U.S. 1 and Va. 123 in Woodbridge, for instance, has recently been shifted, along with about $80 million in other projects, to pay for road maintenance.

Kaine said this trend will continue until more than $600 million in new road construction would be removed from capital spending plans just to maintain roads.

Reversing this trend locally means raising the sales tax by 1 percent, Kaine said.

Other details of his plan include an increase in the statewide sales tax on autos, which is proposed to rise from 3 to 4 percent. Kaine’s plan also raises the statewide vehicle registration fee by $10.

The tax increases, however painful, would help Virginia invest in road and rail infrastructure critical to keeping its economic engines humming, Kaine said, as he presented his transportation plan to a room full of residents, business owners and some anti-tax group members.

“I think you need to cut taxes,” Bryan Martin of Woodbridge told Kaine during the meeting. “If you keep raising taxes, the people who are spending money to keep me in business are not going to keep spending that money.”

There are rules of math and there’s no free lunch,” Kaine responded.

“This is a balancing act as we try to find out ways to have people pay for this,” Kaine said. “The sales tax, which would be raised in Northern Virginia and would stay in Northern Virginia, would be paid by out of state [drivers], too.”

If the sales tax money were used on anything other than transportation, the tax would be disqualified, Kaine said.

He anticipated interest in the plan would vary across the state — rural residents could support his plan because it would help pay for bridges that remain closed because no money exists to replace them.

It could also help pave more than 300 miles of dirt roads in some areas, he said.

Greta Houston of Occoquan said she supports Kaine’s tax increase proposal. She’s been using a method of carpooling called “slugging” for 20 years to get her job in Washington, D.C.

“Those tax raises that you are suggesting are not that much,” Houston said.

However, opponents to the tax increases say there haven’t been enough cuts in state spending to justify a tax increase.

“I think there were more comments against raising taxes than there were for it and I think that’s important,” said Del. Jeffrey M. Frederick, R-Woodbridge.

Sharon Pandak, Kaine’s appointee to the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, said Kaine’s proposed tax increases were small compared to the time and money spent sitting in traffic.

“When you talk about a tax, we’re already being taxed. Emergency vehicles can’t respond in a timely manner to help people. People need to look at these things,” said Pandak, who attended the meeting Tuesday.