Road plan looks like road kill

Alfred Biddlecomb
Published: May 14, 2008

Gov. Tim Kaine pitched his $1.1 billion transportation plan during a news conference on Monday, asking lawmakers for an assortment of tax increases to pay the bills.

Republicans declared Kaine’s plan dead on arrival while offering the governor some nice parting gifts on his way out the building. Try the Turtle Wax, governor, it will keep a shine on the Family Truckster during these dreary, rainy days of May.

It’s been a few months since the Virginia Supreme Court struck down last year’s convoluted transportation plan because it took taxing authority away from the people and handed it over to political appointees.

This time around, Kaine wants the legislature (which has taxing authority) to do many of the same things that the high court forbids the regional commissions from doing — raise taxes and fees for transportation.

The General Assembly will convene in a special session on June 23 to consider this and possibly other transportation fixes.

Kaine’s latest plan includes:

— Raising vehicle registration fees from $39 to $49. Why not just make it an even $50?

— Raising the commonwealth’s automobile titling tax from 3 to 4 percent.

— Raising the grantor’s tax (charged to those selling a home) from 10 cents to 35 cents per $100 of value.

Kaine also wants to raise sales taxes in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads from 5 to 6 percent.

Translated: Gov. Kaine’s transportation solution is the same pig with a different shade of lipstick.

Aside from GOP opposition, industry lobbying groups representing the “don’t tax me!” faction of state politics, lined up to take a swing at Kaine’s transportation tax pitch.

Don’t tax me! (part I): That was the word from the Virginia Automobile Dealers Association whose representative on hand Monday told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that the automobile titling tax “is a tough pill to swallow” in the “middle of a recession.”

Don’t tax me! (part II): Martin Johnson of the Virginia Association of Realtors was equally offended by the Kaine plan. “Lay off the grantor’s tax,” he told the Times-Dispatch. “We’re in a housing recession.”

That’s tough talk. Some people are quick the scream out the “R” word when staring down the barrel of a tax increase.

House Majority Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, predicted that Kaine’s tax plan would never reach the House floor. Griffith, whose Republican Party is in the middle of an electability recession, only appears willing to restore the fees and taxes recently struck down by the state Supreme Court. This could possibly go to Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads voters in a referendum.

I’ve supported referendums in the past, but only out of frustration when members of the General Assembly were unwilling to do the job themselves. The problem is not with the voters deciding on taxes.
It’s the specific taxes being placed on the ballot.

The sales tax was increased (a half cent) to help balance the state budget under Democrat Mark Warner four years ago. It’s too soon to be thinking about tapping that source again.

Taxing home sales and car titles is a little more logical since homes and cars create traffic. But homes and cars are taxed to death through local personal property and real estate taxes.

The obvious answer, if we are to consider raising taxes, is the gasoline tax. The gas tax hasn’t been increased in 20 years.

It’s a bona fide user fee that charges those who use our roads.

What’s that? Did someone just complain that gasoline prices are already at an all-time high and taxing it will cause further hardship?

I paid $3.72 per gallon to fill up my tank recently. I paid $1.72 at the same gas station two years ago. Paying an extra nickel at the pump in order to clear up our traffic isn’t what’s busting your family budget. Taxes didn’t send gasoline prices skyrocketing. I feel more comfortable blaming China, OPEC, a weak dollar and Dick Cheney’s hunting buddies for high gas prices.

Raise the gas tax and leave the others alone. Or, better yet put it on a referendum. It makes more sense and probably has a better chance at gaining voter approval than a combination of taxes increased last year by the NVTA.

If nothing gets done, then so be it. Inaction means people are satisfied with long commutes, weekend traffic jams and potholes that can’t be fixed.

Someone’s got to pay for it. At least with a gasoline tax, we can share the misery with those who are not citizens of this great commonwealth.

Alfred Biddlecomb is the former Opinion Page editor for the Potomac News and Manassas Journal Messenger.