Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 5, 1993 TAG: 9312030035
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
That's "because the transportation system is the backbone of the economy," said John C. Lanford, president of Adams Construction Co.
It's under another title, president of Virginians for Better Transportation, that Lanford said he believes taxpayers will be willing to put up another $600 million a year for needed transportation projects the state couldn't otherwise\ buy.
Recent reports indicate that Gov.-elect George Allen and key members of the\ General Assembly are predisposed against tax increases for transportation.
Allen said he doesn't favor an increase in the state's 17.7-cent-per-gallon\ gasoline tax, the primary source of funds for building roads. Allen said he\ wants to make sure the Virginia Department of Transportation is spending tax\ money efficiently before he considers new taxes.
Lanford, however, remains optimistic that both the public and politicians\ can be convinced of the wisdom of providing more funding for transportation.
"I think if I were the governor, I would say the same thing," Lanford said.\ "I wouldn't commit myself, until I had more information."
Virginians for Better Transportation has promised a concentrated effort over the next two months to educate Virginians on what it considers to be a\ "transportation crisis." The group's members include companies and individuals\ likely to benefit from highway construction: contractors, suppliers,\ transportation companies, business groups and manufacturers.
Acknowledging political realities, Lanford's group is not seeking funding\ for all the unmet needs identified by the Virginia Department of\ Transportation. That would cost billions more, or twice what the group is\ hoping for.
But the state cannot afford to do nothing, when its financial future is at\ stake, the group argues. Although common sense alone makes a case for\ transportation's importance to the economy, economic studies _ including those\ of a Virginia Tech economist - verify that link, as well.
The group will sponsor about 15 public forums across Virginia, visit\ editorial writers, increase its mailings and participate in local radio talk\ shows. The goal is to increase public awareness of the issue, Ralph Axselle,\ the group's Richmond lobbyist, said at a Nov. 16 meeting of a special General\ Assembly committee studying transportation funding.
That legislative committee, led by Sen. Hunter Andrews, D-Hampton, will\ hold its next meeting Tuesday, when it will receive recommendations on new\ funding sources from an advisory group of private citizens and government\ officials led by Morgan Massey, a retired Richmond coal executive.
Massey's advisers will try to come up with a plan members from various\ transportation sectors can agree on, he said. Two things it can already agree\ on, he said, are that Virginia needs to increase its transportation revenues\ and that the state is losing out in the arena of economic development to North\ Carolina and Maryland, which provide more support for transportation.
The most obvious way to increase funding for transportation is to increase\ the fuel tax - probably substantially - but there are other transportation user\ fees that could be increased, Massey said. Massey said he was surprised that\ even the trucking industry representatives on his advisory group supported a\ fuel tax increase.
The most important role that Virginians for Better Transportation can\ play, Massey said, is to educate the public on the urgency of the\ transportation needs.
Nobody likes tax increases, and Virginia is a conservative state; but you\ have to look at transportation differently, Massey said.
As an example of the important role transportation can play in the economy,\ Massey pointed to Roanoke's decision not to extend the runway at then-Woodrum\ Field to accommodate Piedmont Airline's larger jets. Piedmont - now USAir -\ moved its hub to Charlotte, N.C. While Roanoke's economy stagnates, Charlotte's\ is booming, he noted.
Virginians for Better Transportation expects to spend about $250,000 before\ the end of next year's legislative session to win support for increased\ transportation funding, Lanford said. Axselle, a Richmond lawyer and former\ member of the House of Delegates, is the group's sole paid staff member, but\ the group has hired a Richmond firm, MSI Public Relations, to help it deal with\ the media.
Lanford thinks the best way to get the message out is through direct\ presentations to local clubs and civic groups such as Rotary and chambers of\ commerce.
"The program will kind of sell itself, once people understand," he said.
Lanford, too, warns that Virginia stands to lose out economically to\ neighboring states if it doesn't invest in transportation.
"Look at Third World countries," he said. "One of the reasons they don't\ have as much of an economy is because they don't have a good transportation\ system."
Tom Johnson, an economist at Virginia Tech, has studied the relationship\ between public investment in transportation projects and the economy. Two\ years ago, he led a study for the Virginia Department of Transportation to\ determine the economic benefits of improving U.S. 58 through Southwest\ Virginia.
Besides the short-term jobs created by the construction itself, investment\ in transportation creates long-term economic benefits, Johnson said. His Route\ 58 study concluded that the benefits in terms of permanent jobs, increased\ property values and improved business and farm efficiency would be more than\ twice what it cost to build the road.
It's possible to build a road in the wrong place; but when a well-planned\ road is built in an area where the potential for development already exists,\ building the road will cost less than not building the road, Johnson said. Virginia motorists currently pay 17.7 cents per gallon in state gasoline tax\ and an additional 18.4 cents per gallon in federal tax. The state and federal\ taxes on diesel fuel are 16.2 cents and 24.4 cents per gallon, respectively.
Lanford and others argue that Virginia has room to increase its fuel taxes\ and must do so if it is to compete economically.
Motorists in the neighboring states of Maryland (23.5 cents), North\ Carolina (17.3 cents, plus a 7 percent sales tax) and West Virginia (20.5\ cents, plus a 5 percent sales tax) pay more in gasoline taxes than do those in\ Virginia.
Virginians pay more than motorists in 15 states, but Virginia's gas tax is\ still below the national average of 18.6 cents per gallon.
The Department of Transportation has estimated that the state has $52.1\ billion in transportation needs through the year 2010. Of the projects that\ have been identified, highways and roads account for $37 billion, with mass\ transit, aviation, seaports and railroads accounting for the rest.
Current funding methods can raise only about $28 billion over those 17\ years.
Virginians for Better Transportation, however, has decided it's not possible shortfall. Instead, the group has proposed that state government put together a package of taxes, fees and bonds that would raise half that amount, or roughly $600 million a year.
The group has proposed a scenario where the state gasoline tax would be raised a total of 9 cents per gallon, of which 2 cents would go toward retiring the debt on a proposed $920 million worth of transportation revenue bonds.
A 9-cent increase equals a yearly tax increase of $67.50 for a motorist driving 15,000 miles a year, assuming a car that averages 20 miles per gallon.
Another group, the Virginia Association of Public Transit Officials, has proposed raising the state gasoline tax even higher, by 10 cents per gallon. Of that increase, the transit group suggests allocating 3 cents per gallon to localites, half for any transportation purpose and the other half for public transit.
Among the Southwest Virginia projects Lanford's group said new transportation funding might help build are: a bypass of U.S. 220 around Covington; completion of a four-lane U.S. 58 from Norfolk to Cumberland Gap; the four-laning of U.S. 460 from Grundy to the Kentucky line; the Blacksburg-Christiansburg U.S. 460 bypass; and the Blacksburg-Roanoke "smart road."
Besides the unmet needs for new construction, only 12,500 miles of Virginia's 22,353 miles of arterial and collector roads can be considered to be in "good" condition, with the pavement condition of the remaining 45.6 percent either in "poor" or "fair" shape.
In 1986, then-governor Gerald Baliles touted his initiative as a solution to Virginia's transportation needs well into the next century.
The Baliles program included major improvements of the state's airports - as well as highways - but it was never fully funded by the legislature, Lanford said. And since 1990, revenues from a 1986 transportation tax increase have been $513 million less than expected, according to a study commissioned by Lanford's group.
The legislature has been looking for ways to change the highway funding formula to distribute money more fairly to projects in different areas of the state. Lanford said the group will not get involved in saying which part of the state needs the new money the most.
If a highway funding measure doesn't pass the 1994 General Assembly session, Lanford said, he is assuming the group would continue its efforts another year. It would probably be better to get nothing out of the coming legislature rather than some token effort to increase funding, he said.
Lanford, 63, is a past president of the American Road and Transportation Builders Association. His family has been in the road-building business since 1923, and he got his start in 1944 as a water boy on a railroad project in Pike County, Ky.
A native of Maryland who spent his early years in West Virginia, Lanford graduated from Roanoke's William Fleming High School and Virginia Military Institute.
Along with his brother Stan, Lanford also operates Lanford Brothers Construction Co. of Roanoke, which builds bridges, including the Fifth Street bridge under construction downtown.
He bought Adams Construction Co., a 250-employee road paving firm, in 1985.
Lanford seemed like a "natural" to lead Virginians for Better Transportation, said Abney Boxley III of Roanoke, who represents the Virginia Aggregates Association on the board and is the group's vice president. Lanford has been around the transportation industry for a long time and has a reputation for integrity, Boxley said.
Boxley said it's tough to predict what will come from the group's efforts, particularly with a new legislature sitting in Richmond next year. But he noted that Gov.-elect Allen specifically didn't mention gasoline taxes when he pledged not to raise sales or income taxes next year.
The effort to win public support for the increased transportation funding has already begun, and he has personally spoken in the past few weeks with chambers of commerce in Danville and Roanoke about the issue, Boxley said.
While there may be some disagreement about how new funding should be divided among geographic regions and different modes of transportation, one thing everyone across the state has in common is more needs than funds to pay for them, Boxely said.
Lanford realizes he and other members of his group are open to criticism for practicing self-interest by pushing increased funding for transportation projects.
"Obviously, we do gain by it," he said, "but I think the public gains a lot mbmbmore."
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