Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 25, 1994 TAG: 9402250158
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
And opposition by Gov. George Allen to a fuel tax increase has slowed legislation to boost funding for transportation projects.
A bill that would continue, for another year, a study of ways to pay for Virginia's highway needs has been passed by the Senate and waits action in the House of Delegates.
The bill was introduced by Sen. Hunter Andrews, D-Hampton, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. Andrews also was chairman of a joint Senate-House highway-funding study that got under way last year.
Andrews' committee had seemed to be on schedule in its funding recommendations to the General Assembly until December, when then-Gov.-elect Allen told a Virginia Farm Bureau meeting in Roanoke that he would veto any efforts to raise the state's 17.7-cents-a-gallon gasoline tax.
The same speech put on hold efforts by Virginia Citizens for Better Transportation. That group - composed of highway contractors, manufacturers, retailers and others interested in a better state transportation system - had planned a $250,000 effort this winter to sell Virginians on the need for increased transportation funding.
"Right now we're just taking a wait-and-see attitude and won't do anything until after the General Assembly completes its business," said Jack Lanford of Roanoke, president of Adams Construction Co. and head of the private transportation lobby.
Because Allen was opposed to increasing the gas tax, Lanford said, it would have been too difficult to move a bill increasing transportation funding through this year's legislature.
Allen did not rule out a gas-tax increase in the future, but said he first wanted to review the operations of the Virginia Department of Transportation for "waste, inefficiency and misplaced priorities."
Allen also said he wanted to determine "beyond a reasonable doubt" whether the unfunded transportation needs identified by the department are crucial.
In the week before his inauguration, Allen formed a "blue ribbon strike force" of 60 government and business leaders to review the operations of state government and to suggest changes.
Thomas J. Towberman, chairman of the strike force - the Governor's Commission on Government Reform - said one of of the commission's committees will review the efficiency of the Transportation Department's operations and the processes it uses to provide services to the public.
The commission will not decide which transportation projects should be built and when, he said.
The Department of Transportation has estimated that the state has $52.1 billion in transportation needs through 2010. Current funding methods can raise about $28 billion in that time.
Virginians for Better Transportation decided it's not possible to fund the entire shortfall. Instead, the group had proposed that the state government put together a package of taxes, fees and bonds that would raise about $600 million a year.
Lanford's group had proposed raising the state gasoline tax 9 cents per gallon, of which 2 cents would go to retire debt on a proposed $920 million worth of transportation revenue bonds.
A 9-cent increase would equal a yearly tax bite of $67.50 for a motorist driving 15,000 miles a year, assuming a car that averages 20 miles per gallon.
Lanford's group argues that Virginia can afford to a higher gas tax.
Although Virginians pay higher gas taxes than motorists in 15 states, their levy is still less than the national average of 18.6 cents per gallon.
by CNB