ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, July 12, 1996 TAG: 9607120027
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
ON ONE POINT, Vinton Del. Richard Cranwell is right: If there's a mass-transit funding crisis in Virginia's metropolitan areas - and there is - it should be dealt with at the state level.
On a second point, he might be right: At least in the abstract, a statewide gas-tax increase could be preferable to scatter-shot increases at the local or regional level.
That said, will Cranwell use his considerable influence as majority leader of the House of Delegates to push next session for a statewide gas-tax increase to help local mass-transit systems make up declining federal dollars? And will other members of the Roanoke Valley's legislative delegation make a firm commitment to support it?
If not, then it is irresponsible for valley legislators to oppose the joint request of Roanoke city and Roanoke County for authority to impose a local-option gas tax to maintain bus service here.
When a similar joint request was snubbed in this year's General Assembly session, we tried to give local legislators the benefit of the doubt.
Perhaps city and county leaders had not sufficiently done their homework before pressing lawmakers for the taxing authority to offset a loss of about $1 million a year in federal subsidies for Valley Metro buses.
Perhaps the legislators were simply bowing to the reality of Gov. George Allen's pledge to veto any tax-increase bill, even a local-option gas tax.
Now, city and county officials have renewed their willingness to form a special transportation district, with a transportation authority, to impose a local-option gasoline tax within its borders in support of Valley Metro.
Without the necessary General Assembly approval, reduced bus service and significant fare increases or both seem all but certain. Residents - many of them low-income - who depend on the buses to get to jobs, stores, doctors and so forth, would be penalized, as would many businesses.
Meanwhile, let's not get too worried about "Balkanizing'' the state's gas-tax structure with local-option taxes. Surely Cranwell has not forgotten that the assembly already has created five special transportation districts in Virginia. Two of them impose local-option gas taxes. Why not the Roanoke Valley?
This time around, the city and county will appoint a ``Board of Education'' - a committee of business leaders and others - to try to convince lawmakers of the need. Good. Lessons in courage may also be helpful.
And so, too, may be lessons in fiscal realities.
Under current state law governing special transportation districts, the city and county would be required to reduce real-estate taxes, for at least a year, by the same amount the gas tax would raise in each jurisdiction.
That law needs to be changed. Gas-tax revenues proposed for Valley Metro are to replace lost federal mass-transit money, not revenue from other local sources. Localities' efforts to solve one funding problem shouldn't require a sacrifice of revenue for meeting other needs.
As for the governor's anti-tax posturing ... well, Cranwell has crossed swords before with Allen, and won. A veto override would be difficult, but it shouldn't be impossible.
Cranwell has often lectured local officials in the valley on the need to work together to solve local problems, and the message is wise. Now is a chance for the majority leader to give the locals a hand in doing so.
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