THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 18, 1996 TAG: 9607180388
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBBIE MESSINA, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 75 lines
By raising its gasoline tax to a rate comparable to neighboring states, Virginia could spend up to 40 percent more to build and improve highways, transportation experts said Wednesday.
The extra revenue would help ease a transportation funding crisis that threatens to make traffic gridlock in Hampton Roads rival Northern Virginia's.
The state's 17.5-cent-per-gallon gas tax is its primary source of revenue to build roads. Current funding covers only 30 percent of the local road construction needs, according to a Hampton Roads Planning District Commission report.
``If nothing is done to change that, we'll be left with slow speeds and severe urban congestion,'' said Dwight L. Farmer, transportation director for the regional planning group.
``We will get around, but we'll get around at only 10 miles an hour.''
Virginia neighbors West Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee and Washington, D.C., all have higher gas taxes. Only Kentucky has a lower rate.
A gas tax rate equal to the rates in North Carolina, Maryland or West Virginia would generate an additional $170 million to $300 million annually in Virginia, officials said.
Hampton Roads' share of this money would range from $40 million to $75 million. The area's total construction allocation is now $185 million.
``Until and unless we do something about transportation funding, our competitiveness is going to suffer,'' Arthur L. Collins, the planning district commission's executive director, warned regional leaders.
Local transportation planners are examining the finances as the state prepares to review highway funding and needs set 10 years ago by the Commission on Transportation in the 21st Century.
Commission members plan to meet with the local delegation to the General Assembly to begin talking about how to resolve the funding problems.
``Something's got to be done, and the gas tax is the first mechanism we can use,'' Farmer said.
The alternatives include: increasing existing funding, finding new sources of revenue, privatizing some road projects, increasing mass transportation and changing people's driving habits.
According to the planning district commission report, the amount of revenue generated for Virginia roads is keeping pace with inflation - gasoline sales are fairly flat as cars are becoming more fuel efficient - while road maintenance costs are double the inflation rate.
Therefore, maintenance on local highways is consuming so much of the transportation budget that fewer roads can be built. State statutes require that maintenance needs be met before new construction is undertaken.
Today, 30 percent of local road construction needs are being met, the report shows.
Based on the current funding structure, that will decrease to 14 percent in the year 2000. And within 10 years, the figure falls to 5 percent.
Farmer predicts that if funding does not change, within the next 10 years traffic here will move as slowly as in Northern Virginia, where the average highway speed is 10 mph.
By 2002, the Monitor Merrimac Bridge-Tunnel will be as packed as the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, he said. And the Downtown and Midtown tunnels will be parking lots.
Even though the population growth rate of the region is 1 percent per year, Farmer said, the annual growth of travel on our major thoroughfares is 3 percent to 4 percent.
Farmer warned that the longer it takes to correct the funding inequities, the harder it will be to get traffic volumes under control. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
HOW VIRGINIA COMPARES
GAS TAXES/cents per gallon
West Virginia: 25.35
Maryland: 23.5
North Carolina: 21.7
Washington, D.C.: 20
Tennessee: 20
Virginia: 17.5
Kentucky: 16.4 by CNB