Virginia lawmakers return to Richmond on Wednesday to wrestle once again with the state’s transportation conundrum.
The odds of a solution aren’t good. Only one proposal remains – a 1-cent-a-year uptick in the gasoline tax for the next six years (eventually amounting to a 6-cent increase) – and it’s on life support.
House Republicans are absolutely gleeful about their plans to kill the Senate-backed gas tax increase as soon as possible. So far, they haven’t offered an alternative. This leaves Virginia pretty much where it started – without the funds to maintain its roads and bridges, let alone construct new ones.
If House Republicans wanted to be bold, they would back the gas tax increase and demand that the funds be dedicated, by law, to road work alone. This would eliminate any temptation to raid the transportation piggybank to pay for pet projects in future years.
With gas prices orbiting the $4-per-gallon mark, a penny increase will hardly be noticed. Gas prices seem to decline and climb by pennies on the gallon with little rhyme or reason on a regular basis.
Are Republicans honestly arguing that a 1-cent increase in the gas tax is going to break anyone’s family budget? Or are they merely reacting in Pavlovian fashion to the mention of a tax increase?
When discussing the gas tax, it is important to note that Virginia’s tax is lower than the levy in surrounding states (including Tennessee), and was last increased in 1986. It has neither kept pace with inflation nor with the cost of even routine road maintenance.
Two other points in the gas tax’s favor: It applies equally to Virginia drivers and out-of-state motorists who use the state’s highways and it is, at its core, a user fee. Hummer drivers and road warriors who spend large chunks of time behind the wheel pay more than those who use less.
Contrarians argue, correctly, that the gas tax isn’t a long-term solution. If gas prices increase dramatically, Americans will find ways to conserve; they will drive more fuel-efficient cars or simply drive less. Gas tax revenue will decrease, and the state will have to adapt.
This adaptation might take the form of increased reliance on rail to move freight and people, but this also will require state investment. And it is a longer-term proposition.
The demand for road and bridge maintenance isn’t going away overnight. Virginia must maintain its infrastructure, even if it doesn’t build a single mile of new highway. Northern Virginia and Tidewater residents, meanwhile, will probably argue against a no-new-construction approach as they sit stuck in traffic burning high-dollar gasoline.
We also note that recent constraints in the transportation budget haven’t just scuttled projects in the state’s gridlocked metropolitan regions. Some of Southwest Virginia’s projects have been shelved as well. Deferred maintenance, in particular, will affect us all.
The state needs more money for transportation. The gas tax increase is a temporary solution, but a fair one. Sate lawmakers should agree to it and begin the process of adapting to a costly energy future post haste. No other solution is on the table.
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