Is Virginia Violating the Law?

Basically what is happening is this. There are two gas taxes – a state tax of 17.5 cents and a Federal Tax of 18.4
cents. The Virginia Constitution requires all maintenance to be funded first and typically the state has used their tax
for maintenance and use the Federal tax for new construction and maintenance of the Interstates.

But you can’t get all of the Federal Tax back unless you provide a match for it.

For the last decade VDOT has been warning that what was left over from the state tax for maintenance – the part
needed to match the Fed money was shrinking and they warned that at some point, we would start to lose Federal
money if we did not provide the match.

That time has arrived – it’s not a contrived event.. Virginia can no longer provide the match money and if we don’t we
lose even more money.

Here’s the presentation by Homer Pierce – just 11 pages of really bad news for transportation funding in Va.

http://www.nvta.org//Files/08-18-09%20Transportation%20Revenue%20update%20JTCA.pdf

but the part about violating the law…. I dunno… VDOT has maintenance standards… you know esoteric stuff like
what criteria do they use to decide when to repave a road…… and where does it say how much money or percentage
must be spent?

in other words – who decides what constitutents a “well maintained road”?

how would you prove that VDOT is not maintaining a road if they actually go out and work on it but they don’t do it as
often as they used to. As long as a road is on the schedule and they go out and do work on it then who can say that
they are ‘breaking the law”?

They’ve been cutting back for years… doing more pothole patching rather than full repaving….

here’s the correct:

An increase in the statewide gas tax 14 31 – 68

” “There’s Nothing Left to Allocate”

For decades state legislators and local officials throughout the
Commonwealth have argued over the fairness of various
transportation funding allocations formulas.

Well, now there will be no more arguing or fighting.

On June 17, 2009 Transportation Secretary Pierce Homer
reported to the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB)
that Virginia’s transportation funding crisis has reached the
point that, “There’s nothing left to allocate.”

The reality is that starting in 2011 there will be zero dollars
going through formulas to localities for primary, secondary,
urban or unpaved roads. In fact funds going through formulas
today are only for contracts already underway.

The reason is that once debt, maintenance and other
legislatively mandated obligations are met, not enough dollars
remain to pass through statewide formulas.”

http://www.nvta.org/content.asp?contentid=1871

what is the point ?

well, I call it the “blood from a turnip” mindset.

what part of this is not understood?

unless you are a person who believes that Virginia/VDOT
actually have adequate money but are wasting it, etc…
then the only sane conclusion one can come to is to recognize
that the current Va gas tax – revenues have fallen below the
level necessary to not only buy new roads, but even to
maintain existing ones.

so what I sorta get out of this is that some folks are saying, in
effect, that it is “illegal” to not increase the gas tax – sufficient
to at least pay for maintenance.

You could do that. One penny statewide brings in about $50
million. All we need to do is modify the law to automatically
increase the gas tax – sufficient to fund maintenance.

http://www.nvta.org/content.asp?contentid=1188

But that’s not going to handle new projects needed due to
growth.

the Federal fund is bankrupt also – read this:

” Highway Trust Fund Is Nearly Out of Gas”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2008/09/05/AR2008090503525.html

so…after we’re all done wailing and gnashing our teeth, at the
end of the day, the question on the table is this:

“How much more do you want to pay for transportation and
through what method”?

That’s the question that so far.. most folks refuse to deal with.

some say there’s plenty of money and it’s being wasted.
Others are in favor of paying more but through a state or
federal gas tax. Still others favor tolls for new roads and local
funding of local roads.

but the option we do not have, and this is what Senator Houck
was alluding to is – no action.

If you believe Senator Houck and VDOT – the situation is this -
there is no longer enough money coming in from the 17.5
cent gas tax to pay for all the maintenance that needs to be
done.

VDOT is already cutting back on grass cutting, will close 1/3 of
it’s maintenance facilities and lay off more than 500 people.

but all that is going to do is slow down the bleeding…

the next step – is that VDOT will attempt to divest itself of
maintenance responsibility for local (secondary) roads.

Is that legal or constitutional? Well.. not unless or until
someone brings a legal challenge .. and it gets to the
Supreme Court and wins…

until then.. what should be done?

Yes.. transportation is a strong interest of mine
because it’s at the root of the growth
management issue and it’s also, at the same
time a vital and important function that we all
depend on.

Finally, it’s something that the average person
does not understand because the process is not
transparent at all.. and because of that there is
little accountability.

I keep asking for folks to say how much money
their gas tax generates in Spotsylvania because –
how can we begin to talk about what is “enough”
or how much more we “need” if we don’t even
know the current situation.

I have yet to find an authoratative reference that
gives “THE” answer for Spotsylvania but we can
get pretty close by looking at other data and
interpolating…

and what I get is about 20 million a year for
Spotsylvania.

That’s for EVERYTHING… maintenance and
operations and improvements….

Spotsylvania’s share of a one cent increase at the
state level would be on the order of several
hundred thousands – not millions.

In order for Spotsylvania to get .. say 5 million a
year more – the gas tax at the state level would
have to add about 10 cents a gallon.

Of course my shtick has been.. if we have to pay
higher taxes – why send it to Richmond and only
get 1/2 of it back anyhow?

why don’t capture it at the local level into a fund
that the BOS can then establish priorities for.

And if the good folks of Spotsylvania don’t agree
with those priorities they can inform the BOS at
election time.

I think that is a lot more accountable than
sending it to Richmond where unelected officials
will decide how much Spotsylvania will get – but
more important – what it will be spent on.

take a look at this – it’ll give you a good idea of
what kinds of taxes raise what kind of money at
the State Level and at the NoVa level.

NoVa has 2.5 million people. FAMPO has 300K.

You can do the math to get our numbers.

here’s the chart:

http://www.nvta.org/content.asp?contentid=1188

We have an election coming up and we’re all
messed up over VRE. People ought to be asking
Mr. Pitts and Mr. Yak what there views are on
funding roads in Spotsylvania after we’ve spent
the piddling amount we’d get from VRE.

on the macro – do we think the whole world can
go “broke”?

On the micro – do we think VDOT can go broke?

At the local level – do we think Spotsy can go
broke?

And the answer is – only if your definition of
“broke” is that there is no more money coming in
at all at all 3 levels.

For instance, VDOT is still collecting gas taxes
and sales taxes at the rate of 2.5 BILLION dollars
a year – and they are using that money to
maintain as much as they can.

I think the fallacy here is thinking that “going
broke” means no money and that’s just not the
case.

Instead, it’s more like yourself..having money
coming in but you’re bumping up against your
credit card limits.

Virginia nor VDOT can spend more than they are
taking in… by law.. but they still are going to
bring in a LOT of money – even if it is less than
before.

Again.. it’s not going from some level of money
to NONE – it’s going to LESS.

And no matter what level you’re talking about,
Fed, State or Local – you basically have two
options – either tax more or cut services.

Neither choice is particularily appealing to most of
us but it’s not an all or nothing proposition either.

so.. at the Spotsylvania level – what do you want
to do?

The State and Fed levels are going to do
whatever they are going to do.. but we do still
have choices at the Spotsylvania level.

remember.. it’s not about going from some level
of money to NONE.. it’s about a change from an
existing level up or down .. per our local
decisions.

I can guarantee everyone that come this FALL
when the GA meets and come Spring when our
BOS meets – neither one of them will throw up
their hands and say “what the heck.. the whole
situation is hopeless – we give up”.

so.. no.. you’re not allowed to go hide in the
closet. we’re grown-ups now (I think).

my apologies for the “lecture”.. guilty as charged – and again..
sorry I come across that way.

I get frustrated with the attitudes about transportation in Va –
which does not seem to change much whether we are having a
national ‘crisis” or not… same old , same old

yes.. the Feds can (and will) print money but sooner or later it
all comes back around.. either through higher inflation or the
Chinese cut us off (but that won’t help them sell more ‘stuff’).

yes.. I’ve seen the PROJECTED Debt which I agree is pretty
scary .. totally agree.. but we did not get here in a few
days..and it will take a while to deal with the issue.

I note we did have a balanced budget about 8+ years ago…
and in that 8 years, we could have decided to fund our
priorities the “old fashioned way” – PAYGO – on budget.

but I digress…

I think the way we ‘do’ transportation is Va is why we have
problems.

As soon as I hear “it’s a state responsibility” my hair catches
fire.

because all that is is code for – “it’s the states job to raise
taxes on Spotsylvanians” because what else would we expect
the state to do ?

do we expect the state to fund transportation by only taxing
other Virginians?

do we think Spotsylvania will get more back from the state
than what we pay into it because we ‘deserve it”?

and yet.. that’s what hear…

that.. the “state should fund transportation” and no.. it doesn’t
really mean that Spotsylvania residents will have to pay higher
taxes…

Nope.. because when the State “funds” transportation, it
apparently comes from some money tree that the state has
tucked away in downtown Richmond.

so.. we run away from the problem and our local politicians are
less than honest with citizens when they say “it’s a state
responsibility” and in the same breath – the same guy is
promising to not raise your taxes.

Yup.. he won’t but he’s in favor of Bobby Orrock and Edd Houck
raising your taxes.. and then of course he’s run against them
for their tax & spend ways.

so my “lecture” is this:

“there is no free lunch on transportation”

with this primary corollary

” if you approve approve growth – the money to upgrade the
roads will have to come from somewhere and it won’t come
from Richmond but instead from you.

Your only choice is whether you want to pay the county or the
state (who in theory will send it back to your county).

sorry about my “lecturing” style.. again.

I just think it’s silly for grown adults to have their own version
of the tooth fairy.

Will you guys stop apologizing and get on with it. You haven’t hit this many cylinders in so long, I can’t remember.

Your in third gear and you no longer need to push on the clutch, or tap the brakes. Just keep your foot on the gas, and don’t look back.

Simply said, it’s about time you showed up with YOUR homework and started teaching class instead of cleaning erasers and drawing big circles on the blackboard and in the sand.

I kept all my notes, so we shouldn’t have much of a problem seeing who said what and when or nothing at all.

Batter-up.