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Roads bill OK'd
Reworked by Senate
Thursday, February 14, 2013
RICHMOND (AP) — A major rewrite of Gov. Bob McDonnell’s road funding overhaul won Senate passage without debate Wednesday.
The 26-14 vote sent the drastically amended bill back to the House of Delegates, where a two-thirds Republican majority voted 19-78 to reject the Senate’s bid to not only restore the 171?2 cents-per-gallon gasoline tax that McDonnell wants to eliminate but increase it by a nickel per gallon. The House bill would have repealed the gasoline tax altogether.
Those votes set up at least a week of high-level private talks by five delegates and five senators to find a compromise that will satisfy majorities in the House and Senate by the scheduled Feb. 23 final adjournment.
“It is now time for both bodies of the General Assembly to work together in conference and agree upon a fiscally responsible plan that will pass with bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate, and which I can sign into law,” McDonnell said.
Besides boosting the gasoline tax to 221?2 cents per gallon, Sen. Frank Wagner’s rewrite adds a statewide 1 percent wholesale tax on gas and diesel and an option for localities to levy an additional 1 percent tax. It earmarks for transportation most of the state sales taxes that would be collected on Internet and catalog purchases should Congress enact legislation authorizing it.
State Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Glade Hill, voted against the bill.
The amendment also prohibits the imposition of tolls on existing interstate highways in Virginia without legislative approval, something that would scuttle administration plans to charge tolls of at least $4 on a stretch of Interstate 95 south of Richmond to the North Carolina border.
Wagner’s proposal would generate nearly $4.5 billion statewide through its first five years with the potential to yield another $3.8 billion if city and county governments take advantage of his local-option funding component.
McDonnell’s preference, the House bill, would produce about $3 billion over five years.
With the Republican-dominated House certain to reject the Senate amendment, that sets up high-level private talks by a select committee of senators and delegates with input from McDonnell’s administration to see if a compromise between the widely different positions is possible by the General Assembly’s scheduled Feb. 23 final adjournment. The Senate has 20 Republicans and 20 Democrats.
Transportation funding is the centerpiece of McDonnell’s quest for a legislative legacy along with public school reforms that would pay teachers more in return for greater leeway in dismissing underperforming teachers.
All 20 of the Senate’s Democrats joined six Republicans to pass the bill, at least keeping open the only remaining legislative pathway for achieving transportation funding changes that have eluded Virginia lawmakers for a dozen years. That includes two fruitless special sessions solely for that purpose convened by McDonnell’s Democratic predecessor, Tim Kaine, now a U.S. senator.
Opposition to Wagner’s amendment was from 14 Republicans, including some of the chamber’s most conservative members, who dislike what they see as a large tax increase. Some, however, also had reservations about McDonnell’s initial plan, which would have replaced the current volume-based gasoline tax with a 0.8 percent increase in the overall retail sales tax. It also relied on potential online sales tax collections, increases in fees and a $100 fee that would be added to the purchase of new hybrid fuel cars. His bill left the fuel tax on diesel fuel, which chafed truckers and owners of diesel-engine vehicles.
Senate Democrats, who had opposed the original House bill, beamed over the vote.
“I’m especially pleased so many of my Republican colleagues voted for this plan, which raises sufficient revenue to address long-overdue construction needs,” said Senate Democratic Caucus Chairman Donald McEachin of Henrico.
Senate Republican Leader Thomas K. Norment of James City marked the amendment’s passage with grudging and derisive praise for the Democrats.
“That Senate Democrats were willing to vote for a transportation plan this week, and that they were willing to vote for a plan that increases General Fund revenues dedicated to transportation, shows welcome movement — however slight — on their part,” Norment said.
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