Virginia passes transportation funding plan.

[dorminWS]

In the final hours of the 2013 General Assembly on Saturday, a historic piece of legislation designed to fix the transportation crisis in Virginia was passed. There were many moving parts, personalities and policing considerations combined with many political agendas that needed appeasing before final passage. The bill will now head to the Governor’s desk where it is expected he may make some small tweaks.

The contents of the proposal remained fluid until the very end (a final bill was not available until last Friday).

Overall businesses in Virginia have been overwhelmingly supportive of this plan (and really most any plan) as our infrastructure, especially in the “Urban Crescent” from Arlington to Virginia Beach, is really beginning to decay and as a result Virginia is losing its status as one of the best states in which to do business – the general consensus was that while any tax increase (offset or not) is not ideal but necessary to raise additional monies for roads-both maintenance and new costruction. This was a Governor in his final year determined to get this accomplished and the vote – driven by a combination of party and geographic interests – was an interesting mix in both houses at the end (60 yea votes in the House and 25 in the Senate) – nobody loved it but you will note from the headlines below that it is a deal that will have lasting impact – political and otherwise – for a long time to come.

Summary of the Transportation Conference Report – Detailed Report Attached
• Replaces the per gallon tax with a 3.5 percent tax on gasoline at the wholesale level and a 6 percent wholesale tax on diesel fuel, with a rebate available to clean diesel vehicle owners.
• Raises the state sales tax from 5 percent to 5.3 percent
• Increases the motor vehicle sales tax from 3 percent to 4.3 percent.
• Increases the amount of general fund revenue spent on transportation from .5 percent to .675 percent
• Provides for a 0.7 percent sales tax increase in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia to fund local roads improvements in the state's most congested regions.
• Draws funds from future Internet sales tax proceeds if Congress passes the Marketplace Equity Act. If the act fails, the revenue would be replaced through an additional 1.6 percent tax applied to the wholesale gasoline tax.
• Prohibits tolling on I-95 toll south of Fredericksburg without General Assembly approval.
• Imposes a $100 registration fee on alternative fuel vehicles and hybrids.

[steelheart]

Well that helps keep me working since i drive an asphalt dumptruck now instead of the big rigs.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[DryBones]

I don't do a lot of extra spending so any money I can save on the gas tax will be a help. It will be interesting to see the books after a year of this and see how it all shakes out though.

[RWBlue01]

The issue will not be solved until they implement GOOD mass transit.

As bad as NYC is on other things, they got the mass transit correct.

[dorminWS]

I don't do a lot of extra spending so any money I can save on the gas tax will be a help. It will be interesting to see the books after a year of this and see how it all shakes out though.

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I can al;ready tell you. That gas tax they did away with is replaced by the tax at wholesale and the net result is higher taxes on gas - - not lower.

The only time you get something for nothing from any government is immediately after they catch you bending over......................

[DryBones]

Show me the math, otherwise you're just crying wolf. Like I said, lets see the results after a year and see how bad it really looks.

[WRW]

The gas tax has been a user tax. Those using the roads and buying the fuel have been the ones paying the tax and it was earmarked for roads. A reasonable system, it would seem to me. If more funding was needed for roads, simply raise that tax.

If I understand correctly, the new revenues will now be coming from additional sales tax, meaning everybody's taxes are going up. In order for there to be more funds available for roads there must be more money coming from the taxpayer's pocket. That's the logic of it...someone else can provide the math.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[Reverenddel]

All i've been hearing for the past 2-3 years is government wailing about not having enough money...

while the rest of America struggles, they want to MAINTAIN THE SAME LEVELS OF SPENDING!

How about budgeting like the REST of us, and CUTTING SOME THINGS?!?!

Hate being taxed, and feeling as if I'm getting nothing but f'cked.

[Reverenddel]

All i've been hearing for the past 2-3 years is government wailing about not having enough money...

while the rest of America struggles, they want to MAINTAIN THE SAME LEVELS OF SPENDING!

How about budgeting like the REST of us, and CUTTING SOME THINGS?!?!

Hate being taxed, and feeling as if I'm getting nothing but f'cked.

[GeneFrenkle]

Rev must be pretty serious if he posts it twice!

[Reverenddel]

Systems issues... but YEAH! HAHAHAH

[dorminWS]

Show me the math, otherwise you're just crying wolf. Like I said, lets see the results after a year and see how bad it really looks.

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You're trading a 17.5 cents per gallon tax for a 3.5 percent tax onb gasoline and a 6% tax on diesel at wholesale. Hard to calculate this because it is on wholesale, which only dealers know and which changes from day to day (which makes the politicians LOVE it because it is effectively hidden), but our industry lobbyist tells us it will shake out to about 20 cents per gallon - an increase of 2.5 cents per gallon, or about a 14.3% increase in what the tax was. It should go without saying that the diesel fuel tax, while most folks don't burn diesel, will show up in the cost of the nearly 100% of the goods folks buy that are hauled on trucks.

In addition to that:
- they're raising the general sales tax by 6%; from 5% to 5.3%,
- they're raising the motor vehicle sales tax 43% from 3% to 4.3%,
- If you're in Hampton Rhodes or Northern Virginia, you'll have AN ADDITIONAL .7% increase in the sales tax for use in those most congested regions of the state, and
- they're imposing a $100 registration fee onm alternative fuel vehicles and hybrids, and last but not least,
- If Congress does not pass the Marketplace Equity Act and Virginia therefore cannot tax internet sales, the wholesale gasoline tax will go up by an additional 1.6 percent.

It's said that this bill will raise several score of millions of dollars to solve the Commonwealth's transportation funding problems (for a little while). And you and me are going to pay for it.

Now, you can accuse me of crying wolf if that blows your skirt up, bud; but I can't imagine you thought there was any way government count achieve spend scores of millions of new dollars without first taking it away from the taxpayers either in the form of direct taxation or increased costs of goods caused by corporate taxation which can only be passed on to consumers.

[GeneFrenkle]

Makes me wonder what'll happen to taxes to pay for fuel for school buses, mass transit (Metro, Fairfax connector, etc.), snow plowing/sanding, etc.

[Reverenddel]

Makes me want to live in a hut, and walk to work... and claim 9 on my taxes.

[dorminWS]

Here's Senator Creigh Deeds ' take on the transportation funding plan:
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"The 2013 Session of the General Assembly of Virginia is now complete, and conventional wisdom has been turned on its ear. Typically, in a state election year the legislature avoids major initiatives. Delegates and senators, who are on the ballot in odd numbered years (delegates every two years, senators every four) are leery of doing anything, including raising taxes, that will arouse strong feelings in an election year. The 2013 Session broke this trend. Two substantial accomplishments occurred, and the appreciation or blame lay with the House and the Senate, and the Governor.

Since 1986, no major initiative regarding transportation funding has passed. Instead the issue has been booted down the road like a can to future General Assemblies. Funding has dwindled to the point that the formulas which benefit rural counties are beneficial to no one anymore. State funding for secondary roads is insignificant. Projects linger because of insufficient funds. The most prosperous regions of the state have been crippled in traffic jams. Frankly, over the past ten or fifteen years, as the crisis has developed, both Democrats and Republicans have done a lot of talking about this issue but little of substance has been accomplished. Coming into this session, there was little reason to believe that the norm would change, but it did.

Right before the session, the Governor announced a transportation funding plan. As I have discussed for the past several weeks, the plan had merit and demerit. It raised some money for transportation, and moved a lot of shells around to make it appear revenue neutral. I was not overly critical of plan because I understood that it signaled that the Governor abandoned the approach he took in his campaign of funding transportation projects through gimmickry.

The House and the Senate took different approaches with the bill and ultimately produced a compromise that is too complicated, further balkanizes our transportation system by allowing Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads to raise their own money separate and apart from the Commonwealth's funds, creates different levels of taxation for different fuels, penalizes owners of hybrid vehicles, and raises the sales tax, both in general and on the sale of automobiles. My friend Chap Petersen pointed out all of these deficiencies in explaining to the Senate why he would not vote for the bill. I agreed with everything Chap said, but I came to a different conclusion.

The final compromise ultimately will generate $880 million a year for state transportation projects. It will also generate between $300-$350 million for Northern Virginia and another $175-$200 million for Hampton Roads. While I agreed with everything Sen. Petersen said, I understand that legislating is about compromise. I knew the bill was imperfect, but instead of the flaws, I was captured by the possibilities. New funding will allow projects like the completion of the four-laning between Eagle Rock and Clifton Forge to finally have a chance. It will allow safety improvements to be made in the I-81 and US 29 corridors. It will replenish secondary road funding budgets at the local level. And importantly, the legislation establishes for the first time a fixed source of revenue for rail and transit. The passenger rail service between Charlottesville and D.C. will remain viable. We are the first state in the nation to have a fixed source of state funding for rail and transit. This is a major accomplishment.

Because there were insufficient Republican votes in either the House or the Senate to pass the bill, the Governor and the Speaker needed Democratic support. The other major accomplishment of the session was that the Medicaid reform process began. This will ultimately provide health care to hundreds of thousands of Virginians. Senate Democrats held out on the transportation bill until we received the approval of the Governor for a proposal to reform and expand Medicaid. The agreements were nearly foiled by an opinion from Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.

The budget conferees established a 12 member commission to approve expansion after the reforms had been implemented to ensure accountability, integrity and a focus on prevention. The plan will have built-in, reasonable limitations on non-essential benefits and includes provisions for patient responsibility to include reasonable cost sharing and active engagement in health and wellness activities to improve health and control costs. Finally, the plan stipulates Virginia can withdraw from Medicaid expansion in the event that federal funding drops below 90 percent of its costs. The language of the conference report initially gave the commission discretion to approve expansion after those reforms have been agreed to by the federal government. The Attorney General opined that that language provided for an unconstitutional delegation of authority from the General Assembly to a subset of the General Assembly. While lawyers can disagree about the constitutionality of the language, we sought at once to address any potential problems. The language was modified to require the commission to expand Medicaid once the reforms are in place. The Governor's Secretary of Health and Human Resources is confident that the reforms will be agreed to by the federal government.

The bottom line is that conventional wisdom was foiled this session. The 2013 Session of the General Assembly accomplished two long-term goals for which I have advocated for years. We expanded health care services to the working poor. Improving access to health care will improve the workforce and, in doing so, improve Virginia's economy. And we established a sustainable stream of revenue for transportation for at least ten years. The funding will allow us to make necessary repairs to our bridges and culverts, over 45 percent of which are structurally deficient or at risk of becoming so. It will allow us to move forward on projects that have been promised and not built for years. And, the compromise will allow us to unclog the traffic jams in metropolitan areas and to move more people through rail and transit. "

[VBshooter]

Gee I guess cutting the budget and removing all that wasted Bull$hit was out of the question? Damn,Now more we have to spend while our income remains the same,,,Thanks dicks...

[FiremanBob]

Not only is the tax increase an abomination, but the application of funds to mass transit projects is a corrupt way to channel taxpayers' money to favored cronies and political allies. There is no way to rationalize the public ownership and operation of mass transit services; it simply is not a legitimate function of government at any level.

Whoever said above that NYC has mass transit right is wrong. The train, subway and bus systems would all be better run, with lower prices, if they were still private, for-profit businesses. I don't think there is a single government-owned mass transit service that breaks even, without taxpayer subsidies in the entire country. They are no better managed than the Post Office.

Essentially, government-owned mass transit is a political money-laundering machine, designed to transfer money to subsidized riders, to unionized employees and their union bosses, and to cronies in construction and equipment companies, with a big slice siphoned off from each to the Democrat party.

The answer for Virginia, and every other state, is to auction off all mass-transit entities to private companies, together with canceling all existing union and consulting contracts, and ending all subsidies.

[Kreutz]

Not to go off topic, but my Delegate said they killed the medicaid expansion? Google isn't turning anything current up. I wrote him, my state Senator and the guv'nor on the importance of not letting that happen.

As someone in my line of work from NY knows, if the legislature has expanded medicaid they have utterly doomed the state. Quibbling over transportation funds will be a fond memory when you're billions in the hole a decade from now and the medicaid rolls never stop growing.

[milspecnsn]

Not to go off topic, but my Delegate said they killed the medicaid expansion? Google isn't turning anything current up. I wrote him, my state Senator and the guv'nor on the importance of not letting that happen.

As someone in my line of work from NY knows, if the legislature has expanded medicaid they have utterly doomed the state. Quibbling over transportation funds will be a fond memory when you're billions in the hole a decade from now and the medicaid rolls never stop growing.

My understanding is there was a "sell out" and the Medicaid expansion will take place. This was according to Mark Levin's Monday radio show.

[dorminWS]

Not to go off topic, but my Delegate said they killed the medicaid expansion? Google isn't turning anything current up. I wrote him, my state Senator and the guv'nor on the importance of not letting that happen.

As someone in my line of work from NY knows, if the legislature has expanded medicaid they have utterly doomed the state. Quibbling over transportation funds will be a fond memory when you're billions in the hole a decade from now and the medicaid rolls never stop growing.

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See language quoted in my post above:
..............................
....."Because there were insufficient Republican votes in either the House or the Senate to pass the bill, the Governor and the Speaker needed Democratic support.

***The other major accomplishment of the session was that the Medicaid reform process began.***

This will ultimately provide health care to hundreds of thousands of Virginians. Senate Democrats held out on the transportation bill until we received the approval of the Governor for a proposal to reform and expand Medicaid. The agreements were nearly foiled by an opinion from Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.

The budget conferees established a 12 member commission to approve expansion after the reforms had been implemented to ensure accountability, integrity and a focus on prevention. The plan will have built-in, reasonable limitations on non-essential benefits and includes provisions for patient responsibility to include reasonable cost sharing and active engagement in health and wellness activities to improve health and control costs. Finally, the plan stipulates Virginia can withdraw from Medicaid expansion in the event that federal funding drops below 90 percent of its costs. The language of the conference report initially gave the commission discretion to approve expansion after those reforms have been agreed to by the federal government. The Attorney General opined that that language provided for an unconstitutional delegation of authority from the General Assembly to a subset of the General Assembly. While lawyers can disagree about the constitutionality of the language, we sought at once to address any potential problems. The language was modified to require the commission to expand Medicaid once the reforms are in place. The Governor's Secretary of Health and Human Resources is confident that the reforms will be agreed to by the federal government.

The bottom line is that conventional wisdom was foiled this session. The 2013 Session of the General Assembly accomplished two long-term goals for which I have advocated for years. We expanded health care services to the working poor. Improving access to health care will improve the workforce and, in doing so, improve Virginia's economy. ...."
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Of course, thie above is filtered through Sen. Deeds' "recycled-Harry-Byrd-democrat/moderate-new-Virginia-democrat" filter, but he usually mostly tells the truth about stuff with a liberal helping of his own opinion heaped on top like gravy on a biscuit.

As I read this, we're only going to let them screw us a little bit. We all know how THAT proposition always ends.

So perhaps we can expect Virginia to go to hell in a relatively slow-moving handbasket; unless you really think anybody will actually be able to stop that train once it runs away.









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