RICHMOND (AP) — Gov. Tim Kaine is expected today to announce a tax package to pay for highway construction and the upkeep and repair of state roads and bridges.
Mr. Kaine scheduled a news conference at the state capitol to outline details of the bill that he will ask legislators to consider next month. He has called the General Assembly to Richmond beginning June 23 for the second special session on transportation funding in two years.
Mr. Kaine, a Democrat, wants regional funding plans to pay for new projects in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia, the state’s most populous, fastest-growing and traffic-choked regions.
The plans would supplant similar regional roads, rails and transit packages that were approved just a year ago but struck down as unconstitutional in February by the state Supreme Court.
Mr. Kaine also wants hundreds of millions of dollars collected statewide to cover the increasing costs of maintaining 57,867 miles of highway.
The administration estimates that by next year maintaining roads and bridges will exceed money available by about $388 million and approach $600 million by 2014. Policy-makers call the number a “maintenance deficit.”
Because state law puts top priority on maintaining existing roads, the maintenance deficit is defrayed with money intended for new road construction.
Increases in the sales tax, the gasoline tax or a boost in the sales tax on cars — from 3 percent to 5 percent — are among the options Mr. Kaine has considered.
To win public support for his plan in key regions of the state, Mr. Kaine will hold a series of town-hall style meetings that begin tomorrow in Woodbridge, then Thursday in Hampton.
A coalition of 25 lobbying associations representing businesses, developers, contractors, city and county governments and school teachers last week supported an increase in either the sales tax, the 17.5 cents-a-gallon gasoline tax or a combination to underwrite maintenance costs.
Leaders of the Republican majority in the House say they will not support a statewide tax increase and that Mr. Kaine is inflating maintenance-deficit estimates to scare people into supporting a tax increase.
The Senate’s Democratic leadership and Mr. Kaine are adamant that the maintenance shortfall be addressed first, arguing that it will soon consume all the money available for new roads.
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