Mayor again pushes for a commuter tax

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ANNAPOLIS -- D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams said yesterday at a regional summit with Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and Virginia Gov. Mark Warner that he recently met with the two governors for three hours to push for a commuter tax.

"There is a healthy disagreement on the issue," Mr. Williams said at the summit, just the second in 12 years involving leaders of the three jurisdictions.

D.C. officials have complained for years that people who work in the city but live in Maryland and Virginia should help pay for roads and other infrastructure costs.

When neither state agreed to reimburse the city, Mr. Williams, the D.C. Council and residents filed a federal lawsuit in July.

If approved, a commuter tax would allow the District to impose a levy that would bring in $1.4 billion from the states.

More than 70 percent of the personal income earned in the District goes to nonresidents so the D.C. government must impose higher taxes on its residents to keep the city running, according to the lawsuit.

Mr. Williams, a Democrat, said the tax money is essential to the city economy and that he raises the issue "every time I am at any meeting."

Mr. Ehrlich, a Republican, and Mr. Warner, a Democrat, declined to comment yesterday on the tax.

Mr. Warner said in July that the state opposed the tax and that he would oppose every effort -- legal or legislative -- to impose it. Mr. Ehrlich also said this summer that he opposes the tax.