Futile finale awaits another Va. roads session

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Lawmakers expect to end their special transportation funding session Wednesday with the demise of two competing proposals, one Republican and the other Democratic.
With the GOP version unpalatable to the Senate Democrats and the Senate version doomed among House Republicans, that would leave the General Assembly and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine effectively stalemated over transportation for the second time in two years.
Wednesday's partisan sparring comes 13 days after a lengthy legislative recess to accommodate holiday vacation schedules and a fundraiser at a luxury resort.
"It's very disappointing. We've taken a lot of time and attention for something that should have been fairly straightforward and simple to fix," said state Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple.
As the leader of the Senate's majority Democratic Caucus, she said a House bill to fund new highway projects only in Hampton Roads and northern Virginia won't fly if it reaches the Senate.
Legislative Democrats and Kaine, a Democrat, have insisted from the outset on substantial statewide funding for the soaring costs of repair and upkeep of the state's 58,000 highway miles and its 13,000 bridges.
The House's Republican majority, however, has been just as determined to shoot down any statewide tax increase, saying it preys on vulnerable real estate and auto sales industries when a troubled economy has left them most vulnerable.
"I had a (car) dealership close in my district in the past week," said House Republican Leader H. Morgan Griffith of Salem.
Kaine's proposal to boost the tax on car sales by 1 percentage point and raise the yearly car registration fee by $10 to generate more than $600 million annually for maintenance died before a GOP-dominated House committee last week. It also would have increased the home sellers pay, partly to fund mass transit projects.
But the same committee advanced to a floor vote Sen. Richard L. Saslaw's bill, which included a 6-cents-per-gallon gasoline tax increase over six years. House GOP leaders were adamantly opposed to new gasoline taxes as per-gallon prices topped $4, but set it up for a vote to confront House Democrats with a politically difficult vote.
On Tuesday, however, House Democratic leaders - with the consent of Senate Democrats - said they would try to amend Saslaw's bill on the House floor to remove the fuel tax increase, leaving a bill that would generate about $5.5 billion for transportation by 2015. About $1.9 billion would be allocated statewide, $2.3 billion in northern Virginia and about $1.3 billion in Hampton Roads.
"If the House Republican leadership is serious about addressing our transportation needs, they will allow this bill to be debated, amended and voted on," Saslaw said in a statement issued by legislative Democrats.
Griffith said his caucus will decide Wednesday whether to allow Democrats to amend the bill or force a vote on a gasoline tax.
"They've been together at the Homestead and I guess it became clear to them that the public doesn't want a gasoline tax," Griffith said. He was referring to a weekend retreat Democratic legislators held with major donors at the famous Bath County hotel and spa.
Neither the gasoline tax proposal nor the amended version is likely to pass, Griffith said.
That leaves Del. Phillip A. Hamilton's bill to impose a blend of regional fees and taxes in the state's two most congested regions, a heavy dose of highway tolls and revenue diverted from existing taxes on commerce at the state's sea ports to fund new regional projects.
The bill may not make it to the Senate. It faces withering criticism not only from Democrats but from northern Virginia elected officials, transportation advocacy groups such as the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance and even conservative anti-tax groups, and that's likely to scare away some House Republicans.
Americans for Tax Reform's president, Grover Norquist, wrote in an open letter to Virginia lawmakers who sign the organization's no-tax-increase pledge that voting for Hamilton's bill would be breach their commitment.
"That's going to make it very tough to keep my own people behind it," Griffith said.
The second special session dedicated to funding roads, rails and transit since 2006 was doomed almost from the start. Griffith attributed it to positions that were poles apart and no time for the two parties to reconcile their deep differences.
"There has never been any organization at all from the Democratic side. There was never any effort to reach a consensus," he said.
Whipple, D-Arlington, countered with a point that her party is certain use against House Republicans in the 2009 when all 100 seats are up for election.
"The House Republicans do not acknowledge that there is a statewide problem. It seems to me that the facts speak for themselves," she said.
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Bob Lewis has covered Virginia politics and government since 2000.