Well, well, well. It looks the Virginia transportation
The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors voted yesterday to challenge Virginia's new transportation plan, a decision that threatens to delay or even derail an agreement that promised to raise up to $400 million a year for road and transit improvements in Northern Virginia.Loudoun officials argued that the law that created the transportation plan violates the state constitution by allowing an appointed panel of local officials called the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority to levy taxes and impose fees on area residents. The supervisors said state officials escaped the politically hard choice of raising taxes by pawning that responsibility off on a little-known body that cannot be held accountable at election time.
By the way, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors consists of six Republicans, two Independents, and one Democrat. According to Lori L. Waters, one of those "R"s, "at the end of the day, our citizens want transportation solutions, and Richmond is playing games."
Verrrry interesting.
...lawmakers have created a hierarchy of fees and fines that in many cases stands way out of proportion to the offenses committed. The civil remediation fees found life in House Bill 3202, which is the much-ballyhooed "transportation compromise" that cleared the Assembly and eventually was signed into law by Gov. Tim Kaine. The bill features lots of sneaky ways to raise revenue; Rube Goldberg looks like an Amish craftsman next to the authors of this legislative contraption. The civil remedial fees are supposed to generate somewhere between $60 million to $130 million annually, which is roughly what you¹d raise by increasing the state's gas tax by a couple of pennies. But the powers-that-be in Richmond - namely, the Republican leadership of the House of Delegates - declared a gas tax hike off the table even before the transportation negotiations began. So we're left with this monstrosity: the ultimate don't-tax-thee, tax-the-man-behind-the-tree dodge.
BTW, I like how McLaughlin calls the transportation plan a "monstrosity." Has he been reading Raising Kaine the past few months? :)
1 - Abuser Fees.
A - Legality being challenged by defense lawyers on equal protection grounds.
B - Full costs not fully anticipated in revenue projections (more trials, judges, clerks, deputies, jail beds, court appointed attorneys, collection expenses, etc.)
C - Lots of money in Dave Albo's pocket in the meantime....
2 - Local Funding Options
A - Legality being challenged by Boards of Supervisors, commercial property owners, regular citizens.
3 - Bonded debt using future surpluses
A - Surpluses gone, Governor just announced $300M shortfall.
B - Can be easily changed by future legislatures.
I'm not clear what they've accomplished other than give a bunch of laywers a bunch of crap to fight about and putting some money in traffic lawyers' pockets in the meantime.
Not to mention the fact that this plan left about 80% of our identified future unfunded needs unmet.
For the record, NVTA is the "Appointed"(read politically immune) Board assigned the task of facilitating this NIGHTMARE.
The "announcement" of this hearing might be required of them, but they've succeeded in keeping it a VERY quiet "announcement". If ever the "masses" should make a showing....it's at this meeting! ! !