Ruling creates roadblock for Virginia

The Virginia Supreme Court ruled Feb. 29 that a regional authority created as part of a landmark transportation compromise cannot constitutionally impose taxes and fees, endangering billions of dollars for road and transit projects and forcing lawmakers again to find ways to fix the dwindling highway budget.

In a potentially devastating blow to 2007's transportation fix—which took two years to approve—the court dismissed the portion of the plan allowing an unelected panel in Northern Virginia to collect taxes for highways and mass transit, on the grounds of it being unconstitutional.

In its 23-page ruling, the court said the transportation bill violated Virginia's constitution because it delegated the legislature's taxing authority to an unelected body. Most of the authority's members are elected officials, but the board itself was not elected by voters.

"The General Assembly has failed to adhere to the mandates of accountability and transparency that the Constitution requires," wrote Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn, a Kaine appointee. "We conclude that the Constitution….clearly contemplates that taxes must be imposed only by a majority of the elected representatives of a legislative body."

The move has left legislators and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) frantic to change the plan. But all the possible solutions are legally complicated or politically unacceptable, some legislators and legal experts said.

With the unanimous decision, the future of the state’s first transportation funding bill in 21 years is in jeopardy. The taxes and fees collected by the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority were intended to raise $300 million a year for projects that include upgrades of the Fairfax County and Prince William County parkways and improvements to roads around Fort Belvoir, which is to receive thousands of new jobs as part of the base realignment program. The money also was to pay for the state's contribution to Metro.

The ruling received support from anti-tax advocates, but was met with criticism from others who said it put in danger critical projects needed to assist with the region’s growing traffic problem.

The ruling “was a severe setback to Northern Virginia," said Chris Zimmerman, an Arlington County Board member and chairman of the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, which had begun collecting the fees.

Kaine said the ruling creates a "sense of a urgency" to fix the problem. "The message from the court opinion is pretty clear. If we are going to wrestle with transportation infrastructure, the General Assembly members have to go on the board and vote and can't hand that responsibility off to others.”

Legal experts and legislators outlined several possible solutions but said all have disadvantages. For example, legislators could impose a statewide tax increase for transportation or one focused on specific regions. But anti-tax activists and some other Republicans strongly objected. They predicted that such a fix would not pass the General Assembly, especially the House of Delegates, which has resisted any statewide taxes.