Steve Burns
WMAL.com
RICHMOND – (WMAL) Lawmakers return to Richmond today for a special session, looking to work through an impasse on the state budget and Medicaid expansion. However, other pressing issues are likely to take center stage following that battle, including adjustments to the state’s landmark bill to give permanent, ongoing funding to Metro.
Governor Ralph Northam returned a previously-passed bill to the legislature, suggesting changes to where the money comes from. The original bill included no tax increases, instead funding the system through money that would have otherwise gone to the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority to fund local road and transit projects. That left some local politicians displeased.
“The good news was money was approved in the right amount,” Fairfax Supervisors Chairwoman Sharon Bulova told WMAL. “The bad news was it came from the region and took away from our ability to fund projects that are meant to relieve congestion.”
Bulova said the money would mean some long-awaited projects may not see the light of day, including an expansion of Route 28. However, Northam’s new proposal reinstates that funding to NVTA, instead raising taxes on hotel stays from two percent to three percent, and real estate transactions, up five cents per $100 of the sale price, in Northern Virginia.
Bulova said she is pleased with the development.
“While Metro is a priority, so are some of those other road projects,” she said.
Delegate Tim Hugo, who shepherded the bill through the House, called the new taxes a mistake.
“The original bill that had reforms for Metro, had funding for Metro, and had no tax increases, passed the House 94-1,” he told WMAL. “There is plenty of money for road projects. We’re going to have road projects. We’re going to have Metro.”
Bulova said some political calculus likely went into the Governor’s plan.
“I don’t think that the Governor would have put these amendments forward if he didn’t think he had a chance of getting votes in the General Assembly,” she said.
Maryland’s legislature has already passed its share of dedicated funding, and the District gave preliminary approval Tuesday. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has proposed raising taxes on ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft to, in part, pay for its share, along with a increases in the sales tax and the commercial property levy. Maryland’s money is set to come from the state’s Transportation Trust Fund.
The three bills together meet a long-sought goal for Metro, which for its entire history was the only major transit system in the country that did not have a reliable stream of funding year after year. Instead, it was forced to go hat-in-hand to the various legislatures every year to ask for money, which officials said hampered their ability to plan into the future.
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