THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 22, 1996 TAG: 9607200007
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 80 lines
Motorists in Southeastern Virginia ``will get around at only 10 miles an hour'' unless Virginia comes up with more money for roads, according to Dwight L. Farmer, the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission's transportation director.
He's surely right. Fortunately, the Virginia General Assembly is worried about the prospect of gridlock.
Senate Joint Resolution No. 110, approved by the General Assembly last spring and signed by Gov. George F. Allen, established a 25-member Commission on the Future of Transportation in Virginia. The commission is tasked with:
Updating the findings of the defunct state Commission on Transportation for the 21st Century set up during the Baliles administration;
Identifying major transportation construction projects needed within the next 25 years;
Proposing appropriate means of raising and allocating necessary construction funds;
Studying state transportation agencies and authorities with an eye to merging or restructuring existing agencies and adding others.
Farmer notes that Virginia's state gasoline tax, 17.5 cents per gallon, is lower than that of its neighbors, excepting Kentucky. With the 14-cents-per-gallon federal tax, 29.5 cents per gallon of whatever is paid for gasoline in Virginia is for taxes.
Gasoline-tax revenue is dedicated to road construction, maintenance and repair.
As cited by staff writer Debbie Messina in her Thursday news article on the Planning District report, West Virginia's gasoline tax is 25.35 cents per gallon; Maryland's, 23.5 cents; North Carolina's, 21.7 cents; and Washington D.C.'s and Tennessee's 20 cents each.
Virginia's gasoline tax will have to be raised if road-building needs are to be met. The alternative is to pay in another way - in lost business, time, equanimity, safety and motor-vehicle wear and tear during peak-traffic periods such as weekday rush hours and holidays and when special events draw tens of thousands.
According to the Planning District Commission, in 1989 Hampton Roads could expect to receive over the following 20 years about 50 percent of the billions of dollars needed to accommodate projected traffic. But if nothing changes, the region now can expect over the next 20 years only 30 percent of funding needed to meet projected demand.
Something is sure to change. Virginians have accepted gasoline-tax increases in the past to provide the roads on which citizens and commerce roll. An incremental gasoline-tax rise over many years is a way that the state could generate almost painlessly more and more revenue for road-building in an effort to speed traffic.
Severe traffic congestion makes travel within this region difficult for residents and businesses and discourages tourism and other commerce. Anyone trapped in miles-long backups at the north or south end of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel knows how bad congestion can get in Hampton Roads.
The region's expanding port business is dictating construction of another marine general-cargo terminal (at Craney Island). More marine general cargo will mean more and more container-cargo trucks traveling to and from Hampton Roads. Those trucks need adequate roads.
Container cargo is lucrative; it creates well-paid employment, as do other maritime-related activities, such as ship repair. Hampton Roads' cargo-handling reputation couldn't be better. The more general cargo, the richer we become.
But adequate highway links are key to gaining and retaining cargo contracts and creating more good jobs. Smooth traffic flow is an enticement to new businesses seeking sites for regional and national headquarters and other investment opportunities. The U.S. Navy demands a strong transportation network so that uniformed and civilian personnel can commute between home and workplace.
Meanwhile, pay raises in Hampton Roads are not keeping pace with pay increases statewide. The region's economic health is not as robust as it could be.
That's largely because area localities are more often at odds than working in harmony. Nonetheless, clogged traffic arteries would further weaken the regional economy.
Without grass-roots understanding that more tax revenue is needed if traffic is to flow readily in the future, state lawmakers will shy from imposing gasoline-tax increases (as well as increases in other road-user levies) to ensure that regional roads are unclogged. by CNB