December 17, 2009

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The Commonwealth Transportation Board has voted as expected to slash Virginia road and transit funds by $893
million.

Forced by declining revenues from fuel and car sales taxes, the
board on Thursday voted unanimously - and grudgingly - for the cuts
to the state's six-year transportation funding plan.

It's the fifth such cut the board has made since June 2008. Together, those reductions total $4.6 billion.

It's also the last vote the board will take before Republican
Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell takes office next month from departing
Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine.

Kaine twice asked the General Assembly to boost fees and taxes
to fund transportation. Twice, it refused.

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RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Virginia transportation officials vote
Thursday on $893 million in cuts its six-year master plan for road
building and maintenance, the fifth time spending has been slashed
since June 2008.

That will bring total funding reductions for state projects
across the state through 2015 to about $4.6 billion, an amount
roughly equal to an entire year's worth of revenue.

"So what we are being asked to do when you vote tomorrow is to
run a six-year program on five years of revenue," Transportation
Secretary Pierce Homer told members of the Commonwealth
Transportation Board after they heard briefings on the shortfall
Wednesday.

The newest austerity measures are the result of years of
declining transportation revenue derived chiefly from taxes on
dwindling automobile and gasoline sales. It has already forced the
Virginia Department of Transportation to lay off 450 employees,
with another 1,000 layoffs due early next year.

Twice, when the General Assembly was asked to broaden
transportation revenue in 2006 and 2008, proposals to boost taxes
died in the Republican-run House.

"We're struggling here with some dramatic budget issues," said
board member E. Dana Dickens of Suffolk. "The funding model we are
working with is not sustainable."

The cuts come at a time when revenue is already so scarce that
the state has had to make unprecedented cuts, not only to new
highway projects but to maintenance. Thirty percent of the pavement
on Virginia's secondary roads is graded as deficient, Homer said.

Board member James Lee Keen of Vansant told his colleagues of an
accident he witnessed that was caused by water that pooled on a
rural road because of a poorly maintained ditch and subsequently
froze.

In July, budget cuts closed 19 of Virginia's 42 Interstate rest
areas. VDOT also cut back on the frequency of mowing on highway
rights of way, and the width of the area cut.

Transit systems that receive state support will also feel the
loss. All of them will have to factor in an average 10 percent
reduction in state funding.

Revisions will also force the elimination of pay raises that had
been planned for VDOT and Department of Rail and Public Transit
employees in 2011 and 2012.

The sagging transportation tax collections will force reductions
in the current VDOT budget of nearly $89 million. Those will show
up on more miles of rough road because of a $45 million cut in road
repaving.

"Our top priority is maintenance, and we're taking $45 million
out of the paving budget simply to balance the books," said Homer,
who leaves his cabinet-level transportation post next month when
the term expires for Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, who
appointed him, and Republican Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell takes
office.