TOSCANO GENERAL ASSEMBLY UPDATE -- July 11, 2008

2008 Special Session on Transportation

The 2008 Special Session on Transportation came to an end with a flurry of parliamentary maneuvers and a resounding thud at 1:39 am on Thursday, July 10, 2008. Despite our best efforts, House Republicans were successful in defeating all proposals that would have raised additional money for road maintenance, construction, transit, and rail. These included the Governor's original proposal, which would have raised almost $1 billion per year in additional money as well as a Senate proposal authored by Richard Saslaw that would have raised an additional $330 million per year through a combination of relatively minor increases in the retail sales tax, motor vehicle sales tax, and vehicle rental tax. In an attempt to win passage of a package, Democrats even eliminated a proposed increase in the gasoline tax originally included in the bill, an approach that many of us felt was the fairest way of raising additional money, feeling this to be too difficult to enact during a time of rapidly rising fuel prices. This modified Saslaw proposal ultimately adopted by the Senate and House Democrats even included a cut in the sales tax on food. Despite these provisions, the Saslaw plan was defeated on almost a largely partisan vote of 39-59, and the Governor's bill was left in committee to die an unceremonious death.

This completes yet another attempt to pass a package to address our transportation challenges. This year's debate focused on the substantial deficit in the funding for the maintenance of our roads and bridges. There may be differences of opinion on the magnitude of the deficit, but few argue that one exists. Costs for road maintenance and construction are rising rapidly. The cost of liquid asphalt, for example, has risen over 200 percent in the last six months, from $300 per ton in January to $690 per ton today. The price is expected to reach $750 per ton by the end of the month. Oil hovers around $140 per barrel and the cost of some critical components of road and bridge construction, including steel, has doubled in the past year. Without closing the gap, our infrastructure will decay, thereby affecting our ability to compete in the global economy. Beyond that, an infusion of transportation dollars would have helped the construction industry during a time of great economic challenge. Finally, more money for transit and rail would assist efforts to increase mobility, especially in urban areas, and address the goal of reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

During the session, we also considered a bill that would have dedicated all future revenues and royalties from off-shore natural gas and oil drilling to transportation. This drew considerable fire from environmental groups, but passed the House 59 to 39 (I voted against it). The Senate narrowly defeated the measure on an 18-16 vote. There will likely be further efforts to encourage drilling off the shore of Virginia in the months and years ahead, a prospect that is not appealing for a number of reasons. First, projections are that even if the entire Atlantic region commenced offshore oil and gas production in 2011, there would be no significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices until 2030. Beyond that, 72 percent of Virginia's offshore drilling zone is located within the U.S. Navy's principal training area for air, service, and submarine units. It is hard to believe that the Navy would not be impacted by any such drilling. And this does not even speak to the potential negative environmental impacts of drilling off the shore of Virginia.

At this point, it is doubtful that the General Assembly will reconvene prior to January 2009. I will, of course, continue to be active on the various commissions on which I serve, including the Commission to study Math, Science and Technology Education in the Commonwealth, the Disability Commission, the Commission studying Land Use and Planning in Virginia and a new group to which I was recently appointed, the National Conference on State Legislature's Committee on Transportation. I welcome your comments on issues facing the Commonwealth, and stand willing to assist you with other constituent issues as they arise.

Please pass this update along to anyone you feel might be interested. And please reply to this email to let me know if you feel these updates are useful and how they might be improved.

As always, I appreciate hearing your thoughts and concerns about legislative matters. Please call the Charlottesville office at (434) 220-1660 or send emails to deldtoscano@house.state.va.us.