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Today, Governor Kaine unveiled a proposal to meet Virginia's transportation needs. The General Assembly will convene for a Special Session on June 23rd to address Governor Kaine's proposal.

Governor Kaine's transportation plan is simple, statewide, sustainable, and provides funding to advance meaningful transportation solutions. It relies on revenue sources that are sustainable and will grow as needs grow to meet three major transportation goals:

• It addresses safety concerns with a statewide component that will provide revenue to safely maintain our state and local roads.
  
   
• It includes substantial funds to combat congestion and expand transit and highway capacity in Northern Virginia and to build key transportation connections in Hampton Roads, while also increasing funding for local roads statewide.
  
   
• It takes a new approach to investing in transportation both increasing our commitment to transit, rail, and innovative congestion relief, as well as funding transportation projects that support economic development.

The Governor's plan includes:
 

• A 1% statewide increase in the sales tax on cars and the dedication of ALL revenue from sales tax on cars to road maintenance;
  
   
• A $10 statewide increase in the annual car registration fee;
  
   
• A 25 cent statewide increase in the grantor's tax;
  
   
• A 1% regional retail sales tax increase, excluding food and medicine, in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.

All funds the Governor proposes for transportation will include a lockbox mechanism, specifying that the fund shall expire if it is used for any purpose other than transportation.

Safety First: Last year, for the first time since the advent of drunk driving laws, more than 1,000 people died on Virginia's roads. Our existing roads are getting old and they require more attention to keep them safe; most of our bridges are more than 45 years old, and 8% are in need of replacement. Emergency vehicles are slowed down by traffic gridlock. In the event of a hurricane, it will take more than a full 24 hours to evacuate the low-lying areas of Hampton Roads, Norfolk and Virginia Beach. And this is assuming everything runs smoothly - that no crashes disrupt the evacuation routes.

We have a maintenance deficit - the tax dollars taxpayers been paying to fix traffic or to help bring jobs their communities have been going to patch the potholes and repave the road. This trend will worsen unless we address the deficit directly. In fact, eventually, we'll lose our ability to match federal dollars, and the taxes we pay to the federal government on transportation will start to go to other states. By addressing the maintenance deficit, we will stabilize the funding to keep our roads and bridges safe and free up construction dollars that will help ease congestion.

The Governor's plan includes a 1 percent increase in the motor vehicle sales tax, and a $10 increase in the annual car registration fee, both to be dedicated to maintenance. Both of these sources were approved by wide margins in the 2007 General Assembly for use by the regional authorities. The current tax on the purchase of vehicles is 3 percent, considerably less than the 5 percent sales tax on items other than food and drugs.

The Governor's plan also reallocates 1% of the existing statewide motor vehicle sales tax to maintenance. The other existing 2% already go to maintenance. This part of the Governor's plan is really truth in budgeting. It ends the major raids on highway construction funds by dedicating revenue streams to maintenance. That means the money that is intended for construction will actually go for construction. In addition, the Governor's plan dedicates other sources of revenue - statewide and regionally - to new transportation projects. The Governor's statewide maintenance plan will provide $445.3 million during the 2009 fiscal year. That will increase yearly to $512.6 million in 2014. It will eliminate the maintenance deficit for at least the next five years.

Regional Relief: To address traffic congestion in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads, the Governor's plan calls for a 1 percent increase in the retail sales tax in the two regions - providing self help for the state's two most congested regions. All money raised in the regions stays in the regions.

The Governor's plan will raise $306.3 million for Northern Virginia in fiscal 2009 and will increase to $414.3 million in 2014. These dedicated funds for Northern Virginia are on top of the Dulles Rail and HOT lanes projects already in development. The funds will be managed by the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, consistent with current legislation to emphasize regional transit and local highway construction.

The regional sales tax will raise $167.9 million for Hampton Roads in 2009 and will increase to $227.1 million in 2014. The Governor's plan discontinues the Hampton Roads Transportation Authority, but continues a lockbox commitment to the six designated regional projects, plus the addition of the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel as an eligible project. The exact scope of the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel project is currently under study.

Transportation Change Fund: The Governor knows that we cannot solve our traffic challenges through road construction alone, and we must recognize how traffic contributes to the environmental and energy challenges faced by the Commonwealth. His plan calls for a 25 cent increase statewide in the grantor's tax to create the Transportation Change Fund. The fund will increase investment in cleaner more energy efficient transportation options like transit and rail, as well as innovative solutions to reducing traffic congestion like teleworking and ridesharing. It increases rail and transit funding by about 30%. The fund will also make dollars available for transportation projects to support economic development and continue our current level of support for ports and airports. This part of the Governor's plan will raise $142 million in fiscal year 2009, growing to $155 million in fiscal year 2014 for new, innovative transportation projects that will reduce traffic and support economic development.

More information on the Governor's plan can be found at http://ww w.transportation.virginia.gov/.