For Immediate Release October 6, 2005 PRESS RELEASE Contact: Stewart Schwartz, CSG, 202-244-4408 ext 3# Chris Miller, PEC, 540-347-2334 RECONNECTING VIRGINIA CAMPAIGN Coalition for Smarter Growth and Piedmont Environmental Council

VDOT/Business Transportation Proposals Would Require $1 Gas Tax or Doubling of State Sales Tax

Groups Challenge VDOT Wish List Urge Reevaluation and New Approaches to Transportation

The Coalition for Smarter Growth and Piedmont Environmental Council today challenged the statewide business-backed campaign for massive increases in transportation taxes and tolls -- a campaign based entirely on a VDOT-generated, $203 billion wish-list of projects. The groups called for a complete reevaluation of the VDOT estimates and fundamental reform in transportation and land use planning necessary to reduce transportation costs before any discussion of new funding.

According to Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director of the Coalition, “All too many business leaders are treating VDOT’s shocking claim that we face $203 billion in transportation needs over 20 years (VTRANS 2025), including $108 billion for which we do not have funding, as an unassailable fact. That’s $5.4 billion dollars more each year, above the $4 billion per year we spend today.”

To raise this kind of money would require over a $1 per gallon increase in the state gas tax, or more than doubling our state sales tax to 10.8 percent, or a $900 vehicle registration fee. Some even want to take money from education and other General Fund needs. “The VDOT needs number is simply not realistic,” said Chris Miller, President of the Piedmont Environmental Council. “It is unaffordable and calls for a completely new approach to transportation and land use policies before we decide what additional funding we need to provide and what projects we should fund.”

“How could anyone ask Virginia’s taxpayers for these types of increases without first seriously evaluating VDOT’s numbers, which hasn’t really happened to date?” said Schwartz.

• VDOT’s analysis of highway “needs” for the VTRANS 2025 plan – largely a computer run -- were completely unconstrained and focused only on expanding capacity, to 20 lanes of highway in some cases, much of which couldn’t be built anyway.
  
• The highway estimate ignored physical constraints to such large highways and included significant expansion of scenic rural roads beyond the metropolitan edge and beyond areas with congestion problems.
  
• The estimates also included double-counting, for example, by not recognizing that rail improvements for a VRE extension to Richmond or other rail improvements in this critical corridor, which have been shown to reduce the lane needs on I-95.
  
• VDOT’s estimates also project a straight-line increase in the amount Virginians drive and do not account for reduced driving demand and shifts of truck freight to rail due to expected long-term increases in fuel prices. For example, within a short time after gasoline went over $3 per gallon, driving and gasoline sales dropped while ridership on Metro surged.
  
• The estimates do not account for how congestion changes living and driving patterns, causing people to shift to other transportation modes, to telecommuting and to living closer to where they work, changes which are already apparent in the Northern Virginia market.
  
• VDOT does not account for the increase in retirees, empty nesters and young professionals many of whom are seeking out more walkable communities and are expected to drive less.
  
• VDOT’s needs analysis is even at odds with its own VTRANS policy analysis and goals which indicated the need for a different approach to transportation. Their spending plan also ignored what the public told them they wanted. When polled by VDOT, the public wanted 1/3 of the money to go to highways and 1/3 to transit, pedestrians, and bicycle needs, but nonetheless VDOT is still proposing to spend 70% on highways.

On the positive side of the ledger, for the first time VDOT recognized the critical role of transit, passenger, and freight rail for reducing traffic on our highways. “Yet, neither VDOT nor the business community recognizes that the fundamental issue is where and how we grow. Until, state and local government in Virginia work to change development patterns and the design of communities to reduce the number and length of vehicle trips, spending more money to build more highways will only make things worse, not better,.” said Miller. Even transit investments like Dulles Rail will be less effective without supporting land use that includes walkable, mixed-use development and shifting development from non-transit locations.

“We believe the same game is being played today as took place in 1986: a set of needs claimed without verification, real prioritization or effort to address the underlying problems. The needs are portrayed as so large to make the actual tax increase that may result seem small in comparison. But this is approach is no solution to a problem driven by poorly planned growth patterns and certainly doesn’t give the public what they are asking for,” concluded Schwartz.

The coalition included a number of recommendations for reevaluating Virginia’s long-range transportation plan and for developing comprehensive land use and transportation solutions in a letter and presentation provided to the Senate Finance Sub-Committee on Transportation.

SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS:
1. Reconnecting Virginia, Fact Sheet, “Tracking VDOT’s $203 Billion”
2. Coalition for Smarter Growth, Letter to Senate Finance Subcommittee on Transportation and Statewide Transportation and Analysis Task Force (START)
3. Coalition for Smarter Growth/Reconnecting Virginia Presentation to Senate Finance Sub-Committee on Transportation, June 20, 2005, “Land Use: A Tool for Transportation Cost Savings”
4. James A. Bacon, “Does Not Compute,” Bacon’s Rebellion, 8/23/05,

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