By Chelyen Davis
The Free Lance-Star
RICHMOND — A group of Democratic legislators are proposing to raise transportation money adding a sales tax on gasoline and increasing the sales tax and recordation tax in Northern Virginia.
But at least one group of conservative Republicans say they’ll oppose any tax increases, and the Democrats may find it challenging to get their bill through two Republican-led houses of the General Assembly.
Del. Vivian Watts, D-Annandale, is sponsoring the bill. Watts was Secretary of Transportation in 1986, the last time Virginia raised its gasoline tax.
“We have very challenging, difficult times ahead of us,” Watts said in a House floor speech. She said she understands that these are tough economic times.
“But because we have not invested in transportation in a generation, and we have undertaken significant debt in 25-year bonds that obligate the next generation, we cannot ignore this part of our economy,” Watts said, adding that investment in transportation could help create jobs and attract new business to Virginia.
Lawmakers have long talked about the need to funnel more money into transportation, where the increasing cost of road maintenance is eating into the funds for new road construction. But they’ve never agreed on whether “more money” should mean “new money,” such as  revenue increases like a tax hike, or a shuffling of existing revenue streams.
Republicans have consistently opposed tax increases for transportation purposes, and targeted other methods — bonds, public-private partnerships — to bump up transportation funding. This year Gov. Bob McDonnell is proposing to take percentages of existing tax revenues, and direct them toward transportation.
Democrats say that’s not enough, and that McDonnell’s plan also doesn’t make out-of-state drivers pay a share, as a gas tax increase would do.
Watts’ bill would impose a 5 percent sales tax on motor fuels at the wholesale level, phased in over four years, for highway maintenance. That tax wouldn’t kick in until the unemployment rate in Virginia decreases for four fiscal quarters in a row. After it was fully phased in, the tax would be indexed to the national producer price index for highway construction.
Several aspects of Watts’ bill focus primarily on traffic-clogged Northern Virginia. She cited a study last year from the Texas Transportation Institute that said commuters in Northern Virginia annually spend 74 extra hours in traffic, at a cost of $1,500 in time and gas.
She proposes an additional 0.5 percent sales tax in Northern Virginia for transportation projects, as well as an additional 40-cent recordation tax.
Her bill would also cut the sales tax on food statewide — from 1.5 percent to 1 percent — and repeals the ability of some localities to impose a local income tax.
It also increases a special real property tax rate in Northern Virginia and in Hampton Roads.
Watts’ bill didn’t make a list of bills opposed by a group of conservative Republicans who held a press conference Tuesday, but other bills to raise the motor fuels tax did.