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Doing a call-in radio show is like a box of chocolates—you never know what you’re gonna get. Take today’s “Ask the Governor” hour on Northern Virginia’s WTOP (103.5 FM, 820 AM) with Virginia Commander In Chief Tim Kaine.
One caller complained about people driving with animals in their laps. Kaine humored the man and said the person should be ticketed for reckless driving. But the next caller put forward a different spin on a controversial proposal to solve the state’s yawning gap in transportation funding:
Increase the tax on gasoline—but only on weekends.
Kaine, noting that roughly 20 percent of the existing revenues generated by the state’s 16.5 % tax per gallon are paid by out-of-staters, called the proposal “a novel idea.“
“We’re doing a lot of listening,“ the governor told the caller, seeming at least a little bit interested in the idea. He noted that the regional transportation funding plans enacted last year—but struck down as unconstitutional by the Virginia Supreme Court in February—included regional gas tax increases for Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia.
Kaine said he would be coming out with a plan “in 10 days or so” to address the funding gap, estimated to be roughly $1 billion—including $450 million for annual highway maintenance.
He added that the plan needs to consist of more than one revenue generator to be successful.
“The way to solve our needs is not to do just one thing—you’ve got to spread the pain,“ he said.
Options at his disposal could include increases int he gas tax, sales tax and what the governor calls an “equalization” of the state’s sales tax on automobiles, currently 3 percent, to the state sales tax rate of 5 percent.
Kaine reiterated his call that the fix be a statewide fix—not a fix that only addresses the transportation trouble zones.
But trouble is never far around the corner. House Republicans have signaled that they will not support tax increases of any kind. But maybe nobody’s thought of the “weekend” gas tax.
Stay tuned.
