Albemarle bracing for reduction in transit funds

As Albemarle County officials brace for new state transportation revenue projections, due out Thursday, signs point to a scenario where localities will have limited transportation funds for years to come.

“We’re in the [uncharted] territory as far as the transportation funding abyss,” Supervisor Dennis S. Rooker said Tuesday.

Virginia transportation officials will release the updated revenue estimates as part of a draft mid-year revision of the state’s six-year transportation improvement plan.

In October, Secretary of Transportation Pierce R. Homer announced a projected six-year shortfall in state and federal transportation revenues totaling $2.1 billion to $2.6 billion.

However, those figures “are very likely going to change beginning [today], based on those new revenue projections that the governor will release,” Virginia Department of Transpor-tation spokesman Lou Hatter said.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine plans to present budget amendments to the General Assembly’s money committees today in a bid to close an estimated $2.9 billion shortfall in the state’s budget. His proposals are set to include doubling the state cigarette tax and cutting up to 1,500 jobs, state legislators said.

Hatter said he’s been given no indication what revised transportation revenue projections will look like.

The Commonwealth Transportation Board, which establishes the administrative policies for Virginia’s transportation system, will take up the revised projections Thursday.

The state’s transportation revenue shortfalls largely stem from declines in gas-tax revenues. An October report also states that other revenues from motor vehicle sales and use started downward in fiscal 2004 and have now plummeted.

The federal gas tax — which generates 80 percent of the federal highway trust fund — faces similar challenges.

Meanwhile, Rooker says transportation funding from the state is sub-par and that it appears that the burden of funding transportation projects is being pushed to local governments, which are already deep in revenue shortfalls.

“We’re in an extremely difficult budget situation ourselves. The deal in the state of Virginia is supposed to be the state and federal governments pay for transportation and the localities pay to construct schools,” Rooker said. “We’re still constructing the schools but the state is not funding transportation.”

Rooker said that the revenue shortfalls would have affected the completion of the planned Meadowcreek Parkway had it not been for bids coming in lower than expected.

Albemarle’s 1.4-mile segment of the 2-mile parkway, which is designed to relieve congestion on U.S. 29 by connecting East Rio Road in Albemarle with the U.S. 250 Bypass in Charlottesville, might end up costing several million dollars less than originally thought. The county initially budgeted $25.4 million for its total project costs.

Jarmans Gap Road in Crozet is among the projects that Rooker warned could be slowed by transportation revenue declines.

Hatter said that, nationwide, people decreased their driving miles because of increased fuel costs.

“To the extent that less fuel is being sold, it does mean a reduction in revenues,” Hatter said.

While there have been recent declines in fuel costs, Hatter said, “I think it’s fairly safe to say that gas is not going to be as cheap as it has been historically, in the long-term. What VDOT is looking at is [a long-term forecast of] declining revenues.”