Show of authority

Local officials say they are certain that myriad transit and transportation projects could be funded by way of tax increases — but particulars remain a mystery.

“We’re committed to spending the money on transit and roads,” said Albemarle Supervisor David L. Slutzky. But he added, “We don’t want to have our hands tied.”

Two Charlottesville city councilors and two Albemarle supervisors are working on drafting legislation to the General Assembly to establish a regional transit authority, which would allow the localities to enact taxes or fees to expand the area bus service and fund other transportation projects.

Additionally, the county would have a bigger voice in transit decisions in exchange for carrying a greater financial burden —the local transit system is operated by the city, with the county essentially serving as a paying customer. The system operates within the city about 80 percent of the time.

The four-member work group has created a draft bill that addresses the authority’s formation, but how funds would be raised is still being worked through.

“What we don’t want to do is come up with an allocation formula now,” Slutzky said.

Area leaders are scheduled to meet with state elected officials today to test the waters on different fundraising methods.

Officials have expressed support in raising the 5 percent sales tax by 1 cent, garnering an extra $26 million annually for the two localities. Other options that have been considered include raising the gas tax, but Mayor Dave Norris said this was highly discouraged by state legislators because of its difficult political sell.

“We were told that that was going to be dead on arrival in Richmond,” said Norris, who sits on the work group.

Regardless, Morgan Butler, an attorney with the Charlottesville-based Southern Environmental Law Center, said the amount of taxes that would be spent on expanding the transit system should be specified.

“We would like to make sure that once the funding mechanism was established that transit was not relegated to the back burner,” Butler said. “It’s an important component of this that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.”

Officials said designating concrete funding for specific projects is not something that can be done at this point, especially with the turbulent transportation funding situation at the state level.

“You can’t predict that,” said City Councilor Satyendra Huja, another member of the work group. Virginia officials expect that state and federal transportation revenues will drop between $2.1 and $2.6 billion during the next six years.

Slutzky said even if the sales tax was raised, transit would only get a portion of the funds.

“Even if we bought the Cadillac of transit systems it still won’t equal half of the money,” he said. A draft report showed that annual operating costs for a new transit system could be as high as $16.7 million.

Other groups have expressed reservations about the regional transit authority proposal. Timothy Hulbert, president of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber supports creating a regional transportation authority instead of one that only addresses transit priorities.

While he said the chamber supports a regional transit system, Hulbert said, “If there’s going to be an authority it should be for all modes of transportation.”

A statement released by the organization also said it would prefer raising the local gas tax instead of the sales tax. The chamber has held off endorsing the initiative until bills have been drafted for both components.

“It’s hard to support something that’s not defined,” Hulbert said.