Transit tax a priority for county

Albemarle County may seek state lawmakers’ approval for a plan that could allow Albemarle and Charlottesville to enact a local sales tax to fund transit and transportation projects.

The county Board of Supervisors plans to discuss the resolution at a meeting today.

If the resolution wins General Assembly approval, Albemarle and Charlottes-ville residents would be able to vote whether to give their local governments the authority to increase the sales tax up to a cent — on top of the state’s 5 cent sales tax — to fund local transit and transportation initiatives.

“I’m very concerned that we very soon will have no money from the state even to fix our potholes and the hazardous situations that our drivers are facing every day,” Supervisor Ann H. Mallek said in an interview Tuesday. “It is not a trivial issue that somebody has to live up to the maintenance obligations.”

Supervisor Kenneth C. Boyd wouldn’t say Tuesday whether he’ll support the resolution, having not heard comments from other supervisors, but noted, “I think it’s safe to say that I’m generally not in favor … of increasing taxes on our citizenry during this recession.”

Mallek said the resolution slated for discussion today is being coupled with an effort to create a regional transit authority. She said that she doesn’t think the General Assembly would pass anything this year that would allow localities to levy sales taxes but it’s worth seeking authority for consideration years from now. By then, the economic recession hopefully will have ended, she said.

“If we don’t establish the opportunity to have a choice, we will just be without,” Mallek said.

The Albemarle Truth in Taxation Alliance released a statement Tuesday opposing any board actions that could lead to tax increases to fund local transportation projects.

“It would be unduly burdensome on Albemarle residents and is wrong in principle,” the statement said. “The vision is beautiful; the costs are back-breaking.”

The statement argues that “an increased sales tax will only accelerate the trend to shop elsewhere.”

Peter Wurzer, the taxation alliance’s director of research, said that shifting the burden on local governments because the federal and state governments aren’t upholding their obligations to fund transportation projects would create a bad precedent.

“What you’ve basically done is you’ve turned Richmond’s problem into our problem,” Wurzer said.

Supervisor Dennis S. Rooker said that it would be ideal for the state and federal governments to fulfill their obligations for funding transportation projects. However, if needed projects are left unfunded, residents should be given the opportunity to vote on whether they’d want to pay for them via the sales tax increase.

“I’m in favor of allowing the people in this area [to determine] for themselves whether they’d like to raise additional money to improve transportation in the local area,” Rooker said.

The language in the resolution would not allow Albemarle or Charlottesville to levy a sales tax this year. And even years down the line, Albemarle supervisors could decline to levy a local sales tax.

However, Wurzer dismissed the possibility of the board turning down the sales tax increase. “So, what you’re telling me is you really just want to have the bullet in the gun?” Wurzer said. “You have no intention in pulling the trigger?”

Charlottesville’s City Council passed a similar resolution in November.

According to a survey released by the University of Virginia’s Center for Survey Research in October, 27.7 percent of residents strongly favor spending more local taxes on roads, and 42.6 percent “somewhat” favor the additional expenditure.

Of those who responded to a question about whether they’d be willing to pay taxes to fund transportation, 48.8 percent said “yes” and 9.4 percent gave a conditional “yes.” About 40 percent said “no.”