Road Budget Cuts Will Create Pain for State

You can’t blame state transportation officials for not sugarcoating the grim budget news about Virginia’s system of roads and highways. The cuts will be severe and the state will have to reduce services accordingly.

How much will have to be pared from the budget? Transportation Secretary Pierce Homer told the Commonwealth Transportation Board last week that revenues are expected to drop by some $2.6 billion over the next six years.

That will mean, according to Homer and David Ekern, Virginia Department of Transportation commissioner, that a number of services and construction projects that had been put on the table will now have to scrapped or delayed substantially. Just which projects will be affected will be subject of considerable debate in the months to come.

Ekern pointed out that the transportation department of the future will be leaner and that it will emphasize safety, emergency response and maintenance of existing roadways. New construction, he said, will be “episodic” and Virginians can expect traveling conditions to worsen.

Asked to elaborate on that, he said, “Everything is on the table and I cannot predict where you’ll feel the pain.”

Some areas that will affect the driving public as the state austerity plan unfolds include repaving, rest stops, mowing, painting new lines, lighting and highway signs. Repaving where needed, mowing and painting new lines are areas that come perilously close to highway safety, something the state does not want to put in jeopardy.

In its battle to make do with less money, the department will also consolidate some local offices, eliminate repair shops and reduce its full-time work force by about 900 to 7,500 through retirements and attrition.

Is the department ready for the fight that localities about to lose their residency office will put up? That will provide some interesting stories down the road.

So why have revenues dropped so drastically? The faltering national economy is a major part of the reason. But another part is the decreasing use of gasoline by those seeking to lessen the dent put in their pocketbooks by high gas prices. When people use less gas, revenues from the gasoline tax drop and the state gets less money for its roads. Ekern predicted that those gasoline tax revenue cuts are permanent because they will continue to lag as cars become more fuel efficient and people drive less.

It’s interesting to look back to last June when the General Assembly met in a special session to consider a plan to resurrect the ailing transportation and mass transit system. Two of the proposals advanced by the Virginia Senate and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine included slight increases in the state gasoline tax and auto sales tax. But tax-averse Republicans in the House of Delegates would have none of it.

So the state continues to struggle to meet the needs of its highway system — a system that extends from the rural roads of Central and Southwest Virginia to the crowded, multi-lane interstates along which commuters travel in Tidewater and Northern Virginia.

Some future General Assembly may in fact realize how critical it is that the state find ways to raise the necessary revenues to maintain the existing highway system and to build new roads where the needs are dictated by a growing population.

That day is coming. But it may be a couple of elections away. Meanwhile, the transportation department will have to muddle along with what money it has and hope for the best.