NVTA carries onward

The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority is keeping up the good fight.

Six days after the Virginia Supreme Court unanimously ruled that parts of House Bill 3202 were unconstitutional, NVTA members unanimously approved a resolution on Thursday morning urging the General Assembly to take "expeditious action to provide funding for the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority."

This would allow the region to move forward on the list of transportation projects that the authority had planned to fund with revenue previously granted by the state government.

"Northern Virginia residents and commuters are facing a catastrophe," NVTA chairman Chris Zim-merman said. "Everyone across the region will feel the pain of the eradication of these vital transportation funds, unless the General Assembly acts now."

Sen. Charles J. "Chuck" Colgan, D-Manassas, the Senate president pro tempore, said he'd like the legislature to extend April's customary veto session by a few days to find a new way to raise hundreds of millions for transportation in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said he's already spoken with House and Senate leaders on holding a special ses-sion.

In all, the region could lose out on $497 million in

approved projects, and the death of NVTA's taxing authority also means Virginia isn't going to have the $50 million in annual Metrorail contributions or the $25 million promised to

Virginia Railway Express.

The NVTA is also concerned with recent cuts by the Virginia Department of Transportation, $1.1 billion, and the Department of Rail and Public Transportation, $70 million.

At the same meeting, the NVTA officially approved the cessation of taxes and fees that was implemented beginning Jan. 1.

Those seven fees and taxes are estimated to be $8.3 million, said Kala L. Quintana, NVTA interim public relations officer.

Quintana said there is a variety of manners in which the NVTA is considering refunding those monies, but nothing has been officially decided.

"They [taxpayers] can rest assured not a dime has been spent and the money will be returned in accordance with the law," Quintana said.

There are several local projects that could be affected by the loss of this potential revenue, including the widening of Prince William Parkway and U.S. 1 in Prince William County, intersection improvements at Manassas Drive and Mathis Avenue in Manassas Park and the Va. 28 grade separation project in Manassas.

The funding expected to go to Manassas from NVTA in the next two fiscal years was $3.4 million, said assistant public works director Nicholas Gardner, who said, "it's unknown at this point how the city will com-pensate for those lost funds."

The VRE extension to Gainesville and Haymarket will likely be pushed forward by the state and theoretically that "does help the project as the project is needed to make this happen," said Gardner.

Gardner said that the city is still planning to bid the $46 million project in fiscal 2009, but nothing is set in stone yet.

In all, $44 million worth of projects in the Prince William County area could be affected. According to Prince Wil-liam Supervisor Martin E. Nohe, R-Coles, 100 percent of the Prince William Parkway expansion and around 90 percent of the widening of Va. 28 from Linton Hall Road into Fauquier County was scheduled to be paid for by NVTA revenue.

The widening of U.S. 1 could also be affected, Nohe said. The county has spent an estimated $10 million already on acquiring land and right of way for the project.

"We can't walk away from the project, but we can't build it either," Nohe said.

Staff writer Kipp Hanley can be reached at 703-369-5738. Staff writer Lillian Kafka contributed to this report.