Republicans in the House of Delegates on Wednesday outfoxed Gov. Ralph Northam and House Democrats to block a pair of tax increases to help repair the Metro transit system, but the consequences could prove costly for transportation projects in Northern Virginia and the rest of the state.
House Democrats needed at least two Republicans to join them in supporting Northam’s amendments to legislation to raise $154 million a year for repairs of the deteriorating Washington-area system. None crossed the aisle in a 50-48 procedural vote that killed the governor’s proposals to raise taxes on lodging and deeds in the six localities that are part of the compact that governs Metro.
The vote — and an earlier procedural maneuver by House Democrats that backfired — leaves in place the Metro funding compromise the General Assembly adopted before it adjourned March 10.
Without gubernatorial budget amendments to consider, the legislature’s annual veto session was relatively uneventful Wednesday, with the exception of limited action on Northam’s legislative vetoes. The shrunken, 51-49 GOP majority in the House after last year’s blue wave put Republicans well short of the two-thirds vote needed to undo a veto. The House had eight vetoed bills to deal with, but Republicans only put one — a proposed ban on sanctuary cities — up for another vote. The House sustained the veto in 51-48 vote along party lines.
Metro compromise
The legislature’s compromise on Metro funding, passed during the regular session, takes an additional $35.1 million from the regional funds established by the adoption of new taxes in the state transportation funding package approved five years ago, for a total of more than $84 million for highway and other projects in the nine localities served by the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority.
“The General Assembly passed this year a major funding and reform plan to ensure Metro is fully funded, but from the very beginning the House was clear that we would stand firm against tax increases for Metro,” said Del. Tim Hugo, R-Fairfax, who held together the chamber’s 51-member majority to thwart the governor and House Democrats.
Hugo said after the vote Wednesday that NVTA has “plenty of money” for priority transportation projects, especially after the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority last week withdrew funding requests for $96 million from the regional authority for two Metro projects that it would fund itself instead.
But Northam warned in a statement Wednesday that the House decision could “potentially divert funding from transportation improvements in Northern Virginia,” while hurting projects in other parts of the state by “forcing Northern Virginia localities to now compete with other regions for limited transportation dollars.”
Del. Danica Roem, D-Prince William, said the loss of regional transportation money will hurt high-priority projects, such as improving state Route 28 in her county.
“Now we’re going to have to start cutting projects,” Roem said. “We’re going to have to start delaying projects.”
Earlier Wednesday, the Senate voted 26-12 to uphold the governor’s amendments to the Metro legislation, with seven Republicans joining Democrats. The later House vote rejecting the amendments meant the Senate’s action was for naught.
Sen. Dick Black, R-Loudoun, said the proposed new taxes were “rather modest” and preferable to losing regional transportation money that localities would have to raise taxes to replace.
“I very much dislike raising taxes, but we’re on the hook,” Black said.
Northam called the Metro funding package “a historic achievement,” but suggested he isn’t done in seeking a way “to improve this plan so that all Virginians get the most return on the investments they make in their transportation system statewide.”
His options are limited with the stakes so high for Metro, considered a vital cog in the Northern Virginia and state economy, and the continuing budget impasse over the House proposal to expand Medicaid.
Health care
Northam has more room to maneuver on other legislation from which the assembly stripped his amendments, including four Senate bills to expand options for middle-income families to bypass the crippled individual market for health insurance and another to reinstate a state tax credit for Virginia coal companies that lapsed last year. Northam sought to add a re-enactment clause to each bill, so that it could not take effect unless the legislature passed it again in 2019.
Those bills are carried by Republican senators who oppose expanding Medicaid in the two-year state budget, which the House supports and the Senate rejects. The governor now has 30 days to decide whether to veto or sign the legislation, giving him more time to persuade the bills’ sponsors to switch their votes to support the House budget during the special session that began April 11.
The House approved a new budget Tuesday that includes Medicaid expansion and a hospital tax to pay the state’s share of the costs. The Senate Finance Committee canceled a meeting that had been scheduled Wednesday to hear a presentation on state revenues and a comparison of the competing budgets, but it could meet next week to act on the House spending plan.
Sanctuary cities
In the gubernatorial race last year, Northam said he opposed sanctuary cities and would sign a ban if a Virginia locality ever tried to become one. Northam has said he opposes pre-emptive legislation aimed at a problem he sees as hypothetical.
Del. Alfonso Lopez, D-Arlington, urged Democrats to uphold the veto, calling the proposed ban an unnecessary and divisive measure that would impede immigrant communities’ relationships with law enforcement.
Del. Ben Cline, R-Rockbridge, the bill’s sponsor, said that even though no Virginia localities are openly resisting enforcement of federal immigration law, they may be moving in that direction.
“We do have a problem in the commonwealth,” Cline said. “And if we ignore it, it is only going to continue to grow.”