Virginia is $1.7 billion short on road maintenance. Growth that pays its way is part of the answer.
The state can't keep up with the roads it already has, and localities are being asked to pick between schools and transit from the same penny of sales tax. A broader tax base is how a region builds ahead of demand.
The Commonwealth is confronting a $1.7 billion shortfall in the money it needs just to maintain the highways it already has.1 That is maintenance, not expansion. Before a single new lane is added anywhere in Northern Virginia, the state is behind on repaving, bridges and drainage for the roads we drive today.
Regional leaders, meanwhile, are debating how to fund transit over the long term, and at least one county chair has objected to a proposal that would make localities choose between schools and Metro from the same cent of sales tax.2 Prince William has repaid millions for a canceled bypass and is discussing a widening with no place yet in its capital plan.3 Every corner of the transportation picture shows the same thing: more need than money.
Why this is a tax base story
Roads in Virginia are paid for by a mix of state fuel and sales taxes, regional transportation taxes, and local capital budgets, and the local share depends on the same property base that funds schools and public safety. When a county's commercial base shrinks, the road projects compete with teacher pay for a smaller pool, and the road projects usually lose. Fairfax deferred a community center and library upgrades this year to protect its bond rating.4 Roads are on the same list.
The reverse is also true. A locality whose base is growing, with employers and residents who pay in more than they cost, can build ahead of demand. It can require the developer of a large project to fund the interchange it needs, as the best approvals already do, and put its own money into the corridors that serve everyone.
Build capacity before the traffic
Our roads position is straightforward. Most of us drive, and the region's commute is the worst in the country.5 We should plan road capacity ahead of the homes and jobs we approve, not decades behind them. We should treat parking as part of that capacity, because a street full of parked cars is a street that doesn't move. And we should recognize that the money for all of it comes from a tax base that has to be allowed to grow.
A region that says no to employers and then wonders why it can't afford its roads has answered its own question.