Hampton Roads Transportation Accountability Commission

Since 2004, the Hampton Roads region has been searching for funding to complete major projects such as the addition of a new Midtown Tunnel and the extension of the Martin Luther King Freeway in Portsmouth, the addition of a third harbor crossing between the Southside and the Peninsula, and widening I-64 on both sides of the water, projects that would cost a combined total of $3.8 billion USD.[1] However, the Commission determined that state funding would be insufficient for most of these projects because VDOT determined that "reliance on a regional gas tax [was] not a reasonably foreseeable source of revenue" for the plan.[2]

In 2006, the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization (then called the Hampton Roads Metropolitan Planning Organization) concluded that new tolls could help secure funding for transportation projects that were removed from the 2026 RTP. Based on this study, the MPO added the projects to the regions 2030 RTP, now estimated to cost around $5 billion— if the Virginia General Assembly approved the new tolls and several tax increases.[3]

After receiving the proposal, the General Assembly enacted House Bill 3202 introduced by State Delegate William J. Howell, which allowed the region to enact tolling on the project by creating the Hampton Roads Transportation Authority, as well as authorizing tax increases requested by the MPO to finance the other major projects in the region's plan. The state legislation authorized the HRTA to impose, assess and collect taxes, fees and tolls for projects within the jurisdictional limits of the authority, including the controversial civil remedial fees where drivers who violated traffic laws were charged on civil penalties on top of their criminal fines. In total, the regional taxes and fees anticipated to be applied to the HRTA would generate an additional $170 million per year towards critical regional transportation projects, in addition to state monies delegated for projects. Toll revenues would be additional funds available to the HRTA.

With this, HRTA then scheduled regional tax increases to go into effect on April 1, 2008, which included a $10 automobile safety inspection fee, a 5 percent tax on automobile repairs, a grantor's tax of 40 cents for every $100 of assessed value when selling a home, a motor vehicle rental tax of 2 percent, a one-time vehicle registration fee of 1 percent, an $10 increase in the vehicle registration fee in the region, and a 2 percent gas tax for the region.

Many residents were upset by the General Assembly's choice to delegate its taxing authority,

During the 2008 session of the Virginia General Assembly, there were efforts sponsored by legislators from the area to include improvements to the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, a major issue for localities on the Virginia Peninsula, many of whose residents have complained that the proposed projects shortchange their area. Also, Del. Tom Gear sponsored H.B. 829 to abolish the HRTA.[4] None of those measures was passed, however.

While the Assembly was still in session, on February 29, 2008, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled in Marshall v. Northern Virginia Transportation Authority that the taxation authority granted to these non-elected bodies violated the Constitution of Virginia:and were thus unconstitutional. The Court ruled that the General Assembly could not delegate its taxing powers to an unelected body, stating in its opinion, written by State Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn:

...the General Assembly has failed to adhere to the mandates of accountability and transparency that the Constitution requires when the General Assembly exercises the legislative taxing authority permitted by the Constitution. If payment of the regional taxes and fees is to be required by a general law, it is the prerogative and the function of the General Assembly, as provided by Article IV, Section 1 of the Constitution, to make that decision, in a manner which complies with the requirements of Article IV, Section 11 of the Constitution.[5]

Since the HRTA is also not a directly elected body, the press reported that its funding sources as set forth at that time were also invalidated by the court ruling.[6] The opinion did not, however find the existence of the HRTA (or the NVTA for that matter) to be unconstitutional, nor did it strike the authority of the regional authorities to impose tolling on the roadways. Nonetheless, since the sole purpose of the HRTA was financial, it was abolished by the General Assembly in 2009.

The legislature took several years to develop a long-term plan to replace the one the Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional. Several projects in the HRTA plan continued to go unfunded while two other plans—the Elizabeth River Tunnels Project and the U.S. Route 460 project (dubbed the "Commonwealth Connector") went forward as public-private partnerships projects, both of which met serious criticism in how they were approached and negotiated.

Finally, in 2013, the General Assembly passed a new massive transportation funding package, sponsored by Speaker of the House of Delegates William J. Howell that accomplished the same as the HRTA authorizing legislation, with the exception of granting the new authority taxation power. Instead, the General Assembly itself levied the tax increases—a statewide sales and use tax increase to 4.8%, a statewide increase in motor vehicle registration fees by $15, as well as, for the first time since 1986, a change in the statewide gas tax to be 3.5% of the price of a gallon of gas instead of a flat 17.5 cents per gallon.[7] This plan, based on estimates from the Commonwealth Transportation Board, would raise $15.4 billion for statewide projects, including $1.3 billion for the new Hampton Roads Transportation Fund.[8]

The following session, State Delegate Chris Jones of Suffolk and State Senator Frank Wagner of Virginia Beach introduced legislation, HB1253 and SB513, which provides for the creation of the Hampton Roads Transportation Accountability Commission (HRTAC) in order to manage the Hampton Roads Transportation Fund (HRTF) revenues for the Hampton Roads region. This legislation also moved the responsibility for approval and prioritization of the projects from the HRTPO to the HRTAC. The General Assembly then adopted the bill on March 8, 2014, and the bill was signed by Governor Terry McAuliffe on April 3. HRTAC then became effective on July 1, 2014.