"No state with declining infrastructure can maintain its place as a leader," Kaine told reporters yesterday at the Patrick Henry Building.

Kaine's plan also calls for a 1 percent increase, from 5 percent to 6 percent, in the sales tax in regions encompassed by the Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads transportation authorities. The revenue raised by the increase would go directly to fund needs in those areas. The regional tax would not apply to food or medicine.

"This is not just a regional problem. Those two regions are the most economically powerful in the state," Kaine said. "It's bad for Virginia if congestion is allowed to persist in those regions."

Kaine will make his case today in Woodbridge at the first of a series of town-hall public meetings leading up to June 23, when the General Assembly will convene for a special session on transportation.

It is the third time in as many years that Kaine and lawmakers have tackled transportation financing.

"Considerable money is needed not only to maintain current conditions but to make improvements to meet growing demands," Matt Sundeen, transportation analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures, recently wrote in the organization's magazine.

Kaine said his plan included revenue generators that the legislature had voted on before.

But the proposal also drew fire from unlikely sources: fellow Democrats.

Posts on two closely read Democratic blogs, RaisingKaine.com and NotLarrySabato.typepad.com, were sharply critical of Kaine for relying on the sales tax, describing it as unfair to poor people. The sales-tax increases would not apply to food and medicine.

The fortified House Democratic minority and the party's new majority in the Virginia Senate welcomed Kaine's proposal. However, members are not ruling out alternative proposals.

Del. Brian J. Moran of Alexandria, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and a candidate for governor, urged a 1-cent, statewide increase in the sales tax. Moran, who opposes higher fuel taxes, made his case in an op-ed article Sunday in The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles J. Colgan, D-Prince William, said he is expecting a measure that would increase the gasoline tax -- an idea pushed by Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw of Fairfax County.

Kaine said he did not propose an increase in the gasoline tax because people would feel "very hard hit by a gas tax. . . . They view [gas] as a necessity of life."

"I think this is a good plan, and a solid plan, but I don't think it's a perfect plan," Kaine added.

"I encourage the legislature to kick the tires and talk about it."

Two of the state's more muscular lobbying organizations were kicking yesterday, pledging to defeat components of the Kaine plan that would raise taxes for the real estate and automobile industries.

"Lay off the grantor's tax," said Martin Johnson of the Virginia Association of Realtors, which recently backed higher sales and fuel taxes for transportation. "We're in a housing recession."

R. Michael Allen, of the Virginia Automobile Dealers Association, said a higher motor-vehicle titling tax is a "tough pill to swallow" for a business "in the middle of a recession."

Griffith and Cox said they are committed to emerging from the session with a plan to fund the Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads regions. Officials have suggested that localities could vote on the same taxes and fees that the courts said the transportation authorities did not have the power to impose.

The governor stopped short of saying he would veto a plan that included only a regional funding component, but he reiterated his belief that such funding would be in jeopardy if the state had to divert regional monies to fill the deficit in statewide maintenance.

"If you don't fix the maintenance deficit, it makes the regional plan a sham," Kaine said.

Griffith was asked whether Kaine's plan stood a chance of making it to the House floor.

"No," he said. "I see it on the floor but not the floor of the House."

Kaine said "the General Assembly must act, because its reputation and [Virginia's] reputation is at stake.

"We're going to have to work on it together."
Contact Jim Nolan at (804) 649-6061 or jnolan@timesdispatch.com.

Contact Jeff E. Schapiro at (804) 649-6814 or jschapiro@timesdispatch.com.