A Virginia Supreme Court ruling blocking regional taxes for roads is forcing lawmakers again to find ways to close a yawning gap in the highway budget.

In a potentially devastating blow to last year's hard-fought transportation fix -- and one that could force the General Assembly into another special session -- the court threw out as unconstitutional the portion of the plan allowing an unelected panel in Northern Virginia to collect taxes for highways and mass transit.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, meeting with reporters before flying to Kansas and Texas for political events, stopped short of calling for a special session, but he said "it will be hard to do it next week and do it right."

"I think we've got a long spring in front of us," said Sen. John Watkins, R-Powhatan.

With the high court ruling yesterday, the transportation plan potentially is drained of an additional $300 million, generated for Northern Virginia through the anticipated sale of tax-backed bonds, as well as $200 million for Hampton Roads.

The ruling came as Kaine and the legislature, approaching the close of its annual session, try to unravel another of the transportation plan's controversial features: unpopular driver fees that were supposed to generate $65 million a year.

The Hampton Roads region fashioned an agency similar to one in Northern Virginia to collect taxes and issue bonds. The Hampton Roads entity was not challenged in the Supreme Court, but Kaine and other state officials said it likely is upended by yesterday's edict.

The ruling also could hamper efforts in the Richmond area to create an agency that would underwrite transportation improvements with new taxes and bonds. Del. Franklin P. Hall, D-Richmond, and Watkins have pushed such a proposal.

Kaine said the Virginians who have paid fees to the regional authority in Northern Virginia will get refunds. He will order DMV to stop collecting the fees, he said.

In a unanimous decision written by Virginia's newest justice -- S. Bernard Goodwyn, a Kaine appointee -- the court said the General Assembly had extended tax powers illegally to an unelected entity, the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority.

The Virginia Constitution allows the legislature to provide such power to local and regional government, of which -- the court declared -- the NVTA is neither. The agency started collecting taxes in the Washington suburbs in January.

Further, the imposition of taxes requires a vote by a majority of the elected members of a governing body. NVTA members are appointed, though some also are local elective officials.

"The constraints that the citizens of Virginia have placed upon the General Assembly regarding the imposition of taxes would be rendered meaningless if the General Assembly were permitted to avoid compliance with these constraints by delegating to NVTA the decisional authority whether to impose taxes," the court said.

Though some legislators suggested they could repair the road-and-rail plan to comply with the court's guidelines before the scheduled March 8 adjournment, others said they may have to return to Richmond later, perhaps in April.

Regardless, the ruling could revive the sharply partisan fight over new general taxes for transportation -- something Republicans have stoutly resisted.

With the collapse of the driver fees and a growing hole in the road maintenance budget, Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw, D-Fairfax, is pushing for a nickel-per-gallon increase in the gasoline tax over five years that, near term, would produce an additional $150 million.

The challenge to the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority was brought by Del. Robert G. Marshall of Prince William, an ardent anti-tax Republican now seeking his party's nomination for the U.S. Senate.
Contact Jeff E. Schapiro at (804) 649-6814 or jschapiro@timesdispatch.com.

Staff writer Tyler Whitley contributed to this report.