WOODBRIDGE -- Gov. Timothy M. Kaine began a series of town hall meetings last night pushing his newest investment plan -- this time by raising a regional sales tax in Northern Virginia to upgrade its transportation system.

If Virginia does not start investing in its infrastructure soon, its economy will suffer, the governor told a crowd of nearly 200 gathered at the A.J. Ferlazzo Building in Prince William County, where commuters were ranked last year as having the fifth-longest commutes in the nation.

Money that was going to build an interchange at U.S. 1 and state Route 123 in Woodbridge, for instance, has been shifted recently, along with about $80 million in other projects, to pay for road maintenance.

Kaine said this trend will continue until more than $600 million in new road construction would be removed from capital spending plans just to maintain roads.

Reversing this trend locally means raising the sales tax by 1 percentage point, to 6 percent from 5 percent, Kaine said.

Kaine's proposed fee and tax increases, however painful, would help Virginia invest in road and rail infrastructure critical to keeping the state's economic engines humming, the governor said as he presented his plan to a room full of residents, business owners and some anti-tax group members.

"I think you need to cut taxes," Bryan Martin of Woodbridge told Kaine. "If you keep raising taxes, the people who are spending money to keep me in business are not going to keep spending that money."

Kaine responded, "There are rules of math, and there's no free lunch."

"This is a balancing act as we try to find out ways to have people pay for this," he said. "The sales tax, which would be raised in Northern Virginia and would stay in Northern Virginia, would be paid by out-of-state [drivers], too."

If the sales-tax money were used on anything other than transportation, the tax would be disqualified, Kaine said.

He anticipated interest in the plan would vary across the state -- rural residents could support his plan because it would help pay for bridges that remain closed because no money exists to replace them. It also could help pave more than 300 miles of dirt roads in some areas, he said.

Greta Houston of Occoquan said she supports Kaine's tax-increase proposal.

"Those tax raises that you are suggesting are not that much," she said.

But opponents of the tax increases say there have not been enough cuts in state spending to justify them.

"I think there were more comments against raising taxes than there were for it, and I think that's important," said Del. Jeffrey M. Frederick, R-Prince William.

Sharon Pandak, Kaine's appointee to the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, said Kaine's proposed tax increases were small compared with the time and money spent sitting in traffic.

"When you talk about a tax, we're already being taxed. Emergency vehicles can't respond in a timely manner to help people. People need to look at these things," said Pandak, who attended last night's meeting.
Lillian Kafka is a staff writer for the Potomac News and Manassas Journal Messenger.