About 25 legislators from Northern Virginia and the Hampton Roads area are meeting this morning, trying to come up with new ways to pay for transportation improvements in their traffic-clogged regions.

The legislators, who are almost outnumbered by lobbyists, are conferring in suburban Richmond -- a symbolic halfway point between the Washington suburbs and Tidewater.

The General Assembly is expected to return to Richmond next month for a special session -- a third effort in as many years to come up with a reliable, long-term fiscal fix for rails and roads.

The meeting follows the release of a letter to legislators and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, urging $1 billion in new taxes to finance transportation projects across the state.

There are sharp divisions among legislators on how to pay for new asphalt, commuter rail and bus routes.

Anti-tax Republicans who control the House want only to fine-tune last year's hard-fought transportation plan to bring it in line with a recent Supreme Court decision.

Democrats on both sides of the Capitol have different ideas, too.

House Democrats favor a penny increase in the sales tax; it's currently a nickel on every dollar.

Senate Democrats would rather increase the gasoline tax, now 17.5 cents per gallon. It was last raised in 1986.

-- Jeff E. Schapiro