Both houses of the Assembly approved the long-sought sales tax referendum for Northern Virginia last week, opening up a pot of some $5 billion for transportation projects around the area.
But more than $1.25 billion of those funds will go to suburbs outside Arlington, to Fairfax connectors, highway improvements, commuter train cars and interchange improvements in Loudoun and Fairfax. What promise would a referendum hold for Arlington County voters?
Plenty, Arlington’s Assembly representatives say: the county will share in transit money spread around the region, money for Metro train and station upgrades, and a piece of the $75 million pot of regional transit capital.
More specifically, the bill also includes three Arlington projects, totaling $175 million. If passed, the referendum would fund improvements to bridges over Route 50 and Columbia Pike, and would allocate funds to develop transit lines, either bus or light rail, along Columbia Pike and Route 1.
<b>IMPROVEMENTS TO INTERCHANGES</b> on Route 50 and the Pike would be some of the most needed projects the referendum would fund. Money would go toward fixing the Glebe bridge over Route 50, the Washington Boulevard bridge over Columbia Pike, and interchange improvements at North Courthouse Road and Route 50.
That $25 million was one of the County Board’s requests for the referendum, and it was well placed, Del. James Almand (D-47) said. "It would help replace several bridges, and the Columbia Pike-Washington Boulevard bridge has the ‘lowest sufficiency rating,’ the most highly rated for improvement, in the state," he said.
The other major local components included in the referendum are funding for transit improvements along Columbia Pike and down Route 1, transit lines that are still under consideration by the county.
Transit along the Pike was one of the goals of the Columbia Pike Revitalization Plan, passed last month by the board, and stations for a Route 1 line are included in construction at Potomac Yard that the County Board approved this weekend. That line would run from Potomac Yard into Alexandria, connecting with the Metro at the blue and yellow line stops at the Braddock Road station.
"There’s an enormous amount of new development planned for that area," said Del. Robert Brink (D-48). "Unless we have transit that grows at the same pace, we’re going to have terrible traffic problems down there."
But that line also highlights one of the facts about the referendum, said Del. Karen Darner (D-49): projects outside Arlington still have a local impact, as with the Route 1 line that the county would share with Alexandria.
"It’s not just Arlington. There has to be regional cooperation and coordination, with Route 1 in particular," she said.
<b>EVEN PROJECTS FAR</b> outside Arlington need to be the focus of cooperation, Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple (D-31) said. "Rail to Dulles will benefit people who work at Tysons Corner. That is definitely going to help us," she said, by keeping commuters and travelers off Arlington roads.
The same can be said of money for new Virginia Rail Express cars, Whipple said. The commuter line stops in Crystal City, and expanded VRE service would mean easier access to Arlington jobs.
"Since Arlington is in the urban core, it’s important to us that transportation works well for employees in Arlington to get to work on time, no matter where they start," she said. "If it’s harder to get to work, they’re more likely to work out in Prince William or Fairfax or Loudoun."
The key there, she said, is the amount of transit funding included in the referendum overall, and Arlington’s delegates agreed. "We can expand the miles of road on I-66, Columbia Pike and Lee Highway," Darner said. "But unless other means of transportation are encouraged, we’re going to be bottlenecked again on our neighborhood streets."
<b>LON ANDERSON AGREED.</b> Anderson, spokesman for the Mid-Atlantic chapter of the American Automobile Association, joined the chorus of calls for passage of the referendum to fund transit improvements.
"When you have a transportation crisis, more of everything is needed," he said. "We need more transit, and we need more road capacity."
Given the amount of transit funds in the referendum, though, Anderson said he was mystified and upset by the Coalition for Smarter Growth, which announced its opposition to the referendum last week.
That opposition prompted the AAA to campaign in favor of the referendum, especially as the November ballot gets closer. "We want to be proactive," Anderson said.
Opposition to the referendum has arisen in other counties, but not in Arlington, representatives said. "I haven’t heard opposition in Arlington," Darner said.
Tim Wise, president of the Arlington County Taxpayers’ Alliance, said county opposition to the referendum was hampered slightly: in the region, opposition has come from a joint effort of anti-tax and anti-development groups.
In Arlington, Wise said, there are relatively few anti-tax groups to join with his anti-tax group. But he will be approaching environmental groups in the county, like Sierra Club and Arlingtonians for a Cleaner Environment, "groups that would be opposed to growth," to build local opposition to the referendum.
"The problem with this referendum is, they’re not giving us a complete range of options," Wise said. "Our only option is to vote for or against. They didn’t ask to put in limits on spending, linking spending to the growth in population. We don’t have that option."
<b>WITH ASSEMBLY APPROVAL,</b> the next stop for the referendum is the November ballot this fall. Voters will face the question, should the state impose a one-half cent sales tax in Arlington, Fairfax, Alexandria, Loudoun and Prince William, which would only fund transportation projects within that area.
A long campaign will lead into the Nov. 5 ballot, but it should mean that voters will be well informed, Almand said
One of the crucial elements for winning approval, he said, is making sure that voters understand where the tax would not apply. "It doesn’t include food. It won’t be applied to grocery bills," he said.
The fight over the referendum killed a similar measure during last year’s Assembly, but it didn’t delay voters’ opportunity to decide the issue. "It really wasn’t delayed. Last year was also for the 2002 referendum," Almand said.
Brink said he didn’t expect the referendum to sail through the county. "I think there will be opposition from a couple sources," he said. "One, from people who fail to recognize the current transportation needs we have, and also from people who are environmentally concerned."
Those are concerns Brink said he shares, but the transit component of the referendum left him convinced. He was convinced voters would see it the same way. "It will take some work, but I think it will pass," he said.