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This report provides a comprehensive summary of practices in Virginia jurisdictions for the purpose of raising local revenue for transportation purposes. To the extent possible, every current practice was located in the Code of Virginia to enable tracking of developments in the statutes and permissions referenced in the report. Transportation districts featuring special in-district taxation for the funding or financing of district transportation projects have a 55-year history in Virginia, with a number of variations approved and rescinded by the Virginia General Assembly over the years. Major transportation districts exist currently on a scale from the multijurisdictional/regional to specific highway corridors, and they scale down to the residential neighborhood at the most local level. Urban settings are conducive to successful regional transportation districts in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads. The strategy of tax increment finance areas is practiced widely in urban jurisdictions as well. Not least, Virginia has a long history of tolled highway facilities in urban areas. For jurisdictional control, however, specific legislative permission is required. In more rural areas of Virginia, local transportation funding has been derived from coal and gas extraction, the Virginia Tobacco Commission, and three federal agencies that target communities in relative need. A concentration of such communities has long been identified in southern and southwest Virginia. These funding sources can usually be pooled effectively for local transportation projects. By Dillon’s Rule, Virginia jurisdictions currently have de jure permission under the Code of Virginia to enact several means of local revenue generation for transportation, but they must meet eligibility rules to implement others. Yet the Code of Virginia is a living document with the potential to be changed annually by the Virginia General Assembly, and transportation funding is a perennial subject of intense legislator interest and involvement.
Several Virginia localities have used local funding and financing sources to build new roads or complete major street improvement projects when state and/or federal funding was not available. Many others have combined local funding sources with state and/or federal funds to accelerate a project of importance to the locality. The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to determine the extent to which local governments have completed road projects under Virginia statutes that enable various types of funding and financing tools and to document lessons some localities learned in the process; and (2) to identify examples of locally generated funding sources from other states not currently used in Virginia that could be promising for road projects. To achieve the first purpose, case studies and a survey were used to gather the necessary information. To achieve the second purpose, a literature review was conducted. Different localities had different enabling factors that led to their decisions to apply local funds to road projects. Enabling factors that were evident from the case studies included the following: - high growth rates and the resultant increases in tax receipts; - regional medical centers associated with substantial ancillary land development; - local government staff with experience managing road construction projects; - a combination of future-focused transportation plans and negotiation during the land development process; - a record of success with similar projects; - collaboration with universities and other local governments; - careful budgeting and saving. Examples of locally generated funding sources from other states that are not widely used in Virginia include transportation utility fees, local motor fuel taxes, mileage-based user fees, special property taxes on non-residential parking spaces, a tax per employee, concurrency, availability payment public-private partnerships, and various types of special districts. In addition to identifying the enabling factors listed, the study concludes that Virginias local governments have become major funding sources for road improvements of local importance. This role intensified as state funding levels decreased before Virginia's 2013 transportation funding revisions, but some localities said that they could not sustain this trend over the long term. Even so, localities have an interest in using local dollars to advance local priority projects. The study recommends that the Virginia Center for Transportation Innovation and Research and the Virginia Department of Transportations Local Assistance Division (1) develop a road show summarizing the findings from the case studies conducted in this study, with a focus on options for local funding that other localities might find useful and (2) enhance an existing annual workshop that focuses on local project administration to add consideration of innovative local funding tools currently in use by jurisdictions outside Virginia.
The first phase of this project compiled information on transportation funding options for highway funding. This subsequent phase provided similar information for other modes of transportation including transit, rail, aviation, and ports. The information is presented in a format that is user friendly and easily accessible via the Internet for anyone interested in project financing methods.
In 2003, the Virginia Department of Transportation developed a list of alternative transportation funding sources available to localities in Virginia. Alternative funding sources are defined as those that are not included in the annual interstate, primary, secondary, and urban allocations available through VDOT's Six-Year Improvement Program. The Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, passed by the U.S. Congress in 2005, eliminated some of these programs and created new opportunities. Accordingly, the list of funding sources was updated based on information available as of December 2005. State and federal funding sources and programs, and their potential uses, are detailed in this report. In some cases, the program described does not provide money above the normal annual allocations but rather allows the allocations for the primary, secondary, or urban system to be used for bicycle and pedestrian projects, following the standard VDOT project development process, or road improvement projects that use a simplified design and construction process.