When I was elected in 2003, seventeen years had elapsed since our per gallon gas tax—by far Virginia’s largest contribution to VDOT’s budget—was raised from 15 cents per gallon to 17.5 cents.  That’s what it remains today.  As a per gallon tax, inflation took its toll, and that same 17.5 cents is worth about 7-8 cents in 1986 dollars.  Meanwhile, the population grew by more than 2 million and the number of cars on the road exploded.  Now, after 27 years, and ten years into my service in the House of Delegates a comprehensive transportation bill sits on the Governor’s desk waiting his signature.  It will not solve every problem, and it will take a few years to ramp up, but it is a significant step in the right direction.

The 2013 Session is halfway over and it is hard to guess what might happen to the two most important policy issues before the General Assembly: funding a robust transportation program, and accepting Medicaid expansion as called for by the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  A weak Governor-supported Transportation Plan has passed the House with promises that the beef will be put on in the House-Senate conference committee.  Second, the terms for accepting the 100 percent – funded Medicaid expansion (for three years declining to 90 percent over time) for low income Americans are in dispute between the two bodies.  I expect practicality to prevail when the Appropriations conference committee debate the various needed reforms.