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State transportation budget slashed
Virginia transportation officials are facing an economic reality they say will fundamentally change the state's Department of Transportation.
The transportation budget is being hit by a triple whammy of reduced state funding, uncertain federal funding and the downturn in the economy that is reducing gas and auto sales. Officials are now projecting a $2.1 to $2.6 billion revenue shortfall over the next six years.
"We believe these changes are structural and long term in nature," Secretary of Transportation Pierce Homer said. "There is not a strong likelihood that they will bounce back."
In addition to support from the federal government and the state's general fund, the highway and public transportation departments rely heavily on rapidly declining auto sales and fuel taxes. The state is facing a $2.5 billion shortfall, and the federal highway trust fund ran out of money earlier this year.
Congress has approved a $9 billion patch for the highway fund, Homer said, but the situation makes federal funding unreliable, accounting for the range in the estimated shortfall.
VDOT Commissioner David Ekern said Oct. 15 that the cuts to an already-slim budget mean that the state must make structural changes to its transportation department, including eliminating about 900 full-time and 1,000 contract employees.
“In the future, VDOT will be a smaller agency. We cannot afford to administer and deliver our services, programs and projects the same way we have in the past,” Ekern said.
Safety will remain the department's top priority, but the cuts will mean less money to fill potholes, plow streets, maintain rest stops, mow rights of way and conduct other smaller tasks.
"[Drivers] will see changes in the way we take care of the right of way. You may see it in our rest areas. You may see it in our ferry services," Ekern said. "Surfaces may get rougher."
Once agency staffing is reduced, the already lean six-year road construction program, which was reduced by $1.1 billion in June, will have to be further cut, a process that "will have significant impacts in every city, every county and every town in the commonwealth," Homer said.
He expects a new draft of the cuts will be ready in mid-November. Northern Virginia's mega-projects – the beltway toll lanes, the Wilson Bridge expansion and the Dulles rail extension – have dedicated funding and will not be impacted by the cuts, Homer said.
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