The Hampton Roads Transportation Accountability Commission (HRTAC) is a political subdivision of the

Commonwealth of Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

that has the responsibility for funding several major traffic projects in the Hampton Roads area. It was created by the Virginia General Assembly in 2014 to maintain and administer the Hampton Roads Transportation Fund, a trust fund established by the Virginia General Assembly through a 0.7% increase in the state sales and use tax and a 2.1% increase in the fuel tax region-wide. The organization previously existed as the Hampton Roads Transportation Authority (HRTA) but was disbanded in 2008 after the Virginia Supreme Court invalidated its authority to raise and levy taxes. The organization exists alongside the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization (HRTPO), which is the federally mandated

metropolitan planning organization A metropolitan planning organization (MPO) is a federally mandated and federally funded transportation policy-making organization in the United States that is made up of representatives from local government and governmental transportation authoriti ...

responsible for planning and programming the projects for the region. Although politically independent, the TAC generally consists of the same members of the TPO, with the major exception being that mass transit is not represented on the TAC due to state law prohibiting the use of HRTF funds for mass/public transit purposes.

History

Background and formation

Since 2004, the Hampton Roads region has been searching for funding to complete major projects such as the addition of a new Midtown Tunnel and the extension of the Martin Luther King Freeway in Portsmouth, the addition of a third harbor crossing between the Southside and the Peninsula, and widening I-64 on both sides of the water, projects that would cost a combined total of $3.8 billion

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

. However, the Commission determined that state funding would be insufficient for most of these projects because VDOT determined that "reliance on a regional gas tax asnot a reasonably foreseeable source of revenue" for the plan. In 2006, the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization (then called the Hampton Roads Metropolitan Planning Organization) concluded that new tolls could help secure funding for transportation projects that were removed from the 2026 RTP. Based on this study, the MPO added the projects to the regions 2030 RTP, now estimated to cost around $5 billion — if the

Virginia General Assembly The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, and was established on July 30, 16 ...

approved the new tolls and several tax increases. After receiving the proposal, the General Assembly enacted House Bill 3202 introduced by State Delegate William J. Howell, which allowed the region to enact tolling on the project by creating the Hampton Roads Transportation Authority, as well as authorizing tax increases requested by the MPO to finance the other major projects in the region's plan. The state legislation authorized the HRTA to impose, assess and collect taxes, fees and tolls for projects within the jurisdictional limits of the authority, including the controversial civil remedial fees where drivers who violated traffic laws were charged civil penalties on top of their criminal fines. In total, the regional taxes and fees anticipated to be applied to the HRTA would generate an additional $170 million per year towards critical regional transportation projects, in addition to state monies delegated for projects.

Toll Toll may refer to: Transportation * Toll (fee) a fee charged for the use of a road or waterway ** Road pricing, the modern practice of charging for road use ** Road toll (historic), the historic practice of charging for road use ** Shadow toll, ...

revenues would be additional funds available to the HRTA. With this, HRTA then scheduled regional tax increases to go into effect on April 1, 2008, which included a $10 automobile safety inspection fee, a 5 percent tax on automobile repairs, a grantor's tax of 40 cents for every $100 of assessed value when selling a home, a motor vehicle rental tax of 2 percent, a one-time vehicle registration fee of 1 percent, an $10 increase in the vehicle registration fee in the region, and a 2 percent gas tax for the region.

Supreme Court ruling and disbandment

Many residents were upset by the General Assembly's choice to delegate its taxing authority, During the 2008 session of the

, there were efforts sponsored by legislators from the area to include improvements to the

Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Hampton may refer to: Places Australia *Hampton bioregion, an IBRA biogeographic region in Western Australia *Hampton, New South Wales *Hampton, Queensland, a town in the Toowoomba Region *Hampton, Victoria Canada *Hampton, New Brunswick *Hamp ...

, a major issue for localities on the

Virginia Peninsula The Virginia Peninsula is a peninsula in southeast Virginia, USA, bounded by the York River, James River, Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay. It is sometimes known as the ''Lower Peninsula'' to distinguish it from two other peninsulas to the n ...

, many of whose residents have complained that the proposed projects shortchange their area. Also, Del. Tom Gear sponsored H.B. 829 to abolish the HRTA. None of those measures was passed, however. While the Assembly was still in session, on February 29, 2008, the

Virginia Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Virginia is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It primarily hears direct appeals in civil cases from the trial-level city and county circuit courts, as well as the criminal law, family law and administrativ ...

ruled in ''

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Northern Virginia Transportation Authority The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA) is a regional governmental entity established to plan, prioritize and fund regional transportation programs. The NVTA covers Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William counties and the ci ...

'' that the taxation authority granted to these non-elected bodies violated the

Constitution of Virginia The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia is the document that defines and limits the powers of the state government and the basic rights of the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Like all other state constitutions, it is supreme ...

:and were thus unconstitutional. The Court ruled that the General Assembly could not delegate its taxing powers to an unelected body, stating in its opinion, written by State Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn:

...the General Assembly has failed to adhere to the mandates of accountability and transparency that the Constitution requires when the General Assembly exercises the legislative taxing authority permitted by the Constitution. If payment of the regional taxes and fees is to be required by a general law, it is the prerogative and the function of the General Assembly, as provided by Article IV, Section 1 of the Constitution, to make that decision, in a manner which complies with the requirements of Article IV, Section 11 of the Constitution.

Since the HRTA is also not a directly elected body, the press reported that its funding sources as set forth at that time were also invalidated by the court ruling. The opinion did not, however find the existence of the HRTA (or the NVTA for that matter) to be unconstitutional, nor did it strike the authority of the regional authorities to impose tolling on the roadways. Nonetheless, since the sole purpose of the HRTA was financial, it was abolished by the General Assembly in 2009.

Post-ruling and resurrection

The legislature took several years to develop a long-term plan to replace the one the Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional. Several projects in the HRTA plan continued to go unfunded while two other plans—the

Elizabeth River Tunnels Project The Elizabeth River Tunnels Project, a series of transportation projects in the South Hampton Roads region of Virginia, comprises the rehabilitation of the Downtown and existing Midtown Tunnels, the construction of a new parallel Midtown Tunne ...

and the U.S. Route 460 project (dubbed the "Commonwealth Connector") went forward as public-private partnerships projects, both of which met serious criticism in how they were approached and negotiated. Finally, in 2013, the General Assembly passed a new massive transportation funding package, sponsored by Speaker of the House of Delegates William J. Howell that accomplished the same as the HRTA authorizing legislation, with the exception of granting the new authority taxation power. Instead, the General Assembly itself levied the tax increases—a statewide sales and use tax increase to 4.8%, a statewide increase in motor vehicle registration fees by $15, as well as, for the first time since 1986, a change in the statewide gas tax to be 3.5% of the price of a gallon of gas instead of a flat 17.5 cents per gallon. This plan, based on estimates from the Commonwealth Transportation Board, would raise $15.4 billion for statewide projects, including $1.3 billion for the new Hampton Roads Transportation Fund. The following session, State Delegate Chris Jones of Suffolk and State Senator Frank Wagner of Virginia Beach introduced legislation, HB1253 and SB513, which provides for the creation of the Hampton Roads Transportation Accountability Commission (HRTAC) in order to manage the Hampton Roads Transportation Fund (HRTF) revenues for the Hampton Roads region. This legislation also moved the responsibility for approval and prioritization of the projects from the HRTPO to the HRTAC. The General Assembly then adopted the bill on March 8, 2014, and the bill was signed by Governor

Terry McAuliffe Terence Richard McAuliffe (born February 9, 1957) is an American businessman and politician who served as the 72nd governor of Virginia from 2014 to 2018. A member of the Democratic Party, he was co-chairman of President Bill Clinton's 1996 ...

on April 3. HRTAC then became effective on July 1, 2014.

Jurisdiction and composition

The HRTA area includes the entire territory encompassed by all 12 localities within the states Planning District 23, and each are represented on its governing board by their chief elected official or other designee from the localities governing council. Also, there are five positions legislators from the Virginia General Assembly—two senators and three State Delegates who will represent the intent of the legislature on the commission. Legislators are appointed by their respective body's leadership and must represent one or more of the jurisdictions of the Commission. There are also four state level executives who are appointed ex officio as non-voting member to the board by virtue of their positions. All individuals hold their position on the commission for the duration they hold their elected (or appointed) office.

Projects

As of June 2016, the HRTAC currently has four major projects underway: * The

I-64 Interstate 64 (I-64) is an east–west Interstate Highway in the Eastern United States. Its western terminus is at I-70, U.S. Route 40 (US 40), and US 61 in Wentzville, Missouri. Its eastern terminus is at an interchang ...

Widening on the Peninsula was the first project funded by HRTAC. Estimated to cost $144 million, the project will widen I-64 from Newport News all the way to New Kent County, just outside the Richmond Metro area. * The I-64 Widening Project on the

Southside Southside or South Side may refer to: Places Australia * Southside, Queensland, a semi-rural locality in the Gympie Region Canada * South Side, Newfoundland and Labrador, a community in the St. George's Bay area on the southwest coast of Newf ...

has also been preliminary funded through the engineering phase. Estimated to cost close to $2.3 billion, the project will widen the I-64 corridor to eight lanes between the I-64/I-464 interchange to the Bowers Hill Interchange, as well as both build and replace the current High Rise Bridge with a new, 135 ft fixed span bridge over the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River. * The environmental study of the Hampton Roads Third Crossing, that would connect to the I-564 Intermodal Connector and cross the southern portion of the harbor between Naval Station Norfolk and Norfolk International Terminals and connect with I-664 on the west side of Craney Island *The improvements in to I-64/I-264 interchange, including adding a second exit lane on westbound I-64 and the widening of the ramp from westbound I-64 to eastbound I-264, introducing a new two-lane collector-distributor roadway (C-D road) from I-64 to the Newtown Road interchange, and a new two-lane flyover ramp from westbound I-64 tying into the existing eastbound I-264 C-D road. This project is estimated to cost $157 million.

References