Hampton
Roads voters are being asked to approve a 22 percent
increase in the sales tax on November 5. First, they
deserve complete and honest answers to all of their
questions. That’s the burden assumed by
legislators when they submitted the question to the
people. It’s a burden legislative proponents
haven’t met.
Even worse, the
voters have been misled. The question on the ballot
is itself inherently deceptive.
The question is
whether the sales tax will be increased from 4 ½
cents to 5 ½ cents “with the revenues to be used
solely for regional transportation projects and
programs specified in Chapter 853 of the Acts of
Assembly of 2002.” This question presupposes that
the tax revenues will be spent on projects that may
never receive the necessary federal permits. It
assumes that the legislature cannot or will not
redirect the revenues to other projects or purposes
as future circumstances warrant.
This ballot measure
is a creation of the legislature. There is no
provision for such a referendum in the Constitution.
The 2002 session of the General Assembly cannot by
statute legally bind any future session to spend
revenues in a particular way, even if the voters of
Hampton Roads approve this measure.
Some of the
proponents, including at least one legislator,
insist that the projects cannot be changed without
another referendum. Where is the legal opinion
justifying such a remarkable claim? The voters
deserve to know whether the Constitution prohibits a
change without another referendum vote.
The proponents have
refused to address the concern of many, including
some legislators, that the revenues generated by the
tax are state revenues that the Constitution
mandates be deposited in the State Treasury and
released only in accordance with appropriations
enacted by the General Assembly. No appropriation
can be effective for longer than two years and six
months.
Voters are being
induced to approve this ballot measure by language
promising to use the revenues solely for specified
projects. It is a promise that legislators have no
constitutional power to make. Providing for a
referendum vote does not change the essential
character of Chapter 853. It is merely legislation
that can be repealed or amended by the General
Assembly at any time in the future.
The proponents
contend that, once bonds are issued, the General
Assembly can’t touch the sales tax revenues. There
is no basis for that contention. The bondholders
will have no recourse against the Commonwealth.
Their only recourse would be against the Hampton
Roads Planning District Commission, which will issue
the bonds. The General Assembly is constitutionally
prohibited from dedicating tax revenues to secure
bonds of any kind. Only the voters at a statewide
referendum can approve tax-supported debt.
Although the
proponents insist that all alternatives were
considered, they never addressed a financing alternative
used in Northern Virginia where landowners and
businesses who will benefit enormously from a
project pay all or most of the costs. Further, the
rejection of toll financing has never been fully
explained. A report published on October 29 by a
national nonprofit organization, the Surface
Transportation Policy Project, faulted proposals
such as the Hampton Roads ballot measure for using a
sales tax as opposed to tolls or a gasoline tax to
fund transportation projects because of the
regressive nature of a sales tax.
Voters should
reject this flawed tax proposal for one reason, if
for no other: The proponents have failed to give
voters complete and honest information.
-- November 4, 2002
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