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RICHMOND - When Gerald L. Babies was inaugurated as Virginia’s 66th governor Saturday, he said the state must “dare to be different” in trying to resolve its critical transportation problems.

Gov Baliles met his own challenge Monday, when he unveiled a bold approach to transportation that includes creation of a special commission that would study the possibility of a state bond issue to pay for road construction and convening a special session of the legislature in September to act on the commission’s recommendations.

Gov. Baliles made his proposal in his first State of the Commonwealth speech, less than an hour after Sen. Edward E. Willey (D-Richmond), the powerful chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, proposed a series of tax increases and other measures to raise approximately $127 million per year for road construction.

The governor also established his priorities in education, the environment, human services, economic development, agriculture and public safety.

He embraced the proposals in the $18.4 million biennial budget proposed by his predecessor, Charles S. Robb, but proposed additional budget amendments totalling $7 million to help the gate’s community colleges, its poor and children with high risk of early death.

But transportation, which he called “the key” to Virginia’s economic growth, took 10 pages of his ^-page speech, delivered before a joint session of the Assembly.

Improvement of Route 28 in Loudoun, Fairfax and Prince William counties and construction of the Route 7 bypass around Round Hill led the list of projects Gov. Baliles cited as evidence that a new transportation commission is necessary to address the state’s m^jor transportation needs.

Both the governor’s program and Sen. Willey’s tax proposals direct that money be raised specifically for road construction rather than road maintenance, which is depleting highway revenue by a larger proportion each year.