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of the bill. “No tax is popular,” said Waddell, “but I’m prepared to bite the bullet.”
Others were less willing. “I’m afraid if we don’t vote for this, we might get something worse," Sen. Charles J. Colgan, D-29th District, told the committee, casting a positive vote in the Senate Finance Committee and then reversing his vote in the session.
“If you take a bad cake and put a lot of good icing on it, all you do is ruin the icing,” said Sen. William A. Truban, R-27th District, one of three Finance Committee members to vote against the legislation. The income tax has historically been a state source of revenue, argued Truban and several others who opposed the bill. “There are other ways," Truban insisted, mentioning toll roads and user fees.
“It’s counterproductive to add to the cost of living with the potential of extra costs complicating the darn problem,” said Del. Raymond R. “Andy” Guest Jr., R-31st District, who expects the local tax to face more hostility in the House. Guest explained that by raising the cost of living in Northern Virginia, commuters will be forced into the counties of Fauquier, Warren and Rappahannock, which will, in turn, increase the transportation problem.
Still others voted for the local income tax legislation to protect their own constituents from further tax burdens. “If Northern Virginia wants to tax themselves, then I’m going to vote for it because maybe it’s going to keep them out of my kitty,” said Sen. William E. Fears, D3rd District.
Although the Senate was not completely unified behind the local income tax, not a senator could be found who did not believe that the traffic problem in Northern Virginia was a real and serious one.
Between 1985 and 2010 the total population of Northern Virginia is expected to increase by 50 percent, according to the state Secretary of Transportation and Public Safety, Vivian E. Watts. The number of households is predicted to rise by as much as 67 percent, from 500,000 to 800,000, in that 25-year period.
86.8%