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“We’ve had one false start with a one percent income tax because there was not sufficient consensus yet,” said Beyer, referring to Gov. Gerald L. Baliles’ proposal to permit Northern Virginians to tax themselves for transportation needs.
The plan was contingent on voter approval and most localities in the region have chosen not to place the option on the ballot in November.
‘The notion of at least raising and spending the money locally, with a great deal of regional transportation, is very attractive,” Beyer maintained.
Transportation management associations and expanding the special transportation district, Beyer said, are other answers to the region’s gridlock problem.
Beyer said he believes that there is a strong link between the affordable housing crisis and the transportation crisis “because we have to live so far away to find something that we can afford.”
“I’d like to see government take a positive role in providing incentives for the private sector to develop affordable housing,” said Beyer, who also sees the lack of affordable housing as the limiting factor in Northern Virginia’s continuing economic growth.
Recognizing the burden that growth has placed on local governments, Beyer said the problem is complicated by a lull of federal and state funds to localities. As a result, counties, cities, and towns become more dependent on local real estate tax to raise revenue.
Beyer does not, however, support repealing the Dillon Rule, the state law that prohibits local governments from having any authority that is not granted to them by the state government.
“I think the Dillon Rule is a good and necessary check in local government,” said Beyer. “I think it’s important that localities only have the power that the states grant to them.”
He added that he is open to revisions in the definition of what those powers are.
“In the case of all issues where there are no easy answers, my tendency is to go back to how I deeply feel and believe,” said Beyer, responding to the recently rekindled abortion issue in which he favors a laissez-faire approach in state govement.
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