A state legislative panel set up to identify potential new funding for Northern Virginia transit completed its work this week by delivering a firm starting number: $400 million annually.
But the panel opted against prioritizing which funding streams would work best as it readied its report for consideration during the 2026 General Assembly session.
“This is written in a broad way,” acknowledged Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-39), who chairs the Northern Virginia Growing Needs of Public Transit Joint Subcommittee.
The body held its final meeting and adopted recommendations yesterday (Wednesday). It is known as the SJ28 Subcommittee, for the number of the legislative resolution that created it during the 2024 General Assembly session.
Giving the General Assembly options would “allow leeway for legislative sausage-making,” according to Ebbin.
“We do need some flexibility so we can come up with a workable solution that will make it through the legislative process,” the Alexandria legislator said.
The $400 million would cover additional funding to support Metro, Virginia Railway Express (VRE) and local transit agencies in a swath running from the inner suburbs west to Loudoun County and south to Spotsylvania County.
Potential funding streams still on the table include increases to the sales tax, motor vehicle sales tax, motor fuels tax, highway-use fee and transient-occupancy tax, and new taxes and fees on retail deliveries, paid parking and rideshare services.
The options, coupled with revenue estimates for each of them, provide “a menu for policymakers to choose from,” said Andrew D’huyvetter, director of programs and policy for the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC).
At the request of Sen. Scott Surovell (D-34), the list of revenue options was left open to other possibilities, including a tax on every off-street parking space in the region to discourage vehicles and encourage transit. Expanded tolling of drivers on I-66 inside the Capital Beltway could also be considered.
Most of the new revenues would be needed for fiscal year 2028, which starts July 1, 2027. About $153 million to support Metro’s operating fund would be required a year earlier, as a revenue stream from the state government that has helped the transit agency the past two years is being eliminated.
Noting that the package anticipates “not insignificant” new funding requirements, Sen. Jennifer Boysko (D-38) asked whether some could be phased in over time, rather than starting all at once.
“It is difficult to understand how we’re going to get everything paid for and not overburden our communities,” she said. “We are under great, tremendous fiscal pressure.”
The $400 million package, which would rise at 3% per year or the rate of inflation, aligns with proposals recently adopted by the regional DMV Moves task force.
The DMV Moves recommendations will be considered later this month at a joint meeting of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) and Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. If approved, they will be sent to the state and local governments in Virginia, Maryland and D.C. for evaluation.
Tiffany Robinson, director of the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DPRT), cast the lone vote against the DMV Moves proposal, citing concerns about the 3% guaranteed funding increase and ambiguity around federal funding, among other issues. Several others on the panel had abstained from its Oct. 29 vote, voicing similar concerns but unwilling to vote against it.
Robinson also cast the lone vote against the legislative proposals at the Nov. 5 meeting of the SJ28 panel.
Funding responsibilities for Virginia’s share of both the DMV Moves plan for Metro and broader support for VRE and local bus systems would be split between the state government and the local region.
Both NVTC and Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission regions would be asked to set up regional transit funds to support the effort. Revenue going into those funds would allow the agencies to issue bonds in support of transit initiatives.
Taken as a whole, the financing exercise represents “a game of three-dimensional chess with moving parts, a lot of pushes and pulls,” said D’huyvetter, who presented the draft proposal to the SJ28 subcommittee.
Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn, who represents NVTC on the legislative panel, said his biggest desire is finding ways to fund the package “without putting more of a burden on the local property taxpayer.”
The Nov. 5 meeting was the eighth and last for the SJ28 panel. Ebbin, who has chaired the panel since its creation in early 2024, said the body achieved what it set out to.
“We have a lot to work with, and we’ve established a good set of principles,” he said.
Where the proposal goes from here remains an open question, Ebbin acknowledged. The new year will bring the arrival of Democrat Abigail Spanberger as governor, a significantly expanded Democratic majority in the House of Delegates and ongoing concerns about the economic impact of federal government actions.
“It’s hard to predict how the General Assembly session will go,” Ebbin acknowledged.
Correction: The resolution that established the Northern Virginia public transit joint subcommittee was SJ 28, not 38 as originally stated.
