It wasn’t unanimous, but the leaders of Virginia’s largest locality have gone on record supporting a regional plan for funding to sustain Metro into the future.
With a 8-1 vote on Dec. 9, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors backed the DMV Moves initiative started by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) and Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments to identify dedicated funding options for the rail and bus transit system.
The general outlines of the plan were adopted by directors of both regional bodies in November. The package calls for $460 million per year in new regional funding, with annual increases, to support Metro needs.
The package leaves it to leaders of the Virginia, Maryland and D.C. governments to determine how to fund their share of the total. New revenue would be needed by mid-2027.
In Virginia, legislators are working to craft a package that will include not just the state’s share of DMV Moves funding, but also additional support for Virginia Railway Express and Northern Virginia bus networks.
It is slated to be introduced in the 2026 General Assembly session, which opens Jan. 14 and is scheduled to run for 60 days.
“The next step is for us to be actively engaged in Richmond,” Board Chair Jeff McKay said at the Dec. 9 meeting.
“I’m looking forward to getting this plan financed so we can move it along,” added Franconia District Supervisor Rodney Lusk.
All Democratic supervisors voted to support the package, with the lone Republican, Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity, opposing it. The Braddock District seat was vacant, pending the outcome of that day’s special election to fill it.
McKay had been a skeptic of financing plans presented at the start of the year-long DMV Moves effort. On Dec. 9, he said the DMV Moves effort resulted in a plan that was fiscally sound and could deliver what it promises.
“Where we started is very different from where we ended,” McKay said, adding:
“We started with what I figured to be a very unsustainable number financially that would be very, very difficult to achieve. We ended with a dramatically pared-down number … [and] additional commitments for WMATA oversight, for financial management.”
Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn, who serves on the WMATA board of directors, said he believed the DMV Moves process could serve as a template for future cooperation on complex public policy questions.
Alcorn called it “an excellent regional model for how to move forward.”
Nick Donohue, who served as a facilitator for the DMV Moves process, recently was tapped by Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger (D) to be Virginia’s next secretary of transportation.
