Fairfax County elected officials seem in alignment on their top priority for the 2026 Virginia General Assembly session.
“Number one is always K-12 education funding,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said at the annual legislative public hearing, held Saturday (Jan. 10) at the Fairfax County Government Center.
A key Tysons leader is working to ensure state leaders provide dedicated new funding for transit that she says will help the region thrive.
“Transit in Northern Virginia is cool again,” said Katie Cristol, CEO of the Tysons Community Alliance.
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.
Despite political drawbacks, a sales-tax surcharge across Northern Virginia could end up being the main source to increase transit funding in the coming year.
Increasing the sales tax regionally is “probably going to be looked at,” Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn said in a Dec. 4 legislative forum sponsored by the Dulles Area Transportation Association (DATA).
A plan to upgrade Metro’s service and long-term sustainability by establishing dedicated funding for the transit system won backing Monday afternoon (Nov. 17) from two key panels.
The boards of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) each formally endorsed the funding plan laid out in late October by the DMV Moves Task Force at a joint meeting.
The Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) on Thursday (Nov. 6) gave its support to two transit-funding initiatives currently working their way through a complex review process.
With no dissents, the commission signaled its backing of recommendations of the DMV Moves task force and the General Assembly’s Northern Virginia Growing Needs of Public Transit Joint Subcommittee, also known as the SJ28 Subcommittee after the state Senate resolution that established it.
Fairfax City is considering whether to keep a fare-free policy in place for its CUE bus system.
The city’s CUE buses stopped collecting fares in mid-2020 when the pandemic started. In 2022, the city adopted a four-year zero-fare pilot program that will expire at the end of fiscal year 2026, according to city documents.
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.
Fairfax County supervisors on Tuesday (Oct. 28) took steps to acquire private property needed for construction of the Richmond Highway bus rapid transit (BRT) project.
With three members absent and one seat vacant, the Board of Supervisors voted 6-0 to authorize county staff to move forward with filing paperwork in court allowing for the condemnation and acquisition of property needed for utility relocation as the nearly billion-dollar project begins to move from planning to construction.
Virginia’s state and local governments would be required to come up with $136 million annually in additional funding for Metro rail and bus service starting in mid-2027, if recommendations from a key regional task force make it through a still-uncertain future.
The DMV Moves task force approved a nonbinding framework yesterday (Wednesday) for increased, dedicated capital spending in support of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). It recommends $460 million in additional funding split between Virginia, Maryland and D.C., starting in fiscal year 2028 and rising after that at a rate of 3% per year.
