Users of the Dulles Toll Road in Northern Virginia filed a federal class action lawsuit yesterday seeking refunds from toll hikes imposed to fund a $7 billion mass transit project. Great Falls resident John B. Corr and Hillsboro resident John W. Grigsby argued that the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) has no authority to set toll rates and that the diversion of over $130 million from motorists constitutes an illegal tax.
“‘No taxation without representation’ is not simply some slogan redolent of a past age of patriots and heroes,” attorney Robert Cynkar wrote on behalf of Corr and Grigsby. “Rather, it is an ever-vital principle at the heart of representative government and the liberty such government is established to preserve… This case challenges exactions of money from motorists, through the tolls they pay for the use of the Dulles Toll Road, that violate this fundamental principle and so are unconstitutional under the federal and Virginia constitutions.”
In 2005, the Commonwealth Transportation Board increased the amount of tolls far beyond the cost of operation, maintenance and debt service for the Dulles Toll Road. The extra money was meant to be used to bankroll the construction of a Metrorail line to Dulles International Airport, 25 miles outside the nation’s capital. MWAA took control of the toll road in 2008.
The Virginia General Assembly never authorized the MWAA authority to set toll rates, and it could not do so, Corr and Grigsby argue, because the MWAA’s 13-member board is appointed by the District of Columbia’s mayor, the US president and the governors of Maryland and Virginia. As an interstate entity, it has no power under the Virginia constitution to impose a tax.
The state constitution mandates that all taxes must be passed by the legislature so that specific representatives would be held accountable for their votes (Article 4 Section 2). Likewise, the constitution bars establishment of any government “separate from, or independent of, the government of Virginia” within the state (Article 1 Section 14). In 2008, the state supreme court interpreted these provisions to mean that “the General Assembly may not delegate its taxing power to a non-elected body.”
In 1995, the General Assembly did pass an act authorizing the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) to divert toll money for the use of mass transit. Corr and Grigsby argue this law is unconstitutional because CTB is an unelected body. The plaintiffs are asking the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to prohibit MWAA from setting rates and to refund all money illegally collected.
[Courtesy: Thenewspaper.com]
How about letting drivers who pay for the road travel free on the train or at a discount? They could use EZ-pass to identify themselves and electronically get a refund as they ride.
This one should die a quick death because tolls are not technically taxes, any more than the entry fee to a park is a ta. It’s essentially a government-owned business, and it charges what it charges for the use of its product. Businesses routinely use revenue above their costs to invest in other businesses. Sounds like this one is planning to invest in rail.
Technically, correct. NY has scores of these authorities / boards, but they can be tuned up by a determined legislature. If VA really wanted to skin this cat (the Commonwealth Transportation Board), they need to pass some state use tax / tariff / fee and have apply only to CTB. Set the tax rates at 3-5 times anything the CTB gets from VA motorists…
They take $1 from your constituents, you take $5 from them.
One day, the USA will go down like the Roman Empire, because of the extreme selfishness of its people, and their inability to look at issues in a wider scope for the benefit of all Americans. I’ve visited the USA numerous times, but each time I’m there it looks more and more like a third world country. Its citizens refuse to pay tax. The EU bailed out Greece, but it is ironic that if the US was part of the EU, it would fail to meet the requierements to be bailed out.
What idiot lawyer would even bring this case? There’s got to be a politician behind it looking to make a point, and wasting a lot of money doing it.
A state diverting funds to another project? I’m shocked!
The article doesn’t mention, this isn’t some random boondoggle “high speed rail to nowhere” project; it’s a rail line traveling parallel to the affected toll road. It’s been planned – and put off – since 1970. The airport authority has been a partner of the project since day one, since the bulk of the line is on their land and its primary purpose is providing rail service from Washington, DC to their airport, a route that is currently only served by their highway.
I commuted on the Dulles Toll Road for a while since the most recent toll increase. The toll is still cheaper than what the train ticket will cost; the total cost to travel from one end to the other is currently $1.75. As a driver I didn’t mind because this project absolutely will alleviate traffic.
This lawsuit is likely just showing up now because the airport authority recently decided to modify the project in a way that would increase the cost (switching from an above-ground train station at the airport terminal to below-ground), potentially requiring another toll increase.
Actually, this project IS a boondoggle. As someone who drove on it twice a day for 3+ years (well, except when I was traveling and then towards the end of that job I rebelled and took the back roads, which probably took longer and what I saved in tolls I used up in gas and burned up tires), I can tell you that this is one of the most ill-conceived projects that was ramrodded through, layering guilt and this preconceived notion that “metro fixes all traffic ills” in the DC area.
Yes, there has been rail planned to IAD since the Access road was built. However, it wasn’t metro heavy rail, and it certainly wasn’t metro tossed up on a bridge through the middle of Tysons, making 4 stops there instead of staying on the right-of-way, then connecting to an already-at-capacity Orange line, denying current customers / users of that line of service. The only winners are the land owners, the construction firms building the rail line (and rail cars and everything that will continue in perpetuity), and the politicians who will be out of office by the time this is in full service (if it ever reaches there). The losers include drivers, local taxpayers, federal taxpayers, orange line users, and anyone who is forced to take a job in the worst-planned office park in the world – Tysons Corner.
The issue with the airport authority is that they are charged with constructing the line but have zero responsibility once it is constructed – giving them every incentive to take shortcuts and cut costs that do not benefit themselves. And this “building it underground to save a few people walking 500 extra feet” is the biggest piece of malarky I’ve ever heard. They could have put it underground in Tysons and not only would it have cost the same to construct, it would have saved millions of hours of driver’s time during construction and after, created the ability for Fairfax to fix the street layout in Tysons, and saved millions of dollars annually in operating costs for metro users and the federal government, which subsidizes the system. Additionally, they could have build either of the options less than 10 years ago when they were constructing the daily parking garages for 40% of the cost now proposed or at least engineered them into their plans, instead of this afterthough shortly after all this new infrastructre was built (parking garages, underground tunnel).
Unfortunately, the state really screwed up granting this right to the airports authority. And no one is “required” to drive on a toll road; as crappy as they are (due to poor planning and selfish DC people who refuse to recognize they live in an urban area, thinking their close-in neighborhoods keep rural-appropriate roads for 1/10 the traffic they actually carry, killing and injuring people, increase property damage rates from accidents, and causing the horrific traffic that DC is infamous for), there are free roads that can be used as an alternative to 267.
Pennsylvania regularly takes fuel and other taxes meant for road and bridge construction/maintenance and sends these funds to SEPTA and other regional public transits. Because they can’t continue to operate otherwise.
Virginia’s only sin there is that even though Northern Virginia comprises a third of the state’s population, and we have some of the worst traffic in the world, we receive less than a fifth of the state’s transportation budget.
While the suit seems legally questionable, the issue it raises is not. Highways are supported by federal and state taxes on motorfuel. Essentially, they are self-supporting. However, politicians’ and certain interest groups (not to mentions Siemens, which advertises very heavily around here) have a love affair with “heavy rail” i.e. expensive to build and operate subway trains. The money to pay for these lovely projects has to come from somewhere, and highway tax money offers a tempting target.
The reality is that these projects are all uneconomic. The metro system basically operates at capacity during rush hours, yet for people who have to travel any distance (fares are based on distance traveled), it’s cheaper to drive and pay for parking. Despite this, metro loses buckets full of money every year and has to be subsidized by federal and local government tax money. If riders paid the true cost of metro, no one would use it. And metro has been operating since the mid-1970s.
Tyson’s corner was nothing more than a shopping mall that opened up in the late 1960s. Unfortunately, its growth was not coordinated or planned, nor integrated with an upgraded road system.
While there’s no doubt in my mind that a subway link to Tysons would be useful for all of the people who work there, I have my doubts about a link to Dulles Airport. Schlepping your luggage on a subway is not most people’s idea of a good way to get to the airport. There is, of course, a dedicated airport access road that provides pretty quick access any time of day.