Tom Warne Report, 23 January 2013
Lawmakers in Virginia are attempting to take over a privately owned toll road in Dulles so they can take charge of toll rates on the corridor. The 14-mile Dulles Greenway is owned by Macquarie Infrastructure Group of Australia and has recently struggled with lower traffic and higher toll rates.
House Transportation Committee Chairman Joe May, R-Leesburg, has proposed HB1979, which would authorize bonds to acquire the Dulles Greenway, as an effort to limit toll increases on the commuter route. Tolls are scheduled to increase nearly 3 percent each year through 2020. Another bill, HB1980, would create the Dulles Greenway Authority to operate and manage the tollway. Tolls on the Dulles Toll Road, which the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority operates, have also regularly increased.
In Gov. Bob McDonnell’s recent State of the Commonwealth address, he proposed using new revenue from his $3.1 billion, five-year transportation bill to help keep tolls down on the Dulles Toll Road. The bills will have to make it through the statehouse by Feb. 23, when the regular session concludes.
The debt for this project has to be serviced one way or another—either by toll revenues (if the concessionaire continues ownership) or a combination of toll revenues and taxes paid by the public at-large (if the government takes it over). In the former, the users pay. In the latter, the burden is borne by users and also the general public who do not necessarily use the facility. Public or private ownership is a policy decision and ultimately determines who pays for the facility. TW