Snyder Lashes Out at House Committee 'Travesty' in Quashing Metro Tax Plan

By Nicholas F. Benton

An angry Falls Church Council member David Snyder lashed out at the Virginia State House committee that defeated a plan by State Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple Tuesday to finance regional transit improvements.

The House Finance Committee hearing, which he attended, “was one of the worst travesties of governmental decision making I have ever witnessed,” he wrote in comments to the News-Press. “It represented the height of paternalistic arrogance, in which delegates from outside of the region, and some extremist ideologues, prevented Northern Virginia from solving its own transportation crisis with our own money.”

The bill sought to fund area transit improvements, especially for Metro rail, with a quarter cent dedicated sales tax applied to Northern Virginia beneficiaries of the improvements, alone. “This money would have leveraged many times that amount in federal money and would also have helped D.C. and Maryland follow suit,” Snyder noted.

Whipple’s bill was endorsed by every Northern Virginia jurisdiction that pays for Metro and every regional transportation agency. Snyder, as the City of Falls Church’s representative, is chair of the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission.

Distressed by the vote, Fairfax County board chair Gerald E. Connolly chided the House committee for its action. “The state can’t have it both ways,” he said. “They can’t say we’re not going to do it (fund transportation improvements), but we’re not going to let you (the Northern Virginia localities) do it either.”

Gov. Tim Kaine made remarks following the vote that he did not think the issue was completely dead, however. “I hope not,” Snyder responded. “I will keep doing everything I can.”