The General Assembly has gone into overtime. The Governor and the pro-tax lobby in the Virginia Senate have been demanding a huge tax increase before they agree to the state budget. So for the third year in a row the Virginia General Assembly has had to go into a special session to put together a state budget.

The only real issue the Senate and the House of Delegates cannot agree on is whether or not to raise taxes for transportation.

The Senate and the House of Delegates agree on the need for more funding to fix transportation problems in Northern Virginia. The disagreement is about how they fix the problems.

The Senate wants to raise taxes by about $4 Billion, including a huge gas tax increase. And then distribute that increased funding around the state evenly to increase transportation funding. The problem with this approach is that we do not have a statewide transportation problem, we have transportation problem in Northern Virginia.

Not to mention we had the largest tax increase in history last year and the Senate's tax increase this year is larger. On the other hand the House of Delegates propose the state spend about $2 billion more a year in transportation, without raising taxes. The House of Delegates first uses the surplus funds from the last tax increase. And they also try to target the transportation problem areas with special tax districts. With these special tax districts all the money raised in Northern Virginia would be spent in Northern Virginia, seems to make sense.

So as the Senate demands that the state raises taxes. Senator Chichester and our Senator Russ Potts say the only way to fix our roads is to raise taxes. They had the same line last year. They said the state had a fiscal crisis and the only way to save the us from financial disaster was to institute the largest tax increase in state history. After they forced that tax increase into effect. The state finances all the sudden had an over $2 Billion surplus over and above the increased revenue from the tax from the previous year.

The Senate now wants us to believe that we need to raise taxes again or we will never be able to fix our roads.

Well the Republicans in the House of Delegates have a real plan to fix the road problems in Northern Virginia without raising taxes. Their plan increases spending on roads by more than $2 Billion and targets the roads that need to be fixed.

The Governor and the Virginia Senate seems to want to hold the General Assembly and State Budget hostage until they get another tax increase. It really has nothing to do with roads they are just addicted to taxes. I hope the House of Delegates transportation plan wins this time. I do not think Virginia families can afford another tax increase.