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Virginia governor wants to use part of sales tax for roads

RICHMOND, Va.  — Gov. Bob McDonnell will ask legislators to designate a portion of sales tax to pay for local road projects in northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.

People familiar with proposals the governor will offer on Friday say his plan would use some of the local discretionary sales tax for new construction in the state's most congested regions.

The officials spoke to The Associated Press on the condition they not be identified because they were not authorized to pre-empt McDonnell's announcement.

Friday's announcement will complete an ambitious but contentious plan to jump-start road and rail projects in Virginia.

In December, he announced plans to spend $4 billion for transportation, about $3 billion of it state or federal debt.

Besides the debt, McDonnell proposes endowing a state "infrastructure bank" with millions of dollars also established to help localities finance local road projects. The seed cash comes largely from a surplus left from last year's budget and hundreds of millions of unspent dollars found by a private audit of the Virginia Department of Transportation last year. The money would provide low-interest loans for city and county governments to pursue transportation projects.

But the debt has drawn fire from some Democrats, who accuse the governor of a "borrow and spend policy," and conservative groups such as tea party organizations to his right fed up with federal spending that has added billions to the national debt.

His proposal to tap any part of the sales tax will draw more criticism from Democrats, who claim McDonnell is raiding the state's general fund to finance highway improvements.

The general fund pays for fundamental state services such as public schools, health care and public safety.

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