County could take on secondary roads

Gecker Drive down any secondary road in Chesterfield County, and you might notice problems. Maybe there’s a pothole that you’ve swerved to miss for the past six months, or there’s overgrown grass in the right-of-way that’s blocking your line of sight. When it snows, it may take four days to clear your street, though it used to take only two.

All of these are indicative of the challenges faced by the Virginia Department of Transportation, and they could become the county’s challenges in the near future.

For years, there have been rumblings about the state possibly turning the secondary road system over to the counties, a process called devolution. (Secondary roads are numbered 600 and higher, according to VDOT.)

A recent study by George Mason University indicates that may become a reality sooner rather than later. The possibility has Chesterfield and other county officials across the state worried about what could become the largest unfunded state mandate in decades.

Watkins “The question is: Should the state be worried about cul-de-sacs, or should it be focused on interstates and the larger highways?” Virginia Secretary of Transportation Sean Connaughton asked during a phone interview last week. “We’ve got to start looking at the structure that has existed for 80 years.”

Virginia is one of only four U.S. states (West Virginia, North Carolina and Delaware are the others) where a state department of transportation is responsible for the secondary road system. In other states, maintenance and construction of secondary roads fall to local governments.

“The reason Virginia has this structure is because of decisions made during the Great Depression,” Connaughton explained. “The counties in those days were very, very rural, and now counties are places like Fairfax County, yet the state is paving the cul-de-sacs up there.”

Asked if devolution is a real consideration, Connaughton responded, “There have been lots of discussions. This would be something that the General Assembly would have to act on.”

In FY11 (which ended June 30), VDOT spent $9.4 million on secondary road maintenance in Chesterfield County. That was down from $13.4 million in FY08.

Mary Ann Curtin, the county’s director of intergovernmental relations, points out that $9.4 million is what was allocated. It is far less than what’s really needed to maintain the county’s secondary roads.

“VDOT has less money to do the maintenance in Chesterfield, and the costs keep getting magnified by the deficiencies,” Curtin said.

If devolution becomes a reality, the county will be responsible for coming up with that money and dealing with a system that’s been falling into disrepair for years.

“If you go to a lot of the areas in our county, there are a lot of roads that have been neglected and not maintained in the way they need to be,” said John McCracken, the county’s transportation director. “Some of the streets in some of the communities haven’t been paved for 15 or 20 years.”

The George Mason study supports that claim. “Almost one-third (31 percent) of the state’s secondary system is currently deficient according to VDOT assessments,” reads the study. “VDOT estimates that in order to keep the system from getting worse it will need $405 million for maintenance. The fiscal year 2011 budget provides $345 million. At the current level of funding, secondary system pavements are estimated to continue to deteriorate at a minimum of 3 percent annually.”

The state’s secondary road maintenance budget dropped 29 percent between FY07 and FY11, from $483 million to $345 million. During the same time, the construction program declined 65 percent, from $185 million to $65 million.

Connaughton says the gas tax is the biggest contributor to declining revenues. Since 1986, Virginia’s gas tax has remained at 17.5 cents per gallon. In some states, the tax is calculated as a percentage of the cost of gas per gallon, which means it increases with rising fuel prices.

“Governments have been reluctant to raise gas taxes,” reads the George Mason study, “and the revenue generated by existing gas taxes has been eroded by inflation and by increasing fuel efficiency in motor vehicles.”

“They’re going to force the tax decision to come at the local level,” Midlothian Supervisor Dan Gecker predicted. “All it would take in order to bring the books back into balance would be adding 10 cents to the gas tax. The [state] legislators just can’t bring themselves to do it.

“The legislators don’t want the task of raising revenues to maintain the roads, so they’re looking to shift the responsibility to the counties,” Gecker continued. “I don’t think that there’s any question that we’re opposed to secondary road devolution. It doesn’t appear to be a cost-saving measure at all. It appears to be just cost-shifting.”

State Sen. John Watkins (R-10th) said the counties, particularly Chesterfield, are contributing to VDOT’s financial troubles. “Chesterfield adds more lane miles of secondary roads than just about any jurisdiction in the state,” Watkins said. “The county is in many ways acting like a thief and expecting someone else to pay the bill.”

He said Chesterfield planners often require developers to build sidewalks and other costly infrastructure. That leads to the need for wider right-of-ways, which must accompany sidewalks, and higher costs to maintain them.

“I think some of the jurisdictions need to temper some of the … road needs [requested] for new development,” Watkins said.

Asked if he would support legislation for the devolution of secondary roads, Watkins said, “I have told the people from the state that have talked to me about it that I would not go along with devolution unless there was a commensurate authority to pay for it. I feel very strongly that if you’re going to put that on the counties, then you need to give them a way to pay for it.”

That said, the legislature typically shuns giving localities additional taxation powers.

“We have so few revenue sources at our disposal,” Curtin said, “and they are getting to be fewer by the year.”

Property taxes are the county’s main source of revenue, and they have come under siege in recent years as real estate values have plummeted.

“While the county has managed well given the circumstances, there would be no way we could take on this level of responsibility,” Curtin said.

McCracken agreed, saying, “From my perspective, what you’re saying is the state failed to maintain the infrastructure we have. The infrastructure is just getting in worse condition, and they are really just trying to unload it, putting it onto local government.”

The Virginia Association of Counties is watching the issue closely.

“It would be a huge unfunded mandate on the counties,” Ted McCormack, VACO’s director of governmental affairs, said. “VACO has a long-standing position in its legislative program opposing devolution and unfunded mandates.”

Asked if devolution legislation will be introduced in January, McCormack said, “We hear different things. We heard there was going to be legislation introduced, then we heard that it’s not, then we hear that it is, then we hear that it isn’t.”

“I am not aware of any serious legislative discussions of it,” Del. Lee Ware (R-65th) said. “I would think if something this important was being considered, it would be percolating among the legislators. I just haven’t heard that.”

But Connaughton hinted that legislation could be introduced next year.

“We’re looking at every different option, and no decisions have been made,” Connaughton said. “We will be working with the General Assembly to come up with a plan.”