Brian Robinson OR Carol Goter Robinson OR Bill Robinson
2003-12-13 15:02:38 UTC
DULLES METRORAIL FINANCING PLAN FAILS
Herndon Council Vetoes Tax District
By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 3, 2003; Page A01
The financing plan for the $3.4 billion Dulles rail project collapsed
yesterday when the Herndon Town Council vetoed a special transit
tax district, unraveling the campaign to build the 23-mile Metrorail
extension and effectively halting long-term expansion plans for the
Washington region's major train system.
"Tonight, this project is dead," said former U.S. senator Charles S. Robb,
an advocate of the project.
The transit tax district, which would have imposed a 20 percent real
estate tax increase on commercial properties along the train route,
was to have generated Fairfax County's share of the project's cost.
But the Town Council's rejection of the tax district in Herndon, on
a 6 to 0 vote, effectively kills the tax district across the county
and opens a $540 million hole in the financing scheme designed by
state and local leaders.
Without Fairfax County's share, the long-sought project, which would
link Tysons Corner and Dulles International Airport to Metro's rail
system, cannot move forward. The rest of the money was to have come
from federal, state and other local sources.
There are no backup plans.
------------------------
Full Article at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29790-2003Dec2.html
Excerpt:
The proposed rail line would be extended from the Orange Line near
West Falls Church, wind through Tysons Corner and then along the
Dulles Access Road to the airport. Because of funding constraints
imposed by the Federal Transit Administration, the rail project
had been broken into two phases, the first to stop at Wiehle Avenue.
A compromise measure simultaneously approved last night by the
Herndon Town Council proposed that the first phase of the rail
project go beyond Wiehle Avenue to reach the town. But that was
dismissed by state and Fairfax County rail organizers, who said
the compromise was financially and operationally impossible.
"We've tried and tried and tried to get the tracks out to Dulles,"
[former Gov. A. Linwood] Holton said after last night's vote.
"We couldn't. Now the project is dead and it may be 25 years
until we see rail to Dulles."
-------------------------
[ Don't expect to hear much about this from our Metro-indifferent
local politicians or tranist "advocates", they're much too busy
pushing for trolley busses and Beltway widening. Who has time
to worry about Metro funding in this post-911 world? Even so,
I'm surprised there's been no mention of this here at all---BER ]
BATTLE LINES FORM ALONG RAIL ROUTE (excerpt)
By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 4, 2003; Page VA20
Plans for the Dulles rail tax district, a key piece of the
transit project's $3.4 billion financing effort, collapsed
Tuesday when the Herndon Town Council unanimously vetoed
the town's participation.
Stretching along the proposed rail route through Fairfax
County, the district would have imposed a real estate tax
increase of roughly 20 percent on commercial properties
to help fund the 23-mile Metrorail extension. The $540 million
from the tax was to be the county's share of the cost.
The rest would come from federal, state and local governments,
in part by increasing tolls on the Dulles Toll Road.
However, the Town Council's rejection of the tax district in
Herndon, on a 6 to 0 vote, effectively kills the tax district
across the county and opens a $540 million hole in the
financing plan designed by state and local leaders.
Without the county's share, the long-sought project,
which would link Tysons Corner and Dulles International
Airport to Metro's rail system, cannot move forward.
----------------------------------------
Derailment in Herndon
(Washington Post Editorial)
Thursday, December 11, 2003; Page A38
THE WRECKAGE in Herndon of a years-in-the-making plan to
extend the region's Metrorail system to Tysons Corner,
Dulles International Airport and beyond may not spell
the end of the line, but skittish members of the Town
Council have made an enormous mess. Let us hope that the
pronouncements of Dulles rail's death prove wrong, but
it may take some ultrafancy political footwork to put
things back together in time to secure federal funding.
Summary of news articles:
Fairfax Endorses Beltway Widening to 12 Lanes
(The Washington Post, Dec 9, 2003)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47441-2003Dec8.html
Dulles Metrorail Financing Plan Fails
(The Washington Post, Dec 3, 2003)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29790-2003Dec2.html
Turning Back to the Humble Bus
(The Washington Post, Nov 25 2003)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31555-2003Nov24.html
-------------------------------------
The council's rejection of a proposed tax district to
help Fairfax County pay its share undid a complex package
that called for raising half the money from the federal
government, a quarter from the state government through
increased tolls on the Dulles Toll Road and the rest from
the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, Loudoun
County and Fairfax. For its share, Fairfax was counting on
the tax district proposed by commercial property owners
along the train route.
Fairfax initially had hoped to fund its contribution to the
project with a sales tax increase for transportation, but
the proposal failed at the polls in Northern Virginia last
year. That left financing to businesses, which were willing
to raise their own real estate taxes.
But some Herndon businesses noted that construction in the
first phase of the project was scheduled to stop a few miles
short of town, with no guarantee that the second phase would
proceed -- even though federal officials, Virginia Gov. Mark
R. Warner (D) and regional leaders in Congress said that the
second phase was likely.
Now those elected leaders are working to come up with
some new financing plan that might satisfy requirements for
inclusion of the Dulles rail project in the forthcoming round
of federal transportation authorizations. A meeting of all
parties is planned in the coming days to examine possibilities
for a revised tax district with the requisite number of public
hearings, approvals and deadlines. They must act fast; without
swift federal approvals, the project would be set back a full six years.
But even if they succeed, authorities ought to proceed
with a rapid bus system that can be established quickly
and relatively inexpensively to fill the breach. Years
of political stumbling, balking and dodging have savaged
too many regional transportation projects already. This
one must not be added to the list.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company (EDITORIAL)
------------
Battle Lines Form Along Rail Route (rest of article:)
By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 4, 2003; Page VA20
Plans for the Dulles rail tax district, a key piece of the
transit project's $3.4 billion financing effort, collapsed
Tuesday when the Herndon Town Council unanimously vetoed
the town's participation.
[ ... continued from excerpt above ]
Opposition from the western end of the district, mainly in
Herndon and Reston, had arisen from property owners and
residents who feared that they might be required to pay
for a train system that would never reach them.
The first of the rail project's two phases stops short of Herndon.
"Why should Herndon businesses pay for others to have rail
when rail to Herndon is not guaranteed?" asked Betty Hatfield,
a Herndon resident. "Surely no one is expecting our town to be
a rail philanthropist or to be so gracious as to accept rail
in good faith?"
"While we favor rail, we favor an equitable tax," said Rich Kelly,
owner of the Hard Times Cafe, who also criticized the shape of
the tax district. "It looks like it was developed by a drunken sailor."
The tax district was drafted and mapped by a private group of
34 landowners who paid $30,000 apiece for their membership.
Under their plan, property owners would have faced a real estate
tax hike of about 22 cents extra per $100 of property value
during the first phase of the project, which would take the rail
line from Metro's Orange Line near the West Falls Church stop,
through Tysons Corner and then along the Dulles Airport Access
Road median to Wiehle Avenue in Reston.
A second phase of the project would run from the Wiehle Avenue
station to beyond Dulles International Airport into Loudoun County.
State and Fairfax County officials, along with members of the
private group that developed the tax district, have lobbied
hard for its passage. The private group is known as LEADER, for
Landowners Economic Alliance for the Dulles Extension of Rail.
"A project like Metrorail requires a certain amount of faith,"
Fairfax County Executive Anthony H. Griffin told the Herndon
Town Council recently.
He was asking the Town Council to trust that the project
would eventually reach Herndon. Not everyone was convinced.
"We all want to have faith, but I think some people have more
faith than others," said Fairfax Supervisor Stuart Mendelsohn (R-
Dranesville), who had attacked the tax district plan as unfair.
A compromise measure passed Tuesday by the Herndon Town Council
proposed that the first phase of the rail project reach the town.
But that plan was dismissed by state and Fairfax rail organizers,
who said that it was financially and operationally impossible.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
------------
Herndon Council Vetoes Tax District
By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 3, 2003; Page A01
The financing plan for the $3.4 billion Dulles rail project collapsed
yesterday when the Herndon Town Council vetoed a special transit
tax district, unraveling the campaign to build the 23-mile Metrorail
extension and effectively halting long-term expansion plans for the
Washington region's major train system.
"Tonight, this project is dead," said former U.S. senator Charles S. Robb,
an advocate of the project.
The transit tax district, which would have imposed a 20 percent real
estate tax increase on commercial properties along the train route,
was to have generated Fairfax County's share of the project's cost.
But the Town Council's rejection of the tax district in Herndon, on
a 6 to 0 vote, effectively kills the tax district across the county
and opens a $540 million hole in the financing scheme designed by
state and local leaders.
Without Fairfax County's share, the long-sought project, which would
link Tysons Corner and Dulles International Airport to Metro's rail
system, cannot move forward. The rest of the money was to have come
from federal, state and other local sources.
There are no backup plans.
------------------------
Full Article at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29790-2003Dec2.html
Excerpt:
The proposed rail line would be extended from the Orange Line near
West Falls Church, wind through Tysons Corner and then along the
Dulles Access Road to the airport. Because of funding constraints
imposed by the Federal Transit Administration, the rail project
had been broken into two phases, the first to stop at Wiehle Avenue.
A compromise measure simultaneously approved last night by the
Herndon Town Council proposed that the first phase of the rail
project go beyond Wiehle Avenue to reach the town. But that was
dismissed by state and Fairfax County rail organizers, who said
the compromise was financially and operationally impossible.
"We've tried and tried and tried to get the tracks out to Dulles,"
[former Gov. A. Linwood] Holton said after last night's vote.
"We couldn't. Now the project is dead and it may be 25 years
until we see rail to Dulles."
-------------------------
[ Don't expect to hear much about this from our Metro-indifferent
local politicians or tranist "advocates", they're much too busy
pushing for trolley busses and Beltway widening. Who has time
to worry about Metro funding in this post-911 world? Even so,
I'm surprised there's been no mention of this here at all---BER ]
BATTLE LINES FORM ALONG RAIL ROUTE (excerpt)
By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 4, 2003; Page VA20
Plans for the Dulles rail tax district, a key piece of the
transit project's $3.4 billion financing effort, collapsed
Tuesday when the Herndon Town Council unanimously vetoed
the town's participation.
Stretching along the proposed rail route through Fairfax
County, the district would have imposed a real estate tax
increase of roughly 20 percent on commercial properties
to help fund the 23-mile Metrorail extension. The $540 million
from the tax was to be the county's share of the cost.
The rest would come from federal, state and local governments,
in part by increasing tolls on the Dulles Toll Road.
However, the Town Council's rejection of the tax district in
Herndon, on a 6 to 0 vote, effectively kills the tax district
across the county and opens a $540 million hole in the
financing plan designed by state and local leaders.
Without the county's share, the long-sought project,
which would link Tysons Corner and Dulles International
Airport to Metro's rail system, cannot move forward.
----------------------------------------
Derailment in Herndon
(Washington Post Editorial)
Thursday, December 11, 2003; Page A38
THE WRECKAGE in Herndon of a years-in-the-making plan to
extend the region's Metrorail system to Tysons Corner,
Dulles International Airport and beyond may not spell
the end of the line, but skittish members of the Town
Council have made an enormous mess. Let us hope that the
pronouncements of Dulles rail's death prove wrong, but
it may take some ultrafancy political footwork to put
things back together in time to secure federal funding.
Summary of news articles:
Fairfax Endorses Beltway Widening to 12 Lanes
(The Washington Post, Dec 9, 2003)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47441-2003Dec8.html
Dulles Metrorail Financing Plan Fails
(The Washington Post, Dec 3, 2003)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29790-2003Dec2.html
Turning Back to the Humble Bus
(The Washington Post, Nov 25 2003)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31555-2003Nov24.html
-------------------------------------
The council's rejection of a proposed tax district to
help Fairfax County pay its share undid a complex package
that called for raising half the money from the federal
government, a quarter from the state government through
increased tolls on the Dulles Toll Road and the rest from
the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, Loudoun
County and Fairfax. For its share, Fairfax was counting on
the tax district proposed by commercial property owners
along the train route.
Fairfax initially had hoped to fund its contribution to the
project with a sales tax increase for transportation, but
the proposal failed at the polls in Northern Virginia last
year. That left financing to businesses, which were willing
to raise their own real estate taxes.
But some Herndon businesses noted that construction in the
first phase of the project was scheduled to stop a few miles
short of town, with no guarantee that the second phase would
proceed -- even though federal officials, Virginia Gov. Mark
R. Warner (D) and regional leaders in Congress said that the
second phase was likely.
Now those elected leaders are working to come up with
some new financing plan that might satisfy requirements for
inclusion of the Dulles rail project in the forthcoming round
of federal transportation authorizations. A meeting of all
parties is planned in the coming days to examine possibilities
for a revised tax district with the requisite number of public
hearings, approvals and deadlines. They must act fast; without
swift federal approvals, the project would be set back a full six years.
But even if they succeed, authorities ought to proceed
with a rapid bus system that can be established quickly
and relatively inexpensively to fill the breach. Years
of political stumbling, balking and dodging have savaged
too many regional transportation projects already. This
one must not be added to the list.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company (EDITORIAL)
------------
Battle Lines Form Along Rail Route (rest of article:)
By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 4, 2003; Page VA20
Plans for the Dulles rail tax district, a key piece of the
transit project's $3.4 billion financing effort, collapsed
Tuesday when the Herndon Town Council unanimously vetoed
the town's participation.
[ ... continued from excerpt above ]
Opposition from the western end of the district, mainly in
Herndon and Reston, had arisen from property owners and
residents who feared that they might be required to pay
for a train system that would never reach them.
The first of the rail project's two phases stops short of Herndon.
"Why should Herndon businesses pay for others to have rail
when rail to Herndon is not guaranteed?" asked Betty Hatfield,
a Herndon resident. "Surely no one is expecting our town to be
a rail philanthropist or to be so gracious as to accept rail
in good faith?"
"While we favor rail, we favor an equitable tax," said Rich Kelly,
owner of the Hard Times Cafe, who also criticized the shape of
the tax district. "It looks like it was developed by a drunken sailor."
The tax district was drafted and mapped by a private group of
34 landowners who paid $30,000 apiece for their membership.
Under their plan, property owners would have faced a real estate
tax hike of about 22 cents extra per $100 of property value
during the first phase of the project, which would take the rail
line from Metro's Orange Line near the West Falls Church stop,
through Tysons Corner and then along the Dulles Airport Access
Road median to Wiehle Avenue in Reston.
A second phase of the project would run from the Wiehle Avenue
station to beyond Dulles International Airport into Loudoun County.
State and Fairfax County officials, along with members of the
private group that developed the tax district, have lobbied
hard for its passage. The private group is known as LEADER, for
Landowners Economic Alliance for the Dulles Extension of Rail.
"A project like Metrorail requires a certain amount of faith,"
Fairfax County Executive Anthony H. Griffin told the Herndon
Town Council recently.
He was asking the Town Council to trust that the project
would eventually reach Herndon. Not everyone was convinced.
"We all want to have faith, but I think some people have more
faith than others," said Fairfax Supervisor Stuart Mendelsohn (R-
Dranesville), who had attacked the tax district plan as unfair.
A compromise measure passed Tuesday by the Herndon Town Council
proposed that the first phase of the rail project reach the town.
But that plan was dismissed by state and Fairfax rail organizers,
who said that it was financially and operationally impossible.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
------------