The General Assembly adjourned on February 27, 2015. They passed a series of transportation related bills along with others that have been forwarded to the Governor’s desk. Governor Terry McAuliffe has until 12:00am, Sunday March 29, 2015 to sign the bills into law.
One of the high profile bills that passed was House Bill 1887 (Transportation Funding: formula, reporting, and allocations). HB1887 is a landmark bill that changes the allocations formula for construction projects as well as many other items. The bill replaces the current 40-30-30 allocation formula to Primary, Secondary, and Urban highways with a new formula, beginning in 2021, to allocate funds to: State of good repair purposes (45%), High-priority projects (including rail and transit (27.5%)), and Highway construction district grants (27.5%). HB 1887 does not include new revenues for transportation and all projects will be scored and ranked by a new prioritization process currently under development and scheduled to be adopted by the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) in June of 2015 (The HB2 Statewide Prioritization Process).
Some of the other items in the HB 1887 legislation include the following: Removes the Executive Director of the Virginia Port Authority from the CTB, Makes members of the CTB subject to removal by the Governor for cause, removes the definition of ‘grants’ from the Virginia Transportation Infrastructure Bank (VTIB) and allows the CTB to make transfers from the Toll Facilities Revolving Account to the VTIB, and authorizes the Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) to enter into agreements not to exceed 20 years under the Public-Private Partnership Act.
The following briefly summarizes additional transportation related bills that the 2015 General Assembly passed:
An amendment to Chapter 3, 2014 Special Session/Acts of Assembly makes technical corrections to language included in House Bill 1400/Senate Bill 800: Budget Bill, as introduced, which updated references to the distribution of regional transportation funding in Hampton Roads, and authorizes the transfer of Hampton Roads Transportation Fund revenues to the HRTAC now that the Authority has been established and organized. It is important to note that the HRTF funds may be used for administrative expenses.
More information on General Assembly Bills available on the web at:
http://www.hrtpo.org/uploads/docs/2015%20GA%20Bills%20-%20Summary%20031615.pdf