Virginia needs to take significant resources from the state’s new construction budget to maintain its roads according to the Commonwealth’s Secretary of Transportation. Blame was put on the previous administration at a Senate Finance meeting Tuesday.
“Transportation funding on the highway side is like a balloon; if you squeeze on one end, take something there, it bulges out somewhere else," said Virginia’s Secretary of Transportation Nick Donohue.
Donohue was appointed by Governor Abigail Spanberger. He blamed the Commonwealth’s forthcoming road maintenance funding problems on decisions made by the Commonwealth Transportation Board under former Governor Glenn Youngkin’s administration, including the shift of maintenance funds to new construction.
In a statement sent to Radio IQ, a Youngkin spokesperson pushed back on those claims, pointing to the 6-year plan at the heart of Tuesday's complaints.
"The plan recommended by the Commissioner, who remains in that role, was to wait on adding any maintenance funding until the results of maintenance target changes could be fully evaluated," the spokesperson said. "For decades, Virginia has diverted Highway Construction Fund money to cover maintenance needs, delaying important construction projects in the approved six-year plan."
"Delaying construction does not save money, it just kicks costs down the road," they added.
Among other problems is the increase in labor and material costs, increasing costs by about 50 percent alone. The solution?
“If we need more funds in maintenance, I’m to take that away from construction projects, take that away opportunities from local governments and from regional partners and put that funding into maintenance,” Donohue said.
He pointed to planned spending of about $600 million a year, but that failed to meet inflated actual costs by about $200 million a year, leaving gaps that could see road conditions drop significantly in the coming years.
Donohue said an extra $240 million a year with regular growth after the first year could fill the budgetary pothole. That could come from a 40% cut to new construction over the next 3 years.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Surrovel laid the blame on the last administration as well, saying the former governor failed to listen to his and others' warnings.
Donohue added to that theory when he said he shared the bad news with Youngkin’s appointees.
“When they saw the analysis as to what that budgetary decision would be, I received broad support from those members to ensure funds would be put back into
maintenance," he said, stressing the importance of transparency going forward.
"Unfortunately, we went more than a year after that decision was made, without people understanding what the implications would be,” Donohue added.
