WASHINGTON – Northern Virginia’s sales tax went up in July to help pay for new transportation projects, but leaders in Fairfax County say some of those projects will take much too long.
Under the historic transportation funding bill, approved earlier in 2013, the sales tax increased from 5 percent to 6 percent.
But a bill passed in 2012 doesn’t give secondary road projects in Northern Virginia any significant extra money until 2017.
Fairfax County leaders want that changed.
“You’re going to have constituents in Northern Virginia who are visibly upset that they are paying the lion’s share of these new taxes and the revenues aren’t getting to the secondary road system,” said County Supervisor Jeff McKay, who heads the board’s transportation committee.
McKay spoke with WTOP Monday after a work session in Fairfax where supervisors discussed priorities for the coming year with the county’s delegation to the General Assembly.
“These secondary roads are your Telegraph Roads, Braddock Roads, Franconia Roads. They’re carrying a lot of traffic and they’re deteriorating and so we’re going to make sure that money trickles down to that secondary road program as quickly as possible,” McKay added.
Read more about the county’s priorities and goals for the coming year.
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