At the request of Governor Kaine, the General Assembly convened a special session on Monday to address the problems Virginia faces in transportation. Our challenge is not just to relieve congestion on the Commonwealth’s roads and highways, but to address a deficit in our maintenance fund that prevents us from starting new construction projects and to reform policy to create a 21st century statewide system of transportation.

While there are signs of progress in the halls of the state capitol and I remain optimistic that we will be able to pass a compromise transportation plan, we are still a ways off from reaching an agreement. I believe we must pass a comprehensive statewide solution that allows Virginia to grow together including meaningful reforms of our land use policies and moving more people and freight to mass transit and rail. The Governor has done the hard work of putting forth a commonsense proposal to address transportation and has made the case to Virginians as to why we must act. As members of the General Assembly, it is our responsibility to pass legislation that allows him to expand capacity on our roads, meet the needs of our ailing roads and bridges, and begin building a 21st century system of transportation.

We simply cannot pave and build our way out of this—we have to be innovative in seeking solutions and attack the problem from many different sides. I introduced three proposals to reduce congestion by providing income tax incentives to get cars off the road during rush hour; the first two have passed the Senate and will be taken up by the House:

• An income tax credit to employers for employees who enter into a flextime scheduling agreement, meaning they work a four-day workweek or alter their work schedule to avoid a rush hour commute

• A tax credit to Virginia businesses for telecommuting expenditures that allows for a 100 percent credit for employers to conduct a telecommuting assessment the year prior to implementing a telecommuting program

• Create an individual income tax deduction for using public transportation or carpooling: Individuals would be eligible to deduct up to 50 percent of the costs incurred using public transportation or take advantage of a $500 yearly deduction for carpooling, walking or biking to work

I fashioned a compromise with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle today to create a Transportation Trust Fund Lock Box that will ensure money set aside for transportation is used for transportation. By a unanimous vote of the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee, we sent to the Senate floor legislation that addresses concerns from all sides, and later this afternoon it passed the Senate 31-5. This change to our state constitution is an important step towards assuring Virginians that state government is responsible with their tax dollars and spending them in the same manner we promised we would.

Much work still remains, but I am hard at work in the halls of the General Assembly to make this special session a success.