Tuesday, March 16, 2010

A couple bright spots in VA's new budget

It's not all bad news for the Commonwealth under the new biennial budget passed by the General Assembly this week. As reported by the Times-Dispatch, there are a couple bright spots for transportation.

-The budget allows the state transportation board to steer money from construction projects to mass transit funding.

-Authorizes new funding for new rail service between Richmond and Norfolk, as well as funding for service between Lynchburg and Washington, D.C.

At this time I can't find any more details about what the first item may mean for transit. I hope it means that money allocated for road construction could move to transit funding, because every transit system in the state is suffering. HRT needs more money for their light rail project, perhaps that is what negotiators had in mind. But that short bullet doesn't make clear if other transit funding is being reduced and this is supposed to cover the shortfall.

Follow the link to a brief discussion of the budget at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

About the budget

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