‘Road map’ for dedicated transit funding still work in progress, N. Va. officials say

Dranesville District Supervisor Jimmy Bierman found himself lost in the weeds.

While he might not have been the only person to lose track of the conversation, Bierman was the one who spoke up Thursday (Oct. 3) as the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) discussed regional coordination and the potential of creating a dedicated stream of tax revenue to fund local transit.

After listening to discussion, Bierman — a relatively new member of the regional transit body after getting elected to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors last November — asked his fellow commissioners to back up a step.

“No one has said anything about what that might look like,” he said of the dedicated-funding proposal. “We didn’t actually hear what was on the table. Spell it out for me.”

Bierman’s confusion over the lack of specific proposals for tackling the long-standing question of how to fund Metro and other regional transit options more sustainably and consistently seemed a reasonable reaction to a discussion that, at times, seemed to veer into inside-baseball territory.

But other commissioners confirmed that definitive recommendations remain a work in progress.

NVTC staff for now are attempting to lay out “a road map” to move forward, said Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn, another commission member.

“Those pieces are all coming together,” Alcorn said.

Local leaders long have dreamed of the prospect of gaining a dedicated funding source — perhaps a sales, fuel or recording tax — to support the Metro system, local transit networks and Virginia Railway Express. The D.C. region appears alone among major U.S. jurisdictions in not having one.

Relying instead on a funding mechanism that involves local governments, the Virginia and Maryland state governments and the federal government has proved a challenge even in the best of times. And for those who operate transit systems, these are not necessarily the best of times.

“All the [local transit agencies] are facing fiscal challenges,” Del. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) said. “We need to focus on how we are going to move forward.”

The General Assembly has kicked in $500,000 for its own study related to the future of transit, and a regional consortium created by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG) called DMV Moves is also developing proposals.

“There is a lot of coordination that is going on,” NVTC executive director Kate Mattice said.

Any eventual plan for addressing and funding transit needs must “be big and bold,” declared Matt de Ferranti, an Arlington County Board member who chairs NVTC. Bierman, however, said that in order to get buy-in from the public, specifics need to be fully fleshed out and communicated effectively.

For right now, Mattice said, there will be no major new initiatives sought out of the 2025 General Assembly session.

Instead of swinging for the fences, transit officials will be focused on “protecting and preserving” funding streams that already exist, Mattice said.

In the days since the NVTC meeting, WMATA has released a proposal for changes to the subsidy formula that determines how much each participating jurisdiction contributes to the system’s funding. The agency’s Board of Directors is slated to get a presentation at its meeting on Thursday (Oct. 10).