Northern Virginia’s local and legislative leaders are preparing for a full-court press — and perhaps an uphill battle — in wringing additional transit funding out of the General Assembly.
Aimee Seibert, a lobbyist for the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission, said at the commission’s Dec. 4 monthly meeting that four different bills, two in each house of the legislature, are being prepared for consideration as part of an effort to add nearly a half-billion dollars annually in regional transit funding.
But one veteran legislator said it may be an uphill slog to win support in the 2026 General Assembly session.
“It’s going to be a hard sell,” said Del. Mark Sickles (D-17), one of those taking the lead on the issue in Richmond.
Getting to success will present “a complicated challenge,” Sickles said at the NVTC meeting.
But it’s not for a lack of trying. When legislators assemble in January, “everyone’s going to know about this being the most important issue in Northern Virginia,” he added.
Sickles was part of a legislative subcommittee, chaired by Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-39), which has proposed $400 million per year to start in additional funding for the Metro system, Virginia Railway Express and Northern Virginia bus agencies, including DASH.
The subcommittee report laid out a number of potential increases to taxes and fees to provide the extra funding, but did not recommend any specific option.
Yet with the legislative session only about five weeks away, there are some indications that one particular tax could be targeted to provide the funding.
Despite political drawbacks, a sales-tax surcharge across Northern Virginia could end up being the main source to increase transit funding in the coming year.
Increasing the sales tax regionally is “probably going to be looked at,” said Fairfax County Supervisor Walter Alcorn. He was among four elected officials participating in a Dec. 4 transportation forum sponsored by the Dulles Area Transportation Association (DATA).
Alcorn, who represents the Hunter Mill District in western Fairfax, also is a Virginia representative to the Metro board of directors and currently chairs the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’ Transportation Planning Board.
He acknowledged the potential pitfalls of increasing a tax that impacts most local residents every day.
“That’s not a politically popular approach,” Alcorn said. “The knock on the sales tax is that it’s regressive, and that’s true.”
The issue will be front and center when the General Assembly convenes on Jan. 14 for its 2026 session. It also will be one of the first political challenges to be faced by the administration of incoming Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D).
The legislature could either unilaterally impose higher taxes and fees to provide the additional revenue, or could empower local governments in Northern Virginia to decide how to find the money.
Michael Turner, vice chair of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, said at the DATA forum that he didn’t want to predict what the legislature might do.
“I don’t know what it is,” Turner said of the package that might come to Spanberger’s desk by mid-2026. “What final form that’s going to take is kind of still up in the air.”
Pressed by moderator Adam Tuss, a TV-news reporter and anchor specializing in regional transportation, Alcorn wouldn’t say increasing the sales tax is his preferred option — and said the choice wasn’t his to make.
“It may be some combination,” he said of alternatives for funding. “It may not have the sales tax at all. We’ll have to wait and see.”
His former colleague of the Fairfax Board of Supervisors, Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-11), said in his view, “a sales tax is probably the cleanest and simplest option” to getting the revenue.
But there was a hitch, said Walkinshaw, who in September won a special election to fill the seat of the late Rep. Gerald Connolly.
Attempts to increase the sales tax for transportation would come as education advocates are pushing state legislators to allow localities to add a 1% sales-tax surcharge for school construction.
“You’re going to have some challenges” attempting to impose both on the public at a time of economic unease, Walkinshaw predicted.
Currently, Northern Virginians pay a 6% sales tax, with 4.3% going to the state government, 1% to localities and 0.7% to state transportation projects. In other parts of the state, sales-tax rates range from 5.3% to 7%.
Groceries are taxed at a lower rate, and Alcorn suggested “basic necessities” should be exempt from any future surcharge for transportation.
The Dec. 4 DATA roundtable briefly focused on the topic of whether the Democrat majorities in Richmond could lead to elimination of the so-called Dillon Rule, which severely limits the autonomy of local governments in the commonwealth.
Those limitations have “been an impediment to local governments … for decades,” Alcorn said.
Deshundra Jefferson, who chairs the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, said it makes sense to empower city, county and town governments to chart their own courses on a variety of issues.
“Local government is closest to the people,” she said. “Impediments to allow us to govern [are] a big problem.”
Neither Alcorn nor Turner envision a Virginia without some form of the Dillon Rule in the near term. But they were more optimistic that state leaders would delegate more authority to local governments on an incremental basis.
“Hopefully, over time, we’re going to see different pieces chipped away,” said Alcorn.
“Give us the power to solve problems ourselves,” Turner said.
