State Sen. Adam Ebbin has promised Arlington leaders that he will push to bring home more transit funding from the 2026 General Assembly session.
“That’ll probably be the most intense of the things I’m working on,” Ebbin (D-39) said during a Nov. 13 work session between County Board members and the community’s legislative delegation.
The senator chaired the General Assembly’s Northern Virginia Growing Needs of Public Transit Joint Subcommittee — better known as the SJ28 Subcommittee — to near unanimous approval of recommendations that would funnel more funding to the Metro system, Northern Virginia bus systems (including Arlington Transit) and Virginia Railway Express.
The package would allocate about $400 million annually in the fiscal year beginning in mid-2027, then increase from there.
Potential funding streams still on the table for consideration include increases to the sales tax, motor vehicle sales tax, motor fuels tax, highway-use fee and transient-occupancy tax, plus new taxes and fees on retail deliveries, paid parking and rideshare services.
“We are committed to getting something passed,” Ebbin said at the Nov. 6 meeting of the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) board of directors.
To do so, the package is expected to include support for transportation and transit in other parts of the commonwealth. It will also probably need the advocacy efforts of local governments across the region before and during the two-month legislative session.
“We are sprinting toward January,” County Board member Maureen Coffey said at the Nov. 13 work session. “The number of working days between now and then feels far too short.”
While Ebbin’s subcommittee suggested a range of potential funding sources, it purposely did not rank them in any order of preference or feasibility.
“This is written in a broad way,” he said at the final meeting of the SJ28 subcommittee. “We do need some flexibility so we can come up with a workable solution that will make it through the legislative process. We’ve established a good set of principles.”
While Ebbin was responsible for getting the subcommittee’s recommendations passed, Del. Mark Sickles (D-17) appears to be taking the lead in getting proposed legislation prepared for submission.
“This is very complicated to draft,” Sickles acknowledged at the NVTC meeting.
“Sooner rather than later is better,” said Fairfax County Supervisor Walter Alcorn (D-Hunter Mill), a member of the boards of both NVTC and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
Some officials on the NVTC panel seemed relieved that the responsibility for determining tax and fee increases rests with state lawmakers, rather than themselves.
“You guys will figure it out,” Arlington County Board member Matt de Ferranti said, with something of a chuckle, to those serving in the legislature.
