A top official at the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority says the federal government and Virginia are set to contribute funds for the final phase of the rail line to Dulles airport, but not as much as airport authority board members hoped for. MWAA Board Vice Chairman Tom Davis said Wednesday that the federal government promised to provide special loans to Fairfax and Loudoun counties to fund construction of two parking garages necessary for completion of the multibillion-dollar project.
“I think the federal government has made it clear that they’ll be allocating [money],” Davis said.
But he also said that the federal government had not promised to lend any money to the airports authority, as MWAA leaders requested earlier.
“We may or may not get it down the road,” Davis said.
The jurisdictions have been wrangling over how to pay for the rail line to Washington Dulles International Airport for most of the summer; the airports authority currently plans to pay for most of the project with Dulles Toll Road revenues, causing round-trip tolls to soar near $20 within the next 10 years, according to some estimates.
MWAA Board members said last month they would be asking the federal government for loans between $700 million and $1.2 billion, as well as a $500 million contribution from the state of Virginia — far more than had been discussed before.
Davis said Wednesday that Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell was committed to giving $150 million.
“We’re determined to make it happen. The governor’s determined to make it happen,” he said, saying he had personally talked to the governor multiple times.
But a spokesman for the governor said nothing was final on Virginia’s end.
“A final decision regarding a state contribution will be made once the various issues are resolved to the governor’s satisfaction,” McDonnell spokesman Jeff Caldwell said in an email.
Lawmakers pressed McDonnell in the past not to give any money to the project until MWAA drops its plans to have a union-friendly labor agreement with the project’s contractor. Virginia is a right-to-work state, meaning workers can’t be forced to join a union.
Officials said they expected to see a final agreement between all the players hashed out sometime this fall.
