A business association representing businesses from D.C., Maryland, and Virginia has suggested raising area taxes to finance $30 billion in new road construction that the group supports.

Increasing area sales taxes by 2% or income taxes by 1% or property taxes by 40 cents would almost cover the costs of the new roads, according to the business association, the Greater Washington Board of Trade.

The Board of Trade is pushing dozens of new roads on the outskirts of the D.C. area including a 6-12 lane Inter-County Connector, a 58-mile long Western Bypass from Stafford County to Leesburg, Va., and expansion of Maryland 301.

All three proposed roads were included in TCS’s Road to Ruin report on unneeded, wasteful highways. According to studies conducted by the Virginia and Maryland highway departments, the roads would do little to reduce the region’s traffic congestion.

Residents of the nation’s capitol and surrounding areas would have to pay an extra $262 per person per year for the next 23 years to finance $30 billion in new road construction. “That’s a can of soda, that’s a Twinkie,” said a Board of Trade spokesman to illustrate the road expenses as a daily per person cost.

The Coalition for Smarter Growth, a new regional transportation coalition, found in a recent report that the proposed roads would, “benefit Washington region taxpayers little but extract high costs.”

The Coalition’s report, entitled Highway Robbery, concluded that regional transportation revenues can not currently pay for $30 billion worth of new roads, falling $1 billion short annually. Area residents could pick up the shortfall, according to the Board of Trade.

Kudos to Clinton

President Clinton saved taxpayers $287 million last week. Aggressively wielding the line item veto, he cut 38 projects that were inserted by Members of Congress trying to bring extra pork home in the $9.2 billion military construction bill.