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RICHMOND -- Gov. Tim Kaine and state lawmakers might have hoped that a long-running debate over transportation funding had ended last year when they passed a multifaceted bill to generate new road-building funds and address acute needs in the congested regions of Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.

But the ink had barely dried on the compromise legislation before parts of the package came under attack and eventually fell apart.

Controversial "abusive driver" fees designed to generate new maintenance revenue drew widespread public criticism, leading the governor and lawmakers to scrap them. Then a Virginia Supreme Court ruling invalidated the tax-collecting powers of transportation authorities in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads, sending Kaine and lawmakers scrambling to fix the regional funding packages.

To make matters worse, Virginia transportation officials reported earlier this year that a slowing economy and rising maintenance costs would force the state to divert $388 million in highway construction funds to meet maintenance needs during the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Kaine's administration has warned that the deficit could balloon to more than $575 million by 2014 unless lawmakers approve new revenue for maintenance. By law, road maintenance has priority over new construction.

Against that backdrop, Kaine plans to call the General Assembly into a special session in late June to revamp the regional transportation plans and find new money for statewide maintenance needs. But the governor faces resistance from Republicans who control the House of Delegates and largely oppose statewide tax increases. Some GOP leaders insist that lawmakers should only fix the regional transportation plans and not wage another fight over taxes.

Kaine will set a date for the special session and unveil his own plan next week. He said Friday that he will base his proposal on private discussions he has held with House and Senate members from both parties.

"The goal is to make sure that it is really the best consensus I can put on the table that will solve the problem," Kaine said.

Kaine has raised the possibility of seeking an increase in the sales tax on vehicles, a proposal that lawmakers shot down in 2006 and 2007. He has not ruled out proposing an increase in the state's 17.5-cents-a-gallon gas tax, even though Democrats are divided over the idea and Republicans oppose it.

Kaine has said his proposal will rely on more than one tax source. And any package that emerges from the legislature will have to have new maintenance money, he said.

"A deal that would not address maintenance would, I think, be kind of a bogus deal," he said.

Some GOP lawmakers have accused Kaine's administration of inflating the projected maintenance shortfalls in an effort to win support for tax increases. And some have noted that Kaine made no push for new maintenance money until after the Virginia Supreme Court's ruling affecting the regional authorities.

"If we're going to be in a 10-year recession, he's right," said House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, arguing that the administration's projections assume that a now sluggish economy won't rebound.

Kaine said the projections are based on official revenue forecasts as required by law and called the GOP criticisms "completely bogus."

"Regular people won't buy that," Kaine said. "They know there's a real problem. They know it's not just some revenue estimate situation."

The transportation debate has some partisan undertones, but also has the potential to create regional frictions. Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath County, said failing to deal with rising maintenance costs could lead to "Balkanization" of the state's transportation network, hurting rural areas.

"We're going to end up with a system that's 21st century in some parts of Virginia and 1950s in others," Deeds said. "We've got to grow together."

Del. Dave Albo, R-Fairfax County, said he doesn't question the need for more maintenance money. But he opposes linking statewide tax increases to repairing regional "self-help" plans. Albo, a key player in the transportation debate, said he would support tax increases only if the revenue stays where it is generated, guaranteeing more money for Northern Virginia.

"What they're going to get is a funding formula change for the whole kit and caboodle," Albo warned.

House Minority Leader Ward Armstrong, D-Henry County, said he wants to avoid a regional fight, but added: "I don't see anything wrong with trying to fix the problem for everyone."

"When you begin to talk about changing the funding formula, that's the kind of saber-rattling that lends itself to blowing this apart," Armstrong said.

But Western Virginia legislators should be concerned about efforts to change transportation funding formulas, especially if they hold up passage of regional funding plans, said Del. William Fralin, R-Roanoke.

"If you don't fix the regional plans, you will ensure an attack on the funding formula," said Fralin, a member of the House Transportation Committee. Fralin did not dispute the administration's maintenance forecast, but said: "We did not get into this maintenance deficit overnight and we aren't going to get out of it overnight."

Fralin said lawmakers need more time to assess the effect of the surviving elements of last year's transportation funding bill, which also authorized $3 billion in borrowing for construction and contained provisions to better connect land use and transportation planning.

Kaine acknowledged that any transportation compromise "will only be acceptable if people believe the dollars are allocated fairly among regions."

"I'm not just wrestling with the question of how much do we need, I'm also wrestling with the question of how should it be allocated so that it is truly fair," Kaine said.