RICHMOND -- The General Assembly's special session will resume today with Democrats in the House of Delegates seeking to strip a proposed gas tax increase from a transportation funding bill that cleared the Senate last month.

But the move may not be enough to salvage efforts to fix Virginia's highway maintenance funding deficit and ease chronic congestion in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads, which Gov. Tim Kaine identified as key objectives when he called the special session.

The Republican-controlled House is scheduled to vote today on a Senate-sponsored bill that would increase the gas tax and other levies. The House Rules Committee voted late last month to send the bill to the floor without a recommendation, even though House leaders in both parties oppose a gas tax increase.

House Democrats said Tuesday that they plan to offer amendments that would strip proposed gas tax increases from the bill and called on Republicans to allow debate and votes on the amendments. The Republican majority could force a floor vote without allowing changes to the bill.

"Now that Democrats have come together, it's time for our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to give this compromise a full and fair hearing," said House Minority Leader Ward Armstrong, D-Henry County.

Even without the gas tax proposal, the bill still would contain statewide tax increases that many Republicans consider objectionable.

Senate Bill 6009 would boost Virginia's 17.5 cents per-gallon gas tax rate by a penny a year over the next six years, increase the sales taxes on retail goods and vehicles, and reduce the sales tax on food. Without the gas tax increase, the package would raise in excess of $300 million but still fall short of erasing a highway maintenance deficit that will approach $400 million in the upcoming fiscal year and could reach nearly $600 million within six years. The gas tax increase would generate about $298 million annually when fully implemented in 2014.

But the bill's sponsor, Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax County, said in a statement issued Tuesday that the proposal by House Democrats "will bring us closer to a real transportation solution."

"If the House Republican leadership is serious about addressing our transportation needs, they will allow this bill to be debated, amended and voted on," Saslaw said.

House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, made no predictions about how Republicans will handle the bill, saying: "We'll have to wait and see."

But Griffith said the Democrats' maneuvering smacks of "political gamesmanship" designed to blame Republicans for a legislative impasse over transportation funding.

"If it were serious, this should have been done before we were in special session," said Griffith, who has criticized Kaine for calling the special session without lining up stronger support for a transportation funding fix.

Kaine's proposal died in a House committee and was not introduced in the Senate, where Democratic leaders favored a gas tax increase. Kaine's plan called for statewide increases in the vehicle sales tax, the grantor's tax on home sales and vehicle registration fees, and regional sales tax increases in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.

Kaine spokeswoman Delacey Skinner said the governor still prefers his own plan, but would accept an alternative that provides statewide maintenance funding and congestion relief in the two regions.

"The governor wants to see a solution," Skinner said.