From the Report:
The Sales Tax as Highway Robbery - Developers Making Us Pay for Sprawl (pdf)

The Sales Tax is About More Sprawl, Not Less Traffic

Without question big business and big developers have led the push for the sales tax increase. Out of the more than $2 million that they have contributed to the sales tax booster group, the inaptly named "Citizens" for Better Transportation, $1.2 million has come from the real estate and construction industry. The sales tax fits a long pattern of seeking to have the taxpayers foot the bill for the costs of sprawl development. Many of the developer contributors to "Citizens" for Better Transportation are the same people who have dominated politics behind the scenes in Northern Virginia for decades and used campaign contributions to hold inordinate sway over regional decision-making.1

Major developer and attorney John "Til" Hazel has made it clear that he thinks sprawl development is not a problem and that the taxpayers simply have to pay more for infrastructure. The sales tax proposal represents the culmination of Mr. Hazel's efforts. It would fund new bypasses west of Dulles Airport, including the Western Bypass that has been Mr. Hazel's goal for two decades. It would include a slush fund of $2.2 billion in unallocated cash and create a permanent tax to continue to fund developer roads in the outer areas including the controversial "Techway" bridge crossing through Great Falls, or Cascades, or Broad Run Farms.

Many of the very developers and business leaders pushing this tax are the same ones who created our transportation problems, either by leapfrogging out into the countryside or by building developments that force everyone to drive, and drive long distances for every trip. Their influence has played a key role in the failure of growth management legislation, impact fees and adequate public facilities requirements. Meanwhile many continue to scatter development without regard to the traffic impact. Paying $5 billion in taxes to simply expand road capacity, and even transit capacity, without a change in development patterns, will simply continue sprawl development, loss of open space, traffic congestion and air pollution. It will make traffic worse, not better.

The referendum reflects, if anything, a failure of citizen input and dialogue with our elected leaders. Proponents of the sales tax, The Washington Post included, would like to paint a "No" vote to the referendum as doing nothing to address traffic in the region. But the fact is that a "No" vote is a way of taking action, and demanding that other interests besides developers and their dollars have a say in how and where we develop and how we address our transportation problems. If anything, a "Yes" vote is a form of inaction, a continuation of the status quo that has benefited only those who own and develop land in Virginia, and the politicians who take their money in hopes of getting elected.