Oooh! the Daily Press nails the Va. Republicans transportation funding history

[underpants]

Looking back ...
It's a long road that brought us to this transportation mess
June 24, 2007


http://www.dailypress.com/news/opinion/dp-65756sy0jun24,0,882939.story?coll=dp-opinion-editorials

New taxes, fees and tolls, via the newly enacted authority, will be imposed upon the residents of 12 cities and counties of Hampton Roads in order to raise $168 million for long-overdue tunnels and roads. Think that stinks? Want to blame someone? Well, point your rage in the right direction.

How about the following former governors? Doug Wilder, George Allen and Jim Gilmore. All three knew that the fast pace of growth in Virginia would eventually overcome the funds available to maintain existing state roads and build new ones. All three of them punted.

Wilder at least had a good reason. His administration followed on the heels of Gov. Gerald Baliles' big road push in 1986 and got clobbered by an economic recession that drained state revenues.

Allen? No excuse. He liked the spending part, but didn't want to get his hair messed with the nasty business of raising taxes.

Same thing with Gilmore. His administration came into office in 1998 and, by then, the strains on road funding were obvious. But new revenue? After winning office on the specious "No Car Tax" bumper sticker, not a chance. Gilmore preferred to borrow against future federal revenues, an approach that suited the former governor's political needs at the expense of taxpayers saddled with debt payments. Moreover, Gilmore clearly fretted about interrupting the ascendancy of the GOP in the General Assembly, a process largely driven by "have-it-for-nothing" politics.

As a result, by the time Mark Warner got into the governor's office in 2002, the term "transportation crisis" was no longer hyperbolic. And, sure enough, the anti-tax crowd - primarily Republicans in the House of Delegates - rejected every transportation proposal Warner offered.

So who/what does that leave us with? Well, the proximate cause of the new Hampton Roads regional transportation authority can be found in the no-tax wing of the GOP caucus in the Virginia House of Delegates. They wrote it. They pushed it. They blocked better, simpler ideas. They got it out of the General Assembly.

Therefore, if you don't like what's coming in taxes and fees, you may wish to check in with your local Republican delegate for an explanation of exactly what he or she thinks.

But let's be real. Legislators come and go. This took more than passing power. This mightily imperfect arrangement was seeded, watered and otherwise cultivated by 20 years of neglect and free-lunch political nonsense.

Voters of Virginia, take a bow.

[kegler14]

1. Republicans here are so hypocritical

We need to raise the gas tax, which is a actually a road user fee. This fits perfectly with what Republicans CLAIM they stand for -- personal responsibility and paying your own way. If you use the roads a lot, you pay more for that privilege. And people passing through pay for it when they buy gas