Thoughts in Advance of Special Session
Posted by Chap at 4/11/2008 7:34 AM and is filed under uncategorized 
Everyone is aware that we are facing a special session in transportation to deal with the February 29th Supreme Court decision which gutted HB 3202.
In the last month, I've had a chance to speak at about 10 community meetings and get feedback from constituents. I've also had a chance to review financial numbers from the Secretary of Transportation relative to raising funds for roads and transit (I'll post those #'s in the next few days).
Being back home forces you to articulate issues and also tell people where you stand. Here are my positions as we approach a special session:
1. Transportation must be dealt with at the state level. Only the state has the financial capacity and the management capacity to coordinate significant highway and transit projects.
2. Any new transportation tax must take into account environmental impacts of carbon-producing fuels. This is self-explanatory.
3. Polling data on these issues is meaningless and politicians that rely on it to make decisions are useless (at least that's why 86% of voters think). Do the right thing, work hard and you'll get re-elected.
Why does a new tax enter the equation?
When I was growing up my parents taught me not to spend like a drunken sailor. We could address transportation issues in Virginia if we would stop growing government at the state and local levels, and start scaling it back to what is really needed, as opposed to wish lists and pork.
Gas is almost 4 dollars a gallon. Any new tax is basically a financial attack on us. We don't want to spend more money on government! That's why Governor Warner's referendum failed, and partisanship aside, that's why the House refuses to entertain the idea of increasing taxes. We don't want more government expenditures, period.
This whole 'any new taxes' discussion is a ruse. You need to start looking at where the budget and agencies can be CUT to pay for transportation. This is true everywhere. We have to "do more with less" at work, and we have been doing more with less at home for some time now.
It's time for the Virginia government to do more with less.
Chap,
WRT Point 1, No need to remind you that NOVA is a significant, if not the most significant portion of the state revenue picture. So, what are we exactly getting from the state that we couldn't get ourselves?
WRT Point 2, While carbon producing automotive fuels are a key source of pollution, it is not clear that they need to be coupled with transportation facility growth. That is, by doing so, you couple construction and infrastrucure to an artificially produced "cap and trade" market. I really don't see any benefit to adding unecessary and artificial cost to an already expensive process.
Cap and trade is an artificial economic excercise to try and curb energy production and growth. Solve the problem, not symptoms. Don't make my life more expensive because we're tied to rediculous transportation administrative nightmare.
Thanks gentlemen. In one of my next posts, I'm going to get into the RoVA vs. NoVA implications of "doing nothing" (it's different than what you might think -- it surprised me).
Mr. Y you'll agree that the recent Supreme Court decision just eliminated approx. $300M in annual revenue for transpo, so either those funds are replaced or we do nothing (and that's always tough to do). BC, I tried to respond to you on the "trading credits" concept in my previous thread but maybe we need a more in-depth conversation off-line.
Well, I guess I just fail to see the connect here. The folks we hired to manage our money didn't do a good job. Now those folks want us to pay them more money with no promise of better fiscal management. There's only boxes to check for "yes" and "no". That's unfortunate because while my answer would include the word "no", it isn't an option here.
We hired the General Assembly to represent our interests in Richmond. Assembly members spent our money like drunken sailors on shore leave. Having no appreciable progress in transportation to show for their spending - with due apologies to ever former, current and future sailor that imbibes too much alcohol - now you want us to greenlight more spending?
No.
We hired you to keep the spending reasonable, now you are talking of abdicating your responsibilities by charging us more money? That's teh textbook definition of crazy.
You've heard the budget numbers first hand. It hasn't actually been cut in ... well... Has it ever been cut from the previous year? I can't recall that ever happening. I can recall certain assembly members and Governors crowing of reducing spending, but that was disingenuous at best. Actually it was an outright lie every time. What actually took place is that the rate of increased spending was reduced.
I'm not laying this at your feet specifically Chap, but I am laying it at your feet in general (no pun intended) - as in the General Assembly. It's an unfortunate situation but before everyone who hired you guys to steward our money tries to soak us for more money, FIRST, everybody we hired, and everyone they hired needs to take a pay cut, budget cut and expense cut. If they're not willing, they're not doing their part, they're just trying to pass the buck to us. As I said before, and as then Governor Warner found out with his tax referendum; "NO".
Every Virginia Agency should be willing to forgo budget money and raises to help cover this. Or maybe we should fire all of them.
See, New Jersey can do it:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-04-23-corzine_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip