On the matter of the Virginia transportation infrastructure, Sen. Russ Potts is right. Lt. Governor Tim Kaine and Jerry Kilgore are wrong. From Wednesday’s Washington Post:
Take the reality of Virginia’s transportation mess, and how to find money to fix it. Kilgore — when he isn’t talking airily about spending more of the state’s budget on roads while cutting, um, nothing — would let regions of the state vote on the option to tax themselves, a device that lets him off the hook of formulating his own plan. Kaine’s proposal, to the extent you can call it that, appears to do next to nothing to raise new revenue. Think where that would leave traffic-choked Northern Virginia, whose unfunded transportation needs are estimated at almost $1 billion annually for the next 20 years.
Potts, by contrast, talks sense. He notes that the $848 million earmarked by the General Assembly this year for transportation barely covers the cost of the Mixing Bowl project at the Springfield interchange. He would convene state lawmakers for a special session on transportation, as Gov. Gerald Baliles did a generation ago. And he’d press them until they devised a long-term financing package to address a problem that cannot be wished away by tricks. “I’m gonna keep those guys there till the cows come home,” Potts told me.
You know who else is right? Senior Republican Senator John Chichester. In yesterday’s Post, Michael Shear wrote:
Without referring directly to Kilgore, Sen. John H. Chichester (R-Northumberland) said the state “won’t make a dent” in traffic problems by relying on money in the state’s general fund, which also helps pay for police, education, health care and colleges.
“Yes, we can even throw a general fund ‘bone’ to transportation every now and then,” Chichester, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, said in a short speech about the state’s transportation woes. “But what does that accomplish? In my view, it accomplishes nothing.”
Any candidate who talks about transportation without a proposal to solve the impending shortfall is wasting my time. Jeff Schapiro explains in the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
Chichester’s warning came as he announced formation of a promised Senate-sponsored study of Virginia’s transportation needs and ways to finance them. Chichester has made no secret of his view the state may have to raise fuel taxes or enact tolls, both traditional sources of road funds.
Chichester, along with business and community leaders, has said the need for additional transportation dollars is acute. By 2018, state officials predict, virtually all highway revenues will go to maintenance, leaving no funds for construction.
Any talk about automobile-based transportation in Virginia that doesn’t include either a major increase in taxes or a huge cut in the use of automobiles is either a lot of hot air or mere deck-chair rearranging on our vehicular Titanic. Anybody who says otherwise is trying to sell you something.