Another WHRO roundtable (you can watch it here) where I try to convince host Cathy Lewis, blogger Vivian Paige, Virginian-Pilot editor Don Luzzatto and Daily Press reporter Kimball Payne that the world isn’t begging for higher taxes.
We talked transportation, where the gang of four pushed hard for higher taxes for transportation and disregarded anything short of that and blaming the General Assembly for everything.
They just don’t understand this fact:
Elected representatives don’t have people knocking on their office going “Would you raise my taxes already please!” (brilliant Kirwin quote)
That’s really the end of the discussion, unless you like an oligarchy. How many times do you expect elected officials to make their voters angry because newspaper writers (who won’t support them anyway) want them to?
Of course, elected officials can lie, and folks who otherwise say they want high levels of ethics in government practically cheer when Governors tell campaign lies about taxes as long as they get in office and raise taxes.
They bow in awe of Governor Baliles who got elected in 1985 while repeatedly saying “I don’t intend to propose a tax increase,” and then raised taxes on sales, gas and income.
They live on myths.
Vivian said the problem is that we should’ve started working on transportation 20 years ago, and I pointed out that 23 years ago was that vaunted Baliles transportation tax increase that was supposed to solve everything.
They thought the Independence Day weekend pipe burst was the result of insufficient taxes, and I replied “as if money cured incompetence”
Kimbell feared Northern Virginia’s leaving us in the dust on funding, prompting me to respond “And Northern Virginia loved taxes so much, that when they had the chance to raise their own taxes, they voted NO”
I think most voters think these things are incredibly more expensive than they need to be. I heard this Newt Gingrich quote and want our Congressional leaders to fix this problem, and if they did, it would be worth more than a dozen tax increases in solving the problem.
“The transcontinental railroad was completed in six years. Today, it takes twenty-three years to add a runway to the Atlanta airport.” (Gingrich)
THAT’S the problem! It’s not that government needs more money for roads. It’s that permitting, regulation and other government requirements make roads and tunnels infinitely more expensive than they ever need to be.
“The 1.1-mile Zion-Mt. Carmel Tunnel in Zion National Park was completed in less than three years(1927-1930). The so-called “Big Dig” in Boston (just over 3 miles) took so long (over 20 years) that soon after it was completed, it already needed repairs.
Why is there so little interest in reforming what government has done to inflate the cost of roads to a point where no one can afford the price tag?
