In the tumult of the holidays and all of the action in the Congress on “must pass now” legislation in the lame duck session, it was easy to miss a major announcement from the Governor on his transportation plan. Back in early December, the Governor announced he will propose spending an additional $4 billion on transportation and infrastructure over the next three years. The money will come from a variety of sources, including issuing state and federally backed bonds, as well as spending some of the $1.5 billion the Governor found stuffed in random couches over at VDOT headquarters earlier this year.
Democrats love spending money, especially other people’s money, so you’d think they’d be ecstatic over this latest proposal to finally do something about our crumbling infrastructure. Oddly enough, they’re not.
“Irresponsible.” “Reckless.” “Half-baked.”
Hey, guys – we’re talking about the Governor’s transportation plan, not the Redskins offensive scheme.
But no, this is what the leaders of the Democratic Party in Virginia are saying. Brian Moran, the Democrats’ newly minted head cheerleader, said in a press release that “[a]t a time when our state budget is already perilously balanced on the backs of Virginia’s retirees, we simply can’t afford for the Governor to float a reckless and irresponsible plan to pay for his priorities by borrowing money that we don’t have and cannot pay back without raising taxes. The people of this Commonwealth deserve better leadership than this Jim Gilmore-type financing scheme.”
What I find most ironic about Moran’s concern trolling here is that he actually said “cannot pay back without raising taxes.” Considering that the Democrats’ primary and only real policy position on resolving the transportation funding problem is to raise the gas tax (that’s their idea of creating a ‘dedicated funding source’), wouldn’t this be exactly what he’s looking for? Maybe he’s upset because under their plan, they just raise taxes without borrowing, and cut out the middle man.
But here’s the kicker – Moran didn’t seem to have a problem voting for this “reckless and irresponsible” plan when he was in the General Assembly. The largest chunk of money in the Governor’s plan comes from accellerating $1.8 billion in transportation bonds that were voted on by the General Assembly in 2007. What did Moran say about the bonds at the time? “Overall, it [the bill and bond package] represents significant progress.” So three years ago, it was significant progress. Now it’s reckless and irresponsible.
Good one, Moran.
House Minority Leader Ward Armstrong also attacked the McDonnell plan. He even had the gall to cite the November Republican wave election that just devastated his party nationally and gave Republicans control of the House of Representatives to demonstrate that Virginians don’t like deficit spending. Good to see at least one Democrat got the message, even though his colleagues in Washington didn’t. What Armstrong goes on to say is “[u]nfortunately this is just the latest in a long line of irresponsible and half-baked ideas that fail to address our core problem of generating a long-term sustainable source of funding for our transportation needs.”
He then says “unfortunately the Governor’s lack of leadership on transportation has resulted in a plan that amounts to a back door tax increase on our children.”
You can already guess where I’m going with this. Yes, Armstrong voted for the 2007 bonds too. And I guess, like Moran, he’s not a fan of a back door tax increase when you can go through the front door and increase gas taxes that way.
What’s with these guys? Do they think we’re idiots? That we don’t have Google? That we can’t look this stuff up?
The Governor’s plan puts more money into infrastructure faster than any other plan out there. His opponent never bothered with a plan. I haven’t seen one from the Democrats in Richmond other than simply raising the gas tax. That’s all they’ve got. RPV Chair Pat Mullins called them out on this two weeks ago, asking all the Democrats that have a better plan to put it out there. Instead of responding with a plan, the Democrats whined that we’re the ones who need to be leading.
It’s pathetic. It’s the worst kind of politics out there – the kind of nonsense obstruction for the sake of obstruction that Democrats have been bashing us for nationally for the last two years. It is predicated on the idea that no one is paying attention and they can say that night is day and dark is light and no one will notice.
The Governor’s plan is a solid one, and I hope that it moves forward. It puts real money into the transportation system without having to raise taxes and it does so without breaking the bank, running up debt (all of this is debt that is either already on the books or isn’t budgeted as state debt because it includes a federal component). Having lived for eight years in a state that was a national laughingstock for its infrastructure problems, Pennsylvania, I am 100% in favor of getting as much cash out there fixing roads and bridges as we can get. This plan does that and I hope to see it move quickly in Richmond next month.
