Transportation funding hypocrisy at its finest
By Brian Schoeneman | Monday, December 27th, 2010 | PolicyIn 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.
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About the author
A veteran political professional, a long-time Republican party activist and new attorney, Brian W. Schoeneman has been offering his opinions at Bearing Drift since 2010. He serves on the Board of Virginia Line Media, LLC, which operates Bearing Drift and spends his days representing the U.S. Merchant Marine in Washington, D.C. He hails from Fairfax County, Virginia, where he lives with his wife and son.
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18 Responses to "Transportation funding hypocrisy at its finest"
I actually thought they found the $1.5 billion in an old pair of Mark Warner’s pants. Or was it drawers? I can’t remember…at least that’s what Kirwin told me.
Or was it Tim Kaine’s freezer?
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JR, ya still laughin’ at that?
I think I’m still laughing at the voice you did while telling me that.
Brian: In the spirit of Politifact, I find your charge half true.
Yep, Democrats are criticizing the governor for wanting to issue bonds they voted for three years ago. That’s true and they should certainly be asked to explain why the bonds that were good then aren’t good now.
The difference is that three years ago bonds weren’t the ONLY money going toward roads. There was that whole unconstitutional mishmash of taxes, fees and speeding tickets foisted on local governments by the General Assembly so they could claim that they personally hadn’t raised any taxes.
Steve, there’s nothing half truthful about it – these guys are blasting something they voted for just three years ago. None of them even acknowledged that fact in their statements.
Interesting to see the GOP members supporting federal spending, borrowing and adding to the debt while complaining about the Dems…
Indeed: hypocrisy at its finest.
The problem with transportation is not a problem with the good people of Virginia not paying enough to have proper maintenance performed and new lane capacity added where needed. The problem is that our transportation NEEDS are being held hostage by influential business lobbies that demand their transportation “WANTS” go to the head of the list. Developer/banker pork fests such as “Light Rail” and slow speed passenger rail discussed in the same breath as “High Speed Rail”. I mean really – the business lobby is actually pushing us to subsidize Amtrak? Really?! Amtrak???
The reason we suffer is because of a transportation decision-making process that passes off the task of choosing transportation priorities from the people we elect to represent us – to all-appointed, unaccountable decision-making bodies. These all-appointed regional governing entities are “partnered” with a whole host of special interests; all salivating at the prospect of spending billions of the taxpayer’s money . Much of this money being Billions in new BONDS. Gee, the no wonder the Bankers support the proliferation of these all-appointed, unaccountable decision-making bodies.
First off we have the all-appointed CTB (Commonwealth Transportation Board). It is stacked with political paybacks for wealthy donors and “representatives” of certain politically influential industries. It is not “structured” to have a majority of representatives looking out for the best interests of citizens and taxpayers. When was the last time a leader of a ‘Commuter’s Needs’ organization was appointed to the CTB? How about a member of a Taxpayer’s Alliance? But, look back at history and observe how many developers, real estate professional, bankers, and folks from politically influential law firms are appointed to the CTB?
Then we have a confusing collection of all-appointed “regional” governing bodies. These regional boards usually have elected folks from local governments appointed to them. However, if you read the fine print, often the state code doesn’t require the Board members to be elected members of a City Council or BOS. The point is, the governing body is appointed, not elected – and the many regional governing/oversight boards and commissions simply FAIL to perform adequate watch over the taxpayers money.
These are a confusing collection of alphabet soup that gathers during the day, out of the attention of the public. The PDCs, MPOs. Or, in the case of Tidewater, the “TPO” – Transportation Planning Organization”.
We also have the Virginia DRPT (Department of Rail & Public Transportation) – again, appointed leadership. Right now we have a real estate agent appointed to lead the state organization embarked on building new rail roads across our Commonwealth. That would be ex-Congressperson Thelma Drake, a real estate agent.
Next we have the tampering with the “scientific models used to prioritize transportation projects”.
Enter the local business lobbies in the way of all-appointed “Committees” created to “advise” the all-appointed regional governing bodies. They are also stacked with special interests folks. They create the language of the policy and agenda of the all-appointed regional commission or authority that is empowered to made decision about our transportation. -
The new tactic for impunity from political accountability for the actions of these all-appointed decision-making transportation entities is to use “computer models” to “set priorities”. The “models” are stunning examples of “GIGO” – Garbage In, Garbage Out”. They are, after all, computers PROGRAMMED by people. The “priorities” are intentionally skewed by the introduction of “weighing criteria”. Instead of deciding which projects to build based on factors of reducing traffic congestion and improving safety, the all-appointed decision-making bodies and their all-appointed committees inject all sorts of non-transportation factors into the selection criteria. The most nefarious and egregious of these being the pork-filled insatiable black hole euphemistically called “Economic Development”.
Don’t like the outcome? Change the weighting factors. GIGO. But … now the folks appointed to the regional transportation entities can throw their hands up in the air and say, “Don’t blame me – the computer prioritized the list”.
Maybe the computer models need to be placed on the ballot and we taxpayers can elect which COMPUTER MODEL we want to “represent” us?
Last I checked we elect PEOPLE to represent us. In Virginia we elect local governments (City Councils and Boards Of Supervisors) and we elect a state government (The General Assembly and the Governor). We do NOT elect any regional government.
Yet, when it comes to transportation, the state government, and the local government are abdicating THEIR responsibilities to set priorities to a confusing collection of layer upon layer of all-appointed decision-making bodies.
You see, BEFORE we “raise taxes” and borrow billion more, we need to first decide what we NEED. We need a decision-making process that is accountable to the electorate – to the taxpayers. After we separate the “wants” from the “needs”, then we need to prioritize based on what we can afford.
We need an honest and open process used to prioritize which transportation projects will be funded. A process that doesn’t muddy the transportation project selection process with fuzzy values designed to divert the prioritization of transportation investment away from reducing traffic congestion and improving safety – – - instead, making speculative “Economic Development” the true driving consideration behind the prioritization of how our transportation funds are being spent.
We need the people we elect to serve in our local governments and in our state government setting the priorities, not all-appointed decision-making entities stacked with special interest “representatives” appointed to countless “advisory committees”. If we really want to fix what is wrong with our state’s transportation system, it is not about adding more debt and increasing taxes and fees. We need to end the abomination of bad decisions emanating from an unaccountable regional government wedged in between the local government we elect, and the state government we elect.
So business people are to blame for our transportation problems? I guess when you have to curtail business on one side of Hampton Roads, or the other, because you can’t get through the tunnel, or your trucks now spend twice as much time on the road as before, or face a German entrepreneur, here to look at plant sites, and try to explain the condition of our interstates, or hear the Navy say it will leave if we don’t solve this issue, or ride under any bridge in this area, look up, and see the rust and deterioration, or have your workers stuck in gridlock because (insert reason) the tunnel is closed, the bridge is locked in the upright position, the interstate is clogged due to snow, their is an accident at the interchange. The constant roar of critics who hate to pay reasonable taxes and fees is deafening, and about to return Hampton Roads to a backwater again.
William, who said anything about Republican members supporting borrowing and spending federal money?
Federal highway funds are paid for by the federal gasoline tax. If we get cash from the Feds for roads programs, that’s where it comes from. It’s all paid for.
Mike, the plans you and your business lobby “friends” keep pushing do NOTHING to add lane capacity to the HRBT. The foolish light rail and slow speed rail you keep pushing does nothing for trucks stuck in traffic.
The the projects the business lobby keep pushing does nothing to help improve traffic for the Navy commuters.
Reid, remember when they said if we didn’t raise taxes, we’d have to all get emissions inspections on our cars?
that was 8 years ago
Yes, I do remember. I also have the dire predictions for traffic gridlock if we didn’t raise taxes 10 years ago and build the business lobby’s list of 5 major projects and a $200M blank check for HRT.
Odd – those traffic congestion predictions from the HRPDC were – (drum roll) wrong!
The estimated population growth did not happen as predicted. Neither did the gridlock happen.
To attempt to imply that we don’t have gridlock is to close your eyes and ears and simply ignore the reality presented everyday, and worse, to simply use deceit to ignore the special events that occur on a regular basis that make commuting in Hampton Roads an unpredictable experience. Bridges that are abandoned and those severely deteriorated, highways with pavement so severely degraded that it will need to be replaced, not fixed, tunnels so poorly maintained that they flood, an interconnected system that simply fails all over the area with one bad accident at an interchange, all these are day to day examples of the failure of our Legislature to fulfill its basic function. Lastly, to ignore the Navy’s carefully worded warning to fix this situation or they will, reveals the total lack of responsibility of the boo birds and critics. They clearly simply don’t care.
Facts are so difficult for Mr. Barrett.
Really tough to admit you have lived a lie for the last decade.
Let’s get out the pooper scooper for dealing with Reid again:
1. The TPO is a creation of Federal law, not state law.
Prior to the establishment of MPOs, Federal bureaucrats made those decisions. Only Reid finds that preferable.
2. The vast majority of light rail funding comes from dedicated transit accounts that can’t be used for roads.
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