How can anyone in Northern Virginia vote against transportation funding?
By Brian Schoeneman | Tuesday, February 8th, 2011 | Policy
There is no bigger quality of life issue for those of us who live in Northern Virginia than transportation. I cannot begin to quantify the number of hours, gallons of gas, and missed moments with family that our region’s transportation nightmare has cost me since I moved out here years ago, and I’m certain that the same is true for you. In my opinion transportation is as big an issue, if not bigger, than education or public safety for our region. It affects everything we do and has a demonstrable daily impact on our lives.
That’s why I have been an early and vocal supporter of Governor McDonnell’s transportation plan, where the state would finance a $4 billion investment in transportation – an investment that includes funding to widen I-66. This is absolutely critical to our region’s continued economic growth and to improving the quality of life for all of us who are dependent on I-66 to get us to work, school and back home every day. Regardless of whatever concerns some may have about how the money will be funded, those issues are secondary to the needs of our region.
This is why I can’t believe that the entire Democratic delegation from Northern Virginia voted AGAINST spending this money for transportation. I am especially saddened to see my own Delegate, Mark Keam, who has been willing to cross party lines in the past, vote against this bill. Not a single Democrat in the House of Delegates from Northern Virginia voted for the Governor’s transportation plan.
What is especially odd is that in the State Senate, nearly every Northern Virginia Senator got it right – only Mary Margaret Whipple voted against the Governor’s plan. Dave Marsden, Janet Howell, Mark Herring, Chuck Colgan, Chap Petersen, George Barker, Toddy Puller, Patsy Ticer and even Democratic Majority Leader Dick Saslaw, voted in favor. Only 4 Democrats and 1 Republican in the Senate voted against the Governor’s Plan.
This is one of the most mind blowing votes I’ve seen out of the Democrats in the House of Delegates. It is unfathomable to me how anyone in Northern Virginia, regardless of party, can vote against transportation funding for any reason. These issues are just too critical to our region, one that is plagued with some of the worst traffic in the country. There is simply no excuse for voting against these bills.
The worst part is that politically, voting against this bill makes no sense either. Clearly, even if only Republicans were voting in favor, this bill would have passed the House anyway. Voting against it makes no sense. If the bill is going to pass anyway, might as well join the winning side and take advantage of the benefit of the funding. The only folks, as far as I can see, who are upset with this bill are people who believe we can’t service the debt – and those are mainly far right conservatives who don’t live in Northern Virginia and who are against any debt of any kind and a few Democrats who will attack anything the Governor does on general principle.
I know that the Democrats have been pushing for gas tax increases as a solution to the transportation funding problems we face, a move that I and most Virginians oppose. This bill doesn’t include an increase, and you aren’t likely to see one as long as there’s a Republican in the Executive Mansion. That’s absolutely no excuse for failing to support the largest and most meaningful transportation spending bill in years – one that will make a big difference in the lives of those of us in Northern Virginia. The Democrats in the House got it completely wrong here.
This vote needs to have political ramifications for these Democrats in November. If you can’t get it right on something that should be a no brainer for anyone in our area, I have to seriously question your judgment on issues that aren’t nearly as important.
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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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Comments
21 Responses to "How can anyone in Northern Virginia vote against transportation funding?"
While I’m not sure I’d agree that folks in Northern Virginia should vote for ANY transportation plan (they probably shouldn’t have voted for the unconstitutional one in 2007), I can’t see any reason they should have voted against THIS one.
You and I don’t agree on the gas tax. I think that’s a more rational way to fund tranportation improvements. But I also recognize that it’s just not going to happen given the political climate. I don’t think that means you just throw up your hands and give up on any transportation improvements. This plan isn’t perfect, but it’s better than doing nothing. By voting against it, these folks have essentially voted to do nothing. Which isn’t good policy or good politics.
Maybe they realized that this is a drop in the bucket compared to the massive amount of new money that is actually needed to pay for enough new lane capacity to make a noticible reduction in NORVA’s traffic congestion nightmare?
Reid: But a drop in the bucket is better than nothing in the bucket, yes?
The problem I have with this bill is that it gives the politicians total control over how the money is spent. We can trust them? When did they become angels?
We should be using tolls to pay for the roads. It is both wrong and stupid to make people pay for roads that they will never use. When we require tolls to pay pay off the debt, the politicans have to put the roads where they are needed, and they have to design them so people will want to use them.
Tom, you get more use out of roads you never drive on than the ones you do. You may never drive on I-5 in California, but the stuff you buy does. You may never drive on I-95 in Massachusetts, but people who handle your money do.
We all benefit from roads because those roads move the people who provide the services we need and the folks who move the goods we buy.
As for politicians having total control over how the money is spent, that’s what we elect them for. I would rather have someone I have a say in hiring make those decisions than some bureaucrat in Washington or Richmond doing it. I can’t fire those people. I can fire my elected official.
Brian – What you just said is only half relevant. Yes, I do benefit from roads on which I do not actually drive. However, that does not mean government should force me to pay for those roads.
How does commerce work? What do businesses do to account for expenses? If they expect to make a profit, don’t businesses pass their costs onto their customers? So what happens when businesses pay tolls to use roads? Don’t they pass that cost onto their customers too?
Therefore, with tollroads we pay the cost of roads we use only indirectly as customers. However, when government forces us to pay for roads, we pay for roads for which we have absolutely no use. WHEN GOVERNMENT MAKES US PAY, WE LOSE ANY CHOICE IN THE MATTER.
When was the last time you personally fired a politician?
We are individual human beings. Even though we live in swarming cities, we are not bees or ants. Each of us has the right to pursue our own happiness individually. Right? Then what is wrong with each of us controlling how we spend the fruit of own labor?
Tom, so what you’re saying is that you shouldn’t have to pay for something you derive a benefit from? There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.
You’re basically saying that you have no problems with the prices of everything going up AND we should all pay tolls for every road we drive on so that you don’t have to pay any taxes. I don’t see the difference. Unless you never plan on leaving your house, the system as it works now works best.
You have a choice when you vote. Taxes aren’t theft. They’re the price we all pay for the society we live in.
Tom, I’ve done it a few times. I’m looking forward to doing it again in November.
Brian – Your response indicates you did not comprehend what I wrote.
I did not suggest a free lunch. If we have toll roads, we each will pay the cost of the things we each actually use. What giving politicians full control does is allow politicians to pick winners and losers. That gives them the opportunity to give someone a free lunch. When politicians exercise their personal perferences (That never happens, right?), somebody actually does get their road at below cost –from the taxpayers.
And don’t kid yourself. Unless you are part of some kind of hive mind, you have never personally fired a politician.
Remember what government involves. We give up part of our rights to protect the rest. The way we finance our roads gives up more of our rights than is needed or desireable.
Tom, I know you’re a rugged individualist, but it is impossible to completely separate oneself from the larger body politic. I, working with likeminded citizens, have fired politicians who were not doing what my fellow citizens and I wanted. That is how things work in a representational democracy.
Your system makes no sense. Tolls for everything doesn’t work. Might as well only charge me for the police when I call them. See how long that works.
I know you’re an idealist Tom, but there are times I really have to wonder why you don’t want to hang out in the real world with the rest of us.
Brian – Until the 1950′s toll roads were commonplace. “Freeways” replaced them. “Freeways” have turned out to be a bad idea.
Instead of being contrary, try using your imagination. Look around our area and at the traffic jams you just complained about. Why doesn’t traffic move? We don’t have enough asphalt and concrete? You would have to be crazy to say that. The system is badly designed, not underfinanced.
What is the problem? What keeps traffic from moving? Stoplights, maybe? Could we have an excess of stoplights?
We build “parkways” for developers. Then when developers ask for them, we give them stoplights too. Because we finance roads the way we do, politicians have too little incentive not to stick the infernal things wherever they want.
We need to maintain a sufficient number of expressways, roads with no stoplights. At a minimum, all inter-county roads should be toll roads. With current technology, we can collect the tolls relatively easily. And the tolls would give our government an incentive to avoid sticking a stoplight any old place they feel light sticking one.
Why don’t politicians propose toll roads? They stupid? No. It is the reverse. They are too clever.
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Toll roads are a bad idea, and that comes from the real experts on interstate transportation, truck drivers.
You can’t get truck drivers to agree on nearly anything (well maybe we all agree Obama’s proposed HOS [Hours of Servie] changes are wrong) but you will get them to agree tolls are a bad idea.
For crying out loud. It was a Republican (Dwight Eisenhower) who got the whole FREEWAY thing started. Even Ronald Reagan raised the fuel tax instead of resorting to tolls when he needed transportation money.
That is why I am now a Democrat. Used to be Republicans would offer decent candidates, but this new breed is more then I can stomach.
LD, How many dollars are wasted by inching ahead a few feet and stopping 1000′s of cars and trucks for hours on end? Tolls are cheaper.
Turbo,
But that is not what we are talking here. Proposals for the superhighway to parallel the existing US-460 route from Petersburg to Suffolk are for the tolls for trucks to be as high as $75 for the 55 miles. That is close to a buck and a half per mile.
In a truck, I can travel the whole thing on the existing route far cheaper. Problem is the existing route will be made a “No Trucks” route because the citizens along it will want the trucks on the new route.
The bigger problem is that government maintains and pays for subdivision roads. Why? I value and use my subdivision roads far more than any of you, yet all of you pay for it.
Subdivision roads are basically common area asphalt. It should be the responsibility of the homeowners in the subdivision, not the state, or even the county.
DJM,
Your subdivision roads are maintained by the city. If you think there is unfairness there, then talk to your city councilman.
Now, if you live in a sparsely populated area, you have a point. Sparsely populated areas of Virginia complain about providing and maintaining the roads where the revenue is generated. They want to kill the Golden Goose.
In a word, desperation. Every delegate/senator knows that in the near future, they will need to vote for a tax increase to pay this debt service, so now, what the heck. For purists, the failure to link the iniative with its actual cost is despicable, but I guess that is good politics. Common sense dictates that if you take revenue now used for one thing, and use it for something else, more cuts, or added revenue, will be needed. If your objective is to “starve the beast” this will work, because the cities/copunties will be forced to make the cuts, or raise taxes to make up for the losses. Again, smoke and mirrors, but when you are desperate, apparently you will approve anything, even tolls which will strangle the Commonwealth.
Tom, yes, part of the reason why traffic doesn’t move is that we don’t have enough roads and asphalt. I-66 doesn’t have red lights, but I get stuck in traffic on there every day. The bottlenecks are being addressed, but some of it is simply volume and the only way to address that is either move the federal government out of DC (which is a bad idea) or widen the roads so there are more lanes to handle more cars. That takes money.
You are assuming that if we go with your toll road idea that government will reduce taxes. That’s not going to happen. Like I said, we need to be working on these issues in a responsible way advocating ideas that have a legitimate chance of ever being enacted. Tolls on every road except the interstate is not going to happen. It’s not worth wasting time even debating it.
Ah yes Brian, the faith that we can pave our way out of congestion. Fact is, this policy only encourages a land use policy which died a long time ago. Suburbanization died of its own weight in unallocated cost to us, to local governments, to the Commonwealth, and to the Federal government. At this point, in major metro areas in NoVa, Richmond, and Hampton Roads, an integrated policy of land use, public transit, and maintained and improved highways should be our major focus, not the empowerment of international conglomerates to wall out customers with tolls too high. As if a one time borrow of $4B will do much; one interchange in NoVa costs that, and most of here think you’ll get the state money, we’ll get tolled to death.
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