While I have not yet had a chance to scrutinize each of the 9,915 words in the General Assembly bill with the banal and somewhat unwieldy title of ‘Transportation construction, operation and maintenance, and funding,” it has one intriguing and worthwhile provision.
Introduced in the House by Delegate Scott Lingamfelter (R-Woodbridge) as HB1248 and in the Senate by Senator Frank Wagner (R-Virginia Beach) as SB639, you have to scroll down a bit through the text to find a proposal to raise revenues for the maintenance of roads, bridges, and other facilities without also raising taxes.
Paragraph (4) of what would become an amended § 33.1-12 of the Virginia Code would replace a ban on naming transportation facilities for “living persons” with a ban on naming them for any “private entities” — except when those private entities pay for the privilege.
In other words, just like arenas and stadiums and concert halls, roads and bridges and interchanges could soon be subsidized by naming rights.
This is not as outlandish an idea as it might appear on first glance.
It is a logical extension of the common and longstanding practice of putting advertising placards on the outsides (and insides) of buses and subway train cars.
It’s not that different from naming roads and other things for politicians who use their influence to take money from some taxpayers to please others. (Recent example: A road long planned to be called the Meadowcreek Parkway in Albemarle County is now named for former U.S. Senator John Warner, who obtained federal funding to pay for a still-unbuilt interchange that will connect that road to one in the City of Charlottesville.)
The amount of money that could be raised through this method is non-trivial. A few years ago, it was estimated that selling naming rights to the stations on the Washington Metro system could generate as much as $270 million.
If football stadiums can be named for FedEx and basketball arenas for Verizon, why shouldn’t bridges be named for Bechtel or highway rest stops for Ambien?
