The editorial page of my hometown newspaper reflects poorly on the Fredericksburg area’s transportation woes:
Kilpatrick told those attending the Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce’s transportation summit Monday that the flow of federal transportation dollars has been uncertain for years and flat at best. Congress has passed a series of short-term bills for the past six years.
State tax dollars generated by 2013 transportation package passed by the General Assembly—the first increase in decades—only go so far. Much of that money by law goes first to maintaining existing roads and what’s left—about $1.9 billion annually—goes to new construction.
. . .
So, regions around Virginia have to get creative—if local officials hope to get additional transportation projects going. Hap Connors, the area’s representative on the Commonwealth Transportation Board, and Fredericksburg City Councilman Matt Kelly say it’s time to consider forming a regional transportation authority.
The editors explore and touch on a number of problems that many Planning District Commissions have been identifying for 20 years or more. Transportation, economic development, and even education are regional problems, tackled by a hodgepodge of varying state efforts, some of which harken back to the 1930s to address 21st century problems.
One can point back to regions that have dramatically suffered from lack of co-ordination: Norfolk being the prime area of concern and opportunity.
As the Fredericksburg area continues to become less of a suburb and more of a destination, the concept of allowing five different localities to independently tackle the challenges is a pernicious sort of theft leveled at the taxpayer. The game of shuffling the costs off to other localities or onto a short-sighted Commonwealth is a shell game that catches up with localities and ultimately working families in the long run.
What Virginia’s working families do not need is a fourth layer of government interposing between small businesses, farmers, and homeowners and the services the free market requires. There is indeed a right way and a wrong way to approach regional co-operation. How the solutions are facilitated remains to be seen, but the solutions are indeed percolating.
