As we approach 2015 – and with the House of Representatives’ de facto adjournment, another increase in the wholesale gas tax – and the horizon reveals at least one major primary challenge over the tax increase of 2013 that spawned the aforementioned gas tax hike, an argument over the action appears inevitable.
A similar argument is coming in New Jersey, which led the editors of the New York Post to a Reason Foundation report from earlier this fall on state transportation spending (the Garden State did…poorly). That led me to consider Virginia’s figures, which is where the rationale for the most recent tax increase – let alone any future ones – runs into trouble.
Virginia does have one of the largest state-run road networks in the country (third largest), but our neighbor to the south (North Carolina) is just ahead at number 2, so it seemed a good place for comparison at first. Our rural roads are slightly better; our urban congestion is worse; and overall North Carolina is ranked a few spots ahead of us. On spending however, it’s a different matter.
The report breaks spending down into three categories: capital/bridges, administration, and maintenance. Regarding maintenance efficiency, Virginia’s spending is above average (we spend less per mile than the national average), but compared to North Carolina, we’re awful. the Tarheel State spends less than $9,000 per mile, less than a third of the Commonwealth’s $29,000-plus per mile. We also spend over $1,000 a mile more on administration than the Carolinians do. If North Carolina’s Administration and Maintenance rates were applied to Virginia’s road, the Commonwealth would spend $1.2-$1.4 billion less annually.
Now, no two states are exactly alike, and “Let’s do what North Carolina does” is more slogan than solution. Defenders of Plan ’13 From Outer Space will focus on the lack of national capital pressures on Carolina…and perhaps ignore the unique challenges of the “research triangle.” That said, it appears at first blush that the Tarheel State is doing something more efficient than we are, and that it might have been worth a look south to see what that is before Richmond asked for $1.2 billion a year in higher taxes.
I would certainly hope Richmond looks south before making its next ask.
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