Dear Friends:(there's more below the fold)At the request of Governor Kaine, the General Assembly convened a special session on Monday to address the problems Virginia faces in transportation. Our challenge is not just to relieve congestion on the Commonwealth's roads and highways, but to address a deficit in our maintenance fund that prevents us from starting new construction projects and to reform policy to create a 21st century statewide system of transportation.
While there are signs of progress in the halls of the state capitol and I remain optimistic that we will be able to pass a compromise transportation plan, we are still a ways off from reaching an agreement. I believe we must pass a comprehensive statewide solution that allows Virginia to grow together including meaningful reforms of our land use policies and moving more people and freight to mass transit and rail. The Governor has done the hard work of putting forth a commonsense proposal to address transportation and has made the case to Virginians as to why we must act. As members of the General Assembly, it is our responsibility to pass legislation that allows him to expand capacity on our roads, meet the needs of our ailing roads and bridges, and begin building a 21st century system of transportation.We simply cannot pave and build our way out of this--we have to be innovative in seeking solutions and attack the problem from many different sides. I introduced three proposals to reduce congestion by providing income tax incentives to get cars off the road during rush hour; the first two have passed the Senate and will be taken up by the House:
GÇó An income tax credit to employers for employees who enter into a flextime scheduling agreement, meaning they work a four-day workweek or alter their work schedule to avoid a rush hour commute
GÇó A tax credit to Virginia businesses for telecommuting expenditures that allows for a 100 percent credit for employers to conduct a telecommuting assessment the year prior to implementing a telecommuting program
GÇó Create an individual income tax deduction for using public transportation or carpooling: Individuals would be eligible to deduct up to 50 percent of the costs incurred using public transportation or take advantage of a $500 yearly deduction for carpooling, walking or biking to work
I fashioned a compromise with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle today to create a Transportation Trust Fund Lock Box that will ensure money set aside for transportation is used for transportation. By a unanimous vote of the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee, we sent to the Senate floor legislation that addresses concerns from all sides, and later this afternoon it passed the Senate 31-5. This change to our state constitution is an important step towards assuring Virginians that state government is responsible with their tax dollars and spending them in the same manner we promised we would.
Deeds goes on to say that much work remains to be done. How true. Not if only the Republicans in the House would be willing to show as much sense as many of the colleagues in the Senate, some progress on transportation issues might be possible
No Va needs $1 billion a year for the next 15-20 for new roads, bridges and additional lanes to existing roads.
Since only 15% of trips use mass transit or carpools, using anything less 85% of new revenue on new roads is a disservice to the 85% the population that drives on the roadways.
This shortfall cannot be solved by more snob zoning land use policies as has been pursued by FFX and the other local governments for 50 years.
Politicians who try to finesse this issue with tricks, smoke and mirrors aren't worth a another minute of my time.
Get serious Deeds or get out.
But anyway...
By your gripes against Fairfax and Loudoun I assume you live the NOVA area, so you must be driving on the same poorly maintained roads the rest of us in the region do. Before we spend anything on new roads we need to fix the ones we've got. There are more potholes today than I've ever seen in our roads. Seriously, if we spend the money on new roads the others will continue to deteriorate - eventually to the point where the region would be losing more drivable roads than it's building, thus making gridlock even worse.
And your argument against mass transit and carpooling is counter productive to your own interest - in two ways.
First, lets do some simple math: if half the commuters ended up carpooling there'd be a reduction of 25% of vehicles on the road which would roughly equate to a 33% increase in open road. That's huge by any standard.
Ok, I know, that 50% of commuters choosing to carpool is a side splitter. But for every pair of single drivers who choose to carpool or take mass transit, there is a small gain for the rest. If enough choose to go that route, there will be a significant and noticeable improvement in gridlock. So rather than discouraging such suggestions, it's in your own interest to encourage others to seek those means. Remember - you don't have to do it, you just need to convince others to do it.
Which brings me to the second point - that convincing someone else to use mass transit or carpool is cheaper than taxing or tolling (or whatever your preferred method of raising revenue) is. Yes, there would be investment required to expend mass transit infrastructure, and Creigh's tax breaks would cost some money, but overall less than the money we'd need to maintain existing roads and build new ones. So it saves all of us money.
Stories are coming out about some people turning to carpooling due to high gasoline prices. Add in an incentive package like Creigh is talking about and you'll get more people seriously considering it. It's true that in an "all other things considered equal" world we won't get many mass transit/carpoolers, but things aren't equal anymore. People are sick of gridlock and practically going into shock at gasoline prices. They want out and are being pushed to the limit of considering something different. Throw in some government incentives and there is a very realistic shot at change - without spending like crazy to build new roads.
On your point 1, ask any transportation engineer and (unless she's paid by Bechtel) she will tell you that a lane mile of roadway is always cheaper and more efficient than any mile of fixed mass transit. In some cases cheaper by one or more orders of magnitude.
On your point 2, it's even easier to convince someone to use the next lane over or the new alternate roadway and its cheaper too!
Also keep in mind that 70% of all vehicle trips are not commuting related. Mass transit and carpooling has little to offer that 70% of all trips. But roads do address those trips.
Roads are the only answer that keep the majority folks moving.