I probably agree with the Washington Post editorial page about two-thirds of the time, but today's editorial on the transportation "impasse" in Richmond is rather odd. According to the Post:
At the heart of the impasse in Richmond are competing camps of puritans, both led by Republicans, that cannot see their way to a deal. One camp, which also encompasses many Democrats, would levy broad-based taxes to raise fresh money for roads but is loath to siphon off existing funding from schools, health-care programs and higher education. Call them the taxers. The other, fervently opposed to new statewide taxes, would raise roads revenue from a patchwork of sources, including $250 million annually by raiding existing funding for schools, health care and higher education. Call them the raiders. The taxers hate raiding as much as the raiders hate taxing: hence the stalemate.
The Post then goes on to call for "some serious arm-twisting" by Governor Kaine in order to "budget" the two sides, along with a "compromise" on the issue of dedicated funding for transportation vs. raiding the general fund.
What I find odd about the Post's editorial is their absurd moral equivalency, somehow managing to place the responsible Senate on the same level as the wildly irresponsible House of Delegates, labeling both as "puritans." What is the Post saying here? That you're a "puritan" if you don't believe we should slash funding for health care, schools, public safety, cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay, and other vital state services in order to build roads? And why, pray tell, is it "puritan" to ask for a dedicated funding stream for this vital infrastructure for Virginia's economy, its quality of life, and its future?
Sorry, but the only "puritans" I see here are the flat earth, anti-tax, know-nothing fanatics in the Virginia House of Delegates, who would rather hurt students, teachers, the sick, the needy, and our communities instead of responsibly dealing with the transportation crisis that they were largely responsible for creating in the first place. And yes, that means raising revenues to pay for essential investments. Even if it means violating their ideolgical, anti-tax puritanism.
Instead of attacking the GOP transportation "solution" as the gimmicky, debt laden, punt that it is, they're patting the GOP on the back for proposing something.
They should be saying why does every Republican solution to everything involve passing the obligation on to our children via debt - that's exactly what debt is - taxing the children and taxing the future.
They should be saying that a failure to raise the gas tax should be a dealbreaker for anyeone involved.
They should be saying that a failure to include dedicated mass transit funding and land use/planning reforms in any deal is an abdication of leadership - they are passing up an opportunity to make some major differences in the way we do anything.
I also agree that it's time for Kaine to weigh in - but Kaine should be saying all of the above, not feeling around for who's going to win the debate before he takes a position. He needs to take to the bully pulpit and push public opinion (and the Washington Post) on this issue - now.
The GOP acts like every tax increase is paid only Virginia's. They are dead wrong.
Why the Washington Post, the Governor, or anyone else won't call them on that is mystifying to me. Everyone wants to debate on Bill Howell's terms/turf instead of upon reality.
Here's an example of a bad form of "tax" -- using your motor vehicle safety regulations to raise revenue, assuming there are no real safety benefits gained. For example, the jurisdiction might instruct police to go after trivial driving incidents (e.g., not signaling a lane change on an empty road) or to set up speed traps on low-accident roads and enforce the limits strictly, merely in an effort to raise revenue.
Yes, the state gets the increased fine money, but the driver also suffers insurance premium increases.
My point is this -- one should always look at the collateral or downstream effects of any tax. Raising fines for truly bad driving practices, e.g., has the effect of improving safety and, interestingly, improving congestion. (Accidents are notorious traffic clogs.)
Big Tobacco has been (justly) fearful that state legislators might look to the tobacco tax for a win-win-win situation. (Such a scenario is more than the usual win-win situation because with a cigarette tax the good programs get funded and cigarette consumption drops, which improves citizens' health and cuts health care costs.)
The GOP legislators in this state have signed on to Norquist's no-new-taxes pledge, and he attempts to enforce it by getting outside money against GOP candidates who violate or won't sign his pledge. The lamest of GOP candidates, Chris Craddock, inexplicably got lots of outside big money to run against Gary Reese and then Chuck Caputo. (And Norquist was personally involved in some of these local races, which is unusual for a guy whose focus is national.)
It would be delicious irony if the Virginia legislature would come to its senses and raise needed revenue by raising Virginia's pathetically low cancer stick tax (45th in rank in the US) by about a dollar a pack.
I recall reading recently, but do not recall where, that Virginia is in need of approximately 50 BILLION dollars in revenue moving forward to correct our transportation problems across the state.
The legislature HAS to come up with long term funding solutions to fix these problems or the state is going to suffer even more economically into the future. As our highways become more and more crowded, billions of dollars in income taxes, etc., will be lost as workers sit in traffic trying to get to work. Employers will begin leaving the state because they can't get their employeees to work on time or are unable to ship their products on time. And highways turning into parking lots across a wide swath of Virginina will prevent future employers from re-locating to Virginia, denying our children access to good paying jobs in the future.
Raising the cigarette tax a dollar a pack is not enough to fund our transportation projects that are crying out for help. The legistlature is going to have to raise a variety of taxes or float bonds in order to pay to fix this mess. Some will argue that Virginia has always been a pay as you go state - but if the legislature fails to float bonds to pay for this mess, where do they think the money is going to come from? You can't raise taxes, be it state income taxes, the sales tax, gas taxes or cigarrette taxes and raise enough money to fix this mess. Long term, they are going to have to do a combination of floating bonds and raising taxes.
Building a consenus on how to fix the problem is a huge a political problem. Supporters of doing whatever it takes to raise the funds to fix this mess are the very folks who are sitting in traffic and are located mainly in NOVA nd Tidewater - and these folks are represented by Dems in the legislature, but not entirely. Those most opposed to rasing taxes to fund new transportation projects are from more rural areas of the state in central, soutside and southwest Virginia. They don't have the traffic congestion that urban areas face each day so they are against raising their taxes. And of course, most of these folk are represented by Repubs., in the state legislature.
Governor Kaine needs to shake things up during this years GA races - drastically! Kaine needs to do what the Dems did this past fall when they nationalized the congressional elections over the Iraq war. Kaines needs to put the whole trasporation mess at the top of the agenda and pound it hard in key urban areas! Use a page from Harry Truman's days and let voters know that the Republican controlled "DO Nothing Legislature" has been a complete failure, cannot be trusted to come up with solutions to this mess and is causing harm to out state and economy long term. By doing so, you might be able to gain enough seats to take over the legislature. But in order to do so, Governor Kaine needs to become more aggressive and get the point home to voters as to what is at stake here if the Repubs., continue to control the GA.
The fall elections are going to me fascinating!