"Veto this roads monstrosity?" That sounds a lot like what we've been saying here at Raising Kaine for weeks now. Well, now the Roanoke Times editorial page editor has weighed in, using very similar language:
...opposition to this unwise plan runs very deep. Many people recognize it as a political attempt to solve a political problem rather than a sincere effort to craft a long-term transportation strategy.The state needs more money for transportation. This plan, fatally flawed as it is, recognizes that simple fact. But most of the money would be generated locally to deal with a statewide problem in a regional, piecemeal fashion. And most of the money comes from nonsensical places.
Increase commercial real estate taxes to pay for roads? Hit home sellers with a new tax? None of these have anything to do with transportation.
The whole idea of the transportation trust fund was to generate revenue by taxing those who use the roads.
The gas tax, unchanged since 1986 and worth a fraction of what it brought in then, remains the easiest, fairest and most efficient way to generate that revenue.
That approach isn't even on the table. Which is yet another reason no one should weep if this monstrosity dies.
I couldn't agree more with the Roanoke Times editorial page editor on this one: no one should weep if this monstrosity dies, and all of us should weep if it passes in anything like its current form. And I couldn't agree more with Jim Bacon of Bacon's Rebellion, who is quoted in the same editorial calling the plan the "mutant offspring of a tortured political process" and charging that "the current plan subsidizes 'those who cause traffic congestion at the expense of those who do not.'" Correct on both counts, Mr. Bacon!
Finally, I couldn't agree more with Senate Minority Leader Richard Saslaw (D-Fairfax), who is quoted in today's Washington Post accusing Republicans of deliberately attempting to "starve government" with this bill from hell:
You starve out public schools. You starve out higher education. You starve out health and human service. And this is the down payment for doing just that.
Yep, that's the Republican Party of Grover Norquist to a "t." What did Norquist say about shrinking government "down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub?" Is that what Republicans like Bill Howell and Terry Kilgore are up to here? Because they're certainly not up to producing a responsible, serious transportation plan for Virginia's future.
Which brings us back to the Roanoke Times editorial, and its admonition to Governor Kaine: "Veto this roads monstrosity!"
According to The Martinsville Bulletin:
"[Kaine] is going to address the Northern Virginia piece and Hampton Roads piece and the statewide piece. There will be major revisions to all" of them, Armstrong said following his speech to the Piedmont Democratic Women's Club.* * *
Armstrong also told the club that the transportation bill, unveiled on the final weekend of the assembly session, "started when Attorney General (Bob) McDonnell and Congressman Tom Davis got together with GOP leaders. ... I'm sure they felt their position in this state as Republicans was weakening. They probably felt they better do something on transportation" or they would be hurt by their failure to do so.In crafting the bill, "they met in secret, with no input from the public, no involvement of the governor, no involvement by the Democrats. I'm not whining but we're part of the process, too. We're elected just as they are," Armstrong said. "Is it any wonder it's ended up in the mess that it's in. In my humble opinion the only way to fix it is to fix both. There needs to be discussions with the governor and the Democrats. So far they've been unwilling to do that," he added, referring to House Republicans and Senators who were on the conference committee for transportation.
Based on that, I don't know if you are in exact agreement with Mr. Bacon. As he states in his article "Transportation Abomination":
As Sen. Janet Howell, D-Fairfax, bluntly made their case: "A reasonable plan does not take money from public education, higher education, health care and public safety. Especially, it doesn't take money from our sick and our disabled neighbors."It was an audacious gambit for the Big Government party. Virginia's current biennial budget provides 19 percent more for K-12 education, 22 percent for higher education, 15 percent for public safety, 21 percent for mental health, and 38 percent for the Chesapeake Bay than the two-year previous budget. The GOP compromise would not have cut spending in any of those categories -- it would have used surplus revenue only. But the Mainstream Media dutifully repeated the Big Government rhetoric without ever putting it in context of the actual facts. Comments such as Howell's were treated seriously, not greeted with the guffaws they warranted.
I am in agreement that this plan is bad, but not because it takes some money from the General Fund. I also think as progressives, we should avoid regressive forms of taxation like excise taxes or "user" fees (See my related comment to the diary Flat Earth Republicans Deny Taxes Exist)