How a Neighboring State Handles Its Transportation Funding
By: Lowell
Published On: 5/15/2007 8:14:44 AM
Across the river in Maryland, they also hae tremendous transportation needs. But unlike in Virginia, the land of smoke and mirrors when it comes to dealing with these challenges, Maryland appears to be getting serious. Instead of raiding the General Fund, racking up debt, continuing to encourage sprawl, and still not even making s dent in Virginia's transportation crisis, Maryland is seriously considering doing something that actually might work - raise gas taxes by 12 cents per gallon in order to raise $400 million per year in new, sustainable revenues for transportation projects.
Two of those projects are "a proposed light-rail Metro line connecting Bethesda and New Carrollton and light rail or bus service along part of the Interstate 270 corridor." Here in Virginia, we could do a lot of the same, but - reality check! earth to Republican "flat earthers!" - that requires money.
What a concept, I know. And guess what, we're in luck, because Virginia has one of the lowest taxes on gasoline of any state, so there's room to raise it a few cents, barely even notice the difference (does it really matter if gas costs $3.10 or $3.20 per gallon?), yet raise large sums of money to deal with Virginia's transportation crisis.
Why is this so difficult to understand, especially when we've got more than $100 billion in unmet transportation needs here in Virginia? Or are we going to just continue nibbling around the edges and never make a serious dent in this problem? Unfortunately, that's what it looks like, even as our neighbor, Maryland, looks like it will be moving ahead. Hey, is it legal to swap legislatures with another state? Ha.
Comments
Maryland... (Tom Joad (Kevin) - 5/15/2007 9:19:40 AM)
has its fair share of stalling too. They've talked about the Purple (Bethesda, Silver Spring to New Carolton) Line for over 10 years. They've also been sitting on plans for the 270-95 connector for over 30 years. I agree, though, that they are willing to put up the bucks for their projects while we sit and dawdle.
Nobody's perfect... (Lowell - 5/15/2007 9:22:17 AM)
...but at least Maryland looks like it's moving forward. Here in Virginia, we remain stuck in transportation and political gridlock. How will we break out of this? One place to start - turn the State Senate over to the Democrats, and eventually the House as well, and my guess is we'll start to get things done. With the "flat earth" Republicans in charge, get used to idling in traffic.
We can swap legislatures if we believe we can and work hard enough. (Tom Counts - 5/15/2007 9:20:44 AM)
Thanks for the reminder that we all need to get moving ASAP to get our great candidates elected. We already know how many Va. Senate seats are either open or are held by GOP people who have become very vulnerable,and we're already geared up to hit hard and often. But there are also numerous HOD seats that are winnable across the state. We just need to make the DPVA leaders, ourselves realize that we don't have to settle for just coming close to a HOD Dem. majority. If we work as hard as we did for Jim Webb, and even more importantly BELIEVE that we can take back not only the Senate but also the House, we really can make it happen.Jim Webb was our inspirational leader who made us believe that we could win. And as soon as we understood what he was saying and why, we started to become the core of the Brigades believers. Then the belief spread across the state like wildfire and energized thousands of new recruits. We can do it again, and we must because it is our duty. Duty called us and we answered. Duty is calling us again and it's time to answer once again.The time has come for us to re-activate our core believers and inspire new recruits with the same belief that we can deliver a Dem. majority in both houses of the Va. General Assembly in November. Believe it, and it will happen. But only if we inspire ourselves and many more to believe we can do it, and then work as hard as we know how. T.C.
Sending us your Legislature (rduckham - 5/15/2007 5:26:04 PM)
Being a Mayland resident, I have one thing to say about swapping legislatures. NOT ON YOUR F'ING LIFE!
Why is a regressive tax the solution? (desfido - 5/16/2007 5:54:50 PM)
Long time lurker, first time commenter.
While something needs to be done to raise the money to pay for our transportation costs, why is raising gas taxes the solution? I'm generally opposed to sales taxes and other regressive taxes as fund-raisers, although I'm not necessarily against them being used as a disincentive for doing/buying something.
If there was reason to believe good enough, cheap enough public transit would be available which would be a viable alternative to driving in much of the state, I'd be in favor of increasing the gas tax, to encourage people to make use of it. However, until it seems that's likely, all a regressive tax does is screw the poorest people the most, and make it even more difficult for anything to be done about it.
Certainly some kind of tax increase is called for, but there's no need for a regressive one.