The Daily Press today explains the "long road that brought us to this transportation mess." In sum, according to the Daily Press, the current mess we're in is primarily the fault of the following:1) Threee former governors: Doug Wilder, George Allen and Jim Gilmore. The Daily Press is particularly scathing about Allen ("He liked the spending part, but didn't want to get his hair messed with the nasty business of raising taxes.") and Gilmore ("Gilmore clearly fretted about interrupting the ascendancy of the GOP in the General Assembly, a process largely driven by "have-it-for-nothing" politics.").
2) Brenda Pogge, the "presumed GOP candidate to replace vacating York County Del. Melanie Rapp" (deserves "some of the responsibility for setting the stage for the new transportation authority, taxes and fees included").
3) Tim Kaine, who "signed the thing" into law. On the other hand, the Daily Press notes that "at least [Kaine] fought for a more reasonable, state-based alternative...rather than as a Balkanized collection of regions."
4) Last but not least, the "no-tax wing of the GOP caucus in the Virginia House of Delegates." ("They wrote it. They pushed it. They blocked better, simpler ideas. They got it out of the General Assembly.")
In sum, the Daily Press largely blames the Republicans - former Governors Allen and Gilmore, plus Brenda Pogge and the House Republicans - for the transportation monstrosity - $3,550 traffic "fees" and all - that passed a few months ago. Sure, Gov. Kaine should have vetoed the Republican transportation bill, but at least he tried to make it better. Also, it's hard to fault him for wanting SOMETHING to get done after two years of GOP obstructionism and the state facing a transportation crisis.
The Daily Press concludes, "if you don't like what's coming in taxes and fees, you may wish to check in with your local Republican delegate for an explanation of exactly what he or she thinks."
Better yet, vote 'em out of office in November. They have richly earned the honor.
April madness
The transportation deal: It may seem final, but the game isn't over. What if they played basketball like the General Assembly played at transportation legislation this year?As game time rolled around, the PA system would announce that an entirely different team would actually take the court, play the game and, if things didn't go well, accept the blame.
Then, while waiting for the opening jump, the pleased-with-themselves nonparticipants would pose for victory pictures.
On and on it went Wednesday, as state legislators puffed themselves up and proudly pointed to their transportation-funding plan, the vast bulk of which relies upon local government officials to enact.
The rest is borrowed money, a shift in cost to future generations for things wanted today. The biggest, bestest transportation plan "in a generation," promoters called it -- a generation being roughly 20 years and the claim, of course, being meaningless because the same bunch fought a transportation fix right up until a few months ago.
Now they want to claim that this road business will be fine forever, with instant gratification to boot.
"Within a year, people will start seeing improvements to secondary roads, and soon after that, we will probably be turning dirt on some big projects," said Del. David B. Albo of Fairfax.
That, to be polite, is ludicrous. The money provided -- or, to be more precise, the money that may be provided, assuming local governments approve a slew of new taxes to fund new regional authorities in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia -- means that Virginia's road construction program will not come to a rip-roaring halt, victimized by growing maintenance costs.
What cleared the General Assembly this week adhered to a larger ideological agenda, namely the avoidance of new statewide taxes. House Republicans, having won a majority by promising the electorate a free lunch, will now sit back and let local officials do the work. It's an irony too cynical to be amusing that some of the politicians who campaigned and won on "No Car Tax" are congratulating themselves for inviting local governments to enact a bundle of "little" car taxes and fees.
For this to fly, by December seven of 12 Hampton Roads localities representing at least 51 percent of the region's population will have to enact that slew of taxes and fees -- the kind of tough decisions state lawmakers didn't have the guts to deal with.
In the end, Sen. Thomas Norment of James City County got it right. "I have characterized [the transportation bill] ... before my friends and my constituents as being one of the ugliest ... stepchildren that this General Assembly's ever reported out," he told his colleagues.
Norment helped lead the band, of course, putting his formidable legislative abilities to the task of getting out a bill, however flawed, that the House could tolerate and Gov. Tim Kaine could sign.
Kaine was all too eager to do so. With 21/2 years remaining in his term, the governor figures that does it for him. He wants to talk about something else. Legislators, too, want to put roads behind them.Dream on.
Well, you get the picture.
We better be careful here - many people have said they supported at least some funding for transportation. I, for one, worry about my delegate who voted against the bill.