Dr. Jerry Fuhrman got the diagnosis wrong, but the prescription is just fine

I consider Jerry Fuhrman (From on High) to be one of the sharpest tacks in Southwest Virginia.  That’s why his recent post on HB3202 (a.k.a. the transportation tax hike of 2007) is so maddeningly disappointing (except for his proposed solution, more on that later).

We’ll start with his first – and most glaring – error about the debacle:

It provided the opportunity to levy new taxes on those people screaming the loudest for taxes to be raised (northern Virginians and Hampton Roadsters)  . . .

This is not true.  Voters in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads were specifically asked this question in a 2002 referendum on the subject.  Both regions soundly rejected it, in no small part because the money in question (which would have been raised by a half-cent addition to the state sales tax in those regions) would have been spent by unelected and therefore unaccountable “regional authorities.”

What the transportation tax hike of 2007 did was not only impose said regional authorities on the two regions, but give them taxing power as well, which is not only unpopular but also patently unconstitutional.  It was this brazen disregard for the will of the people of NoVa and Hampton Roads that lost the GOP its Senate majority and cut its House majority in half.  All four Senate losses were in either Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads, as were all of the four House seats we lost (outside of these two angry regions, the GOP held their own in the Senate and actually gained one House seat).

Jerry makes another painful error in the next paragraph:

But now that a vocal minority of citizens has convinced politicians in Richmond to void the compromise, we’re back where we started. With calls for a massive tax hike . . .

Trust me, Jerry, I wish we had convinced Richmond to scrap the regional authorities, but we haven’t.  The only thing that seems a done deal is the abusive driver fee repeal.  Either way, this does not automatically mean a statewide tax hike is necessary, even if the regional authorities would be extinguished or declared unconstitutional.  What is needed is spending restraint, which has been in alarmingly short supply these days.

Finally, as one can expect, I took greatest exception to this line:

Somehow I’ll bet you guys aren’t really looking for compromise though. You just want a tax increase. Again.

Well, I’ve got news for you. We beat you last time; we’ll beat you again.

Sorry Jerry, but if by “we” you mean the supporters of HB3202, you didn’t “beat” the Democrats.  You joined them.  That’s the thing that, frankly, a lot of bloggers in western Virginia simply do not understand.  The Republican label in the east has been very badly tarnished.  In the 21st century, we have seen the Virginia Republican leadership (a) try to hoodwink voters in our biggest urban centers to approve local tax increases for “roads,” (b) seen the party cave to Mark Warner on a massive tax hike (and in many respects, beg for even higher taxes) and (c) ignore the will of the aforementioned urban center voters and impose tax hikes on them anyway, with unaccountable regional authorities to boot.

For the folks out west, (b) may be seen as an odd one-off that could be laid at the feet of John Chichester, but here in the east, the Republicans have become just another high-tax party, and this “compromise” is just one more example of that.

That said, Jerry offers his own “compromise” – namely slow down the higher education splurge and divert the money to roads.  For all his errors on what happened last year, what he would like to see this year is right on the mark.  There is plenty of money in existing revenues to cover road improvements without making Virginia (or parts of it) less competitive economically.

Finally, Jerry ends thusly: “You’d do well to take my compromise. Or there’ll be hell to pay.”

On that, we agree completely.  Jerry may not have the right analysis, but his recommendations should be heeded by Richmond – especially Richmond Republicans.