One of the more insidious notions about the regional authorities spawned by the transportation tax hike of 2007 was that the members would all be locally elected officials. That was the veneer of “representation” used by the defenders of this debacle. Well, Governor Kaine blew that facade away yesterday (Skeptical Observer):
Opened my Potomac News today, and learned from a blurb in “Neighbors of Note” that Governor Timmy! has appointed rejected Prince William BOCS Chairman candidate for Chairman Sharon Pandak to the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority.
Yet more evidence that the NVTA is blatantly unconstitutional under Virginia law (Virginia’s Constitution). Pandak has been twice rejected by the voters of Prince William County, yet she is now among those setting our tax rates.
Remember that the next time some Democrat waxes demagogic about “democracy.”
“Representation”, my foot!
January 15, 2008 at 6:35 pm |
DJ, I understand your concerns with SB708 and HB3202. How specifically would you have/will solve our transportation problem?
Also, man, how do you keep up with so many posts in such a detailed way? Today just going back an forth with you took a bunch of my time. Do blog somehow fulltime?
Gota run–my 2 year old daughter just yelled “go pottie”–it’s my new name at home!
January 16, 2008 at 9:40 am |
DJ, this doesn’t have to be detailed–a conceptual summary would be fine. I would love to know where you see the ultimate solution of transportation going.
January 16, 2008 at 10:11 am |
Brandon,
The more I think about it, the more it may need its own post, but two initial thoughts come to mind.
1) Decentralization: While the Byrd plan of a state-maintained network from Big Stone Gap to the Beach may have had its merits in 1932, I would submit it’s unable to handle the very diverse needs of the Commonwealth today. It would be better to have localities handle as much of their own asphalt as possible. I know that sounds a little like 3202, but the regional authorities were a top-down, Richmond driven solution.
Moreover, you don’t get what is really needed, having the useres pay directly for the roads. Of course, the status quo ante didn’t do that either, and neither would mere decentralization, that why we need at least one more thing . . .
2) Give localities the power to charge tolls and/or fees road building and maintenance. At the end of the day, it should be governments that pay for roads, it should be the folks who use them. For subdivisons (which unless I seriously miss my guess is the biggest cost driver for road building and maintenance these days) that should be the homeowners and their HOAs. When I suggested this to a friend of mine on our local Board of Supervisors, he informed me localities can’t to that. They should be able to do so.
I’ll acknowledge it may be a little trickier for places where HOAs are not predominant (my county in the past, perhaps much of your region in the present), but I would have to trust the locallties to divvy up the cost among property owners for non-subdivision roads ina reasonable manner. I also suspect that it would mean a far lower cost for non-subdivision areas.
I live in a subdivision, and unless I seriously miss my guess, your former constituents probably pay (in part) for my streets. I should pay for my streets.
But don’t tell the wife I said that!
January 16, 2008 at 10:12 am |
“it should be governments that pay for roads, it should be the folks who use them.”
Whoops!! That shoudl read “it should NOT be governments that pay for roads, it should be the folks who use them.” Now I’ll definitely need a post to clear up the confusion!
January 16, 2008 at 1:15 pm |
[...] I would do about transportation (Part I) Yesterday evening, Brandon Bell responded to this post with a question (in the comments): ” How specifically would you have/will solve our [...]