Does Bill Howell WANT to be Minority Leader?!

I held out hope that when the State Supreme Court voided most of the taxes and fees in HB3202, the Republicans in the General Assembly would take this second chance to craft a transportation solution without raising taxes (the G.A. Democrats wanted a gas-tax hike then and sadly, they still want one now).

Alas, they seem determined to repeat their initial mistake, and put the proverbial gun to the heads of local officials (Washington Post):

House Republicans are floating a proposal to require local governments to vote on which taxes and fees to impose — an idea opposed by local governments last year.

So, once again, Bill Howell et al are hoping their idea of limiting the tax hike to those two regions will mitigate the damage to the party and the economy.  Well, they were wrong then, and they’re wrong now.

Worse yet, some Republicans haven’t even realized that they’re hollowing out their own rhetoric.  Take House Majority Whip Kirkland Cox (please), for example (WaPo):

“To say anything is a nonstarter is a mistake. We have tried not to draw lines in the sand,” Cox said. “We need to fix the regional plans, but I don’t think there is much appetite from us to impose a new tax increase.”

So a new tax increase is bad, but digging up an old one is just peachy!

This is exactly the sort of nonsense that sank the party last fall; the idea that Northern Virginians and Hampton Roads residents will sit still for HB3202 II – The Sequel is insane.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of Virginia voters will wonder why the supposed party of limited government and low taxes will have helped to enact three tax increases in five years.

There are ways to deal with transportation without shoveling piles of taxpayer money at the problem and hoping it goes away – and yes, Virginia’s tax-hiking Democrats, I’m talking to you, too.  We need to instead download secondary road maintenance to the localities and take subdivision roads of the state-maintained schedule entirely.  I’ll expand on that when I get the chance, but the simple version is this: Who should pay for my roads?  I should.