Funny Money It's all play money to the economic geniuses in the state Senate. The senators' transportation- financing plan doesn't make a lick of economic sense.    Virginia’s Republican Senators make a big deal about what kind of money needs to be taxed. They insist that some kinds of tax money are right and others are wrong.   Maybe the Republican Senators don’t know that the taxpayers pay all taxes from the same source – our economy. Maybe they think the taxes they impose are just funny money, monopoly cash, that won’t kill jobs and hurt families. Or, maybe they’re fooling themselves trying to fool you with this funny money political con.   The Republican Senators want "permanent, reliable, sustainable" tax revenue for transportation. They get the vapors worrying about the next recession -- as if any tax revenues were permanent, reliable and sustainable. If only they understood basic economics.   In a recession what happens to the following tax revenues the Senators covet? Raising the grantors tax... Do house sales go up or down? Adding two percent to the sales tax... Do car sales go up or down? Hiking the car registration and title taxes.... Does car ownership go up or down? Bumping up the gas tax... Do folks drive more miles or fewer miles? Increasing the auto insurance premium tax... Is more auto insurance sold or less? Charging sales tax on auto repairs... Are there more auto repairs or less? Who thinks these taxes are immune when a recession reduces the incomes of Virginia’s families?   Although the Commonwealth spent more money in the 02-03 budget because the increase in general sales, income and corporate tax revenue flattened out – revenues did not plummet.    Republican Senators don’t want sales, income and corporate taxes to pay for transportation. They claim that money can only be used for education and other General Fund expenditures. These geniuses think it really matters if you, the taxpayer, take money out of your left pocket to pay some taxes and out of your right pocket to pay other taxes.   They don’t understand that it’s the same money regardless of which pocket you pull it from. Maybe if they paid their own way in the world instead of taking trips, gifts and favors from Lobbyists they’d know better.   They offer a phony argument that argument that schools will suffer because the General Fund money pouring into the Treasury, every extra penny of it, belongs to education. During the Clinton/ 9-11 Recession of 00-02 no schools closed. No child was denied an education in Virginia.   Speaking of geniuses, consider the Hampton Roads-crossing plan that the Senate briefed the House about. Presently, there are four lanes of traffic in two separate bridge-tunnel-bridge links. The Senate’s plan is to add more bridges but no more tunnels.   What is wrong with that picture? Six or eight lanes of bridge traffic go through four lanes of tunnel. Can you spell – bottleneck – with billions of tax dollars?   Moreover, the Republican Senators can’t just have VDOT put up tolls across the James and raise the money for a Third Crossing. Nope. Sen. Marty Williams wants to disband the profit-making commission running the Bay Bridge and put all the bridges under an unelected governing body (sound familiar?) with government representatives and others appointed by the General Assembly. Hire retired and failed politicians for six figure salaries to raise the tolls and "manage" the money without proper oversight. What a plan.   This is the big fight about new transportation taxes. The House provides for transportation, education, law enforcement and the environment without raising taxes. The numbers don’t lie, even while whining politicians do.   Ask the Senate Republicans to name the number one transportation priority in Virginia. Name it for Hampton Roads. How much money is needed next year to start the funding? How many projects can be funded with today’s growing revenues? Which projects don’t get any funding – this year – when you finally run of out money coming into the Commonwealth? The Republican Senators can’t answer these simple show and tell questions.   What have these Republican Senators been doing since 1999 (other than trying to raise our taxes, raising our taxes and trying again to raise our taxes)? They’ve spent the surplus from last year (over $1.4 billion). They’ll spend the surplus this year and demand more in taxes.   Meanwhile, their own questionable analysis indicates that in first year of the Republican Senate plan 8,405 government jobs are added and 5,805 private sector jobs are lost. Not an exercise in Jeffersonian limited government.   Stop these Republican Senators before they tax again. Your tax money may be funny money to play with. But what they do to Virginia families isn’t funny at all.   -- March 20, 2006