The Transportation Tax Panic The transportation package backed by House and Senate Republicans would raise taxes and create unaccountable regional governments -- just to help the GOP survive the next election.   The General Assembly session wraps up at the end of this week. The conference committee on Transportation is stacked to do the bidding of Sen. Marty Williams, RINO-Newport News. It's sure to report out a clone of the 2002 Transportation Tax Scam.    I got an email from Republican Chris Saxman with his newsletter extolling the "compromise" bill as the best that can be expected.   But, here is the kind of emails I get from rank-and-file Republicans, or Conservatives who used to call themselves Virginia Republicans: “I am completely disgusted with the Republicans.”   Most elected politicians will be crowing about the ‘best deal’ they could get. The Republicans are scared to death that they will lose the majority in the General Assembly. Yet, if bad bills are the best they can do, then Republicans deserve to lose the majority. The 2007 Transportation Tax Panic is all about sticking the bad plan -- more taxes and another level of government on the voters – and calling it the best plan so the peasants will keep voting the Republicans in power.   It causes a split between principled Conservatives and RINOs serving the special interests. Here on The Peninsula Delegates Tom Gear, R-Hampton, and Melanie Rapp, R-Yorktown, defend us against this transportation abortion. Williams and Sen. Tommy Norment, R-Williamsburg, are cramming the compromise of Republican principles down our throats.   Go to the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission (HRPDC) website and check this out. The HRPDC reports in ‘The State of Transportation in Hampton Roads’ (Dwight L. Farmer, Deputy Executive Director, Transportation, Jan 17, 2007) that Hampton Roads traffic growth has been flat-lining since 2003. The region lags behind the nation and other urban averages for growth. So, where is the crisis? Ask Williams and Norment how much traffic decreased or increased in the past year? They won’t know. Ask them these questions anyway. How many congested miles will decrease each of the next 20 years? (Answer: Congested miles increase under the Norment/Williams plan.) Why does your plan do nothing to decrease congestion on Rte 17, Jefferson Avenue, Mercury Boulevard and the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel? What part of ‘NO’ do you not understand about the two ‘NO’ votes for Regional Government, a new level of government with taxing power, your voters made? (Three if you count the votes Jerry Kilgore lost for supporting Regional Governments). How many people will be on staff and what will their salaries be –- year by year for this regional government? How many retired and failed politicians will get six-figure salaries? Where will their new offices be? Which of your contributors/friends will rent the building for the government offices? How much will it cost? What will be the cost in legal fees, consulting for environmental studies, engineering studies, publicity, etc. every year? Which of your contributors/friends will win those contracts? What automobiles, security services, information technology contracts will be purchased each year? Which of your contributors/friends will get those contracts and for how much? Since there is no reviewing authority for any action of the government, are you still going to build a Third Crossing to dump thousands of trucks on I-64 right up the road from the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel? Americans fought a Revolution over ‘No Taxation Without Representation’, so is your unelected government a British plot to show us the Revolution was just a joke? What tax increases and new taxes can we expect from the unelected, unaccountable government for the next 20 years? Actually, since the Regional Government lasts as long as there is debt – it really is more than 50 years – forever -- isn’t it? If you are Republicans, why did you design an unelected Regional Government that will be dominated by Democrats from the local city/county governments? Why is Poquoson exempt from all the taxes, except the increase in car registration and fines? James Madison’s genius in designing the Constitution was to separate the legislative, executive and judiciary powers at every level of government in Virginia and the U.S. Is the reason you make guys who raises taxes the same as those who decide how to spend them (with friends) in your unaccountable Regional Government that you want to make corruption easier or you want to make it easier to cover up foul-ups? When you increase taxes in Hampton Roads (except Poquoson) for $209 million in the first year – how many jobs will you kill? (Answer: Every $150 million in new taxes kills 5,000 jobs – working poor first.) How much will taxes increase every year? What’s the difference between a tax-and-spend Republican and a tax-and-spend Democrat?  (Answer: The Democrats know what they are doing when they promote socialism). -- February 20, 2007