Speak to the Camera Hampton Roads voters need to ask their public officials a few tough questions before deciding whether or not to create an unelected, unaccountable regional transportation authority.   Your elected officials have yet to decide whether to support or oppose creation of a regional transportation authority -- an unelected, unaccountable Regional Government. Please ask your city council or board of supervisors the following questions before they vote.   Make sure your questions – and the elected officials' responses – are on camera for replay on local cable stations and for use in future local elections. That is very important because these questions and answers will never been seen in the Mainstream Media newspapers and television. Please show the voting taxpayers a chart with how many miles of congestion are reduced for the next 20 years under this plan. Oh, you don’t have the data? Why not? How can you vote for a transportation plan if you don’t even know the level and location of traffic congestion that is projected for Hampton Roads? Perhaps no one is showing the public those numbers because 2002 projections for the same plan showed an increase of 91 congested miles across Hampton Roads.  After 20 years of construction delays, accidents and deaths – there still will be more congestion. So, why would you vote for a plan that won't work? Knowingly voting for an expensive plan that won’t work is the moral equivalent of violating the physician's moral guidance, "First do no harm." In the politician's case, that injunction translates into, "First don’t vote for what you know won’t work." In this case, you know that a Third Crossing would dump thousands of trucks onto Interstate 64 near the Hampton Coliseum. Why would you vote for this instead of an improved U.S. 460 rail/highway corridor and connection to the Port of Virginia? This plan does nothing for the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel, the biggest bottleneck across Hampton Roads. Why would you vote to do nothing where it is most needed? The voting taxpayer, The People, voted ‘NO’ to Regional Government with taxing authority in ’98 and ’02 by better than 2:1. This bill is designed to go around The People to make you vote for unelected, unaccountable Regional Government. Why would you go against the expressed will of The People and vote for this new expansion of government? Why not let The People vote again? Virginia has built infrastructure for 400 years without Regional Governments. The wisdom for designing governments is to separate the legislative, executive and judicial powers at every level. The Founding Fathers wrote in Federalist 51 that allowing any two powers to be held by the same person or group is the definition of tyranny. This Regional Government has all three powers with no reviewing authority. Why would you support building a new level of government that would be tyrannical, possessing the power of eminent domain, and potentially corrupt? The absence of direct accountability to the voters – no person would run for an office in this Regional Government – and the lack of a reviewing authority would be an invitation to corruption. The Hampton Roads Planning District Council already announced the first legal services contract ($50k) goes to Kaufman and Canoles. Sen. Thomas K. Norment, Jr., R-Newport News, and Kenneth W. Stolle, R-Virginia Beach, are partners in that firm. Why isn’t that a conflict of interest? Was there a competition? Who is the reviewing authority for that decision? Who can another law firm appeal to if there were improprieties? What are the proposed staff positions and what would they be paid? If you don’t know this data, how can you vote to give the authority a blank check – with $200m for just the first year to spend? What would be the consulting contracts and how much would they be paid each year? If you don’t know, again, why are you giving away the taxpayers money? What would be the total cost of the additional level of government for the first year – for everything – offices, services, meals, travel, consulting, labor, etc. If you don’t know, why are you voting? Do you vote for your local budget without knowing the numbers at all? How much of the Transportation money would be spent on sand replenishment at Virginia Beach every year (it’s in the bill)? How much would be spent on "cultural affairs" (it’s in the bill)? Which cultural affairs would be supported with taxpayer money? How much would be spent on Regional Government advertising and promotion? (It’s in the bill.) If you are a Republican, why would you vote for a new level of government that would be dominated by Democrats? Why would you vote for new taxes and more government when the Republican Creed of Virginia supports lower taxes and less government? Please speak to the camera.   -- May 28, 2007