Northern
Virginia Delegates Joe T. May, R-Loudoun, and
Thomas Rust, R-Fairfax, were understandably quiet
the night of July 10 as the Northern Virginia
Transportation Authority (NVTA) convened in the
wake of another special General Assembly session
on transportation.
Both
men were tired -- the Assembly has adjourned in
the wee hours of that same morning in Richmond --
and talked out. Besides, neither May nor Rust, two
of the most energetic and sensible Republican
delegates on transportation finance and policy,
had a real explanation as to why their colleagues
had failed yet again to reach a compromise on
solutions to a problem that is so self evident
daily for commuters, travelers, shippers and
freight movers.
Both
men are engineers, born to solve problems, the
kind of leaders even ideologues find useful from
time to time. May is chairman of the House
Transportation Committee. Rust, a voice for transportation investments
as Mayor of Herndon for 19 years and since his
election as a delegate in 2002, actually threw in
with House Democrats in a failed attempt to
approve a new financing plan.
But
all the two delegates knew was that their caucus
remained so splintered that it could agree on
nothing new, not even a refinement of its work in
2007. Even in the face of lower revenue estimates
for all state spending extending into 2010,
factionalism and indifference again trumped common
sense.
Or
was it a cartoon-like lack of imagination and
incompetence that had prevailed, such as that
shown in “The Simpsons” when Springfield
Police Chief Clancy Wiggum (the long, pudgy arm of
the law) answers the “What do we do, Chief?”
question from his deputies concerned with a
serious situation they face.
“Have
you flashed the lights and blown the siren?”
Chief Wiggum suggests, then adds, “Well, I’m
all out of ideas.”
Colleagues
of the two delegates on the Northern Virginia
Transportation Authority, a mix of local and state
government officials created by the General
Assembly in 2002, however, were not so quiet on
July 10. They knew that the failure to establish
new, sustainable sources of revenue for
transportation would delay or cancel 102 projects
worth about $500 million in Northern Virginia
over the next six years.
After
first hearing representatives of Metrorail, the
Virginia Railway Express (VRE) and local
governments reiterate their growing needs,
authority members let loose a decade-long torrent
of frustrations that must have had the ears of
every delegate and state senator in Virginia
burning.
“The
VRE had seven of its top ten ridership days in
June as people got out of their cars,” VRE chief
of staff Dale Zehner explained. "Yet VRE is
looking at a fuel bill that will top the $3.7
million we have budgeted by another $3 million.”
“We
are no better off than we were last July,”
Prince William Supervisor John Jenkins told the
panel.
“We
have carried 800,000 riders a day on Metrorail
eleven times in recent weeks,” WMATA general
manager John Catoe added, “but much of our
system dates back to 1976 and is nearing the end
of its useful life. We need to add capacity, but
without a dedicated revenue stream we have to
struggle just to meet our daily operational and
maintenance needs.”
“Prince
William
County
already devotes five cents of its property tax
revenue to support the transportation bonds we
issue locally because the state fails to provide
adequate funding,” authority Vice Chairman Marty
Nohe of
Prince
William
County
observed.
“I
tremble to think of the repercussions of commuters
being turned away from transit because there is no
space and turned back from bridges that are
crumbling and, as congestion gets even worse, of
the flight of capital and businesses out of our
region,” reflected Fairfax Board of Supervisors
Chairman Gerry Connolly.
“This
is the most stunning abrogation of responsibility
in the history of the General Assembly,” NVTA
Chairman and Arlington County Board Member Chris
Zimmerman concluded as he reviewed the history of
the authority. “We have done everything we can
to prepare the way for effective and efficient use
of new revenue for regional transportation
projects. But the message is clear: We are not
going to get any funding from the state for
transportation.”
Zimmerman’s
suggestion was to finish its business, close up
and turn out the authority lights until the
Assembly provides funds to support the body it
created.
At
least one authority member was mindful of the
larger consequences of Virginia’s powers-that-be ignoring the needs of a
growing region. That history shows that the
non-responsiveness of Virginia leaders to infrastructure investment needs of the
western part of Virginia in the early 1800s sowed the frustrations that
would grow and split the state in two.
“It
is one thing to be a donor region,” Loudoun
County Board Chairman Scott York commented, “but
through its inaction, the state is rendering it
impossible for local governments to deliver the
public safety, economic support and quality of
life our residents and businesses expect.”
York
suggested that rather than turn out the lights,
the authority should consider reconstituting
itself as a “Northern Virginia Statehood
Commission.”
The
NVTA will hold what could be its final meeting for
sometime on September 11, a date already assured
of a place on any list of days that will live in
infamy. Whether the authority is put on hold or
has the plug pulled, the powerfully long list of
$500 million worth of
Northern Virginia
projects canceled or delayed will endure.
The
102 projects are spread across every jurisdiction
and delegate district in Northern Virginia, which guarantees that the list in the 2009
elections for Governor and the House of Delegates
will serve as a critical bill of particulars for
new transportation investments -- unless it is Virginia, itself, that is all out of ideas.
--
August 4, 2008
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