Guest Column

Steve Haner


 

No More Snake Oil!

The truth isn't popular, but here it is: We cannot improve our transportation system without raising taxes. Anyone who argues otherwise is selling comfort, not cure.


 

Attaboy, Barnie Day – You tell them! (See "Memo to Kaine and Kilgore," August 23, 2004.) The one thing we don’t need in discussing transportation challenges is meaningless blather, but we may get plenty of it. This is where I came in.

 

In 1985 I was working for The Roanoke Times & World-News. (It is now called The Roanoke Times, all traces of the evening paper having been obliterated, except in the memories of those of us who worked on it.) Assignment: The 1985 statewide campaigns – a very instructive battle as we enter the 2005 fray.

 

The issue then was transportation, as well. Virginia was in a very similar situation to today, with revenue stagnant and maintenance costs exploding, leaving less and less for construction. We had real inflation in those days, not the milquetoast variety we face today.

 

One of the candidates for governor was honest enough to admit that Virginia needed to raise transportation taxes. It was not the fabled transportation savant Gerald Baliles. No, it was the Republican Wyatt Durrette. Once Wyatt had said it, Baliles stood by quietly and watched him get fried as “pro-tax” by some specious “Republicans for Baliles” front group. Baliles, for his part, promised not to raise taxes.

 

The rest, as they say, is history. Durrette lost and Baliles (surprising no one with a lick of sense) raised taxes. He did it with many Republican legislators voting aye

 

Anyone who watched the 1985 election understands why both Jerry Kilgore and Tim Kaine are being cautious. Yes, a corollary lesson was taught in 1987, when no incumbent legislator of either party lost re-nomination or re-election because they voted for the transportation package. But the statewide candidate who spoke truth paid dearly.

 

Transportation ought to be a natural Republican issue. Eisenhower built the interstate system with federal gas taxes. Lincoln made the transcontinental rail system possible a century earlier with massive government subsidies. There were opponents aplenty in both cases, whining about the immense cost and devastation of the landscape. They lost the argument and their descendents have shared in prosperity unequalled in human history. 

 

Liberals raise taxes for income transfer and entitlement programs. Smart conservatives ask for more money only if it will supercharge the economy. The 1986 Baliles tax increase for transportation is still paying dividends as Virginia leads the states in job creation, but this is about as far as that horse will carry us.

 

Since 1987, every time somebody buys 20 gallons of gasoline, they contribute $3.50 toward Virginia’s share of maintenance, operation and construction of the highway system. With that they can drive up to 500 or more miles on our streets and highways, depending on fuel efficiency. To me that $3.50 is a user fee, and a very efficient fee at that, far fairer than the (additional) $3.30 I pay in tolls on my daily commute (to go only about 40 miles.)

 

That $3.50 on 20 gallons has been the same amount for 18 years, meaning that thanks to inflation it is really 40 percent cheaper than it was the last time it changed. (How much have your other bills gone up since 1987? Your income?)

 

Just adjust for 18 years of inflation – take that $3.50 up to about $5 – and it would make a huge difference in Virginia’s transportation future. For many trips it would still work out to less than a penny a mile.

 

Anybody who tells you we can make significant improvements in transportation without raising the gas tax, without increasing that $3.50 “user fee” for 20 gallons worth of travel on our roads, is selling snake oil. Sure we can – and must -- improve efficiency and planning, sure some of the projects should be toll roads, and yes we need to make sure all the money is spent as intended.

 

But to argue those steps will be sufficient is pure snake oil. Plenty of people get rich selling snake oil and plenty of politicians get elected selling snake oil. I’ve seen plenty of snake oil used to fry bacon on Bacon’s Rebellion in recent months, filling the display screen with smoke. But it doesn’t cure a thing.  

 

-- August 23, 2004

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stephen D. Haner is vice president for public policy with the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. You can can e-mail him here: s.haner@vachamber.com