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
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