Readers Respond



No Substitute for Building More Roads

 

Your article, “Straws in the Wind” (April 12, 2004), ignores at least the last 18 years of transportation history and the current realities of transportation funding. It makes me wonder what planet you have been on the last two decades. Your criticism is inappropriately aimed at VDOT when it should be directed at the historic political leadership that ignored funding sufficient improvements of the transportation infrastructure — just as they have ignored sufficient funding of education, higher education, health and human services, and a myriad of other State responsibilities. And many of whom, in my judgment, are ignoring the needs of today’s Virginians.

 

I served in the Baliles Administration when transportation became a priority. The Baliles initiative was intended to address critical access, safety, and capacity problems and do so over a 10- to 12-year time frame. It is now 18 years later and much of the spending for transportation is still grounded on the funds raised by that initiative.  

 

With regard to highways, I strongly support “demand management” techniques and new technology applications. I work with them every day. But I don’t think for a minute that the need for projects like the Dulles Greenway, Springfield Bypass, Route 28, Route 58, Route 460 Bypass in Blacksburg, or the Route 58A Bypasses in SW Virginia could have been offset by any form of “demand management” alone. Can they help?  Of course they can. However, each of those projects I mentioned, and countless more, gave access where there was none, relieved congestion for years, or addressed critical safety concerns.

 

Do you remember what it was like to drive to Loudonville along Route 7? Do you remember how many people were killed on Route 58 in head-on collisions? Did you ever drive through the Interstate 64 tunnel from Richmond to Virginia Beach on a summer weekend? Did you ever try to get from just about anywhere in Southwest Virginia to just about any other place in Southwest Virginia? Those projects were just as important to Virginians then as projects like I-495 in Northern Virginia, Interstate 64 in Hampton Roads, an expanded Woodrow Wilson Bridge, or an expanded I-81 are today.

 

In 2002, during the period in which I served as Interim Commissioner, I had to recommend the Commonwealth Transportation Board cut $2 billion from the six-year program. In part it was because of the downturn in the economy. In part it was to pare down an unrealistically large program based on the unrealistic premise that General Funds could finance transportation construction — funds that were not, are not, and will not be available. In addition, the entire ˝ cent sales tax revenue was diverted to the General Fund to help offset the revenue shortfall, and that spending was subsequently converted to debt — debt that has to be repaid by future transportation revenues. So the construction program was drastically curtailed even though some increase in expenditures might have occurred.

 

We all hope we can find reasonable alternatives for people and freight. I think a renewed emphasis on rail, “demand management”, technology, and better relationships between transportation and land use can help. But your reference to something happening just in the last two months is ironic. Maybe you do not know that for the first time ever, during the Baliles administration, transportation funds were allocated to all transportation modes — aviation, ports, transit, and roads. A number of “demand management” initiatives were set in motion then and continue today — expanded ride-sharing programs, telecommuting programs and telecommute centers, passenger rail (VRE), restricted HOV lanes, Park & Ride Lots, expanded bus purchase programs. We also started improved traveler information services, first using airborne traffic reporters and variable message signs, and later advanced programs like 511. VDOT adopted expanded bike programs and improved pedestrian access by a significant sidewalk constructions program. In the 1990s, the Department of Rail and Public Transportation was created to give rail and transit programs added attention. They promote, assist, and help fund rail industrial access that can relieve major industries from relying solely on truck deliveries of raw materials and finished products, promote the preservation of short-line railroads, coordinate rail/highway safety, and have programs for ridesharing, biking, carpooling, vanpooling, bus, commuter train, subway, passenger ferry, HOV, telecommuting, walking and bicycling. They also assist industries and localities set up or facilitate on-site ride matching, transportation incentives, tele-work, parking incentive programs, vanpool and shuttle programs.  Quite a list if I must say so myself.

 

None of those programs are totally new -- all or parts of them have been in place for years. And as desirable as you and I may believe they are, and I think they are, in two decades, not one of those programs has eliminated the need for new construction to serve new places, address safety issues, or reduce the need for more capacity. If we were to spend a lot more money on these types of programs, we would find transportation more convenient, comfortable, and accessible. We would also find need for a significant highway construction program — far greater than is funded today.

 

With regard to transportation expenditures, many of the major projects over this period were funded by debt. Recently, the Auditor of Public Accounts accounted for $1,474,738,000 in transportation debt.  That total included the Powhite Parkway, Dulles Toll Road, Coleman Bridge, Route 28, Route 58, Oak Grove Connector, Northern Virginia Transportation District Program, and FRANS (Federal Revenue Anticipation Notes used for general construction). That spending represents in part a commitment against future revenue, or tolls or special district revenue. So just comparing expenditures from year to year is not an appropriate way to judge public spending on transportation. It is interesting, but it’s also largely meaningless.

 

I think you must consider the need for funds. If the need for programs and projects is legitimate, so too is the need for revenue. I know you are anti-tax, and to some extent I am also. Sure, I need food, shelter, clothing, and other things I buy for my family. But I drive about 20,000 miles a year on state highways yet I can’t afford to build a mile of road. Can you? I sent three children to public schools yet I can’t afford to build one classroom. Can you? I have a 92-year-old mother with Alzheimer’s who has been in a nursing home for three years, yet I can’t afford to hire one nurse to clean, feed, and care for her during her last few months. Can you? My daughter attended four years of schooling at a public university, yet I can’t afford to pay for any one building she used. Can you? Pam Curry is absolutely right, public spending is based on need for dollars to provide the services that people collectively demand and use, not on the basis of what was spend last year. 

 

Let’s be judicious about what we take on as public programs and services, but if the political decision makers take them on, let’s raise revenue based on the need for dollars — not on a simplistic comparison of one year to the next. 

 

Ray Pethtel

University Transportation Fellow

Virginia Tech

rpethtel@vt.edu

 

Flex Cars: Cool Concept. But Try Selling it to Teenagers!

 

I enjoyed your points about flex cars ("Step Up to Flex," May 10, 2004). The American love affair with the car is 100 years in the making, though. Even I, as a marathon runner and bicyclist and with a strong urge to begin riding my bike to work, have yet to do so yet.

 

We need a paradigm shift. Teenagers today expect that at 16 their parents will buy them their own car.  I'm sure you and I would have gotten some pretty interesting looks from our parents had we laid that on them.

 

Gordie Ziegler

Roanoke 

gz@TheTechnologyCouncil.com

 


 

Excuse Me, But How Does Bashing Methodists Fit the Editorial Format of Bacon's Rebellion?

For the past several months, I have mostly enjoyed receiving and at least skimming issues of "Bacon's Rebellion" on my e-mail at the law firm with which I am associated. I must, however, take strong exception to the current issue, which I received today, containing the guest column. "Well, Bless Their Hearts," May 10, 2004, by James Atticus Bowden.

First, I fail to understand how the topic of  this column falls within the parameters that you define as appropriate for the subject matter of guest columns, i.e., "within the Bacon's Rebellion sphere of interest: business, civic or public policy issues of statewide or community concern in Virginia, [and] not columns addressing national topics unless they have a strong local angle."

Although I certainly recognize that recognition of domestic partnerships or civil unions between persons of homosexual orientation is an issue of public policy in Virginia and throughout this country, the article did not address, or even articulate the considerations involved in the greater public policy debate and, instead used Southern and allegedly christian (small c intended) euphemisms, guile and dishonesty to denigrate and demean members of a national religious denomination having no apparent connection to Virginia.

If it is truly your publication's purpose to "commence a new discourse [and] . . . examine how a global economy and digital technologies transform our state, our communities and our institutions of governance," and particularly, "to set new goals and higher standards [and to] subject the actions and utterances of our political, civic and business leaders to a critical eye," this mean-spirited and intolerant article was unworthy of your publication. I also trust, that in keeping with your stated goals, you might be willing to accept one or more "guest columns" in rebuttal."

Barbara Marvin


 

Still Looking for the Full Story on the State Budget

I am still waiting for someone to give the full story regarding the budget. You cited various budgetary pressures in your column ("What's a Budget Shortfall?" March 29, 2004), such as the increase in the numbers of students, prisoners, Medicaid recipients, etc., but you haven't given us any idea what kind of percentage increase that is, or whether the spending per student, per prisoner, etc. is going up or down, and how those percent increases compare to percent increases in the budget.

For example, you've concluded that the state colleges have actually increased revenue by $444 million, but you also note that there are over 17,000 more students in our higher education system. If you assume that all of the increased costs were the result of the new students, that comes to about $25K per student, which seems a bit high, but is actually not that much more than the per pupil spending by the legislature alone in other states (North Carolina spends about $22K per student. That's in addition to tuition charged to the students).

Frankly, the spending per pupil on higher education is, as you note, being shifted to the students, and I think that's a shame, since the whole idea of a state college system is to make higher education affordable for its citizens. For example: At present, UVa's law school gets zero dollars from the Commonwealth -- it even pays back some money to the university for things like bus service. As a result, tuition is over $23,000 per year in state. That doesn't include room and board. How many law students do you think are going to be able to attend three years of law school at that rate and then afford to live on the $35-$40K they pay starting commonwealth's attorneys these days?

If you can show that spending is increasing per resident, or per affected person, in a particular category, then maybe those budget items deserve a hard look for cuts instead of new taxes. But how do you expect the budget for, say, public schools not to increase when you add almost 50,000 kids to the system?

I like some of your ideas about transportation. Public transportation is abysmal in Hampton Roads (just try taking a bus from the Peninsula to the Southside in a reasonable amount of time and you'll see what I mean), and nobody seems to want to invest in it. If they still ran the ferry from Hampton to Norfolk, I'd use it every day, but it died for lack of ridership (not to mention the end of public funding). But apart from the transportation costs, it does seem to me, based on the examples you cite, that we need to get more money to pay for all these extra students/prisoners/medicaid recipients somewhere.

Kevin W. Grierson

Willcox & Savage, P.C.

Norfolk

kgrierson@wilsav.com

 

Where Do Pam Currey's Numbers Come From? Better Check Again.

 

The statistics you got from the Warner administration are passing interesting. I was intrigued to see, as one example, the statistic that there are 44,700 more students in Virginia's public schools.

A quick check of what is the generally cited authoritative source for such numbers does not appear to support that number. There is an annual "fall membership" of students taken by individual schools and reported to the state board of education by Sept. 30 of each year. For Sept. 30, 2001 (just before candidate Warner's election as governor) the relevant statewide number was 1,163,094; for Sept. 30, 2003, the total registered stood at 1,192,539.

I count that as 29,445 new students, not 44,700. The relevant numbers can be checked very quickly at the Virginia Department of Education website.

BookManVA

BookManVA@aol.com

 

 

 

-- May 24, 2004

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Letter Writers

Ray Pethtel: No Substitute for Building More Roads

Barbara Marvin Excuse Me, But How Does Bashing Methodists Fit the Editorial Format of Bacon's Rebellion?

Kevin Grierson Still Looking for the Full Story on the State Budget

Gordie Ziegler: Flex Cars: Cool Concept. But Try Selling it to Teenagers!

BookManVA: Where Do Pam Currey's Numbers Come From? Better Check Again.