Former Gov. Jim Gilmore has entered the debate over transportation and taxes. In an e-mail distributed this afternoon, he urged recipients to contact their legislators and voice opposition to higher taxes for transportation improvements.

“The right way to solve Virginia’s transportation problems,” Gilmore wrote, “is to adopt a plan of specific road projects and exhaust all possible options for funding that plan without increasing taxes on hard working Virginia families. You and I must act now to deliver this message to members of the General Assembly.”

“Do not believe this battle is won because our friends in the House of Delegates have already had votes against the tax hike package,” he added. “Just like two years ago, the Governor and the Senate will use every legislative trick they can to pass these taxes during the 2006 Session.”
The e-mail links to a website under the name of Working Virginians for Affordable Transportation. The policy prescriptions listed there are a bit vague:

• Stop using current tax money dedicated for roads to pay for other spending. Lock-up Transportation Trust Funds.
• Pass specific priority road projects using money generated by today’s taxes and economic growth.
• Require VDOT to implement new traffic and mass transit strategies and cut bureaucratic costs.

I’d like to know what those “new traffic strategies” are, and what “bureaucratic costs” Gilmore is referring to. I’ve got some opinions on the subject, but I have no idea if we’re thinking of the same things. The obvious hole in the listed remedies is the lack of any reference to the need for more rational patterns of development. Regardless, with Gilmore acting as a lightning rod, the transportation debate is bound to get more interesting.

Update: Gilmore will appear as a guest at next week’s “Tuesday Morning Group,” a monthly gathering in downtown Richmond of conservative activists from around the state. According to host John Taylor, Gilmore “will address the transportation issue in Virginia as well as what Republicans must start doing to be successful in the commonwealth.” Expect Gilmore to become a vocal factor in the tax debate.