Bacon's Rebellion

METRO Rail Rip-off

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by

James A. Bacon
in

Heavy rail like the Washington METRO is a wonderful thing… as long as it can pay its own way. As I argue in today’s e-zine column, “Rail Rip-off,” the extension of METRO rail to Dulles Airport could catalyze billions of dollars of redevelopment in Tysons Corner, transforming Virginia’s leading business center into a much more livable, workable community. Rail to Dulles is much to be desired.

My problem with the project is the financing mechanism the state has cobbled together to pay for it. The financing scheme and zoning plan (as currently articulated) sticks Joe Blow commuters along the Dulles Toll Road with $1 billion in tolls while it lavishes the benefits of higher densities and METRO access upon select landowners in Tysons Corner and along the Dulles Corridor.

This financing package represents an unprecedented transfer of wealth from the poor (or middle class) to the super rich. How this could take place under a Democratic Party administration is a mystery to me. Where are all the populists who stand up for the little guy? For that matter, how can Republicans, who supposedly recoil from the corporate welfare state, remain silent?

Enough wealth would be created by a METRO line and increased density around the rail stations that property owners — the primary beneficiaries — are perfectly capable of footing the cost. There is no need to bilk highway commuters. Conceptually, the financing solution is fairly simple, as I explain in my column. The devil is in the details, I’ll concede. But there should be enough wealth created to negotiate a win-win scenario for everyone.

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2 responses to “METRO Rail Rip-off”

  1. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    E-zine reader Joe Casey makes the following observation:

    Whenever public funds are used to enhance private land values there is a major rip-off of tax payers unless the funds are derived from a land value (site value) tax. Members of both parties are highly experienced at screwing funds from taxpayers for private gains in land values. A site value tax using current market values for land would go a long way to providing funds for public infrastructure with the cost born by the beneficiaries of the increased land values. The land owners would gain more from a pay-as-you-benefit tax system because they could get more infrastructure if they paid for it themselves. Also they could get the infrastructure much sooner.

    Let that last sentence sink in: “Land owners would gain more from a pay-as-you-benefit tax system because they could get more infrastructure if they paid for it themselves. Also they could get the infrastructure much sooner. I think there’s a lot to that idea.

  2. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    E-zine reader Philip R. Taylor, of Charlottesville, also contributes this observation:

    You missed the one entity with a vested interest in this whole project. The local politicians!!! They gain the most from this whole project as they have no cost, gain substantial additional revenue for which they will have to provide little additional services. Who they suck the money from is of little consequence since they can expect huge revenue increases that will allow them to do what they like most: spend. They will keep their green constituancy happy since they will keep taxing ‘evil’ cars on the tollway and put in ‘good’ mass transit. The big contributing developers will make large campaign contributions to the politicians. What do they have to lose?

    He’s right! The politicians are part of the whole money merry-go-round — ad proven many times over during the most recent statewide elections.

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