More Positive Notes on General Assembly Members
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19 responses to “More Positive Notes on General Assembly Members”
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This is the kind of post – the tenor, the even-handedness, and informative that shines that BR used to provide on a regular basis before it got submerged in the culture war.
I appreciate it and thank Dick for his insistence and persistence on task.
thank you.
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Add Delegate Lee Ware to the list. Not my delegate but sometimes I wish he was. Another school teacher turned principled politician.
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There are others that could be added to the list. Those four are some with whom I am the most familiar.
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Mr. Ware is my delegate, and I agree with you.
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Meet the best. The ones who you never hear about… until they get primaried.
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Well said Dick.
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Both Vivian and Scott are live close (but not my reps).
An early litmus test for me was the defunct hybrid fee that McAuliffe killed as his first day act in the gov’s office. Scott became my hero for actively opposing that extra fee. Inexplicably seemingly, Vivian supported the old hybrid tax, and thus got on my other list.
Guess what? (as discussed earlier) that hybrid fee is back in force as an extra “HUF” annual fee on ALL Virginia vehicle owners with the bad judgement 0f buying a car that gets over 25 MPG. Whose idea was that?
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PS- With the passage of time, I must reconsider, but
as a hint, I am still advocating for hybrids.-
folks that use the highways need to pay their fair share no matter how efficient their vehicle is – though – that doesn’t seem like a wrong policy to me.
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You think the highway only benefits those who drive on it…?
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Skateboarding too.
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Well, a couple of things.
First, in Virginia only 1/3 of highway funding comes from fuel taxes. 1/3 comes from the general sales tax and 1/3 comes from the sales tax on new vehicles.
Second, when hybrids were originally given special treatment it was because most urban areas had air quality problems due because non-hybrids were still major polluters and it was an incentive to drive less polluting cars.
Now even non-hybrids are much cleaner and less polluting AND get much better gas mileage – i.e. need less fuel – pay even less fuel taxes and the problem will get even worse with plug-in electrics which, depending on what one believes may be coming online in number.
Beyond that, in urban areas, driving has not really abated and VDOT has instituted dynamic congestion tolling simply because there is less and less available land for roads without tearing down developed property.
There is almost no way to add overall network capacity even if they can add lanes in the few places left that they can. All those lanes do is move traffic to the next choke point which cannot be expanded.
Finally, despite claims that roads are “paid for” when they are built – it’s simply not true. The biggest costs of roads is not initial construction – it’s operations and maintenance.
So all of this goes back to each of us paying our fair share and how to do that – especially if cars start to go 100% electric.
The anti-gov/anti-tax boo-birds don’t want to hear any of this though.
Government is incompetent and taxes are evil….
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“So all of this goes back to each of us paying our fair share and how to do that…”
Easy, charge everybody the same and stop trying to tie it to supposed use. Everybody who eats food uses the highway system… even if they don’t own a car.
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Well they do but over and above the basic use – some people use it far more.
vehicle miles wear out roads.
But the way it is right now road use is only 1/3. A second 1/3 we all pay via sales tax and the final 1/3 – people who buy new vehicles pay.
The four way is local Newer cars pay out the nose for property tax – which primarily goes to fund schools – not highways.
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So in conclusion you want to punish someone because they purchased a more efficient vehicle. Much like PPT is contrary to reduce pollution, this is contrary to reducing pollution.
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Exception being electric vehcile owners who are trying the save the planet vs. the killers driving other cars. So EV’s get massive subsidies and road use tax breaks for being the only good human beings around here.
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Yeah, but EV’s are still over and above what normal individuals can afford not to mention don’t work within most individuals lifestyles.
So they get the tax breaks on the back end but still need to purchase and pay the huge PPT based upon NADA value.
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It’s not what makes it move, it’s the weight. Bump, bump, and a piece of concrete needs to be replaced.
What’s “unfair” is the proportion of tax paid for your 3500 pound hybrid compared to that 150,000 overloaded dump truck, or that 100,000 pound 40′ container truck.
Great profiles, Dick.
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