Bacon's Rebellion

Peter Galuszka has filed a Road to Ruin story about the dispute over the use of tax credits as an incentive for landowners to create conservation easements. The environmental community defends the tax credits as one of the most cost-effective tools available for protecting valuable open space, viewsheds, watersheds, habitat for endangered species, and properties of historical value. Conservation easements cost a fraction of buying land outright, and they don’t trample on property rights.

On the other hand, there are legitimate issues associated with the tax credits. The liability to the state has soared, reaching $130 million in 2004. And the program, which is little policed, is subject to abuse and manipulation by unscrupulous landowners. Despite their disagreements, it appears that the Senate and the House of Delegates are groping toward a reform of the program and a compromise that would cap the amount of tax credits granted in any one year.

As an aside to readers who love inside political baseball, the article provides details on the $28 million in tax credits claimed by the Silver Companies, developer of the Celebrate Virginia project in Fredericksburg. From what we hear, Sen. John Chichester, a moving force behind the tax credit crack-down, is not a big fan of Silver Companies developments, which have unalterably changed the face of Fredericksburg — many would say for the worse.

A final observation, filed in the “Irony” folder: the Silver Companies are the prime driver of the kind of dysfunctional settlement patterns in the Fredericksburg area that the conservationists are so opposed to.

Ever vigilant against discrimination, “Dateline NBC” has been on the prowl for anti-Muslim, anti-foreigner bias in the United States. NBC sent Muslim-looking men to a NASCAR race in that bastion of white, southern redneck bigotry, Martinsville, Va., along with a camera crew to film fan reactions. Sadly for NBC, which spent all that money for naught, no one bothered the Muslims.

My hunch is that southern white males are less bigoted in their attitude towards foreigners than the snooty Northeastern liberals are toward southern white males. Hey, NBC, here’s an idea, why don’t you recruit a group of Goobers, send them to the Upper East Side of Manhattan, equip them with hidden cameras, and see how they get treated?

The Powerline blog offers a decent wrap-up of the story with useful links.

Identity theft can do more than screw up your credit rating. If you work in the IT field and require security clearances, it can ruin your career. And oblivious local law enforcement authorities can make the problem worse.

According to a story released by PRWeb, a certain Thaddeus Jones, “a seasoned network engineering and information technology project manager,” was fired from his job at the Pentagon and his top security clearance stripped because someone stole his identity and was charged with three felonies under that identity. He has been unable to find steady employment in his field since — the same incident continually pops up in his background checks.

Apparently, the person who stole his identity was arrested and charged with these felonies in Richmond in 2004 but the charges were later dismissed. The imposter had no picture identification and law enforcement authorities never attempted to trace his fingerprints to confirm that he was who he said he was. Concludes the author:

A man’s life has not only been ruined by a criminal with obviously nothing to lose, but it has also been ruined by a law enforcement and judicial system that failed to initiate due diligence by not confirming one’s identity before charging them with a felony crime. There has to be some legislation in place to force law enforcement agencies to confirm identity of suspects prior to officially charging them with a crime. This will prevent this from happening to anyone else. If not, then there need to be.

Back in CA on business. Look what I’m missing at home.

From today’s Daily Press by Matt Sabo
POQUOSON — Residents made it clear to city staff and council members Tuesday night that the city’s waterfront should be off-limits to multifamily housing.

A crowd approaching 150 (out of a population of 12,000)- many of them standing along walls -attended an informational meeting on proposed planning districts that would allow mixed-use developments that could include commercial, retail and high-density housing.

The proposed districts are controversial because residents say they would detract from the quality of life in Poquoson, bringing pricey condominiums to a city made up almost entirely of single-family homes on large lots.

City Administrator Charlie Burgess served as moderator, giving a brief overview of the proposed districts at the end of Browns Neck, Messick and Rens roads. The Poquoson City Council will hold a public hearing on the districts at 7 p.m. Monday.

The three proposed districts comprise a total of 50 acres. As many as 16 residential units would be allowed per acre – up from the current range of 1.63 to 2.42 units per acre in the three areas.

Residents were politely persistent in their opposition to the proposed districts.

“Everybody in this room is here, I guarantee it, because they are worried about it,” said Dave Kenneally.

He also asked for a show of hands of people who favored the districts. One man raised his hand.Then he asked for a show of hands of people opposed to the districts. Everyone else raised a hand.

Residents also wanted to know why the city is considering allowing the districts in areas that are zoned for either a commercial or a residential use.

Burgess said it’s not so the city has new sources of tax revenues. It’s also not because a developer has approached the city with a project proposal, although it’s inevitable, he said.

“Whether we like it or not, the requests are going to come at some time,” Burgess said.

“Turn ’em down,” said Lauren Roche. “That’s not why we live here.

“The idea of up to 16 townhouses or condominiums per acre at Messick Point – stretching up to 45 feet high – bothered waterman Sonny Insley.

Especially when crabbing season comes and watermen head out from Messick Point.”It seems to me that at 3 o’clock when you get 20 boys firing up the diesels to go crabbing, you’re going to have a conflict with the townhomes,” he said. “And we know who’s going to lose that battle.”

Other residents said the city should undertake an analysis of what it would cost Poquoson in services – for new roads and more schoolchildren, for example – and how the districts would affect the environment before approving them.

So, where is the dysfunctional living pattern? There are two roads out of town (off the peninsula on The Peninsula). One main shopping road. That’s it.

Double-digit increases in the prices of cement, asphalt and diesel fuel will cost the Virginia Department of Transportation an additional $180 million this year for maintenance and construction projects, reports the Virginian-Pilot. “The higher costs are forcing VDOT managers in Hampton Roads to switch to cheaper, less durable asphalt for some paving work planned this spring.”

Said Jeffrey C. Southard, executive vice president of the Virginia Transportation Construction Alliance: “In the last two years, we’ve seen construction costs go up unlike anything we’ve seen in the last 50 years.”

There are two possible ways to respond. The first is to continue Business As Usual, refusing to alter Virginia’s practice of adding new road capacity to meet demand and raising taxes to pay the escalating bills for raw material. The second is to seek alternatives to the tax-and-build philosophy.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said in his campaign that Virginia can’t pave its way out of traffic congestion. Now it looks like Virginia might even not be able to pave over its potholes. But the Governor is expending his political capital in support of a Business As Usual transportation policy. Go figure.

Students at the University of Virginia once upheld the tenets of the Honor Code as an absolute ideal. Lying, cheating and stealing were impermissable behaviors… no exceptions. The penalty was expulsion. But those high standards are being corroded by moral relativism, situational ethics and rank opportunism.

An introduction to a story in The University of Virginia Magazine starts this way:

Warning to hard-core U.Va. traditionalists: What follows may upset you. Simply put, the University is changing—and has been for decades. So, too, is the Honor System.

While polls find that students endorse an honor system in concept, they appear less willing to hold each other accountable, preferring to leave the heavy lifting to an increasingly skeptical faculty. Meanwhile, fueled in part by a high-profile public trial last fall, critics charge that students’ unwillingness to impose the single sanction—permanent expulsion—allows some guilty students to go unpunished. Clearly, U.Va.’s Honor System is in danger of suffering irreparable damage.

In a society that does not uphold honor and integrity as supreme ideals, lies, dishonesty and corruption are sure to follow. Nowhere is this trend more evident than in electoral politics. The disgraceful news out of Washington, D.C., speaks for itself. But Virginia is not immune. The Old Dominion has become a place where candidates for high office routinely vow not to raise taxes then turn around when they get elected and raise them…. And no one, not even the Fourth Estate, the so-called guardian of the public trust, holds them to account. We get the politics we deserve.

The following comment was deposited at the end of the “THERE IS STILL A CHANCE” post below. That post sketches out a potential shared-vehicle system to serve the National Capital Subregion. The comment was made by the well-known scholar and transportation expert “anonymous.”

“For a long time the assumption has been that offering more public transit service options would reduce traffic congestion. But despite the more than $300 billion in taxpayer money spent to expand the quantity and quality of public transit over the last four decades, its share of travel has declined. While the number of transit passenger-miles has risen slightly over this period, its share of urban travel has decreased.”

Sage sounding comments such as this are made by those who mistakenly believe that mobility and access can be provided to 21st century human settlement patterns by expanding roadways for private-vehicles. Almost all these statements are paid for directly or indirectly by those who profit from Business-As-Usual.

The sponsors of lobby groups and some “think tanks” and university “research centers” believe they would lose economic advantage from the evolution of functional human settlement patterns and efficient mobility and access systems that could effectively serve these patterns of urban land use.

What statements like this really demonstrate is the profound Geographic Illiteracy of the poster, anonymous or not. See “Geographic Illiteracy” and “The Myths That Blind Us” at db4.dev.baconsrebellion.com

Here are some Antidotes for the misconceptions in this comment:

The root cause of “traffic congestion” is dysfunctional human settlement patterns. No transport system can effectively or efficiently serve scattered urban land uses in large New Urban Regions, period. See “Spinning Data, Spinning Wheels” and “Regional Rigor Mortis” at db4.dev.baconsrebellion.com

The high cost of contemporary shared-vehicle systems is in large part cause by imbalanced system loading. (E.g. for METRO, most of the trains leave most of the stations, most of the time, essentially empty.) Some of this is due to inept management but most of it is due to dysfunctional human settlement patterns in the shared-vehicle station areas. See the “METRO WEST – 22 YEARS TOO LATE” post on this Blog (28 March 2006 now archived) and “It Is Time to Fundamentally Rethink METRO” at db4.dev.baconsrebellion.com

The reason that ridership of shared-vehicle systems has not increased faster is that the grossly subsidized scatteration of urban development cannot be served even by heavily subsidized shared-vehicle systems.

Dysfunctional settlement patterns mean that most citizens who need to travel have no choice but to resort to a private-vehicle. See Jim Bacon’s current column on Pod People at db4.dev.baconsrebellion.com

Urban citizens of Virginia (many of them Pod People) do not love their cars any more than urban Bavarians, they just do not have the choices which citizens of most First World New Urban Regions enjoy. Again this is due to settlement patterns that prevent citizens from meeting life’s needs without resorting to any vehicle or conveniently using shared vehicles. Those who choose to drive can do so until gasoline and its substitutes become too expensive.

Jim Bacon has recently noted government actions that thwart competition in the provision of shared vehicles. Eliminating these barriers will help.

In the long run there must be New Urban Region-wide (and Urban Support Region-wide) settlement patterns that can be served by functional transport systems. The backbone of those system will be a public, shared vehicle system supported by many integrated sub-systems including ones that support private-vehicles.

Recent applications of 21st Century Shared-Vehicle Systems (CSVS21s) demonstrate that New Urban Regions with functional human settlement patterns can be served effectively and efficiently.*

How are functional human settlement patterns achieved? Fairly allocate location-variable costs of all goods and services and let the market do the rest.

How do citizens achieve the Fundamental Change in settlement patterns and the Fundamental Change in governance structure necessary to fairly allocate location-variable costs of goods and services and replace the current system of subsidies and pork barrel transport?

In a democracy with a market economy the only answer is better educated citizens who vote and buy based on their enlightened self-interest.

PROPERTY DYNAMICS coming to an Alpha Neighborhood near you soon.

*Note: CSVS21 systems are some times called Advanced Rapid Transit (ART) or Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) and, in some cases (where the system capacity matches demand) Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). Nineteenth century and early 20th century systems like “heavy rail” (aka, METRO), “light rail,” “commuter rail” and conventional “bus” have useful applications but are not as well suited to contemporary needs as contemporary systems.

On the subject of neighborhoods and connectivity… Thanks to Jeremy Hinton for pointing to the Kecoughtan Road Master Plan for revitalizing the Kecoughtan neighborhood, his old stomping grounds near downtown Hampton.

According to the analysis by Urban Design Associates, the residential component of the neighborhood is still sound. But the commercial strip along Kecoughtan Road, which once served as a major transportation artery, has fallen on hard times as retail activity moved to regional shopping venues elsewhere. The Corridor Plan envisions shrinking and repositioning the retail sector in order to build a more balanced, better connected, more pedestrian-friendly neighborhood that takes better advantage of its waterfront.

The study lists six “guiding principles” that should frame public and private investment in the corridor:

1. Redefine the Kecoughtan Road Corridor primarily as a residential boulevard and neighborhood main street which will present an appropriate front door to the neighborhoods.

2. Create memorable places and events along the length of the Corridor which help reinforce the unique identity and history of the various neighborhoods.

3. Consolidate commercial land uses to the two existing neighborhood shopping centers as much as possible while still supporting viable neighborhood-oriented business elsewhere along the Corridor.

4. Eliminate non-neighborhood-friendly commercial uses while supporting commercial businesses which are truly neighborhood-serving.

5. Ensure that new development and redevelopment preserves and enhances the essential qualities of the neighborhoods: charm, water orientation, architectural styles, and the rich history of the area.

6. Establish connections to existing and proposed open spaces, the water, schools, and other facilities (my emphasis).

Giving credit where credit is due: The Washington Post is exploring the ramifications of the Kaine administration’s decision to put the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority in charge of toll roads and Metro rail for Northern Virginia’s 23-mile high-tech corridor. Steven Ginsberg filed this story describing the board that runs the MWAA.

Who will have the greatest say over the building of transportation infrastructure for Virginia’s 23-mile, high-tech corridor? A group of 13 men and women described as a “select mix of locals and out-of-towners, corporate executives and former politicians, transportation experts and real estate developers. … Five members are appointed by the governor of Virginia; two by the governor of Maryland; three by the mayor of the District; and three by the U.S. president. “

Will the MWAA board be accountable to the public? Ginsberg quotes Robert Clarke Brown, an adviser to the federal Transportation Department who lives near Cleveland and was appointed by former president Bill Clinton: “We are all a politically appointed board and each of us is accountable to our appointing authority. We’re very transparent in our operations.”

I’m generating remarkably little response for my commentary on what amounts to the most important executive decision made by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine in his young administration: the decision to give the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority significant control over the Dulles Toll Road and the Rail-to-Dulles Metro extension. But readership be damned. Some things just need writing about.

In a post made yesterday, I characterized the Kaine administration’s response to Speaker William J. Howell’s criticisms of the “Dulles Toll Road Giveaway Plan” as saying, in effect, “Trust us, we know what we’re doing.” The administration’s responses to that point did not address the substance of Howell’s charges.

Today, Kevin Hall from the Governor’s press office, has responded with substantive comments. (For those who need a refresher on the Speaker’s charges, you can read the press release here, and a transcript of the press conference here.) I post Hall’s comments here verbatim, without commentary:

1. A comprehensive review of the PPTA proposals and the MWAA proposal was conducted, and the MWAA proposal presented the most value for Virginia – by far. The MWAA proposal will support $4 billion in transportation improvements in the Dulles Corridor. The MWAA proposal was the only one that guaranteed completion of the rail project to Dulles Airport and Loudoun County.

2. The agreement does not stop private sector competition. To the contrary, it specifically requires MWAA to consider private sector proposals for HOT lanes and other highway congestion management strategies. The agreement establishes rail as the first priority in the corridor, consistent with the 30-year vision of the region.

3. The agreement guarantees that the entire rail extension will be constructed, and will accelerate completion of the entire project all the way to the Airport and Loudoun County. Virginia and MWAA share the primary goal of ensuring mobility in the Dulles Corridor. And the agreement does not vest land use authority with MWAA. That authority remains solely with the localities.

4. All of the four private sector plans included cash payments for the rail project. The MWAA proposal represented by far the largest financial contribution to the Metrorail project. But I would suggest the region does not need “cash on the table”– it needs improvements on the ground. The private sector highway proposals may
very well have merit, but these will require considerable time to evaluate to determine if they meet state and federal planning criteria. On a project of this magnitude, every year of delay equates to at least $100 million in additional cost due to inflation and increasing construction costs alone.

5. On the toll issue, it is important to note that the private sector proposals also would require toll increases. I would suggest that MWAA is a known quantity in Northern Virginia, operating and rebuilding two major aiports and the Dulles Access Road, as well as providing free right-of-way for the Dulles Toll Road. They have been instrumental in numerous regional mobility initiatives since their inception nearly two decades ago – bringing the blue line to National Airport and opening the Dulles Access Road to transit providers.

6. Opportunties for additional federal most definitely were not “abandoned.” Federal funding for the 2nd phase of this project has never been guaranteed.

7. We look forward to providing additional information to the members of the General Assembly. Many of the legislators in the corridor, from both parties, wrote to endorse the proposal. All of the legislators from the corridor, as well as members of Congress from the region, joined the Governor at the press conference to announce the agreement.

8. As for Delegate Albo’s suggestion that Virginia look to a recent toll-road concession agreement in Indiana, I would merely say the MWAA agreement will result in $4 billion in transportation improvements in the Dulles Corridor. The Indiana agreement, for example, only returns 34% of the revenue to the corridor in which it is generated. Governor Kaine opposes using toll road revenues from the Dulles corridor to support projects in other parts of the Commonwealth.

9. Virginia is a recognized national leader in public private partnerships and employs nationally renowned advisors to help evaluate complex proposals of this nature. Our record on PPTAs and the business merits of this proposal speak for themselves. Each PPTA-type proposal is different and needs to be considered on its own merits.

Now we have some substantive statements to dig into. Comments anyone?

Critics have pointed out a problem with the House of Delegates budget projections, and this time I have to agree. Scott Leake, executive director of the Senate Republican Leadership Trust, puts it this way in today’s critique of the House budget:

“The House budget depends on over a half billion dollars on increased driver fines and fees, 590.2 million to be exact, over the next four years. The Senate expects less than half that amount.

“There are serious misgivings over whether that massive amount will ever materialize. Will low income and youthful drivers be able to comply? And can fees be imposed on actions made before a law is passed? We’ll see.”

Phil Rodokanakis raised that last point in his column today (“Taxing Drivers“). House Bill 527 would increase fines on drivers based on the number of points on their Division of Motor Vehicles driving records. But that amounts to fining someone ex post facto — making someone pay penalties for driving offenses he may have committed before the law was passed! A big chunk of the House’s anticipated revenue could be subject to legal challenge.

Additionally, motorists aren’t going to twiddle their thumbs while the state slaps them with huge fines. As an anonymous Bacon’s Rebellion blogger commented, with more to lose, more motorists will hire lawyers to dispute their tickets — and some will win. The state cannot extrapolate revenue based upon previous patterns based on low fines. Another downside: state police will spend more time testifying in court, less time handing out tickets.

I have to agree with Leake on this one: The senate revenue projections look more responsible than the Houses’ on this particular issue.

Virginians are so inured to the dysfunctional layout of their physical environment — the separation of land uses; the physical disconnect between houses, offices and stores built in pods; the stringing of those pods along feeder and arterial roads — that they take it forgranted. Like the air they breathe, they cannot see it. If they cannot see it, they cannot question the absurdity of it.

I’ve written about the “disconnected” nature of contemporary development patterns in the abstract, but I’m not sure if readers understood what I was driving at. Therefore, I’ve devoted my latest e-zine column to rendering the abstract in concrete terms, illustrating with words, maps and photos how pod-style development contributes to traffic congestion in western Henrico County. Read “Pod People.”

Last Thursday, House Speaker William J. Howell blasted Gov. Timothy M. Kaine for handing over responsibility for the Dulles Toll Road and the 23-mile Rail-to-Dulles Metro extension to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.

In a press conference, the Speaker outlined his concerns in considerable detail. By abandoning a number of public-private partnership proposals, Howell charged, Kaine had forfeited half a billion dollars in up-front payments to the Commonwealth, failed to assure that commuters will receive timely relief from traffic congestion and failed to protect Dulles Toll Road Commuters from high tolls.

The Kaine administration responded by releasing a letter that Secretary of Transportation Pierce R. Homer had written Howell on Aug. 9, 2005 — half a year ago. The letter does not address the specific issues Howell raised last week. In effect, it is a non-answer.

What Homer did in the letter was defend the process for evaluating what to do with the Dulles Toll Road. The process sounds reasonable enough. The Commonwealth Transportation Board has engaged the services of the Public Resources Advisory Group, a financial advisor that does not underwrite, trade or market securities and, therefore, has no conflict of interest regarding the advice it dispenses. I would value the judgment of an independent outfit like PRAG over that of an investment banking firm hoping to make millions in underwriting fees.

Homer further stated that he would endeavor to “resolve and clarify the role and status of the Federal Aviation Administration, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, and Fairfax County.” Additionally, he said he would identify major policy issues, including: “the duration of tolling; the type of tolling in the corridor, including congestion pricing; the duration of any potential concession agreement; potential limits on toll rates and rates of return; revenue sharing among public and private partners; long-term maintenance obligations; and future land uses in the corridor.”

It sounds like Pierce was asking many of the right questions. But that half-year-old letter doesn’t provide any of the answers, and it doesn’t address key questions in Howell’s remarks. In effect, the Kaine administration is saying, “We know what we’re doing, just trust us.”

That appears to be good enough for the daily newspapers, which have dropped the issue. If Homer used a few thousand public dollars to unnecessarily charter a private airplane, go hunting in Africa or take his co-workers for a little topless-bar entertainment, the fearless Mainstream Media would be all over the story. But if the House Speaker accuses the Kaine administration of writing off a half-billion dollars in a bad business decision, the story doesn’t merit an inch of ink. Pathetic.

I suspect that Homer has reasonable answers to Howell’s questions, but we won’t know for sure until we hear them. And we probably won’t — because no one is pressing for them.

Update: The Washington Post has published an editorial that does a fairly balanced job of summarizing high-altitude issues in the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority deal.

The April 3, 2006, edition of the Bacon’s Rebellion e-zine has been published. You can view it here. This week’s columns include:

Pod People
By stringing disconnected pods of development along our main roads, local planning policies force Virginians into their cars and aggravate traffic congestion.
by James A. Bacon

Getting to Yes
Some great values, respect, decisiveness and experience were on display this week.
by Doug Koelemay

Democracy as National Religion
Contemporary Americans worship democracy and majority rule. They forget that the United States also is a republic, which imposes checks and balances against the tyranny of the mob.
by Patrick McSweeney

Where Have I Heard This Before?
Tim Kaine says his $1 billion tax increase will help relieve traffic congestion. Sounds uncannily similar to claims made in 1986.
by Patrick McSweeney

Warner Watchdog
To most Virginians, Mark Warner may be out of sight and out of mind. But the Blue Dog faithfully keeps tabs on the former governor’s national ambitions.
by Steven Sisson

Do We Need It All?
Virginia’s wish list of transportation projects fund includes many that will do little to relieve traffic congestion. Virginia needs to rethink the way it sets its funding priorities.
by Geoffrey Segal

Taxing Drivers
Desperate for a new source of transportation revenues, the House has passed a bill that is clearly unconstitutional — fining drivers for offenses committed before the law was passed.
by Philip Rodokanakis

Funny Money
It’s all play money to the economic geniuses in the state Senate. The senators’ transportation- financing plan doesn’t make a lick of economic sense.
by Jim Bowden

None of Your Business
No need for Kaine and McDonnell to argue over the governor’s authority to bar discrimination by sexual orientation. A Supreme Court ruling limits government’s discretion already.
by Becky Dale

Straight Talk about Gay Rights
Nondiscrimination in the state workforce should extend to sexual orientation. The only criteria that should affect employees’ work status should be professional performance.
by Jay Gandy

Nice & Curious Questions:
Happy Trails to You:
Virginia’s Unbeaten Paths
by Edwin S. Clay III and Patricia Bangs