No surprises in today’s Times-Dispatch transportation poll. Everyone wants the government to “fix” transportation — they just don’t want to pay for it. Large majorities of those polled opposed higher taxes in general, and even larger majorities opposed (a) an added sales tax on cars, (b) higher fees on insurance premiums, (c) an increase in motor-vehicle registration feeds, or (d) a wholesale tax on gasoline. Virginians also opposed borrowing money to build roads or cutting spending in other programs. A large majority, however, did endorse tougher fines on bad drivers.
Interestingly, two money-raising scheme won a narrow margin of support:
- Raising tolls on some interstate highways: 49 percent in favor, 45 percent opposed.
- Authorizing localities to impose local taxes for regional projects: 50 percent in favor, 43 percent opposed.
If there’s a politically acceptable solution to Virginia’s transportation woes, it wasn’t what the Kaine administration and state senate were pushing this spring.
As we have come to expect, the poll framed the transportation debate as a funding issue. Never considered were alternatives to the tax-and-build scenario:
- Should lawmakers consider privatization and/or outsourcing of road maintenance to generate cost savings?
- Should the Commonwealth Transportation Board prioritize projects designed to mitigate traffic congestion over projects that open up new areas for development?
- Should the state do more to ensure that transportation and land use planning are coordinated?
- Should the state encourage telework?
- Should the state make it easier for the private sector to enter the marketplace with van, bus and other shared-ridership services?
- Should major new developments be required to put into place Transportation Demand Management plans?
- Should landowners whose property values increase thanks to transportation improvements be required to help pay the cost of those improvements?
Don’t tell me there’s no bias in the press. I’m not saying it’s a conscious or malevolent bias — it’s probably just tunnel vision, a lack of awareness of the alternatives. But lawmakers respond to daily news stories and editorials, and when reporters define the problem as a lack of money, they are defining the terms of the debate and limiting the range of options.
