House Speaker William J. Howell, R-Stafford, has pledged to commit at least 50 percent of the anticipated $475-550 million, biennial budget surplus to transportation projects. He also said that he would submit a package of proposals, crafted by a special subcommittee set up after the September transportation special session, to align transportation and land use.
Additionally, the Speaker said the House will introduce legislation “designed to reduce congestion and chokepoints on our roadways, and give hard-pressed localities the tools they need now to manage growth.”
Read the Speaker’s press release here.
I will withhold comment on the House legislative package until I see the details. Agree or disagree with the House reforms, however, no one can deny that they aren’t meaty and ambitious. I will do my best to cover the substance of the debate as it unfolds.
As an aside, I will track the Mainstream Media commentary, which I anticipate will continue to follow the meta-narrative defining the transportation crisis as a purely fiscal phenomenon, as if no other institutional reforms were needed. Maybe one day the capital press corps will be shamed into covering the debate in all its many facets.
