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.
