The proposed extension of the Washington Metro heavy rail service to Dulles Airport is the biggest infrastructure project in Virginia today. The project will cost some $4 billion, and it will impact billions more in real estate development in one of the nation’s hottest technology corridors. Multi-billions of dollars in contracts and development opportunities ride on the outcome of how the heavy rail project is built and financed.
It stands to reason that private-sector interests are lobbying heavily behind the scenes for an outcome that favors them. Indeed, private-sector lust for getting a piece of the multi-billion Metro jackpot may explain why less costly alternatives such as Bus Rapid Transit are getting no serious consideration.
House Speaker William J. Howell has leveled substantive criticisms against a decision by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine to give the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority power to set tolls on the Dulles Toll Road and control many aspects of the planned Metrorail extension. Pardon my cynicism, but I find it difficult to imagine Kaine making the decision he did, or Howell making the charges he did, without a Greek chorus of private sector interests egging them on. I’m not suggesting that either man is carrying water for anyone, but I am suggesting that neither man is acting in a vacuum.
The Rail-to-Dulles story is huge. It is not merely a story about the clash of political personalities: Kaine vs. Howell. It can’t be shoe-horned into a simple political narrative such as the ongoing struggle between the Axis of Taxes and the foes of taxes. This also is a story about the power of government to commandeer billions of dollars of resources from taxpayers and to shower private-sector intersts with billions of dollars in engineering contracts, construction contracts, bond deals and development opportunities.
The public has no hope of fully understanding this story until it understands the array of special interests that have lined up behind the Governor and the Speaker. We can always hope that the Mainstream Media will do its job and dig past the dueling sound bites and press releases. But we can’t count on it. This is a job for the blogosphere.
