Today’s newspaper accounts of the transportation special session are pretty pessimistic. After the first day, some have concluded, the whole exercise is shaping up a waste of time.
Assuming the session collapses in a frazzled heap, it will be followed by the inevitable assignation of blame. Regarding the doling out of responsibility, Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel, R-Fauquier, made a good point yesterday following Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s address to the legislature.
Unlike the special sessions called by Governor Baliles to address transportation, or by Governor Allen to abolish parole, or by Governor Gilmore to reduce the car tax, Governor Kaine has failed to build consensus or support for his plan before calling legislators back to Richmond.
During the six weeks since Governor Kaine unveiled the tax increase plan he detailed for you moments ago, he has held town meetings across Virginia to gain support for his approach. That strategy has not met with success, and there is no indication that the people of Virginia support his proposal.
Good point. Kaine called the special session. He called it knowing that he didn’t even have buy-in either from the Republicans or from key players in his own party. Then he traveled around the state and tried to sell it to the public in the hope, presumably, of pressuring legislators to adopt his plan. But the public, it appears, is as fractured as the readers who leave comments on the Bacon’s Rebellion blog. Kaine’s gambit failed. Now everyone who has convened in Richmond is simply going through the motions of getting something done.
Not that I blame Kaine for failing to forge a consensus. Given the level of public sentiment right now, a consensus is unforgeable. The Republicans came close with HB 3202 last year, but it turns out that key measures were… oops… unconstitutional.
Ultimately, the problem boils down to this: Everybody wants more roads and rail, but everyone wants someone else to pay for it. Trouble is, if people want someone else to pay for their transportation improvements, they sure as hell won’t go along with paying for someone else’s! The only way this political gridlock can be solved is to convince people they’re getting something tangible for what they pay (either in taxes or tolls). Politically, nothing else will sell.
