Any Virginian who reads the newspapers knows that Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s transportation bill will raise roughly $1 billion a year in new taxes because that’s what the newspapers have reported. The Mainstream Media narrative about the transportation debate is all about taxes and spending.
It startled me to actually read the governor’s press release. Not only does the legislation provide for tax increases, lo and behold, it contains a number of noteworthy tweaks to HB 3202, last year’s omnibus transportation finance and reform bill that overhauled the way state and local government planned for and administered transportation and land use.
It’s not as if the Kaniacs buried these elements of the proposed legislation in the press release. As the governor is quoted as saying in the second paragraph:
Since January of 2006, I have worked closely with the General Assembly to improve the coordination of transportation and land use, to provide needed funding and budget reforms to how we spend transportation dollars, and to improve accountability and efficiency at VDOT and the other transportation agencies. The legislation I am introducing will continue those reforms. …”
How so? As the press release elucidates, the bill:
- Incentivizes more efficient land use patterns by providing dedicated funding for transportation improvements in urban development areas;
- Provides start-up grant funding to increase passenger rail service through the Transportation Change Fund;
- Clarifies local government flexibility to use secondary and urban road funding for transit projects;
- Provides incentives for cities and towns to take responsibility for their road construction programs; and
- Provides funds for innovative public-private technology projects to improve traffic flow and reduce congestion on existing roads.
Each of these measures is significant. While I remain totally opposed to the tax aspects of the governor’s bill, which ignore user-pays set of principles, I am compelled to acknowledge that Gov. Kaine accompanies his revenue-raising measures with reforms to ensure that the money is better spent.
Let us hope that Senate Democrats, who have tax ideas of their own, don’t lose sight of these measures. Moreover, let us hope that House Republicans, who were the architects of the legislation that the governor seeks to improve, also take up these issues. Too bad the public doesn’t have a clue. The only voices heard in this debate, it appears likely, will be those of the professional lobbyists.
