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An
Ill Considered Plan
Steve
Baril's proposal to crank up borrowing and spending to
build more roads would saddle
Virginians with untold debt and do nothing to
improve traffic congestion.
This
is not the time or place to take sides in one of the
Republican statewide nomination contests, but a
recent proposal by Steve Baril, a candidate for attorney
general, warrants a strong response.
Baril’s Marshall Plan for Transportation is
so ill-conceived that it should be buried without
delay.
Among
other things, Baril wants to increase annual
spending on transportation by as much as $1 billion,
issue general obligation debt to finance road
building, and divert general fund revenues to
transportation. None of these makes good sense.
Sprawl
can’t be stopped, says Baril, and any attempt to
contain it is akin to tilting at windmills. Let’s
take a close look at that contention.
Sustaining
the pattern of road construction associated with
sprawl will cost far more than the additional $1
billion a year Baril wants to raise for that
purpose. And
each round of construction pushes up demand for even
more highway construction geometrically.
That’s why the huge infusion of tax
revenues advocated by then-Gov. Gerald Baliles and
enacted at a special legislative session in 1986 not
only failed to relieve road congestion, but actually
made matters worse.
The
post-1986 flurry of road construction caused sprawl
to increase, greatly elongated average daily
commuting trips, and made residents of
scattered, low-density developments spawned
by this new spending on roads utterly dependent on
the automobile. All
of these new roads require maintenance and highway
patrols. These
costs, combined with the cost of patrolling,
maintaining, rebuilding and replacing the road
network in place in 1986, will absorb all of the
current revenue stream and most, if not all, of
Baril’s $1 billion annual revenue increase.
Looking
at
Virginia
’s experience since Baliles and Gov. John Dalton
pushed through tax hikes in the 1980s to solve our
transportation problems, as well as conservative
projections of future highway demand, any layman can
see that the pattern Baril proposes to continue
funding is clearly unsustainable.
The
growth rates since 1986 tell the tale.
As new lane miles were added to the state
system, vehicle registrations exploded by 50
percent. Total
miles driven rose by 80 percent.
Average daily travel, the number of total
daily trips and per capita spending on highways
increased as well.
The
claim that increased public investment in roads
would alleviate congestion proved to be hollow.
The relief from congestion provided by new
major projects has been short-lived.
Overall congestion has continued to increase
despite the 1980 and 1986 tax hikes and the massive
spending on new roads.
Baril
touts his role in spearheading the completion of the
Route 288 project in the
Richmond
region. If
any project should have been toll-financed, this was
the project. Instead,
Baril and others convinced the Commonwealth
Transportation Board to commit to the Route 288
project virtually all of the construction funds for
the entire Richmond Construction District for a
decade.
Sprawl
in the
Richmond
region is growing faster than in any other major
urban area in
Virginia
, largely because of the recent construction and
location of major highway projects there.
No project has had a greater sprawl-inducing
impact in the region than Route 288.
Baril’s
plan will give us more of the same-–much more.
The more tax revenues we spend under this
approach, the more we increase demand.
The only thing worse than increasing taxes to
perpetuate this pattern is to issue general
obligation debt to do so.
What
Virginians deserve is straight talk about where
current transportation policies are taking them.
Baril gives them wishful thinking.
--
January 31, 2005
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