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Communication
may be as important to economic development as
transportation, but few openly argue that government
itself should provide telecommunications
infrastructure. No
one has proposed raising taxes to provide
“dedicated, sustainable revenues” for
construction and maintenance of telecommunications
facilities, as the road construction folks have
proposed for transportation projects.
We assume that the private sector can and
will take on those challenges.
Transportation
and telecommunications have had quite difference
histories, particularly in their relations to
government. And,
yet, there is nothing inherent in either that would
dictate that they should be owned, developed and
maintained by government.
As
a matter of fact, roads, canals and railroads in
Virginia
were initially developed in large part by private
entrepreneurs. They
didn’t wait for government to adopt master plans
and legislate “dedicated, sustainable revenues”
before developing the transportation system that
helped to make our economy the envy of the world.
We
also depend heavily on energy to keep our economy
healthy and to heat our homes and workplaces, but we
can be thankful that government hasn’t taken on
the roles of energy explorer, developer and
supplier. The
private sector has been far more flexible,
innovative and forward-thinking in these roles than
the public sector could ever be.
The
important thing to remember about government is that
it tends to become rigid and bureaucratic once it
undertakes a program.
This tendency is heightened because
government programs inevitably spawn a collection of
powerful special interests that resist any change in
those programs regardless of circumstances or the
larger public interest.
The
last thing we need at this point in our history is
to guarantee “dedicated, sustainable revenues”
for transportation. The
consequence of this policy is a drastic loss of
freedom for the larger public.
Not only will the public be saddled with
massive tax increases, but it will also see its
range of choices and its ability to influence
transportation policy decline dramatically.
We
experienced a major shift in transportation policy
in the 1970s when Congress deregulated the airline,
trucking and railroad industries.
There was broad agreement that government
regulation had stifled innovation and had actually
come to harm the interests of the consuming public.
Unfortunately,
Congress and state legislatures didn’t go far
enough in their privatization efforts.
Bowing to political pressure, for example,
Congress continues to prop up Amtrak, and it’s
about to enact another mammoth, pork-barrel highway
bill.
If
we want to move forward on transportation, we should
encourage true entrepreneurship, innovation and
risk-taking. The
subtle message from government that it will provide
future subsidies, protection from competition and
insulation from the changes certain to come in the
form of demographic shifts, global economic
adjustments and energy price and supply disruptions
is precisely the wrong medicine.
Gov.
Mark R. Warner and House Speaker William J. Howell
have made the right noises by saying that
Virginia
must count on greater private investment in
transportation. The
legislature, however, took a half step.
This is a time to be brash, not timid.
Our
elected officials haven’t demonstrated that they
really believe that the private sector is up to the
task. This
equivocation will doom the privatization initiative.
We
don’t need to accept the assumption of most
editorial pages that money for transportation must
come from higher tax revenues.
We need to abandon the myth that
transportation projects can attract private
investment only if government sweetens the pot.
The
privatization route will be painful, but anything
less is no long-term solution at all.
--
March 28, 2005
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